Day 12-13: Jimjil-bang-ing in Gimcheon

Mark

Much has been written about the nude saunas of Korea. Much more shall be written about this titillating Korean experience. Here is a brief account from our first fateful jimjilbang night...

For the budget hiker, the bright lights of the jimjilbang offer everything one could wish for - a range of hot pools and saunas, snacks and drinks for sale, warm showers, unlimited soap, lotions to sooth your weather-beaten skin, a hair dryer, a freshly laundered jimjilbang uniform, a shared sleeping space with various different rooms set to different temperatures, television, all for around 7 NZD a night. After hitching a lift into the city of Gimcheon, we headed straight for the nearest Jimjil-bang, attractively titled 'Spa Valley'. 

Unfortunately (or not given some of the disturbing stories Kathleen told us later), men and women have separate bathing areas. Raby and I headed eagerly upstairs to the men's floor and open the door....the sight of nude men sprawling lavishly on couches is the first thing that greeted us. They were watching a baseball game on TV. As a way-gookin in such a familiar Korean space, we are, inevitably, the elephants in the room. All eyes were on us as we disrobed and made our way coolly and confidently into the main bathing area. Confidence is the only strategy available to us way-gookins - we swaggered about as if we'd been jimjilbanging our whole lives - never hurrying, always looking disinterested, and always ignoring the stray downward glances from the Korean punters. Truth be told, we are both experienced jimjilbangers from our previous time in Korea, and it only took a minute to get used to the naked men floating about the place, scrubbing themselves vigorously, scrubbing each other more vigorously, and even slapping a white cream labelled 'refining lotion' onto their buttocks in front of the mirrors. It was almost nostalgic.

Later that night, we headed for the shared sleeping area and met Kathleen, all of us looking resplendid in our uniforms (Kathleen's outfit is a dull orange). There are no mats - it is straight onto the hard floor. This will not do. Raby and I grabbed our sleeping mats and went to one of the side rooms that was darker and a little quieter than the main sleeping area. In this room there are six 'tombs' - small, covered sleeping spaces that you have to crawl into. Being tired, I passed out immediately, despite the blaring television and the loud talking coming from the main room. Two hours later I woke up, lathered in sweat and panicking in my tomb. It was furnace-like in there, and sleeping directly above my tomb on a wooden platform was possibly the loudest snorer in the Gimcheon district - I had to get out. I wriggled out of that hellish little hole and burst into the main sleeping area, bleary-eyed and completely phased. The heat in that place was ridiculous - we are later told that the Koreans prefer it hot in order to sweat out any 'impurities' during the night's rest. The air temperature must be at least 30 degrees, and with the underfloor heating adding to my sweaty misery, I had to get out.

The tombs--though these look like palaces compared to the ones at the jimjilbang we were at.

Stepping gingerly over the battlefield of sprawling bodies in the main hall, I headed out to the stairwell and was greeted by a cool breeze floating down from above. There are no snorers here, it is quiet and cool - this will do nicely, thank-you very much. Back to the mens quarters I go to collect my sleeping bag, then onto the stairwell and walk up two floors. I rolled out my mat on the dusty concrete, so grateful to the stairwell micro-climate into which I have stumbled. The sleep is beautiful, disturbed only by two Korean workers from the offices above, who periodically use the stairwell as a smoking room throughout the night. Inhaling their cigarette smoke is a small price to pay for the use of this stairwell, and I entertain myself with the notion that I could happily be homeless in any city as long as I had my sleeping mat and sleeping bag. I awake at dawn and meditate at this unlikely spot on the seventh floor of Spa Valley, then go back down for a morning sauna, shower, and lotion session. As I enter the shower room my eyes latch helplessly onto a great pair of bulging testicles owned by a punter who is laying flat on his back, enjoying the sunshine that is streaming through the foggy window - welcome back to the jim-jilbang, boy! The eventful night has come to an end, and, feeling fresh and fluid, I leave the heat behind and meet the others to exchange war stories from the night over a cup of coffee.  

Post-script: Kathleen and Raby somehow survived the night in the main chamber - Raby slept the whole night in his tomb, heroically staving off the heat and the zoo-like sounds of the various snorers; Kathleen slept on the hard floor with no sleeping mat and a TV blaring 15 feet away. How is that possible?!    

Raby: "y'know when you wake up during the night, knowing you need a piss but too lazy to roll out of bed? In the jimjil when I wake up lying in a pool of sweat, chronically dehydrated with another punter's legs draped over me, that same function kicks in - the 35 degree floor is just too good, roll over, shake out your dead arms, readjust your earplugs and slide back in for another patchy 45min".

Kathleen: "I slept great until the wee hours of the morning when some mysterious legs flopped over mine...".

Kathleen
A series of several long, wet days on the trail left us needing a cheap place to dry out, soak some sore muscles, and get some rest. Luckily in Korea, there exists such a place, if you are brave enough to accept the stares of complete strangers marveling your nude physique.

We hitched a ride from the pass into the city of Gimcheon and made our way to the nearest jimjilbang. For eight dollars a night, we could use the sauna and sleep in the upstairs jimjil, which had a large open space with two TVs and several rooms heated to varying temperatures.

I split from Rob and Mark and made my way into the women's side of the sauna where I barely even noticed the not-so discrete stares of ALL of the women at the bath. From there I proceeded to scrub off the grime from our days in the wilderness and work a brush through my hair for the first time in more than a week (I suppose I was something to look at). After getting my feet as clean as they were going to get, I spent the next hour testing each pool, first the freezing cold bath and ending with a scalding hot soak. Pink and happy, I dressed in the female jimjilbang uniform: from what I was told by the guys, extremely flattering pumpkin orange shorts and t-shirt.

The three of us reunited in the sleeping quarters and scoped out places to sleep for the night. A hard marble floor is the choice of many, as it is cooler there than many of the separate rooms, but for Rob and Mark, it was too public and the floor appeared a bit too hard. Rob spent the night in the 'tombs': individual sized stone arched tombs not more than 3 feet high. While they are more private than other options, the air is still and stifling, enough to drive Mark and I out for fresher air and a less claustrophobic area. I settled in the middle of the  main room and passed out on the marble floor, without a pillow, until the early hours of the morning when someone felt bad for me and gave me theirs on their way out. Mark, however,created a new sleeping area in the...yes...stairwell of the jimjilbang. Desperate for fresher air, he ventured into the stairwell with his sleeping bag for the night, much to the curiosity of many males going out there for a smoke.

We stayed another night at the Gimcheon jimjilbang, which overall proved to be a good place to recharge. Not to mention it was very near to a McDonald's which we frequented often for hot coffee and numerous 800\ choco-cones. As always, there were a few other awesome experiences in Gimcheon, which made the place hard to leave, but the trail was calling and we had many kilometers ahead of us.