Son Kim Hot Springs

In the forest country of Hương Sơn, the Trường Sơn range still holds old forest and streams that run underground through rock. In one place in that forest, water comes up out of the ground scalding hot, into the cool mountain air. People in Hương Sơn call the spot Nước Sốt.

The name says it plainly. The water here is not cold like an ordinary mountain stream. Articles in the Hà Tĩnh newspaper describe the mineral water of Sơn Kim as very hot. One source gives about 75 to 90 degrees Celsius, and another gives more than 90 degrees. Since the sources differ, all that is certain is that this is truly hot mineral water, not water that someone has heated.

Some people say the name Nước Sốt may come from the French word chaud, which means hot and was used under French rule. It is a neat explanation, though no independent linguistic source has confirmed it. Perhaps the people of Hương Sơn long ago simply named what the eye saw and the hand touched. The water here, in truth, has a fever.

The Sơn Kim hot springs lie in a commune called Sơn Kim 1. The commune belongs to the Hương Sơn area of Hà Tĩnh. They sit west of Highway 8A, about 17 kilometers from the Cầu Treo International Border Gate. This is a mountain route close to the border between Vietnam and Laos, and the air all around is cool from the old forest.

The resort took shape in 1997, according to the Hà Tĩnh newspaper. The visiting area takes in two streams, the Nước Sốt stream and the Ngầm Thép stream. The mineral water area is recorded at more than 300 hectares, and the water source lies more than 1,000 meters deep. Those figures show this is not a small spring but a real geothermal resource.

Most visitors come to bathe in the mineral water. There are 30 mineral baths, some indoors and some outdoors, with room for about 150 bathers at a time. Soaking in hot mineral water in the mountain forest explains why people stay.

The landscape around Sơn Kim is part of the experience. Hương Sơn is known for green mountains and clean air, especially in summer. Driving in from Highway 8A, you see forest trees on both sides of the road, you hear a stream murmuring, and the coolness is nothing like the lowlands. The Hà Tĩnh newspaper once used the phrase "asleep in the great forest" for the resting place at Sơn Kim.

In the evening the forest of Hương Sơn is dark and quiet. Steam from the hot mineral water rises into the cool mountain air, and a stream sounds far off. A bather closes their eyes and understands why this place is called Nước Sốt.