Comments on: The jimjilbang lifestyle

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 23:20:04 +0000

The BEST in Korea is Spa Land in Busan. It's a huge place (the third biggest spa in Asia), with more facilities than you can shake a stick at. Beautifully designed, it's rather like being on the set of 2001. Well worth visiting Busan just to spend a few hours there.

http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=1000306

http://saunasinkorea.blogspot.com/2009/11/busan-centum-city-shinsegae-department.html

By: Chris import

Chris import — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 09:14:49 +0000

@thesupplanter: that was a second I heard, thus the motion is passed – I'll have to check Siloam as soon as practicable and write about it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 06:06:08 +0000

I agree with Gary regarding Dragon Hill. It's really quite unpleasant, dirty and far too busy to make it conducive to a relaxing bathe. From the amount of coverage it gets you could be led to believe that it's the only jjimjilbang in Seoul.

Silloam is much better in every department.

Another couple of centrally located jjimjilbangs worth a mention:

Central Spa at Express Bus Terminal (Line 3 take exit 4, or Line 7 exit 6). Great massages.

Gold Spa in Gangnam http://www.knwater.net/ - famous for its water.

Both of the above are medium sized places, well maintained and generally not too busy. I've never seen any foreigners at either.

Finally, I think that it should be noted that there are small, local jjimjilbangs everywhere. Not as common as saunas or mogyogtang, but most neighbourhoods will have at least one tucked away. There were two where I used to live in Jamwon (and Central Spa was just down the road).

By: Chris import

Chris import — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:01:24 +0000

@Stephen: I've seen some people follow that order as well. Myself personally, I find the baths the main attraction, with the saunas and opportunities a secondary target. While body scrubs and I have an epic backstory, it's... not appropriate for the blog.

@Gary Norris: I'll have to check Silloam out. Dragon Hill? Definitely feeding off the tourists, which makes it the first place many people hear about.

Everyone, elwood5566.net - check it out for an excellent take on 'Bathhouse Ballads' and life in Korea.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:23:29 +0000

Great post, Chris. One minor quibble with your step-by-step guide: according to my Korean wife, steps 4 and 5 should be transposed. You change into the "uniform" immediately upon arrival, then go to the common area and enjoy the dry saunas. After you've worked up a good sweat, that's when you hit the showers. The reason for this seems to be twofold: sweating in the dry saunas helps to loosen up the dead skin, which makes the body scrub (should you choose to indulge) more effective and less painful; second, who wants to get all sweaty after showering?

I discovered this the hard way: the first time I went to the jjimjilbang with my wife, I followed the order you posted—only to have one of the spa staff come into the shower/bath area looking for me, sent by my wife who couldn't figure out why it was taking me so long to change my clothes!