I am sitting in a warm pool relaxing. My four friends are lounging in the water nearby. Out the corner of my eye I can see naked women walking all around, getting in and out of warm pools and swimming around.
No I am not in some strange cinema-novo homo-erotic dream, rather I am having my first experience of a Korean Bath House or Jimjil bang.
A few weekends ago we headed off on an adventure a little south of Gangwon-do. We were heading for a hike in the Daedansun National Park which has a beautiful mountain trail and is located about an hour from the central Korean City, Daejoen. We headed off to Daejoen on Saturday afternoon but didn’t have anywhere to stay for the night. Instead of staying in a ‘love motel’ (given this dodgy name for the reasons you are thinking) as usual, we decided to try the Jimjil bang experience instead. Jimjil bangs or Korean Bath Houses and Saunas are a common thing to find in all Korean Cities. Many people come to the sauna once or twice a week for relaxation and travelers can also stay at Jimjil bangs overnight for a very reasonable price, and since as they are open 24 hours a day you can arrive at any time of the night and find a place to sleep with no pre-booking needed, that is if you are prepared to sleep in a communal area on a floor mat.
The way it works is that when you arrive you pay the fee, in our case 8000 won (about $8 or R70), you are given a pair of pajamas, mandatory pink for women and blue for men, two small towels and a locker to put your shoes in. You then walk into the change room areas, which are separate for men and woman, where you have your own locker to put your stuff in and to change, or in most cases to strip down. From this point on everyone is pretty much naked. Now at first I was a bit concerned, I’m not really the kind of person who just gets naked in front of other people, getting naked alone in my own home is one thing but in front of 30 or 40 strangers is not usually my cup of tea. At first I felt quite uncomfortable about the whole thing. I also thought that there might be some staring seen as we were five foreign women in a predominantly Asian bath house and the towels were so small you couldn’t even put them around your waist. At first I kept thinking: ‘they are looking at me, this is so awkward!’ But after a little while you get used to it. You realize that no one is really looking at you, they are just relaxing, taking a shower or lying in a warm pools and really couldn’t care less that you are naked. There are people of all ages there from 5 year old girls to 80 year old women and no one can really judge you when everyone in the place is naked.
First you have to take a shower because we are informed by our friend who has been here before that if you don’t wash before you get into the warm pools they will clear pretty quickly because people will regard you as dirty. There is communal soap and then some kind woman walks up to us and offers us some shampoo sachets that she brought along with her. Once we have proved we are sufficiently socially appropriately clean we can get into the pools, there are all different temperatures and sizes. Some are pleasantly warm, some scorching hot and even a freezing cold pool. We get into one of the warm ones. Now I’m starting to feel relaxed and submerged in water I feel less self conscious. It really is quite an experience to be in one of these places. Now I’m not saying that it is that pleasant to watch an 80 year old woman scrubbing someone else’s back for them completely starkers but when you think about the fact that this is just a communal bathing area you realize that this is exactly the kind of place that most ancient societies had for bathing and that many societies around the world still have as communal places for men and women to come together, in their separated genders of course, and bath and relax together. There are also sauna’s of three different temperatures that we try out and we spend about an hour moving from pool to pool and just relaxing.
When we have had enough, have sweated all of our impurities out in the sauna and cleaned ourselves properly and when our hands and toes are looking wrinkly we decide its time for bed, after all we are hiking up a mountain tomorrow. So we dry ourselves off, put on our pink pajamas and head to the sleeping area. The sleeping area is unisex and so the male friends we came on the hike with are already there. There are a number of different rooms of varying temperatures that you can choose to sleep in. Some feel like sauna’s themselves and I can’t imagine how people can possibly sleep in them, there is one huge central room that is normal temperature but is quite light and noisy because people are still walking around. We find ourselves a nice quiet, darker room off to the side that has space in it. You get a sleeping mat, and a pillow that resembles a brick, and feels like one too, and that’s you for the night. Not a bad place to sleep considering the cost if you compare it to even the cheapest love motels which are about 40 000 won. So for the average backpacker the Jimjil bang is a pretty good deal, you can lock your stuff up so it is safe, take a shower, have a swim or sauna and have somewhere to sleep all for between 8 000 and 10 000 won.
I can’t say it’s the best night’s sleep I have ever had. Even with my ipod in my ears I could still hear the loud snoring of some middle aged Korean man and at some point a Korean guy put his mat down next to mine and when I woke in the morning not only had someone stolen my brick pillow from under my head (why I will never know) but the guy next to me had his foot dangerously close to my face. But I woke up fairly well rested and ready for a day’s hike; having had a truly unique and interesting experience and one that I might just try again.
Until next time
From slightly warmer Korea tto mannayo (see you again)
