How I Spent My Saturday Night: Hanging Out Naked With Dozens of Strangers

Well, I think the title says it all, really. I had a particularly wild Friday night: it was my girl friend's going away party, and I was out until all hours laughing, singing and dancing with my friends. Saturday morning (afternoon, really), we all managed to drag ourselves out of bed and met downtown for Western style breakfast (pancakes and eggs!) and gripe about our collective headaches. After that (and a little shopping at the dungeon/thrift store), we felt perfectly fine heading back to our beds.

Though understandably apprehensive about it, I have been planning to try a jjimjilbang (sauna/spa) for a while now. I want to try as many new things as I can while I'm over here, and while some people (most of my friends) are totally weirded out by these places, I decided to be brave and try it out, alone. I felt that Saturday night was the perfect time: the jjimjilbang would presumably be empty, and especially since everyone else I knew was busy nursing hangovers, and I had wasted about five hours in bed enjoying a 30 Rock marathon (no regrets there). So, around 7:30, I hopped on a bus and began the twenty minute ride to Pyeonggeodong.

I have had no experience doing this before and was more than a little nervous about it; I just knew to go to this particular building, go up to the third floor, get naked, and sit in a sauna (?). I thought I had an idea of what to expect, but, as is almost always the case here in Korea, I was very wrong. I arrived at the building and went into the elevator to go up to the third floor. When I got up there, there was a woman at the door motioning for me to go back to the first floor. I was confused, but I did it anyway. It turns out I had completely missed a step: paying at the front desk/getting towels/pajamas/a locker key.

After that, I went back up to the third floor and entered the changing room (women's only). All around me were dozens of Korean women, of all ages, in various states of undress. I found my TINY locker and shoved all of my belongings in there. Then, I got naked, and, holding my two (hand) towels, was kind of confused as to what to do next. Where do I go?! What do I do?! I spotted a weird, sweaty looking door and headed toward it.

I walked into a large, steamy room full of naked women. It's not to say that I am necessarily a prude, or uncomfortable with nudity, but it's a pretty different experience for me, and it took some getting used to. It's strange being in a place where there is no shame in getting completely naked. To my relief and surprise, no one seemed to take much notice of me, except for one kind woman who saw that I was clearly confused, and ushered me over to a shower. It was soon clear that my first objective was to take a shower, and seeing provided soaps and shampoos, I did. After that, I explored my options: on my left were four large, shallow pools: one at room temperature, two hot tubs, and one cold tub. In front of me were two saunas of varying degrees, to my right a "scrubbing station," which is essentially a corner of the room where you can pay to be scrubbed down, head to toe, with basically sandpaper. (I opted out of this after a friend told me of how a particularly rough old woman left her raw, trying to scrub off her tattoos.)

I started with the hottest hot tub available, which was a nice, simmering 104. It was cold outside, and the tub was great, even while surrounded by old ladies staring at me. I really enjoyed the saunas and even the cold tub, which was probably about 40. After an hour and a half, I decided to head upstairs to the "lounge." When I got back to my locker, though, the key wouldn't work! In a scene straight out of most people's nightmares, I could not get my things out. Standing naked and helpless in front of my jammed locker, I began to panic, imagining myself hailing a cab completely naked. After about ten minutes, the attendant came to my rescue, gave me a wonderfully large locker, and, after I put on the pajamas they gave me, even directed me upstairs to the lounge, where I immediately chugged ice water.


Upstairs (now co-ed) were a small restaurant, beds, and more specialized rooms: a freezer room, a refrigerator room, varying wood saunas, and my favorite, a hot stone room with a floor made out of quartz pebbles (hot) that you lay on (surprisingly comfortable!). I stayed up there for maybe an hour more and, feeling amazingly refreshed, went home around 10:30, just in time to make the last bus back to Chilamdong.


All in all, I would sum up the experience as a positive one. Even though most of the time I had no idea what I was doing, and almost had a heart attack when I thought my stuff was really stuck in my locker, I left feeling completely relaxed, warm, and happy. Seeing as though the whole experience cost me less than five dollars, I will definitely go back and probably enjoy it a lot more.


More soon!
<3M