We went to a Sauna at 용산 (Yongsan) Station called Dragon Hill Spa. Our friend 종한(Jonghan), aka Peter, said he had been to this Spa before and he really liked it.
The first thing you do when you arrive is head to the front desk to pay the entrance fee. Since it was the weekend, the cost was 12,000 KRW (10 dollars ish) per person. After paying, the employee hands you some loose fitting cotton lounge clothes, and an elastic bracelet with a key and an electronic tracker attached.
After entering the turnstiles you must remove your shoes and deposit them into the appropriate shoe locker (your key #). The floors throughout the giant facility are the ondol (heated) equipped style. After dropping off your shoes you head into the main common area. At this point you need to take the women's elevator (to the 2nd floor) or the men's elevator (to the 5th floor) to get changed into your 찜질방 attire.
These areas are basically like a VERY glorified locker room. They are (obviously) segregated by sex and people are extremely open about nudity. The men's area had all the lockers to place your day clothes in, showers, steam rooms, a variety of sauna's ranging in temperature and water type, bathrooms, a barber shop, and I'm sure other goodies I didn't even find. After changing though, Peter and I headed back down to level 1 to meet back up with Lauren.
From there we entered into the large common co-ed area.
There was one large spacious room with televisions, a couple snack/juice bars, a manicure/pedicure station, and many doors leading to various rooms. There were ice rooms, steam rooms, saunas, charcoal rooms, "green air" rooms, salt rooms, and more. They all had their own unique benefits. We experienced the majority of the rooms.
The facility in all covered 6 floors. About 50% was sex-sparated and 50% co-ed. There were a couple restaurants, numerous heated pools, some outdoor patios, and treatment spa, as well as arcade games, a movie room, a PC room, and singing rooms! Any food, beverages, extra treatments, or other were simply charged to your bracelet to be paid upon check out.
We brought some card games along to play in the common area.
We also were treated to a magic show which was pretty awesome.
Lauren was a little distraught after the magician brought out some birds and memories from The Prestige came flooding back. It was a good show though and fun to watch the kids all around get so excited.
All in all this was an incredible experience. It is amazing that even after being here for more than a year there are still so many things to check out and experience. Many thanks to our native friends here who are always up for bringing a little more culture into our world :)
3 comments:
Very interesting. Are they giving massages on the floor? I realize it is heated, but the floor? Glad you guys had a good time.
One does learn about other ways of doing things. We found the European spas very interesting as well. They had the different temperature pools as well, however no magic show. Some nude areas were coed. Enjoy and take in all the experiences you can. Thanks for sharing! Leah shared her Flat Stanley adventure with me today. She was so thrilled that he finally arrived. Her family loved the pictures.
They don't actually give massages on the floor (I think you are seeing a couple in that picture), they have a spa room with tables and private rooms for massages.
I'm glad Leah shared Flat Stanley's adventure with you :)
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