Traveling with one teenager and one preteen girl across a broad swath of cultures and customs that view and treat the human body and sexuality differently has been an eye opening and usually entertaining experience. From the stoicism of the Norwegians, to the practically naked Croatians and the muslim water parks of Malaysia we usually are finding ourselves googling and guessing on the culturally appropriate amount of body to expose when it comes to swimming, playing and bathing. Our time in rural Korea was one more fun step along that adventure.
The center of Koreas is full of hot springs, and we decided to bike though this section slowly to get the most out of them. In the first small town listed on our map as the “carbonated hot springs” we biked around looking for any motel, and finally found the “On You” which also housed a “pubic bath” or hot springs.
After an lovely dinner, we decide to explore the baths. Divided by sex, Traverse headed one way, we headed the other, first through the shoe room then the dressing room. I could not tell if it was a nude or swimsuit bath so I continued with my cultural guessing and while google provided guidance for Japan, I had found nothing for Korea and decided I would play it safe and head in with my suit on. Wrong decision. I was quickly rempranded in Korean and nearly stripped of my swimsuit which started the next 15 min of Korean naked women describing in detail all the things I should and should not do, me smiling having no idea what was being said. I laughed, at this point used to the cultural fopas despite my best intentions, warning the girls that if they wanted to swim, they best be naked. Which meant leaving your cloths in the lockers, no towels but a small face towel to navigate between different locker, entrance and bathing rooms.
Now fully naked we headed into what looked like a mirrored sitting shower room with women very aggressively scrubbing every part of themselves. We joined in “showering” before entering the tubs with more friendly tips on hot vs cold water and I am sure many other pieces of advice we missed given the language barrier. Hot baths, cold bath, sauna, and a very murky mineral bath made up the public baths, and despite being in there 2 hours total, every other woman was there when we got there, and still there when we left. The girls laughed, talked and braved the cold water, teasing me with the line I use on them “you can do hard things” as I shrank away from the cold pool where they sat completely dunked and meditative telling me it was all about needing to build my “mental strength,” turning my words against me.
After a year of a different view and expressions of the human body, walking around without clothes in this public bath felt like one more step along this journey and I reflected how far we have come. As I watched in amazement at these two girls becoming women, and wondered how seeing their own rapidly changing bodies in these different cultural connect would influence the way they see themselves in the years to come.
Posing by the hearts before heading into the first set of baths. Sorry no pictures of the actual baths ;-)