There are several South Korean things that I am envious about. Their subway system. Their artifacts and relics appreciation and preservation. Their zippy-speedy internet connection. Their skin care products. And their public bathhouses. Yes, your read that right: “public bathhouses”. Or, as they call it, “jjiimjilbang”.
Definition time: jjimjilbang literally means “heating rooms”. But they are actually gender-segregated public bathhouses. Meaning, anyone can go there, pay admission, and will be given access to their various amenities, such as bathtubs, sauna, steam rooms, common rooms with heated floors (ondol), meals and beverages, recreation & entertainment rooms, massage facilities… the works. Some operations are 24-hour, so people even spend the night in them.
Apart from those scenes in Korean dramas and variety shows that take place in these jjimjilbangs, my other close encounter with it was during my first visit to South Korea back in the late winter of 2014. We were in Busan, and my friend Peach said we had to visit – even if it’s only for an hour or so – the Spa Land of Shinsegae Centum City.
It was considerably more upscale than what I originally saw on television. No surprise there, since Shinsegae Centum City is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as “the largest shopping complex in the world”. I don’t know if that record has already been broken, though.
Since it was already nighttime (we were walking around Haeundae and the Busan Aquarium, so.) we just headed there and bought the Nighttime Ticket (10,000 KRW or Php400), which gives us all access to the services in the area, at least until closing time at 12 midnight.
I admit that I got quite a shock when I had a glimpse of the inner sanctum of a jjimjilbang. Areas for men and women are separate, but still. At the risk of sounding crude, there was simply too much nudity, more than I was used to. Haha! The three of us were feeling the same, I suppose, since we weren’t used to that much exposure, whether we were the ones exposing it, or the ones being exposed to.
Needless to say, we made do with just going to the saunas and steam rooms, and steered clear of the bath tubs and shower areas.
Fast forward two years later. I’m back in Seoul, and I wanted to try it again. Maybe this time going as traditional as it gets, with regular folk and not obviously-rich and moneyed people parading stark naked all around you.
I did some research a bit, wondering which jjimjilbang to go to. I had one criteria in mind: it had to be foreigner-friendly.
What I came up with was the Dragon Hills Spa, located close to Yongsan Station,
So after spending the better part of the day at Everland Resort (check out posts here), we decided to swing by Yongsan. It was raining really hard when we left Everland, and we even had to squeeze into a tightly-packed bus that brought us back to the Station. From there, we took the subway to Yongsan Station.
Yongsan is known for the Yongsan Electronics Market, which may be likened to the Yodobashi Camera outlets in Japan, where anything electronics are sold. We only got to take a peek at some of the electronics being sold inside the building of the Train Station, though. Apparently, the stores close early, and it was already past 8:30 when we got there. Tsk tsk.
I’m not sure if there’s much difference in the prices, but we were asking for GoPro prices, and they were roughly the same as the ones sold back home.
And apart from a selfie stick, we didn’t buy anything else. Besides, most of the stalls were already closed.
So we proceeded to go out of the building and look for the Spa close to the station. And guess who we met by the escalators??
Totoro.
I was in for a bigger surprise the moment we stepped out of the Station… and saw these at the bottom of the stairs.
It appears that the 100th Doraemon Secret Gadgets Expo was taking place. So… I’m not sure if there are 100 Doraemon statues in there, but I won’t be surprised if there were. 🙂
The figures were in different poses, with different accessories. We joined the melee of people taking photos with these statues (even if Lorei was going, “what… is this….?” haha!)
Even the stairs of the Station building was painted over!
We didn’t linger long, though. I thought it’d be much harder to find Dragon Hills, and I didn’t want to waste time looking for it, since we only have more than 2 hours to spend there. (The last train at Yongsan operates at 11:45).
But it was easy enough to find, because there was this huuuuuuuge arched sign beside the Station. Haha!
By the way, Dragon Hills Spa and Resort was designated by the City of Seoul as a HALLYU spot, thanks to its features in various variety shows and programs, the most notable of which is Running Man. There were also photos of celebrities and famous personalities who visited the place. These occupied an entire length of their reception area.
Now, unlike Spa Land, where we were expressly forbidden to take photos and leave any cameras in our lockers, this place did not seem all that strict about phones being used inside the premises.
Now I won’t delve into the possible consequences of that lax policy if this were in another country, though.
Dragon Hills Spa and Sports is a complete operation, a one-stop shop where you can find all the amenities of a modern-yet-traditional jjimjilbang. They have Spa Zones, a fitness center, a restaurant and snack bar, a hot spring swimming pool, arcades game room, and even a cinema. I think, if you want to try out all their offerings, you’d need at least a day. Or two.
We only had less than 3 hours. *insert weeping and bawling here*
Admission Fees vary between day and night, and there are different rates for weekends and holidays, too. We paid 14,000 KRW (Php 580 or USD 12.50) for the night rate, which entitles us to stay until 5AM the next day. And this entitles us access to all areas (except specialized services).
I somehow braced myself, so that it was not as much of a shock for me the moment we entered the area where the lockers are. How was the amount of nudity, you ask? Still there, still a lot, but I was already kinda mentally prepared for it, haha!
Now, comparing it to the Shinsegae experience… Dragon Hills had a more cozy and intimate atmosphere. Shinsegae had wiiiiiiide rooms, and very bright lighting, and stark walls… which, personally, I thought to have made it a bit clinical.
Needless to say, I was more comfortable here.
So we decided to join the rest of the ladies and did what was suggested on one of the boards (yes, in case there were newbies like us, I suppose) and proceeded to the Female Indoor Bath, passed all the other ladies taking showers and baths, and proceeded straight to the sauna area.
…Where we moved from one sauna to the other, hoping they’d really do what they claimed to be able to do. There were three sauna pools in the area we went to, and with varying degrees of heat. If I remember correctly, two of them were the Herbal Tonic Bath, and the Korean Ginseng Bath.
On one corner, we spotted several ahjummas (middle-aged women) doing full-body scrubs for a separate fee. And when I say scrub, I DO MEAN “SCRUB”. And when I say full-body, I DO MEAN FULL BODY. Every nook and cranny. Using a scrub.
And there is no gentle rinsing here. You’ll be lying atop a platform, they’ll scrub you within every inch of your life, then fill a basin with water, then splash-pour it all over you to wash you off.
This must be one of the reasons why most Korean women’s skin are so good.
After taking a cold shower to rinse off, we headed back up, donned the clothes we were provided, and went to the “Healing Zone”.
Here, there are rooms with different designations, and you can enter any one of them, depending on what you want. I think we just tried two: the traditional charcoal kiln and the Crystal Sun Salt Room.
We stayed inside for a good while, letting the heat seep in until we were sweating buckets… then gave up and went outside.
Since we were already there, we got sikhye, or the rice dessert drink, and some boiled eggs. I can’t remember what the eggs were, only that they are three different kinds.
And blame it on me having watched too many Korean dramas, I just had to try breaking an egg on my forehead. It’s not painful… but it can be quite startling. And yes, the hit hurts initially, but not what I’d call pain.
I didn’t take lots of photos, out of respect for others. LOL.
I can now see why this is a good area for those who are not able to go home. Salarymen who get too drunk to go home instead go to these places to spend the night in. I think the fact that they have overnight rates mean that they allow this place as an alternative to expensive hotels. If only we had not paid our accommodations in full, it woulda been nice to try staying in a jjimjilbang overnight.
….maybe next time?
So… the question that I wondered about prior to coming here: is this place foreigner-friendly?
There was never a moment of discomfort (well, except for the nudity part, but that’s not the point of this post, haha!). The others did not even spare us a second glance, wondering where we are from even when we were obviously not speaking their language. No side glances (I think we were the ones guilty of that) or staring, either.
The ladies on the counters and those assisting guests were also friendly without being too familiar, pointing us in the right direction and giving us instructions, even if they had limited (or no) English.
When we were at the Indoor Bath, there were two other foreigners, who looked like Latinas, and it was no biggie. At the Healing Room, another group at the other end were obviously Chinese young girls. So, yes, this is definitely foreigner-friendly. (I think they won’t get the Hallyu spot designation if they weren’t.)
Compared to my first jjimjilbang experience at Spa Land, I much preferred Dragon Hills Spa. Originally, I picked Silloam, with Dragon Hills a close second. I’m not sure why we changed our minds at the last minute.
So there goes another Korean-curiosity satisfied. I definitely would not mind coming back here in the future, given the chance. And spend the night.
