Yongsan, or how our vacation did not go as planned...

After a series of wrong turns and a combination of downright rude and surprisingly helpful Korean subway passengers, we made it to Yongsan Station in a pretty nice area of Seoul. Yongsan Station is connected to a large mall called l'Park Mall, which includes an E-Mart, CGV Multiplex, and Electronics Megastore (I can't remember what the store was called, but it was enormous). We wanted to find the spa that we had planned on staying for the night first, so I followed the directions I wrote down and it turned out to be right across the street from the subway station. Knowing where we had to go, we decided to do a little shopping and see a movie.

We went to E-Mart to look for some summertime clothes. Michael wanted some shorts and we both wanted flip-flops. The shorts were easy to find, but the sandals, not so much. They had a small display of flip-flops starting at 19,000 won. We were more in the 10,000 won and under price range, so we turned them down. We went into the mall and walked around a bit. There were many clothing bargains, but for Koreans who don't like to get their feet dirty, flip-flops are a relatively unknown item here. I have seen a handful of people wearing them, and half of those people were foreigners, so I'm not sure if many people here wear them.


Later on, we stopped in at the CGV and checked out what was playing. There were several options for us - IMAX, 3D, 4D, and regular theaters. We ended up going to the IMAX 3D showing of How to Train Your Dragon. The theater was understandably busy for a Friday holiday night, so we bought our tickets and then went to eat dinner. One of the first places that we saw was Pizza Hut, so we went in. We had a nice dinner and then went to our movie. The movie was good. We both enjoyed it and the IMAX was fun, although not that impressive. I don't think you miss out on anything by seeing the 2D version either, but it was a good time.

The movie got out a little before midnight and we headed over to Dragon Hill Spa. It is what is known as a Jjimjilbang in Korea. We chose a spa because they are known for being cheap places to relax and spend the night. We chose this particular spa because it is known to be more foreigner friendly and has English-speaking staff and signs in English. We walked in and were immediately impressed. The man at the counter took our money (24,000 for both of us) and gave us our uniform and locker keys.

At jjimjilbangs, it is customary to wear a uniform/pajamas. They give you a baggy shirt and a pair of shorts that you put on when you enter. First we had to take off our shoes and put them in a locker. We were a bit confused after this part, but eventually we walked in and figured out where we had to go. Michael went to the men's spa and I went to the women's. I can't speak for Michael's experience, but I suppose I can talk about mine. I took the elevator to the third floor and walked through the doorway marked Lady. I immediately saw women off all sizes walking around naked. What also surprised me was the amount of girls (ranging from crying toddler to pre-teens) that I saw at 12:30 am. Everyone goes to their assigned locker and takes off their clothes. They grab their towels and go to the showers. I wasn't sure where the showers were. I started walking to a doorway and a woman stopped me. She shouted "No!" and pointed to another doorway. I was walking to the main hall!

I made it to the showers and found an empty stall in the corner. All of the standing showers were occupied, so  I was at one with a stool and a nozzle that you have to move yourself. It was a weird experience, to say the least. All of the women around me were bathing each other and scrubbing down vigorously. I just took a shower and left. After you take a shower is when all of the good stuff is supposed to happen. There is a sauna, hot tubs of varying degrees, and even a warm lap pool, all of which is done naked. When you are finished with that, there are masseuses and spa treatments that you can buy. I opted to skip all of that stuff and got dressed into the pajamas. There was a station with hairdryers, hair gel and body lotion that I used to dry my hair off and then I went to meet Michael. We walked around, finding everything out, and then decided that maybe we wanted to go to sleep.

Our friend Dathan had warned us that it gets busy on the weekends, but we didn't really think about it that much, especially considering that this holiday is a little like Christmas for those who are Buddhist and figured most people would be visiting family for the weekend. Whole families were sleeping together on the floor in the common room and the sleeping rooms (not co-ed here like I thought) were completely full. We also seemed to miss out on pillows, blankets and sleeping mats that most people seemed to be carrying around. Note to self, if we ever try to do this again: get there as early as possible to secure a place to sleep! We went up to the rooftop garden and found the perfect spot. There were two gliders and one was unoccupied. We sat down on the glider, which was basically a futon in couch position and figured we could sleep here. It was still busy up on the rooftop. Two children were playing taekwondo on the stage and a group of Korean men were drinking and singing along to the loud music playing. We decided to get some beer.

We were just hanging out when around 2 am, a man shooed us all off of the rooftop. Apparently it is closed at night! Just our luck, the place we had banked on sleeping was now closed and all of the nooks and corners of the jjimjilbang were occupied with sleeping people! We finally found a dirty corner next to a vending machine in the PC room. It was fairly quiet in there with 12 year old boys playing Counterstrike and a mother and her son sleeping on the floor next to us. The lights were still on, but I was beginning to feel like I could sleep there.

Then the mother and son got up for some reason and left. The space was immediately occupied by a couple with their toddler. The toddler refused to go to bed. Then the room started getting cold. Then more teenage boys came in to play Starcraft. Michael and I decided that we couldn't sleep. We gave it an hour, and neither one of us was able to get any shut eye. So we decided to go to the main hall and hang out. We did a little karaoke and some arcade games and another hour went by. Finally, we went down to the PC room and hung out there until 6:30. We got dressed and left.

Exhausted and hungry, we made our way to Cheongnyangni Station, where we were supposed to meet our friend Jason at 11. Around 8, the Starbucks opened and we bought a cinnamon roll and a scone and went to hide out upstairs. We started eating, but neither of us was feeling well and we only got a few bites in. We both fell asleep on the cushy chairs. An hour later, Michael started getting sick and we decided that we should probably just go home rather than wait two more hours to start sightseeing.

We went back to Cheongnyangni Station and booked two tickets on the next available train, which was 50 minutes away and standing room only. Ugh. Two people not feeling well, one of which has to go throw up every 15 minutes, traveling on a standing room only train for 2 hours. Not fun, I'll tell ya. Oh well...

We made it back and Gizmo was very happy we came home early. We all fell asleep together on our twin bed and took a nice 4 hour nap. We're better now, don't worry. And we'll be back in Seoul before you know it!