Continued from the previous posting... more of what we learned about Korea this weekend.
4. You can bring your toothpaste to the sauna.
Ever been to a Korean sauna? I have and I can tell you that there are two key components. The first is a whole lot of water. And the second is a whole lot of naked people. And believe it or not, the combination works.
The women and the men have separate facilities (you can get the general idea via the pool layouts in dark red on the "map" pictured below) and so I can only report on the female version of the sauna experience. I'll also note that Stefano's experience seems pretty darn similar except with more bells and whistles; the men get free hair gel.
As for the ladies, you dump your clothes in a locker and then take your tiny towel, small bar of soap, and packets of shampoo and conditioner out to the sauna. At this stage you're probably trying to drape the too-tiny piece of terry cloth over as much of you as possible, choosing to focus on your front or your back as it's pretty clear that your towel is unable to fully cover one side of you let alone two. If there's ever been an exercise in futility, this is it.
And it's really very silly because once you leave the locker room the only thing you see is naked people. Naked people of every age, every shape, and every size. They're everywhere and in every position. Standing, sitting, floating, bending, squatting, stretching... even brushing their teeth. Nothing is left to the imagination and you immediately get the sensation that nothing about you will be any different than all of this.
So you drop your towel, you pick up a small plastic stool and two plastic bowls, and commence washing. Before you know it you're perched on a small plastic chair pouring bowls of water over your body while your neighbor's doing the same not one foot away. And that's just the start.
Next you move to the real reason you're there: a series of water pools of varying temperature. There's a medium heat pool, a pretty darn hot pool and a skin-scorching pool. (I have to admit that I couldn't look away from the skin-scorching pool as everyone who puts that first foot into the burning water makes some sort of pained expression; even the old pros grimace.) There's also the freezing cold pool which I appreciated after all of the high temps. I experienced neither the steam room (too hot) nor the massage by the naked masseuse (no reason to rush on that one).
The great thing is that once you settle in and take a seat in one of the pools, the day goes by as if you were sitting on your stoop. You have a conversation with your buddy, you watch people come and go... it all feels quite normal. Although I still don't think I'll be bringing my tooth brush the next time around.
5. The karaoke bus is an important development in vehicular entertainment.
Ever board a bus and notice a sound board next to the driver's seat? What about a microphone that is so carefully wired it'll stretch all the way to the back of the bus? The flat screen TV is also a pretty good clue. Or the karaoke song book and remote control.
All I know is that if you're boarding your bus and you see those things, you're in for the best ride of your life. Lots of buses these days have filtered water machines and tasseled curtains over the window - but I'm here to tell you that it's the karaoke that makes the difference.
If you're traveling with a good group of people there'll be a line of folks waiting to sing. We had people start singing even before the sun went down. They belted out ballads, rock anthems, and country classics. And our driver made sure that each one sounded like a pro. Not only was this guy great at making a 16-point turn in lieu of the standard U-turn, but he could tweak the sound board levels at the same time. His attention to detail was perhaps a little less appreciated on the curving mountain passes, but you've still got to appreciate his commitment to audio excellence.
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