In Korea, it ain’t called a nightmare; it’s just a sauna. And nobody’s pointing.
I spent the most relaxing Sunday ever with my Korean friend Christine. We met for lunch, went shopping in Sinchon and at night we went to the movies (“The Prestige”… good but not excellent).
After that we got manicures – where my hand was covered in wax and massaged.
Then we got naked.
I actually had done this back in Jeju island but we were sunburned so it wasn’t the same.
Let me tell you about saunas. It’s NOTHING like back home.
A lot of foreigners are a little scared to experience public nakedness, especially far away from home. So here’s a quick peak, no big deal I swear.
You walk in, take off your shoes and go to the front desk. Pay the 6 dollars fee (some saunas are cheaper) and take your tiny towel and key. Pick up your shoes, put them in a shoe locker and walk to the changing room.
In there, it’s simple: take off your clothes and walk to the sauna. If you’re thirsty, hungry, if you need shampoo, mud masks or whatever, there’s a small stand where everything is charged on your key.
Men are in a separate room. For a Sunday night around 11pm, it was not as empty as I expected.
The rest is basically like any sauna back home, except that here you’re not wearing clothes.
They have really hot and really cold baths, as well as the steam room. As for the feeling, after 2 seconds you totally forget that you are naked! Indeed, some people do look at you because you’re white but if you act naturally it’s all cool.
Koreans are obsessed with being beautiful and having perfect skin so saunas are really popular. You know what else is popular? Scrubbing!
Chris and I got body scrubbing for 7 dollars and it was niiiiiiiiice!
There’s a corner where naked women (some of them are just in their underwear too) work your body like you’ve never experienced!
You’re of course naked on the table and they scrub every single part of your body! Then, if you want, you can get the massage!
The lady yelled at me “shower” and when I came back, she literally poured a bottle of baby oil all over my body. Then she sat on my back and started slapping me! And massaging, and slapping, and massaging. It was pretty funny at first, but eventually relaxing.
At some point she covered my face with what obviously smelled like cucumber dip – it was soooo refreshing!
But I was afraid I’d fall off the table since it was so slippery because of all the oil. At the end she turned me around (a 360!) and washed my hair and massaged my head. She smiled and slapped my butt. It was over.
We went back to the steam room, took a shower and went home. My skin has never been so soft and i've never felt so relaxed!!
Now I really think westerners make too much of a big deal out of nudity...
