No. 96 on my list: visit one of the day spas around Los Angeles.
The only bath houses I'd ever visited were in Budapest*, although I'd always wanted to go to the Russian-Turkish Baths when we lived on the east coast. I'd walked past any number of Korean day spas in mid-town Manhattan, and a few friends had frequented a place that was famous for ladies walking on you, while hanging onto ropes above you, for your massage.
The only bath houses I'd ever visited were in Budapest*, although I'd always wanted to go to the Russian-Turkish Baths when we lived on the east coast. I'd walked past any number of Korean day spas in mid-town Manhattan, and a few friends had frequented a place that was famous for ladies walking on you, while hanging onto ropes above you, for your massage.
Having no experience with the Korean spas around town, I was grateful for a friend's suggestion that we go to a spa that she liked to frequent, and it was the perfect way to spend the day before my birthday.
In a non-descript part of town, with valet parking so you don't have to worry about feeding your meter, and $15 will get you admission into a world not to be missed.
No clothes are allowed and modesty is checked at the door. You're given a key with an elastic for your locker, a robe and a set of towels. There's coffee or tea whenever you'd like, a cafe for food and other treats, and then there are the baths and saunas.
Dipping and sweating, that's what it consists of. Moving from sauna to bath, to a cold, refreshing dip, you release. Modesty and inhibitions. The stress of the day and week. Dead skin and dead weight.
There are additional, (and nominal for a spa), fees for the treatments offered by an army of women therapists. Wearing black bras and hi-granny briefs, these women chatter amongst themselves whilst scrubbing and rubbing and pouring buckets of warm water into, and onto every inch of the women on their tables.
Afterwards, there's a warm jade floor with cotton blankets to rest upon; a low wall to elevate your feet, a few women brought along books and writing material.** It was the perfect way to end our treatments, and also a way to ground myself so that I could function.
An experience for the senses, an opportunity to leave all that you're carrying,
*The bath house in the Hotel Gellert was one of the best experiences of my life. Me and a dozen Hungarian speaking women, bodies of all shapes and sizes, nude. We swam in this turn of the century pool house and it was invigorating.
**Definitely next time I'm packing a small care bag including: a brush, (finger combing your hair = frizz!!), and reading/writing material.
Love this image of you being able to leave what you are carrying there...and the jade floor...oh my goodness.
ReplyDeleteThere is a spa like this here in Tacoma but I am a bit overwhelmed at the thought of going...reading your post though....hmmm...really sounds like something I need.