strange sauna in Seoul

HIYA!

I'm typing this at an internet room at a sauna in Seoul. The camp finished this morning. I left this afternoon one of two buses provided free by the camp with a bunch of kids and several of the teachers.

After arriving in Seoul, Hue, a young Korean man living in England for the past 10 years or so, and I took a taxi together. He went to see his sister and I went to find a sauna. We got off at the same place. Hue helped me get checked in and with a couple of other things.

But what I guess the reception at the sauna didn't tell him is that once you check in, you are not allowed to leave for 24 hours! HOTEL CALIFORNIA is not what i was looking for! The price is low at 5000 won a night. That's about 5 US$. After checking in I wanted to go out to get some food.

But the lady at the reception couldn't explain in English very well. I mean, I understood that I can't leave ... or you could say that since I'd never ever heard of this sort of thing anywhere on the planet, then, you could say that no, I didn't understand. How bizarre. You check in to a place then give up your freedom to come and go. Boy.

Well, the lady at the reception said I could go upstairs and get some food. They've got a restaurant at the sauna. I told her I eat vegetarian and she said, "Oh, okay, you can go." This also felt weird. I was being given permission to leave! Like ... jail, I guess. Or, like what I don't know.

The reception lady was really kind. She called a man over to help me out. He speaks decent English and was super accomodating. I told him I'd like to just get some bananas and some vegetables and I'd be happy. I told him I'd like to go to a market. So we walked to a fresh market on the street. Got a few fruits and a bunch of vegetables. The man turned out to be the owner of the place. He studies English and so does his daughter. He called her up on his cell phone as we walked and after a few minutes asked me to talk with her! Strange, but I was happy to talk with her. We talked for about five minutes while this man and I walked back to the sauna.

Once back, he introduced me to two of his relatives, both of whom speak English well. One of the guys accompanied me to the bath. These are all-nude affairs, where men and women are separated. I was not intimidated or afraid in the least that this guy might try something on me. Saunas are not the place to get some gay action, I'm sure. Unless there are gay saunas, I don't know. Anyway, we sat in the bath for about 10 or 15 minutes, then I told him I wanted to eat. So we went to get dressed in the clothes the sauna provides, then head up to the place to sit and eat.

When we got there the owner had all the food I'd bought waiting for me sliced, peeled, and arranged on three plates. Wow. I ate it all up and it tasted real good. Love those little yellow melons. A lemon, a red pepper, and a big big handful of greens. Nice. All that and 4 bananas for 4 dollars. Cheap.

The three of us sat and talked a while. Then the owner invited me for a tour of the place. Neat. I've never seen one of these saunas where, one, you can't leave once you've checked in!, and two, with a hot dry room, a hot and humid room, an ice room where there is ice formed on the pipes and I don't know how cold the room is but it's cold, and a salt room where the floor, walls, and ceiling are all covered in salt rocks. A guy in this room later told me there are these sorts of saunas all over Korea but I've never known of this. And, he said, Jeju Island, where I'll go teach for a year has them also. Nice.

To make this place livable, there are various things a person can do to spend time, and MONEY. The price to use the basic facilities are cheap - five dollars. But I guess the way the place makes money is by requiring people to stay. And if you're gonna stay 24 hours, you gotta do something. So, you can use the fitness room, the various baths (hot, hot-hot, and cold), read comic books, watch movies, use the PC room for internet and / or computer games, watch TV and chat with people, sleep in various places, and eat. I guess that's all the facilities. I feel that 24 hours is a long time, but this place is busy. People seem to like this deal. But not getting any sunlight for 24 hours isn't my preference. I don't think I'll do one of these HOTEL CALIFORNIA / SPA CALIFORNIA things again.

Got myself a delicious kiwi - grape smoothie without ice a little while ago. $3. Expensive I guess. But I can't yet compare with outside prices. The restaurant isn't expensive.

The owner's relative that I met and talked with was interested in yoga. So I spent about an hour I guess teaching him a very basic yoga sequence - The Sun Salutation. Then the owner arrived and interupted and that was that.

He demonstrated his physical strength (amazing but what's the point, really? There's something cultural going on in that display, I am pretty sure) then invited me to dinner with he and his relative. I didn't want to really but felt obliged. I wasn't hungry as I'd just eaten a nice big meal. But it's not food for most people so who knows what they thought of my food. Anyway, I went and got some cold noodles which were nice. Had a bunch of kimchi which I'm told is vegan in the Seoul area because it's not made with fish sauce. So, I hope to make my own kimchi in the future.

It's 11pm right now. I'd sure like to get to sleep but doubt I'll get any sleep anytime soon.

That's enough of this though.

Love, Troy.