Than Tai Hot Springs

A thin wisp of steam rises from the water, curls a little, then melts into the cool forest air. The sharp smell of sulfur drifts past. Dip a hand in, and the water is strangely warm, as if someone had heated it from deep inside the earth. In truth, the heat does come from deep inside the earth.

This is a hot mineral spring at the foot of the Bà Nà mountains, in a place with a cheerful name: Núi Thần Tài, the Mountain of the God of Wealth. From the center of Da Nang, the road runs about 30 kilometers southwest along National Route 14G. The streets and the sea fall away behind. Both sides of the road turn green, and the mountains keep rising ahead. This land once belonged to Hòa Phú commune, and it now belongs to Hòa Vang commune, in the city of Da Nang.

Above the springs spreads a wide stretch of mountain forest. It lies inside the Bà Nà Núi Chúa Nature Reserve, among old-growth forests and icy headwater streams that tumble down from high above. People say that in the Bà Nà area, a single day holds all four seasons. And yet, right in the middle of these cool mountain woods, a hot spring flows.

The water rises from the ground in Phú Túc hamlet. It comes up at between 38 and 42 degrees Celsius, and it is rich in sulfur. That is the sharp smell that reaches visitors from far away, even before the steam comes into view. On either side of the spring stand two hills with proud names. One is Thanh Long hill, meaning blue dragon. The other is Bạch Hổ hill, meaning white tiger.

People call the spot where the hot water rises the dragon's lair. There is a pool there called Huyệt Long Hồ, ringed with natural boulders. A single rock juts up from the middle of the pool, and it is said that the warm spring rises from that very spot.

Then there is the name Núi Thần Tài. Legend says that traces of gold lie inside this mountain, which is why it came to be called the mountain of the God of Wealth. But that is only a tale passed along by word of mouth, and no archaeological study has confirmed it. The cheerful name very likely appeared only when the tourist park was built in 2015. What the people of the area called this mountain in the old days, no one yet knows for sure. A mountain that keeps even its true name hidden is as much a puzzle as the gold of the legend.

Construction of the spring park began in January 2015. In April 2016 the first bathing areas opened to guests, and on June 3 of that year the park officially opened. The whole site covers more than 60 hectares, set deep in the mountain forest.

The bathtubs here have a story of their own. Artisans from the Non Nước stone village carved them out of natural stone, one chisel stroke at a time. One tub was carved from a single solid block of stone. It is billed as the largest monolithic stone bathtub in Vietnam.

The rows of buildings around the bathing area follow the shape of the old houses in the streets of Hoi An. In the tubs, the mineral water is mixed with all sorts of things. There are tea baths, coffee baths, milk baths and wine baths, and even baths of thick mineral mud.

Most distinctive of all is the Japanese-style onsen area. In Japanese, onsen means hot spring. Bathing in hot springs is a cultural custom in Japan that goes back a very long time. There it is seen as a ritual, and getting clean is only part of it. The rest is a quiet pause in which body and mind can let go. The staff at this onsen were trained by experts who came from Japan. The Japanese also have a special name for an outdoor hot spring bath, rotenburo. There are outdoor tubs like that here too, so a bather only has to look up to see green forest and open sky.

Beyond the warm water, the park has still more to see. There is Long Tiên Cave, which holds a three-headed dragon with a fairy in the middle. There is a path of orchids with more than a hundred different species. There is a walkway that follows the stream, cool in the shade of the trees.

On a hillside within the grounds stands the Ebisu hotel, named after a god of good fortune in Japanese belief. Every room there has its own onsen tub, so guests can soak in warm mineral water even late at night.

Then evening comes. The sunlight slowly slips off the hillsides, and the peak of Bà Nà above turns a pale violet. The air grows colder, and the steam over the outdoor tubs suddenly shows more clearly than ever, a misty white like fog. Somewhere in the forest, the cold stream still murmurs. And at the foot of the mountain, in the dragon's lair between Thanh Long hill and Bạch Hổ hill, the spring keeps quietly rising, as warm as if it had never once cooled.