One night in a Jimjilbang

Sweaty , hot and tired from a crazy night in Daegu .We board the 4 am train that will take us back to the lovely small area of Waegwan where we had double beds and couches waiting for us.  A chilled 20 minute jounery to Waegwan and we ll be home. We decide to have a power nap ....... 40 minutes later and ...... " We have arrived in Gumi" says the speaker in the train.  EPIC FAIL . We had crashed so heavily on the train that we had missed our stop in Waegwan. 5am in the morning  and batteries dead . Where does one go when  faced with such a situation.... a JimJilbang of course aka " a large  gender segregated public bathhouse/ sleeping house. It is very popular amongst koreans .

I have heard very funny stories about these places and I can't say it ranks highly on my " Must do " list  of things to do in Korea . However at 5 am in the morning I was not going to be fussy about accomodation. So embracing my " Open heart , open mind" attitude   we went inside. I can see why Jimjilbangs are so appealing for a grand total of 9000 won you get :

Some very sexy pajamas which  resemble something similar to prison clothes.

 A towel which is so small it wouldnt even fit around the circumference of an anorexics body .

Free access to use the facilities which includes the bath room , showers , sauna , ice room and a sleeping area . ( I ll explain more about that in a bit ) 

An example of a sauna

After we paid I was separated from the boys and shown to the womens section whilst the boys were shown to the mens section. Let me set the scene. I walked in and what was a greeted with ? Lots of naked bodies !Bodies of all shapes and sizes. Old wrinkly korean women walking around ever so freely . " Open mind open mind" I kept reminding myself. There were rows and rows of lockers . Pretty much like a gym . Although my clothes that were going into the locker smelt of clubs , smoke and soju. Beyond  excited to get  out of my smelly clothes I stripped down , attempted to put the microscopic towel around my body ( epic fail)  and went into the bathing house area. 



I could't resist. This really portrays what it is like inside a Jimjilbang



  A large room filled with various sized heated pools . Many women splashing around naked having a grand time with their friends and even washing each other. If there was ever a moment to feel awkward , this would be it. Now im all for making friends and ive been doing pretty well so far. However , I was not going to jump naked into a bath with some random korean ladies and strike up a conversation . So I looked around for a shower where I wouldnt have to deal with a view of wrinkly old ladies. Eventually I found one. Being clean is never something I will take for granted again.



My very sexy Pj's for the night

 Next step was to find the sleeping area. I opened the door , and I honestly thought I had stepped into a scene from the movie the Island. You know that movie with all the cloned people. Eventhough the sleeping area is for both men and women everyone looked exactly the same as we were all in identical clothes. Attempting to find the boys was not going to happen. So I attempted to find somewhere to sleep. The options were endless. Do I sleep in the middle of the room with a bunch of other koreans on a paper thin matress, do i go sleep in a cave like area ( they are literally these  little dome shaped caves with a matress inside it ) do I go keep cool in the ice room, (like a sauna but cold ) or do I settle for  a lovely comfy massaging chair ( yes they have those too). I settled for the dome shaped cave. It was dark and the only place where I would get some vague privacy. Two hours later and I was still awake.

Another example of a sleeping area

We left soon after that and managed to not miss our stop back to Gyeongju .

So that was my first experience in  jimjilbang. Was it terrible ? No , I loved it and it exceeded my expectations . Will I go back to another one ? Hells yes ! At 5 am in the morning you wont find a better , cheaper more entertaining deal. :)

I was unable to take pictures inside so the pictures used are examples of what you could expect to find.