So Jjimjilbangs. They're Korean spas where you go and shower, bathe, sleep, and wake up and shower and bathe again. All for about $8. Which seems like an awesome deal, (and it is) though you have to sleep on the floor. It's definitely not what I imagine when I think of a spa.
So once you arrive, you pay and they give you a key. You take off your shoes, find your shoe locker, and leave your shoes there. Then you walk in to the gender-segregated locker rooms, put your things in a locker, and drop your pants. Everyone's doing it. No need to be shy. I was a bit shocked the first time, but at least on the men's side, Koreans seem to have no shame about being naked together.
So after undressing, you walk into the main room with lots of showers and tubs, and take a shower. On a side note, Koreans brush their teeth while showering. Like all of them always. Do you guys do that? I don't usually. It seems like a waste of water.
Anyways, you shower, and then hop into one of the tubs. It seems like there's a rather particular order in which you do these things, although there's a bit of variance from one Jjimjilbang to another. Usually, though, it works something like this. First, there's an aroma tub which is somehow scented with a whole slew of nice smelling things: roses, lavender, etc. Hang out there for a while, then move on to the massage jet tub, which is a little bit hotter and has seats with lower back jets. It's quite nice after a long day of carrying a backpack around. Then, if you are bold enough, there's the realllly hot tub which is maybe around 45C/115F. And then generally there's a larger pool with cold water. I'm not sure how cold exactly, but after a scolding hot bath, it feels pretty freaking cold. Then sometimes there's a rope in the middle of the room that drops water from the ceiling onto your head. It feels pretty good to stabilize your body temperature after going back and forth between hot and cold a few times.
The girls said that they even drank tea and put on a skin face mask while in the hot tubs. Fancy stuff.
So then you dry off and put on the clothes that they give you, which are actually pretty comfortable. If you want, there are usually several saunas of various temperatures and maybe a cold room, which you can hang out in. Or you can go to bed you've probably been walking all day and it's like 1:00 am.
The sleeping conditions are really less than ideal. Sometimes the floor is really hard. But the one that I stayed at this past weekend in Seoul was actually pretty comfortable. It had nice thick mats to sleep on. Although when I asked for a pillow and played charades with the woman for a minute to convey to her what a pillow was, she looked around, grabbed a wooden block and handed it to me, smiled and left.
Then, in the morning, you get up and do it all again. Except usually you use these sit-down showers and clean yourself more thoroughly. There's even this hand-scrubber-glove-sandpaper-thing that you use to peel off dead skin. Maybe a friend will help you get your back. It actually feels pretty great.
When I was in Busan, Dok-de insisted with his broken English that we do everything, at least the first day. It was pretty hard to disagree, not speaking Korean and all. But it was all fun. Of course, if you don't want to go the whole nine yards, you can just sleep and shower in the morning.
I'll definitely be visiting more Jjimjilbangs in the next few months. I think next time, though, I'll try to smuggle in a sleeping bag to sleep on. I'll let you know how it goes.
잘가! (Jalga - See you!)
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