Subject: Weekend Update 6 Mar 94

Date: 06-Mar-94 at 08:14

From: Roger White

Yesterday I went to a Korean public bath for the first time. The setting was reminiscent of the old Roman public baths. The bath room itself was a large room with textured granite floors. Around the walls were shower spots. Some were conventional western showers, and others were low-mounted Korean style showers. At the Korean showers you squat or sit in front of a mirror.

I was issued a small, one foot by two foot, towel when I came in to the bath. All the time I was undressing I was wondering how I would get dry with such a scrawny piece of cloth. Then I discovered it was used for scrubbing while you are showering--the Koreans love to scrub hard with this towel while they are bathing.

Towels aren't for drying; air is for drying. There was a big fan outside the bath, and you stand in front of that to dry.

In the center of the bath are raised pools of hot water with tile and granite sides. On one side was a sauna and a cold water pool. I moved back and forth between showering, the hot pool and the sauna. I stayed away from the cold pool. Try as I might, I just can't get any pleasure out of subjecting my body to cold water. Cold water is something for oceans, emergencies and water tortures.

Men and women both go to the baths, but the sexes are segregated. In this one the men were upstairs and the women downstairs.

Outside the bath is a locker room and waiting area. Baths usually offer some other amenities, too. The bath can be part of a hotel or a health club. This one had a barber.

Speaking of barbers, barbers in Korea work with a bit more of the body than barbers in the US do. They work with the skin as well as the hair, and barber shops in Korea are the place to go for lots of tactile stimulation. The stimulation can range from the simple combing and cutting of getting a haircut, through getting a deluxe shave with lots of face and scalp skin toning and stimulating, to endulging in a full body perk up.

As I was leaving the bath, I saw some Koreans looking at me curiously. They caught my eye and pointed out a scale. This was the first scale I'd seen in a while, so I hopped on. Well, well, well, only 133... kilograms. That dropped some jaws. The heaviest Korean there dressed out at 75Kg, and for a couple minutes the Koreans were hovering around the scale banging on it to see if it was working right. I was smiling too. I've lost about 15Kg since I came to Korea.

Later these Koreans started talking with me. Many Koreans know some English, but they're shy about using it. Given time, they will open up. One of these Koreans had spent years in Europe and the Middle East working as a truck driver and oil field worker. He was now retired.

That's the highlight of this week. Catcha later.

Roger