Korean Bathhouse

Before we left, Jiran said that her dad would want to take me to a Korean bath house.  She told me that it is a naked bath house.  As I had wanted to experience an authentic Korean lifestyle, I thought why not.  She had told me that her brother, who speaks English, would be there to help me through it.

We arrived in Busan on a Friday afternoon and was told that night, that Jiran's dad wanted to go to the bathhouse the following day. Jiran's brother was stuck at work  and would be unable to make it. Jiran's dad was quite insistent that body language would be sufficient to guide me through.  So it was the following day that off Jiran's dad and I went to the Korean bath house.

Walk upto the counter, Jiran's dad pays some money (about AU$5 each) and then turns and gives me a plastic band with a key attached, which he gestures for me to slip over my wrist.

We take off our shoes and put them into a tiny locker, opening it with the wrist key.

Into the elevator, upto level 5. We hop off the elevator and turn the corner and I see a changing room with Korean men in various stages of undress. He helps me locate my clothes locker and then begins to strip. I open up the locker with my wrist key and then follow along. I notice another foreigner, an old guy, who is in the process of getting dressed. This helps sooth my nerves somewhat.

Off with the underwear and we head into the room with the baths and showers. We head in and there are naked Korean guys of all ages inside. Ranging from young kids, maybe 5 years old to old men. He hands me a disposable toothbrush and wash cloth and then gestures me towards a shower. He puts a healthy dollop of toothpaste on the toothbrush for me and then heads towards his shower. I'm basically following everything he does at this stage. Brush your teeth very thoroughly, wash yourself off with soap also very thoroughly.

As I wash myself, I'm looking around and while I'm the only foreigner in the baths at the moment, none of them seem bothered by my presence or are even particularly starting at me. Some of the little kids seem intrigued by my presence, I smile and say Hello in Korean to one of them and he become shy. His elder brother then came up and i think told him not to stare.

Eventually we head towards the baths. We hop into a fairly hot one to begin with. There is two levels to the bath, we initially sit on the step and then he slides into the deepers water, making a contented 'Errrrrrr' sound. I sit down on the lower level, it is deep enough that only my head is above the water. Not understanding much Korean, I'm not really listening to the conversations around me. There are some kids playing around behind me in one of the other baths. I lean back keeping just my face above the water and close my eyes, its really quite peaceful.

After about 15 minutes or so we get out of the hot bath and then get into a really hot one. I'm not sure whether it was for my benefit but Jiran's dad turns the cold tap on and pushes the water around abit bringing the water temperature back to just very hot. We lie in this one for about another 15 minutes.

We then hop out of the bath and head back towards these seated showers where, we scrub ourselves thoroughly with the washcloth and Jiran's dad shaves for the day. After being in the hot bath, the coarse wash cloth starts to exfoliate the skin.

Once this is over we head to the far end of the baths where the cold bath is. Its bigger than the rest of the baths and the water temperature is similar to what you would expect in an outdoor swimming pool, fairly cold. We swim around in this one for about 10minutes. Another one of the little kids takes some interest in me, but wont say Hello back to me.

We get out of the cold bath and then get in a fairly hot one. Jiran's dad does some stretching and we sit here 10minutes, then we leave the baths room and head back into changing room. As we head out and begin to towel ourselves down, I notice the skin on my shoulders peeling away easily. In front of the mirror, Jiran's dad applies a couple of different lotions to his whole body and I follow along. He does his hair and then we head back to the lockers and get dressed.

On the whole, it was a really cool experience. I thought it displayed some interesting aspects about how the Korean traditions are still a vibrant part of life in Korea. For a society that is obcessed with phsyical beauty and plastic surgery, to see people naked in all shapes and sizes was very reassuring.

Given that Korea is also one of the most digitally connected countries in the world, that they would give up their mobile phones to necessitate this tradition is also reassuring. I havn't seen any other place in Korea yet where phones were needed to be switched off or taking photos wasn't allowed. The bath house was one of the traditional social gathering places and still continues in this function.

While we were there and old and quite frail Korean man was assisted into the baths by what I can only guess was his teenage grandson. Helping him move gradually on his walking frame and then easing him into the bath, it showed the togetherness of family in Korea.

The whole time we were there I dont think anyone asked him who the tall foreigner accompanying him was, I've gotten better at recognising 'foreigner' when people question my presence. Once I was over my inital nervousness, I found it to not be self concious at all and was quite comfortable strolling about in my birthday suit.  

We ended up going again a couple of weeks later, that time taking in the sauna aswell as the baths.  It was similar to a western sauna, but seemingly hotter than I remember a western one being.  It has a tiled floor which becomes insanely hot and you lie down on a towel on the floor.  After what lieing on the floor for what seemed for a long while, Jiran's dad motioned for us to go.  I'm not sure whether it was my useless memory or the fact that my brain was addled by some serious heat, but as we were leaving he said something to me that I wanted to respond to, I tried to say 'Very hot' but accidentally said 'Very cold'.  I realised about half an hour later and then told Jiran, who thought I was quite funny.