Roughing It: Getting Beaten and Sleeping on the Ground

Yesterday I woke up around 8:30am and got myself out of bed half an hour later. My feet were feeling better, it was a clear blue sky outside with a shining sun, the day stretched before me with possibilities of spas, beaches or wandering, and I was in a foul mood. I can’t really say why, exactly. It was just one of Those Days. Nothing sounded like fun, everything seemed difficult when I thought about it, and no matter how I tried to talk myself into a better mood, I remained grumpy. I showered, which felt nice. I dressed in clean clothes and went to the common area, partaking of the hot tea and two pieces of toast breakfast I was expecting. Nothing was bad, everything was good. I checked my e-mail, wrote to some friends, checked a few websites and read other people’s blogs. Still, my gray cloud persisted.

At some point I decided to give my parents a call through Skype. We chatted on the phone for a minute and then they got on their computer and we video chatted. I caught them up on my previous day and we exchanged news. Then I explained to them how I was feeling and they advised me to spend a day expecting nothing from myself. They’ve done the long-term travel thing before and they encouraged me to do something nice for myself, like the spa, and to just let myself relax, perhaps reading a book in a coffee shop or sunning at the beach later on.

After the video chat, I finished off a few more e-mails and then went to talk to Yoo at the front desk to see if there had been any cancellations, but no, the hostel was still full. My thundercloud darkened slightly, but I packed my stuff and prepared to leave. Yoo said I could leave my big pack there for the day if I needed, so I took him up on that and got a 1,000-won-off coupon from him for the sauna/spa, and went off to find some food before going to the sauna. Nothing seemed good – no adventurous eating spirit that day – so I got a microwavable spaghetti and a bottle of orange juice at a convenience store instead. Then it was off to the bus stop.

Of course, the street was closed down for a local festival going on, which I discovered after twenty minutes of waiting for a bus that supposedly came by every fifteen minutes. I wandered about for maybe thirty minutes, looking for a bus stop for the bus I needed (Bus 3 or 3-1). Once I found it, it took another fifteen minutes for my bus to come and then, then we were headed up the hills. Although the bus driver nearly passed it without stopping, I managed to spot the spa and ring the “stop” button in time.

I wandered into the hotel / restaurant / spa place, paid my 6,000 won (it’s usually 7,000 but I had my coupon!) and was gestured downstairs. Now, let me pause to explain that I expected something similar to what I’d experienced in Japan, which is a huge pool of terribly hot water, a couple shower heads next to mirrors with small stools placed in front of them and maybe some soap provided. Instead, I came into a huge locker room filled with naked Korean women of all ages, doing all the things one does in a locker room – drying off with a towel, putting on makeup, gossiping with friends, drying hair, and so on – with complete disregard to the nudity of themselves and others. Some had on jewelry but most didn’t. A few had pink handtowels wrapping up their hair. All had a spring bracelet with a numbered tag and a key attached somewhere on them, either their wrist or ankle.

I went to the front desk, was pointed to a set of small lockers to the side for shoes, and was directed through mime to bring back the key. I did so, and they took my key and gave me another, my own springy bracelet with numbered tag and key on it. I went to find locker number 91, which was a bigger locker, and proceeded to strip down and put everything into the locker. I glanced around and followed some people through a set of glass double doors into the sauna area.

I’d like to note here that I’m fairly comfortable being naked in this kind of situation. What I’m not used to is spending hours being naked amongs dozens, maybe hundreds, of other naked women. Also, I had no idea of the appropriate order of things here, or whether there was a time limit, or even what the dozen different pools were.

Anyway, when I entered the sauna area, it was a bit overwhelming. The place was huge and cavelike: no windows, but steam and water and pools stretched across a room the size of about half a football field. There were square pools and round pools, and one pool that seemed to have individualized slots in it separated by railings. Some of the pools were elevated and some had higher walls than others, although all the walls were low enough to step over or onto. Off to the right of the entrance were several doors which led into saunas. Off to the far right of the room were rows upon rows of four-foot high walls with showerheads, mirrors and stools, most of which were in use by soapy women. There was a pool for children and one pool that seemed to be only for dipping small blue bowls into. It was completely unobvious to me what the order of things was.

I showered and rinsed myself thoroughly, which I knew one was expected to do before getting into any of the pools, but there was no soap around. That’s when I noticed that many women coming into the sauna brought huge totes with them, containing soaps of all kinds. Apparently you’re supposed to come equipped. Whatever, I continued on my way, since I’d showered earlier in the morning anyway.

I went to the first pool I saw and carefully climbed in. It was hot but not excessively so. I wallowed for awhile and then got up to explore, finding some saunas. The first one blistered my skin as soon as I opened the door, but I followed the example of two ladies and crawled in, remaining crouched. It was far too intense for me,though, so I backed out and tried the other one, which was much more manageable. There were no stools or benches, so I followed the example of the six or seven other women already there and sat on the floor, using one of the small pink handtowels I’d been given to sit on. I sweated as I listened to the other ladies chatting and gossiping and telling each other all sorts of things. There were gales of laughter and ooohs and aaahs of appreciation, even a few snorts of scorn. Some of them glanced at me curiously, but didn’t stare. A couple of them had blue bowls with them which apparently contained cold water, because they’d splash their faces once in awhile. Several sat along one wall, while two were sprawled out, heads rested on a wooden block and pink towels spread out under them.

After ten or fifteen minutes of that, I left, following another woman to see if she showered or went directly to a pool. She went into a different pool than I had started in and I joined her. This one was hotter and felt good on my skin, but I couldn’t stay too long. I went over to one of the low stools and rinsed it off with the shower head, then proceeded to rinse myself off with cool water, which felt nice. I can’t say I was really relaxed, because I wanted to know that I was doing things correctly and I couldn’t find any way to ask, really. There were no other foreigners that I could tell and it just seemed odd to try to mime, naked, to someone.

As I rinsed, a little girl next to me was methodically washing herself. It was incredible to see this five or six year old girl carefully scrubbing every inch of herself with a soapy washcloth, rinsing, examining her skin carefully, and then repeating the process on the same spot before moving on. An older woman, her mother presumably, was on the girl’s other side, and she smiled at me, rolling her eyes slightly as if to say, “Silly children!” before pointing to a spot the girl had just scrubbed and scolding her (I think).

As I washed, having found a piece of soap, I heard a loud smack-pop sound, rhythmically sounding for about thirty seconds and then stopping. I glanced around and spotted two women in black bras in underwear, each soaping up and washing women who lay on tables. I watched for a few moments and decided that here was something new and different to try: a naked sauna massage and wash. I expressed my interest, noting one of the women being washed who seemed blissfully asleep as one of them black-bra’d women soaped her up with what looked like washcloth gloves. Yes, this seemed like what I needed. They showed me 18,000 won and I hesitated, then went back to my locker to get the cash. It was cold out there by the lockers!

I gave the women my money and then they promptly turned around and ignored me. I shifted from foot to foot, feeling awkward: should I stand there and wait? Should I sit somewhere nearby? There were no chairs, no obvious waiting lines, nothing. One of them shooed me off impatiently, miming diving into water. All right, I thought, and went to soak in a pool. Not thirty seconds later the other woman, not the one who had shoed me off, came and motioned impatiently for me to come back.

What followed was completely unexpected.

First I was directed to lay on my stomach, which I did. Then I was doused with hot water twice, before my back was slapped lightly and I was motioned to turn over. Then the scrubbing began. The washcloth gloves were not soft. They felt like Brillo pads and the next period of time consisted of being scraped raw quite thoroughly, on every patch of skin I possessed. I’m not kidding. Buttocks, inner thighs, breasts, shoulders, feet, neck… everywhere but my face. And it wasn’t a gentle, soothing scrub, it was vigorous, violent scrubbing like I was a greasy pan that needed to be scoured a hundred times before being considered acceptably clean.

Then she did it all again.

Next, she had me lay on my side while she repeated the scrubbing process. Then I was turned onto my stomach and, yes, scrubbed again. Then onto my other side, scrubbed, and finally put on my stomach again. Then came another dousing of hot water. Next came the soaping, which was a bit nicer as the suds built up but just as painful with the hard scrubbing.

I want to be clear: it hurt! Not excessively, but surprisingly more than I’d ever considered. After my soaping came the pounding. The rhythmic pop-slap sounds I’d heard before were made clear as the woman beat on me with her fists. It wasn’t a massage… I don’t know what it was. But when she pounded on my calves, still sore from the hikes from the day before, I couldn’t help it: I burst out laughing. Here I was having been in a terrible mood and finding each little thing – the bus stop, the unexplained sauna process - being just a bit too hard to deal with, and this, this painful cleansing process of getting scrubbed raw and pounded to bruises, this was what broke my mood. I couldn’t help it! The lady paused and asked me something in Korean, baring her teeth at me, but I just smiled and shook my head. Later I figured out that she was asking why I was laughing, but at the time I just felt kind’ve euphoric.

After a soapy face washing, in which she pressed on my eyeballs and lathered my face into oblivion (thankfully without the Brillo-gloves), I was doused three more times with hot water and then pushed unceremoniously off the table. She pointed me to some shampoo and conditioner and promptly turned around for the next customer.

I washed and conditioned my hair, rinsed under cool water and staggered out of the sauna room. My day at the spa was, decidedly, over. As I waited for the bus outside, I really took in the sunshine and cool air. While I didn’t have that noodle-like feeling that follows a good massage, I did feel remarkably better. My skin – all of it – glowed bright pink and I felt cleaner than I’ve ever felt, I think. A little dazed, I made my way back to the hostel to pick up my pack and figure out the night’s lodging.

The next few hours were spent getting to the hostel, spending time on the computer, picking up my things and heading off to the bus stop again. On the way to the bus stop, which was about a fifteen minute walk since the street was still closed off, I bought some street food: kimchi dumplings, pork dumplings, fried sweet potatoes, tangerines, apples and something called pizza bread, which resembled two pieces of white bread stuck together with tomato sauce and cheese on top. I asked for a sim card for my cell phone at a few stores, to no avail. And then I caught the bus up to the Seoraksan Camping Grounds, where I was to meet a couchsurfer named Eli who liked camping, and his friends.

The campground was huge and I wandered, wearing both my packs, calling softly, “Eli? Couchsurfing? Eli?” It was about 5pm. The mountains surrounded the campground and the sky was darkening beautifully. I made a circuit of the place to no avail, seeing only one foreign couple who turned out to be from the Netherlands. I continued wandered, hoping I hadn’t made a colossal mistake: no sleeping bag, no tent, nothing for camping with me…

“Are you ok?” A Korean woman waved at me, concerned. I nodded and explained that I was looking for friends and she smiled and waved me on. On my second round, I must have looked kinda worried because the same woman waved me over. I explained that I was meeting some people from an online organization, but didn’t know where they were or what they looked like. She invited me back to her campsite where she and her husband insisted I sit in one of their camp chairs and have a cup of instant coffee. They were about to pack up their (very large) tent and head home. She asked if I had a number for someone that I could call and I said I did (I’d actually saved Eli’s number from a post off Couchsurfing). She loaned me her cell phone and I got ahold of Eli, who told me that he and three friends were on the bus and would be at the campgrounds in forty-five minutes. They had two two-person tents and one extra sleeping bag.

So I hung out with the kind Korean couple for half an hour and then headed to the entrance of the grounds.  Just five minutes later, a taxi pulled up and out clambered an exceptionally tall guy with a blond ponytail, a Korean girl, a lanky, curly-haired guy and an American girl with long, straight dark hair. We all introduced ourselves and I met Eli, Lance, Youmi and Mia, English teachers all. We picked a campsite right next to the couple from the Netherlands and set up the two tents. Mia had brought the rain cover from another tent, and it turned out to be absolutely huge, so we crafted a makeshift tent from it for me.

 

Then it was time for dinner and we had a veritable feast: the stuff I’d brought and kimchi, meat, garlic, onions and lettuce leaves that the others had brought, along with a grill to cook it all on. We must have eaten for hours!! They also brought a rice liquor wine that was flowery tasting, so it really was a wonderful feast. The temperature cooled and the night finally fell. We had a great time chatting and joking and eating and drinking, until around midnight we all headed off to our tents. Mine was actually pretty cozy and with Eli’s spare zero-degree sleeping bag, I was quite warm. The main discomfort of the night was the hard, hard ground. So… I didn’t sleep all that great.

Breakfast was cooked sausages, oranges, an apple and raman noodles. Around 11am, the other folks headed off for hiking and I caught a bus back to Sokcho to catch another bus back to Seoul, in order to get on an insanely long subway ride with two transfers. I ended up surrounded by a Korean family eager to know what a girl with such a huge pack was doing, alone, unmarried and childless. Oy!

I’m back in Songtan at the Neiman apartment, showered and fed. I’ve done a little something to my hair to try to tame it down a bit… pictures later if it worked well. Well, I guess there will be pictures either way. Stuart, Carolyn and I went to base for burgers, which was kinda nice. My butt and calves still hurt from the beating the black-panty lady gave me, but all in all, I’m happy with how the last two days have turned out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

--Z