Jjimjilbang: A Story of Rest and Relaxation

Today was awesome, now I'm sitting on my bed feeling amazing because I spent today at Seoul's most famous Jjimjilbang.

A jjimjilbang is basically a sauna. 'Bang' refers to room, other poplar bangs include Norae, or singing, basically kareoke rooms, and PC which is like an internet cafe for gaming. I went to Dragon Hill Spa, large and touristy. Most importantly it has a noraebang and a PC bang inside it. So this place was the real deal.

I didn't spend much time focusing on how to get there, and my data on my phone still isn't working. I was attempting to forage for wifi when I emerged from the train station, and BAM! There was the sign. Not very subtle.

I employed my go-to tourist strategy: fall back, watch what the others do, act accordingly. The entrance is the same as the car entrance. I saw the door on the right and broke from the pack, everyone else followed the guy who stopped to smoke. Realizing their mistake they followed me through the doors and I let them ahead of me. I knew I would be paying the holiday rate, which is the same as the weekend rate, but when am I ever gonna be able to go on a week day? It would be a long wait. It was only two dollars more making the entrance price about 14$.

I knew when I got the key that there were two lockers. The first is actually just for your shoes. What I didn't notice was that all woman were to take the elevator up to the woman's only area. I awkwardly stared at claw-machine games until that became obvious.

The elevator lead to a big locker room, oddly enough with a small desk selling everything from underwear to hard boiled eggs. The key has a number, I think mines was 333. So my shoe locker and my clothes locker had the same number. I knew that at some point there was going to be some getting naked, what I didn't account for was the placement of my locker in all this. It seems that the keys may have been given out in numerical order because everyone in my elevator seemed to have our lockers clustered together and everyone was getting naked really close to each other. I felt like that weird foreigner trying to use the tiny towel to cover everything. 

Again I followed the other naked women down the stairs to what was only labeled in English as "Sauna" -when actually there has to be at least a dozen saunas in this place. There were showers and pools, so many pools. I got only my foot in the first pool before reading the sign that said no adults -not like anyone was following these rules, but I don't want to be the one to get caught.

The first pool I found was like a Jacuzzi with very power jets and 40 degree water. You lie back in a reclining position and the water will actually massage your back, legs, and feet if mine weren't so damn ticklish. 

My routine for trying the baths went as follows:

Ooh what's this?

It's hot.

Really hot.

Let's press this button.

Ooh a jet.

Too hot.

Cold shower.

Ooh what's this?

The only exception was when I finally found the cold bath! Which was kept at 23 degrees and was amazing. I spent a lot of time in the cold bath. It had two very powerful jets at one end, a woman was holding onto a rail and letting it pound at her stomach. I swam up next to her and tried the other one. I recall reading this was a stomach flattening thing. I stayed there until the woman eventually exited to pool and I saw her spine was curled like a 'c' and I couldn't shake the thought that it might be from the jet pounding her stomach into her spine. Swim away...

There were two saunas downstairs. One was a kid's one, but again no one cared it was always full of adults. I snuck in when it was empty and was disappointed to discover it was probably the best one. It had a cold tub for your feet so you could stay in longer. 

I spent a lot of time in the Himalayan Salt Sauna -for adults, Korea, adults. By a lot of time, I really mean 1-2mins, cold bath, repeat. I read the info board outside the sauna, it suggested to rub the salt onto your skin for maximum benefit. I went in the first time looking for a dish of salt or something, nothing. The second time, I saw the lights were those Himalayan Salt rock lamp things (I think mum has one) so maybe it's just already in the air? It was much later I realized the sauna itself was like McDonald's fries: completely salt. What I thought were bricks, were made of salt, and the white mortar was just more salt! It was like Charlie and the Salt Factory (less exciting, I suppose)!

My favourite bath was probably the herbal medicine bath, kept at 38 degrees, it felt like bathing in herbal tea. It smelled amazing and there was a TV right in front of the bath. I think it was playing a Korean version of celebrity chef, but what do I know.

I spent most of my time downstairs rotating between baths. I emerged to check out what else was going on in the spa. Outside of the bath you wear a very comfy set of t-shirt and shorts. The rest of the spa is co-ed, it has a pool, an arcade, a place for sleeping (since it's open 24 hours), a restaurant and a garden on the roof! The other saunas were for sharing.

First shared sauna I went to was the cold sauna. Which claims to be -11 degrees and is home to two snowmen. It was really refreshing and you could actually spend a lot more time in there -especially compared to the salt one.

The traditional Korean kilns were not only my favourite but probably my go to "happy place" from now on wards. They were warm and dry and came with a nice little pillow to rest your head on. So yeah, I fell asleep in there.

Everything I red suggested that the only way to where your towel at a jjimjilbang is like a sheep. So here I am. Baaa...

Today was great. I would love to check out some other jjimjilbangs in the future, and definitely come back to this one and try the fried chicken!