My house was being fumigated today. Ahh, the joys of living in communal housing. Since we all had to leave the premises for 4 hours I decided to make it a spa day and I headed over to the Korean Spa on Wilshire. If you’ve never been to a Korean spa, you HAVE to go there at some point! It is relatively cheap at $25, but they have specials for $15 if you go in super early in the morning. If you work from home like I do, you can make a day of it because you can stay for 24 hours if you want to, there are showers there, towels and bathrobes too.
You go in and pay and they hand you a t-shirt, a towel and a waterproof watch that isn’t really a watch, it’s an electronic key for your locker. I go to my locker, take off all of my clothes, put on my robe and go take a shower. They have shampoo, conditioner and soap and they even have toothbrushes and toothpaste too. The showers are all out in the open, kind of like what you imagine it would be like if you actually showered before gym in high school. I never had that experience but I read about it in books when I was a kid. Yes, there are lots of naked Korean ladies there. No one really stares but you can tell they are glancing to see what your body looks like.
After I take a long shower, I put back on my robe and walk over to the hot tub. They have 3, a cold tub, a warm tub and a hot tub but I always use the hot tub because it feels so good! I soak for maybe 10 minutes and then my body is so relaxed that I feel sleepy. I walk into the steamy sauna but I usually can’t handle more than a minute in there but I do it just because its there. They have maybe 6 different types of saunas, one with rocks, one with sand, one with salt rocks or something like that. The saunas are all different temperatures and you can choose which one you like.
After my mini sauna I go back to my locker and get dressed in the t-shirt and shorts that they provide. I head upstairs to the rooftop deck to relax under the sun’s rays and listen to the great music they play. After about 20 minutes of just sitting there in silence on the well decorated patio, I head back downstairs to the women’s sauna which is the area where all the women lounge.
I choose a spot to set up my camp. If it’s open I choose one of their leather couches to hang out on and I open my laptop and lounge and sip water. Its not entirely quiet because there are other women there talking, hanging out or listening to their movies and sometimes the televisions are on but the noise isn’t that bad.
If you really want to sleep in silence you go to the sleeping room which is a designated area in darkness with no talking aloud. You grab a mat and a plastic pillow (head cushion) and snooze away.
Today I said to myself, I am going to get a LOT of writing done. I’m going to catch up on my own blog instead of focusing on writing for other sites but I ended up not doing anything.
My eyelids started drooping as soon as I turned on my laptop so I closed it and lay back on the soft leather couch. The floors are heated too so even when you walk around barefoot your toes stay warm which is so awesome during the cold winter months.
When I woke up it was 11am. I opened my laptop, read my emails and glanced around the room. There was a woman there laying on a mat reading a magazine. Another group of 3 women were sipping coffee sitting on the floor on mats in a circle and talking. Other ladies were sleeping soundly on the couches and some women were watching TV.
One woman was laying behind the massage chairs, watching a movie on her tablet and her leg was stretched all the way up against a wall. As I watched her toes on the wall a strange thought came to mind. Wow. These women have no agendas while they’re here. There are no deadlines, no pushing, no one to tell you to wake up or remind you that you have to be somewhere. There’s no pressure to do anything at all.
I fell asleep again and woke up around 5 pm. I stretched, went to the restroom, visited the rooftop deck again to get some sun and came back to my leather couch to lay back and stare at the ceiling while my phone charged. It was still so quiet in there that I really felt at peace.
No pressure. No goals. No drama. No one is speaking to me or asking me for anything. I take my own food in there (usually a sub sandwhich, water and fruit) but they do have a restaurant inside the spa and a computer lab if you don’t bring your own laptop.
I love the Korean Spa. It’s so peaceful and clean and quiet. The purpose of a spa day is to relax and do nothing. Nothing at all.
And I did that.
The only thing that was missing were mute shirtless sexy men serving us cocktails and massaging our feet while we veg out.
The purpose of a spa day is to do nothing.
This must be what heaven is like.
