Fourth stop: Xiaoyoukeng
After a short drive from where we had lunch, our next tour stop was there – Xiaoyukeng, and its myriad active fumaroles. It’s one of the tour stops I looked most forward to, because it looked nice in the pictures I saw.
But those pictures, well, were in sunnier and more favorable weather conditions. Not today.
When we got out of the car, it was clear that the wind was not in out favor. It blowed real hard. We could still walk and see the place, but the gusts of wind was a bit strong. If you will wear a cap, you’ll need tight caps. No umbrellas necessary here, as I saw some foolhardy chap on another tour across the carpark trief to open an umbrella for some stupid reason and it blew away broken and unusable.
So I hurriedly put on my jacket tightly (zipped fully up top, waterproof side out), pulled the hoodie over my head, put my cap in my backpack, and gingerly walked out, tightly holding the car door so it won’t get blown to the side. I basically formed a shield, while our tour guide assisted me with the door, pushing it while I helped to cover as well as to push it to close. The rest of the group had no problem with that as the doors on the side were all sliders.
As we got out of the car, the fog was a bit pronounced and the strong wafts of sulphur was there. Strong wafts, emphasis. The winds meant that the sulphur smoke was being blown in our general direction. Once we got down from the elevated parking lot, we could see the fog was just up there, but the fumaroles and general views of the sulphur pits were unobstructed, which was nice. But foggy.
So our tour guide led us to the viewing area where we could see the bigger fumaroles as well as some smaller ones. Very nice indeed. Strangely, the winds and the smell made for a very conducive and slightly more interactive tour experience. Xiao Hei was also attentive, and helped us with where to look and where to pose for the best pictures, despite the weather. And oh yeah, winds blew my carefully-combed hair. My hair looked like it was from a mountain hobo. Oh well.
Shots galore below. I took a long video for my parents at home to look at as well.
There was one smaller pit near the walking footpath area that were bubbling through the water, forming these gray-ish smoking puddle spots on the ground. There were several like it nearby. The park clearly wanted them to be seen, as they made this makeshift walkpath around them for people to closely inspect them, but with yellow warning signs. They all smelled strongly of sulphur as well, but in a very concentrated way. The ones in the general vicinity was strong but already diluted, while the smell here in this small area was stronger. Man, that was cool to see though.
There was a small visitor center at the right end that had a small store at the first floor. Nothing I wanted to buy there, though. Lots of hats and some clothes as well. Took a bit of time inside as there was about five minutes of rain that happened, and it was the best place to take a break for a while. I spent a good 10 minutes wandering around the main area at the top, looking at the exhibits and displays.
Once we got our fill of the area, Xiao Hei asked us all for another round of group photo shots. After that, we got back into the car (thankfully the wind subsided a lot) and off we went to the next spot. Seems we have a few more nice places to go to. I looked again at the Klook itinerary… yep, a few more won’t hurt. Chop chop!
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
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