Holiday travel tips and experiences: Banjaran HotSpring Retreat

The Banjaran HotSpring - Ipoh, Malaysia

Set against a background of natural limestone hills, The Banjaran HotSpring Retreat offers a peaceful wellness retreat with its geothermal hot springs.

Breathtaking views at The Banjaran HotSprings Retreat Ipoh

According to Wiki, a hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. Geothermal hot springs can be found in various locations on earth and one of them is in Ipoh, Malaysia.

Signboards regarding the goethermal hotspring lake

Developed by Sunway Hotels, the geothermal springs at The Banjaran are a natural phenomenon. Everyone who visits The Banjaran will definitely try out the various facilities especially taking a dip in the geothermal hotspring pools or what they term as hot dipping pots. The water is supposed to be very high in minerals and possess therapeutic properties.

View of the thermal lake with the Pomelo (restaurant) hut in the background

View of the geothermal lake with the hot dipping pots in the background

HotSpring in the foreground and man made steam cave in the background

This explanation of The Banjaran geothermal springs was taken from the Banjaran HotSpring Retreat's website:-

"Groundwater flows naturally at the base of the hills at a temperature of 65 to 70°, at a rate of about 3 millions liters per day (approximately 2,000 liters/minute). The water comes from a deep underground reservoir fed by rainwater that has slowly percolated downwards through the limestone hills and the underlying granite. As it makes its way down through the rocks, the water picks up minerals and dissolved ions.

The core of the geothermal spring lake - feel the heat just standing here

Deep and hot... geothermal spring core

The water also warms up on its way downwards. Because of the heat radiation from the earth’s mantle, temperature increases with depth at a rate of about 3 to 4° per 100 meters, referred to as the geothermal gradient. Taking into consideration an average surface temperature of 25° and the fact that the water would have cooled down by about 10° on its way back upwards, groundwater would have reached a temperature of 80° at about 1,500 meters below the surface. Buoyed by dissolved gases and the higher pressure in the subsurface, groundwater eventually travels back to the surface as it encounters a fault or fractures in the rocks and comes out bubbling as a hot spring at the surface."

Steam Cave

Inside the steam cave, you can find seats... in the background which is dark, is the hotspring lake

Barricade erected over the area where the steam risees from the hot lake

A clearer picture of the interior of the steam cave..

For even more heat, try the Thermal Steam Cave above -- a natural sauna to help you sweat your way to a full-body detox.

Interestingly, this hot water is captured at The Banjaran to feed the steam room to provide a natural sauna, fill the hot lake as well as warm up the swimming pool. At the same time, being eco-friendly is the name of the game as the amount of carbon dioxide not produced by capturing and using naturally hot water at The Banjaran is roughly equivalent to the carbon sequestered by about 110,000 tree seedlings grown for 10 years.