The other night I was working with Solomon and he was talking about the various places he has lived and the fact that one of the good things is learning about different cultures. I’ll buy that. Then he went on to say that while he lived in
On Tuesday nights I finish work at
Inside we check our shoes into lockers and then take the key for that locker and exchange it for another. This key is to a locker for clothes. Solomon picked up a set of short, “scrub-like” clothes for me and we headed towards our new lockers.
Here where I got the details of our adventure:
“This is a public bath. You need to get naked and then get clean. Then you can go to the sauna. Koreans are very big on hygiene. You must be clean before getting into the bath.”
Fine, I’ll do anything once.
So we get all naked and then grab these really rough wash cloth like things and head to the showers. There we get all lathered up and I know, as a reader you are thinking that this is turning into some kind of gay porn novel but that was far from the case. Once I got over the fact that I was the only westerner in the place and I was the only creature with chest hair (think of that one James Bond movie where he turns Japanese) then it was just this odd shower that made you feel REALLY clean.
Then it was off to the baths. There were probably eight different pools. There was one with water jets, a couple with crazy minerals, some that were hot, some cool. You soak and watch crazy nature programs on a big screen TV. There are a couple of little kids flopping around, their fathers reading a laminated newspaper. There are guys chatting, guys shaving and brushing their teeth. Some guys are sleeping on lounge chairs. It takes a minute to adjust to but after that is was a pretty relaxing place.
The saunas were wonderful. One was a dry heat, one was a steamy heat. There was a room that was like a freezer with chairs and I found this to be ridiculously cold. After a while your body started to open up and your mind started to bake. The walls of the saunas were lined with rocks that looked like jade and they gave off a oddly sweet scent.
After the rooms it was back into the water and you could simply do this process for as long as you could stand it. Solomon bought me a tooth brush and a razor and I had a shave and scrubbed the teeth and shampooed and then it was off to next part of the excursion.
After drying off I put on my little scrubs and we down two floors to a large common room. Solomon pointed out that on the floor below us was the woman’s baths. In this common room there was a large TV and a stand that offered beverages and snacks. People were lying on the floor on mats and watching TV, some kids were conked out, obviously through for the night. In the center of this room was a staircase that led up to large rooms where people could basically crash out. There were rooms off to the side of this common room that had heat, cold, people napping. There was another room with computers and karaoke machines (yes, listening to Solomon sing Bohemian Rhapsody was like the sound of two cats screwing in a pillow case). But then we saw them . . . The new model of massage chairs (a vast improvement over the older ones says Solomon). For a little under a buck you could sit in those bad boys for 10 minutes and it was a sheer delight. After that is over, another buck gets you 10 minutes in the foot massager. Holy shit those were nice.
After all of this, eat a couple of sauna eggs (eggs left in the sauna for awhile), another dip in the pools, get dressed and you’re home by
It was a bit odd and I apprehensive at first, but afterwards I was rather pleased and thought that these folks know how to relax after a hard days work. Too tired to go home? Just sleep there. There are also weight rooms, yoga classes and the rest. But those pools . . . man, that was sweet.
Now if only I can figure out how to swipe one of those chairs . . .
Peace,
sh
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