As the weather cooled and daylight began to fade, we headed to Yongsan to Dragon Hill Spa, the afore-mentioned jimjilbang. Dragon Hill is one of the largest spas in South Korea, and far exceeds the typical North American expectations of what you'd encounter in a spa. Several stories high, visitors enter by walking down a bamboo-canopied path, trading in their shoes for grey workout clothes. Once changed, you have seven stories of activities to choose from: massages, swimming, a fitness center, restaurants, games, sleeping rooms, and several different saunas with themes ranging from a room made almost entirely of salt (said to help cure illness) to Egyptian pyramids with sitting areas meant to heighten meditation to traditional rock kilns.
"I hate the heat," said Sang In, moving quickly for the kiln's exit. "This is why I visit Canada, not Texas."The filming location for a number of Korean television programs, visitors to Dragon Hill pay a set price to stay for as long as twelve hours. It's a nice, if not unusual, way to unwind. Small touches that may seem bizarre to Westerners were found throughout the place, like a room reserved for foreigners to try on robes worn by ancient Korean statesmen, or the rooftop restaurant featuring life-sized sculptures of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and a pot-bellied Indian flashing a shaka with his hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment