Korean Massage

I went to the sauna the other night. Its a public bath and it is the best thing about Korea. I got a massage and a scrub too. Now the term "massage" should be not be used. There was a lot of slapping and punching. I doubt that the lady doing it was an actual masseuse.

I love going to the sauna. You go in, scrub down, get clean and then enjoy the hot and cold pools, the massaging jets and just relax. I try to go as often as I can. This time I splurged and got the massage too. So I am totally naked, and this older bigger Korean woman in her bra and underwear is my masseuse. I lie down on something like an examination table and she scrubs my whole body. She scrubbed so hard I thought she was trying to take the ink right off my tattoos. Then she douses me in baby oil and proceeds to "massage" me. It was painful. When she wasn't slapping or hitting me, she was pulling my arms and legs. Its a wonder I didn't slide right off that table! Plus being naked made me feel even more awkward. Then she runs her forearm down my calves and give me the biggest charlie horse. I yelled and she stopped but in the mean time I have this horrible muscle cramp in my leg. I limped for a while afterwards it was so bad.

I was done with the sauna after that. They give you a set of shorts and a t-shirt so you can hang out in the public areas afterwards. The public areas have hot and cold rooms, a real sauna, a restaurant, mats to sleep on, a computer room, a dvd room and an esthetician. I got my nails done and befriended the lady who did them. She didn't really speak english but we managed to have a conversation. Through it all, we made a date for me to come back and get some of her homemade kimchi.