lying on a vinyl table, limbs splayed in every direction imaginable. An "ajuma"(term for older Korean woman) in her bra and panties is laughing at me while she scrubs a few layers of skin off my body. When I actually opened my eyes-no I was not dreaming- I was surprised to see there was still skin on my body and I wasn't bleeding!
I spent my Wednesday afternoon of vacation finally going to a "Jim Jil Bong", or a Korean bathhouse. It was a very interesting experience and I am sorry I didn't go sooner. The Jim Jil Bong is a popular place in Korea. As I found out, it's not just a bathhouse. I'm not sure if this is the case with all Jim Jil Bongs, but this one had 5 floors and a ton of stuff to do! You could spend all day there, heck, you can even sleep there! Anyone who wants to can pay a bit extra and spend the night sleeping on a mat in a big room with everyone else choosing to stay there. However, there is a separate room for snorers, which is nice! You can buy food there. There is a PC bong for gamers or anyone who wants to check their email, an arcade, a video room that shows different movies all day. There was also a fitness center, a massage place, a manicure place and a salon!
There were many types of saunas and baths to choose from. There was an oxygen room, a salt sauna, a jade sauna, a charcoal sauna, an ice room and a few others as well. Apparently each sauna has different health benefits. I enjoyed the salt sauna the most. The room was filled with marble sized grains of salt that everyone lays in. The saunas were co-ed, so it is nice if you want to go with friends or family. Everyone has to wear the clothes that the Jim Jil Bong provides. Lucky for me, I look great in oversized hunter orange shirts and maroon shorts!
The baths are obviously not co-ed. I have never seen anything like this! There were women everywhere! They were showering and scrubbing themselves and going in and out of all the different baths. The baths were similar to the saunas, jade, mugwort, charcoal, massage, and a cold pool. I really enjoyed hopping from the really hot mugwort bath into the cold pool. Being one of the only foreigners in the bath house I was expecting to get stared at much more than I actually did. I am proud of myself for not getting too self conscious... That is until I got my scrub down.
Everyone I've talked to rants and raves about the scrub downs so I decided to get one. It hurt quite a bit, but was worth it in the end because your skin feels incredible! So, if you don't mind a little bit of pain, having a lady becoming intimate with EVERY crack and crevice in your body, and feeling a bit vulnerable lying naked on a table where everyone in the baths can watch you getting scrubbed, I would definitely recommend getting the scrub down!
I think I now have the smoothest skin in Seoul...at least for today.
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