Jimjilbangs and Naked People

Gail basically thinks travel is all about being slapped across the face with the new and strange. With this perspective in mind, she again failed to fully prep Michelle on what was coming, specifically what a "jimjilbang," was. The first word that comes to Michelle's mind in retrospect is "naked" and if you know Michelle at all, you know she really doesn't like that word. A jimjilbang is basically a huge bathhouse reminiscent of Roman days where everyone lounges in saunas and hot tubs of different temperatures, or takes advantage of the showers. All of this, of course, is done without clothes. We're talking 50 naked women milling around everywhere. One look at Michelle's face told Gail she had achieved "traveling" in Korea -- the getting slapped with the new part. As Skippy is not that kind of blog, we can't post photos to prove that Michelle dove right in, so you'll have to take our word for it.

It was after 2 a.m. by the time we arrived back from the club and wrestled our backpacks out of the lockers to, yes, add to them. A heroic surge of courage (and the fact that it was so late almost no one was around) strengthened Michelle to strip down and march past the nearby "ajumas," older Korean women into the bathhouse. She didn't stop there, either. Foregoing paying for a personal scrub down from a nearby attendant at a washing station, we indulged in the showers, sauna and jetted hot tub before we turned in for the night at 3:00.

This was easier said that done, however, as we had to scavenge around for floor space in the co-ed sleeping room. Dressed in our complementary pink jimjilbang uniforms, we rented towel-like blankets and settled on either side of a couple that unfortunately decided to stay up a little later. There, amidst about 200 other sleeping post-party young people, we managed about 4.3 hours of sleep before setting out for the palaces in the morning.