Dreamy memories of Jeju Island, South Korea. Photo credit: Kary Kern. Jeju was declared one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature in a global poll. Exploring the island was a highlight of our trip. If you go and I highly recommend that you do! The building was renovated in and opened in All workers came from Korea with housing provided during the entire construction process. Greeted by a grandfather stone.
On Jeju Island in South Korea, these large rock statues are scattered around the island and are considered to be gods, providing both protection and fertility. The stones were traditionally placed just outside of gates to shield against demons traveling between realities. Not because of fear of injury, but it has a scanning code so you can easily purchase services or food.
We were then temporarily separated and guided into gender-segregated locker rooms. Here, you can either put on the issued clothing or….. While a bit intimidating to Americans, public bathhouses are common throughout Asia. You can choose to immerse in one or all of the Goldilocks pools — one is very hot, one is very cold, and one is warm aka just right.
In this bathing area, you can choose additional treatments such as a Korean demandi body scrub shampoo to exfoliate dead skin or a hip bath yikes, vagina steam. I soak for about 10 minutes, then get bored and get out. Full transparency: I am basically a hedonist fraidy-cat when it comes to being uncomfortable so I only do the warm tub and forgo the scrub.
There was an endless line of women waiting for their turn for the hardcore skin-polishing. About purifying my privates with organic herbal steam in the hip bath… Um, no. After drying and dressing, I head out to the common area to meet Kary at our prearranged meeting time. We study the various sauna rooms, which look like big igloos, each with different temperatures and lined with different elements to promote specific health benefits.
