On day seven in Korea, we were all kind of ready for a more relaxing down day after going so much the previous 5 days and so we opted to go and try out a mogyoktang (Korean bathhouse). Although Adam was not able to go to these during his mission, he came to love them when we returned to Korea a few years later for a study abroad. These bath houses are really different from anything you’d see in America as basically its just a bunch of naked people all taking baths or showers together. Most of the baths look like extra large hot tubs, and then they have different temperatures for each bath. The Mogyoktang we went to had 3 baths – one being about 104 degrees, one being about 101, and one being really cold at 75 degrees.
The bath houses were separated by gender, thank goodness, but for me – this was probably one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever experienced. I guess raised in a very conservative home, it was a little difficult for me to strip down naked in front of a bunch of strangers. It also didn’t help that I was the only tall white non- Asian lady in the bunch and was with cute little Ady who attracts a lot of attention. But the last thing you want when you are stark naked in front of strangers is attention! The only word I can use to describe my 15-20 minutes bathing with other ladies was AWKWARD. Ady didn’t seem to mind though and just loved being in a hot tub.
The boys also really loved the bath house and being naked in front of a bunch of other people I guess wasn’t that awkward for them so they spent probably an hour going from one bath to the other (at least that is what Adam tells me – since I was on the womens side).
After bathing though they give you some clean comfy clothes to change into and then you are allowed down in what thy call the “commons room” where both the men and women come together to continue enjoying a day of relaxation. There you could sit in a sauna, or a cold room, or get a mat and pillow and lay down for a nap. You could also get lunch down there or get a massage. Ady and I did like this area and had fun eating snacks we had brought and exploring the area until Adam and the boys finally joined us. Below are some pictures from the common room area AFTER our baths while we were waiting.
Ady all bathed, dressed, and ready to try out the commons area.
The cold room sauna.
and the hot rooms!
Then it was time for some relaxing and snacks on our mat and pillows.
A look at the three different rooms you could go into.
We unfortunately didn’t think to take pictures once the boys came out, but afterwards we were all needing something sweet so we headed to the market next door for pop-cycles! I loved seeing all the cool Korean canned goods!
