Jim Jill Bangin'

One of the things I love about Korea is the Jim Jil Bangs (bath houses). I spent this evening scrubbing myself and lounging around in baths of green tea. I feel refreshed and shiny now, and all for 5 dollars. It is a uniquely Korean experience captured perfectly in the painting above. friends hang out, families come and scrub each other, some people just come alone to relax. It can be a "start your day off right" activity or a relaxing end of the day "soak the stress away". The main thing is that anything goes. It is perfectly acceptable for the woman scrubbing herself next to you to hand you her towel and ask you for a back rub. Some take it further and pay the "adjumma" (older woman who works at the sauna) to scrub and massage and walk on their backs. Others wander around exercising, some chill in the cold pool, some lay around on the stone floor. A group for adjummas gossip in the sauna.

There are usually a couple of rows of showers, stand up and sit down and a number of different baths: hot, cold, tea, ginseng, REALLY hot lemon water for skin whitening... There is a routine: shower, scrub, shave, scrub more, maybe massage, baths and sauna followed by shower. That's not all though, most bath houses have a TV in the changing room and women lounge around watching soap operas .

If you want to there is a communal area and you are provided with shorts and T-shirt to wear there where you can buy a beer and eat hard boiled eggs. The women who work there were all wearing bedroom lingerie.. this I couldn't figure out, they are lounging around in lacy leopard print panties or satin slips. It has been the same in all of the jim jil bangs (bath houses) that I have been to and I cannot figure it out... maybe they just don't get the chance to wear that kind of thing at home...

There are usually rooms for sleeping and you are able to spend the night as they are usually 24 hours. It's ideal if you get caught in another part of the city and miss the last train or bus home, a good soak and blanket at the Jim Jil Bang is certainly the cheapest way to go. The first time I stayed in the Sauna the night was an experience. I was handed a wooden brick for... a pillow! a blanket, a pair of white shorts and a T-shirt.

I started off trying to get to sleep on a straw mat in a room with extreme floor heating surrounded by about 30 other people. I took myself off the the toilet at one point mistakenly leaving my "pillow" and blanket behind. I returned to find the man who was next to my spot cuddling up with my blanket. I was tired and if I'm honest I had a little bit of a short fuse so I tried to grab my blanket back, the "pillow" he was welcome to, but the little sod decided to put up a fight, one which I wasn't going to lose. I didn't. Wrapping myself up in my blanket I tried to go to sleep. However my blanket thief wasn't going to give up that easily, He started snoring. Loudly. In fact it seemed that everyone was in on it, a symphony of snores and snorts and snuffles filled the room. I picked up my blanket and left them to it.

I had lost the war.

I took myself out to the communal area which was dark by now, I stepped over sleeping bodies and found a sleeping space. I nestled myself under a glass table. As I was gradually waking up in the morning I gradually opened my eyes to see something which looked like a scene from a nuclear disaster, bodies sprawled out all over the place, people had found the strangest of sleeping positions some of which I couldn't even understand how they had put themselves there. Everyone was wearing matching white shorts and T-shirt sets. It was just all too surreal especially after only a couple of hours sleep.

This evening was far more relaxing however. and next week I will certainly be getting that aroma scrubbing/massage. I think the back walking can wait though.