Yongsan Station
Okay, I’ve just got to say again how in love I am with jjimjilbangs: Korean bathouses. After my first visit to SpaLand in Busan, I absolutely could not wait to go to another jjimjilbang.
Tiff, Lisa, and I decided to head to Seoul for the weekend and opted not to book a hotel in favor of spending the night at a 24 hour spa. We decided on Dragon Hill Spa in Yongsan, which is pretty easy to get to.
The front of Dragon Hill Spa
This spa looks like Vegas from the outside. It’s emblazoned with tons of lights and dragon statues, and overall looks pretty sketch. Walking up to the actual spa entrance is like walking through some sort of weird forest. I knew there was no way that it was gonna be as big or as amazing as SpaLand, but that’s because few things on this Earth are.
The statues at this place are epic.
We walked inside and paid 13,000 won (about $12) for 12 hours at the spa. I paid the same amount for 4 hours at SpaLand, so Dragon Hills is definitely cheaper. We were given our locker keys, took off our shoes, and headed into the spa.
Just like SpaLand, there were coed rooms, a movie theater, an arcade, and several snack bars and restaurants. We decided to soak in the hot springs before doing anything else.
We walked into the women’s spa area, took a shower, and jumped in a few baths. At the far end of the room we saw five beds where women in black lace underwear uniforms were scrubbing people down. Curious, we walked over. A full body scrub was listed at about $25, and an oil scrub and massage was $60. We decided that we absolutely had to experience it.
I chose the cheapest route and asked for the $25 full body scrub. We waited in a hot spring nearby until our key numbers were called. I watched the girls on the tables get scrubbed by these women within an inch of their lives. It was totally bizarre and yet somehow felt kind of normal at the same time. I felt like I was leveling up: first I had to get comfortable enough to strip in the first place that weekend at SpaLand, taking a bath in public, having a friend scrub me, and now being comfortable enough to have a complete stranger scrub me.
Tiff and Lisa were called up first, and I waited in the hot spring alone for a few minutes. I zoned off thinking about the impending scrub, and suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was time. I made a mental sign of the cross and followed the attendant to the table.
I hopped on top of a typical massage table in between four other girls who were getting scrubbed. Everyone had their eyes closed and looked like they were falling asleep. I decided not making eye contact with anyone was the order of the day, and pretended that I did this sort of thing all the time. Blase is my middle name. The attendant, a middle-aged lady, tapped me on the stomach and told me to lie on my back. I stared at the ceiling, eyes fixed intently on the lights above me, and when her hands touched me I jumped.
The front entrance
She dumped a bowl of hot water over me and put a scrub mitt on her hands and proceeded to scrub every single inch of my skin…twice. It felt awesome. She periodically gestured for me to turn over and scrubbed some more. The most uncomfortable part came in when she started scrubbing my ass cheeks. I can’t even explain the feeling of a stranger scrubbing your ass down. I just can’t. I’m gonna leave that up to you guys.
Anyway, this lady was thorough. Even though I exfoliate daily, she scrubbed every part of dry skin off me til I was pretty much sparkling. No, you can’t get those results at home. She took about twenty minutes to do the whole thing, and then started to shampoo my hair and give me a head and neck massage. It felt absolutely incredible and I sagged against the table like a dead thing. When she was finished, she tied my hair up in a knot and slapped my thigh to let me know it was over.
My hair has never been and never will be again that shiny. It was incredible. Best $25 I ever spent.
Tiff being silly
We spent a few hours testing out different hot springs, charcoal saunas, and other areas in the spa; the movie theater had closed for the night because by this point it was 10pm. I was starving, so I headed to one of the restaurants in the coed rooms after putting my spa clothes back on.
The restaurant was a wonderful traditional Korean restaurant. I ordered bulgogi (Korean beef and vegetable soup). It was absolutely delicious, and probably the best food I’ve had in Korea yet. After stuffing my face, I was pretty exhausted from the day and decided to go to bed.
Dragon Hills has four different kinds of sleeping rooms: the first is a community sleeping room where both sexes can just lie down on the floor with a Kleenex box sized cushion for a pillow. All the floors in the building are heated, so no blankets or mats are necessary. One literally grabs the tiny cushion, puts it beneath one’s head, and lies down on the floor among hundreds of strangers.
walking up to the Spa
The second option is to sleep in the male or female separated rooms. These are just like the community rooms except only a single sex is allowed in. The third option is the best: each sex has a designated dark aromatherapy room, where the lights are shut off and it’s completely quiet and heated with scents. These rooms have mats for the lucky people who arrive early enough to snag one.
I grabbed the hard cushion and lay down on the floor. It was so hot in the room that I just could not sleep. There were dozens of women around me, but each one was sleeping as silently as a ghost. Every single square inch of the place was occupied by a sleeping form.
It got so hot in the room that I couldn’t deal and just walked downstairs. I bought a bottle of water and sat for a while in the cool air before returning to the lower level women’s sleeping room. The lights were on and dim; there was NO space to even lie down at all. I sat in a chair for a few hours before deciding to just make some space for myself to sleep.
I walked through the room, stepping over hundreds of girls, and picked my way to a tiny space at the feet of four older ladies. I put down my pillow and curled up on the floor. Thankfully I was able to sleep this time.
I woke up around 8am, showered, sat in a few hot springs outdoors, and then put on my makeup in the preparation rooms before leaving the spa. When I checked out, I had paid a total of about $40 to use the spa, to get the scrubdown, to eat a delicious meal, all while using it as a hotel for the night in busy Seoul. You just can’t beat that!
All in all, I’ve decided to only use jjimjilbangs as my hotels. Hey, you’re always guaranteed a huge bathroom, and if I hadn’t added on the other experiences it would have only cost me a total of $12 to spend the night. Man, I love Korea.
Dragon Hill Spa Info:
http://www.dragonhillspa.co.kr/
Address:
40, Hangang-daero 21na-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 용산구 한강대로21나길 40 (한강로3가)
Get off at the Yongsan Station stop
Inquiries
• 1330 tt call center: +82-2-1330
(Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese)
• For more info: +82-2-792-0001
Miss Anna Teacher 