Korea

Just got out of my first Korean public bath. I showed up and wasn't sure exactly what I was supposed to do. I took off my shoes at the door and dropped them on a rack. A barbershop was located just inside the door. The barber didn't speak English, but he motioned me through the process. I entered the locker room and took off all my clothes. I wrapped my towel around my waist, and started for the bath room. Suddenly the towel was yanked away. The barber said I should drop it there. OK. So I waited until he was busy with a customer and I put it around me again and headed for the bath. I made it about five steps when the towel was yanked away again and tossed on the table in the middle of the room. The barber made a little motion toward his privates and indicated that no towel was necessary to cover them. So I walked stark naked through the two rooms.

I entered the next room which held showers and two large baths. Two guys were showering along the wall so I avoided that spot. I just slowly eased myself into the first pool. It was hot as heck. After a few minutes I was in to my middle, seated along the wall. I just sat there trying to look inconspicuous, but of course, standing out as usual. One of the showering men came over and entered the pool next to mine. I saw that the water was deeper, so at first I thought I had entered the "kiddie pool". The man then came over to me and introduced himself. He spoke a bit of English. We were both sitting there stark naked, carrying out a formal conversation.

He was an officer in the Korean Air Force and had learned to speak English from some Americans he worked with. He sort of gave me the procedure for the room, so I went through the steps.

First I got a long rough towel and stayed in the small hot pool for twenty minutes. Then I got out and showered thoroughly. I washed my hair and rough toweled again. After that incredibly hot bath, a cool shower actually felt good. A cool shower was probably against the principal of the hot bath, but I thought I might pass out from the heat.

After the twenty-minute shower, I poked my head into the dry sauna room and realized there was no way I could take that heat, so I backed out. Next I sat at the seated showers and shaved. The seated showers were little places where you could sit down and wash and spray yourself. If you wanted you could shower seated. When you were finished with everything, you could enter the large pool at the end. I put one leg in that pool and didn't stay long. It was a cold pool. No cold pool for me.

I'm still not sure exactly how the entire process works, but maybe I'll have it figured out the next time I visit one.