Visiting a Korean Spa

 

I know it's not much to look at from the outside, but there are very good reasons that you can't take photos inside, as you can imagine. But let me paint a pen picture:

I was aware that Korea has a long-standing (no double-entendres - Ed) spa tradition, like Japan and probably other countries here in Asia. It seemed like I couldn't forego the chance to try it, after having read about it from various visitors who had also tried it. I read about the normal etiquette of these heavily-used social assets and tried my best not to break any rules, but I have to say that the absence of English for most signs was a bit of a handicap. I also know that the rites in different spas can vary, so that added to my uncertainty.

The man in the front desk actually had a little English, for which I was very grateful, and he gave me my key and bracelet with a number on and indicated the shoe room. In many Korean places you take off your shoes as you step inside, and it's an absolute rule in spas. My shoes stayed on the ground floor and I took the lift up to the 3rd. There was a mirror spa set-up for women: turn left for the men, turn right for the women. 

When I got out of the lift you stepped straight into a large main room which has lockers on one side, a refreshment and cleaning materials desk on the other, and several men walking around naked as jaybirds on their way to the pools. So I did likewise. 

When you go into the main pool room there are five pools of different temperatures, with the current temperature shown on an electronic gauge. But first you must shower and wash completely, another iron rule. There are twenty or so showers around the walls and a huge pile of small towels to use. There are also stools and sinks and all kinds of ways to make sure you are really clean.

And when clean, you choose your starting pool. I went for 38 degrees first, then went for the 43 ( a really hot bath) and lounged as one is supposed to do, letting all tensions slip away. My spa-mates were a cross section of all of Korean male society ( and when I was leaving I saw a group of non-Koreans arriving, Turkish by the look of it, which reminded me that it is very normal in lots of parts of the world to have a hot springs or sauna tradition (think of the Turkish 'Hammam'). There was, after the hot pools, a really cold one to use, which made me glad of the times I have spent swimming in our local river in various seasons.

The final stage of the spa was the sauna. There are two (one very hot and one bloody hot; I chose the former). They are quite different from Scandinavian ones, being made of stone and a beehive shape. This one even had stone seats, so you really needed those little towels!

And then after the sauna there is a powerful shower of cool water and a room where you can lie down on the floor in low light, with just a rest for your head and a warm stone floor. It was very relaxing.

The part I didn't try (but may tomorrow) was the massage. I noticed one old guy wearing shorts and thought "aren't you meant to be naked?" until I saw one of the other clients come across and lie down on a bench, to be soaped and pummeled. So the shorts are like a badge of office so that you know who to ask to pummel you. The pummellee seemed to find it all relaxing. 

I tried to find a picture as close as I could to what it was like, and this is the nearest I could find. So if you mentally populate it with about a dozen naked Korean men and me, but then again, maybe not......