I wanted a pool photograph, but have surprisingly few.
This is the Bali villa where I stayed a few years ago.
I love to swim. Anyone who knows me, knows that about me. People who barely know me, know that about me. If you are a time traveler and want to warn me about something that is going to happen in the future, whatever you do, don't use my love of swimming as a way to convince me that we will know each other. That would be like telling me I can breathe a mixture of mostly nitrogen and oxygen.
Special note to all you time travelers out there: You already know what to say to convince me because I will tell you later.
When I lived in Hong Kong, swimming pools were few and far between. My last apartment was a few blocks from a sports complex with a public pool. There was also a YMCA at the Cityview Hotel, but I have no idea if they had a pool. Farther south was Kowloon Park, which has an outdoor swimming pool. I always found that ironic since Chinese people hate the sun. Almost all swimming pools are indoors.
The problem with public pools in Hong Kong was never really the pools. It was the public. The first time you see a child standing at the edge of a pool, his mother holding his penis and pointing it directly into the pool so he can relieve himself, you think that is odd, and more than a little horrifying. The third time you see it, you wonder if this is some Chinese tradition for baptizing pools. Who needs a bottle of champagne when the urine of young boys is an infinite resource.
I try not to blame an entire culture whenever a single person does something insane. If we did that, where would it leave the United States? But I will definitely look for a different pool after I see it used as a piss bucket. When I saw a grown adult man use a swimming pool as a toilet, and not just for fluids, I vowed to never set foot anywhere near a Chinese swimming pool again. The only positive to any of these encounters was that I was not actually in the water at the time. I would still be in the shower if I had been.
My only safe haven for swimming in Hong Kong was the big house at Clear Water Bay. That was a private swimming pool at a private residence. The only people who ever used the pool were the owners, who probably never used it, and mostly me when we took our annual visits. The owner and his wife are an older couple who do not strike me as particularly active. For them, the pool is more likely a status symbol than a means of exercise. Having your own swimming pool at your house is something you can brag about in Hong Kong.
When I moved to Taiwan, I was wary of public pools. Taiwan is not in China, but the culture is more or less the same. Hongkongers say that Mainlanders act like wild animals, but Taiwanese say the same about both. I don't remember anyone in China saying much of anything about the Taiwanese. Unfortunately, we know no one in Taiwan who has their own private pool in the backyard. Or even a backyard.
There is a gym close to my apartment. The actual gym part is pretty half-assed, and they have yoga classes I have not taken yet, but I went to check out the swimming pool. The only way to swim without becoming a member is to pay a high visitor fee. I liked that because, in Taiwan, the people most likely to abuse the pool are least likely to pay the highest prices to get in. There are plenty of public pools around town that are far cheaper to use and require no membership. I paid too much to use the pool and immediately became a member.
The swimming pool has a dozen lap lanes, ranging from 1 meter deep to 5 meters. The weakest swimmers always stay away from the 5 meter lanes. No human alive today can touch the bottom of that one. There is a separate children's pool that does not come in contact with the lap pool, so I can easily ignore any shenanigans in the children's area. Next to the lap pool is a large hot tub area with two 10-person hot tubs, three 4-person hot tubs, and several individual hot tubs. So far, I have tested the larger hot tubs and a few of the singles. They all seem to have different temperatures and jet levels. There is also a shallow pool that is entirely too hot. Taiwan is a hot springs culture, and while none of the water here is from a natural spring, some of it is on the hotter than necessary side. Since all of the pools are indoors, in one large cavern of a room, even the coldest pools stay warm. The pool area is a bit of a steam room. Anyone not used to Taiwan's humidity might think the place is too humid, but I find it pretty mild. There are also literal steam rooms, segregated by gender.
Near the hot tubs are a wall of water massages. High pressure water drops down two meters. People sit or stand under them and let the water massage their heads and shoulders. I found the pressure too high and would never get my head anywhere near any of those jets, but older people love it. I have never seen anyone under 50 under those things.
Since this is Taiwan, there are more than a few rules. No shoes can be worn past the lobby. Between the lobby and the women's locker room, there is a smaller room where everyone can take off their shoes and put on their slippers. I assume the men's locker room has a similar setup. Not wearing shoes indoors is pretty common around here, and not wearing shoes in a swimming pool makes perfect sense.
Everyone has to wear bathing suits past the locker room. That seems reasonable. Taiwan is not exactly famous for its public nudity. But that also means parents who want to watch their children in the kiddie pool also have to wear bathing suits, even if they have no intention of touching the water. Everyone also has to wear swimming caps, which I could do without. That seems to be a nationwide rule. Taiwanese would be just as shocked to see a swimmer without a swimming cap as they would without a bathing suit.
Not only are no street clothes allowed in the pool area, which makes sense, but no towels are allowed past the locker rooms. I do not understand this one. When you get out of one pool or another, you have to go to your locker, dripping wet, before you can get your towel. This is probably one reason the locker room floor is always soaking wet. They have those rubber jigsaw pieces to keep everyone from falling down, but there is no dry floor anywhere near the lockers. This makes changing at your locker impossible, unless you want to get your clothes wet. Not that anyone in Taiwan would change in front of their locker. Everyone changes in private, and dry, changing cubicles. So to avoid any hint of nudity, we walk dripping wet to our lockers and get whatever we need, bring everything to a wet shower cubicle, bring everything to a dry changing cubicle, and then go back to the wet locker to put away whatever we want to leave at the gym.
The good news is that every member has their own dedicated locker. That means we do not have to bring a gym bag with us every time we go. Some people might keep a bag in their car, but since I walk to the gym, it is nice to have everything I need already there. No advanced planning is required.
The entire gym is open 24H, except during lunch. You can go there at 3 o'clock in the morning, but not at noon. I asked them when they clean the pools and was shown their maintenance schedule. The good news is that they clean the pool daily and completely empty it once a week. The bad news is that it is obviously not open 24H. Even the half-assed gym closes for cleaning. I don't have a problem with any of this. I think regular maintenance is a good thing. But maybe they should not advertise as being open 24H when, at most, they are open for 19.
The strangest part about the entire operation is that there is ample parking. That is rare in Kaohsiung. Unless, of course, I can walk to it. I don't need to park since I can walk from my apartment in ten minutes. This seems to be a theme in Kaohsiung. Overall, it is difficult to park in this city, outside of shopping malls and the main train station. But the places I can easily walk to always seem to have plenty of parking.
