Infinitely Yours, the Fallen Girl~: KOREA: Day 14: Dragon Hill Jimjilbang/ Han River at Night + Cafe

Hai :D

Okkkk so todayyy we went to Dragon Hill Jimjilbang (which is probably one of the most famous jimjilbangs too~ Lots of famous people go here and many shows get filmed here~ I think Happy Together might also be filmed here, or so I hear).

It's 7 floors and it was amazinggggg @.@ There are SOOOO many things you can do and I literally could have stayed in there the whole day and not have been bored o.o

The place was VERY well decorated and it felt really nice, clean, and relaxing inside ^^

Admission was 10,000 won and we were each given a number bracelet that had a key attached to the bottom, two towels, and a set of clothing~

Immediately after you obtain your bracelet, you beep through this entrance (which activates your bracelet) and get to the show locker area~

We had to take off our shoes and socks and walk through the maze of shoe lockers until we found the locker number that's on our bracelets~ Using the key that's attached to our bracelets, we open our lockers and stuff our shoes and socks in, nothing else. Well, the shoe lockers are pretty small so I don't really think you can really stuff anything else in there anyways :p

^ this is just ONE area of the shoe lockers~ It really stretches longer

I was number 739~~

After we locked our shoes and socks, we turn the corner and enter the arcade area :D

Every purchase we make inside (including playing the arcade games, buying snacks, food, services like doing nails, facials, etc) are all going to be kept tracked of by our bracelets. We just have to beep the bracelet next to whatever it is that we're purchasing and it'll be recorded. Later when we return our bracelets, we'll see the total price that we've spent and pay for it at the front counter.

The arcade is HUGEEEEE @.@ There are also small noraebang (karaoke) rooms that you can use (I forgot the rate, but it wasn't that cheap :\ But hey, we weren't expecting things in here to be cheap anyways xD)

We took the elevator up to the 3rd floor which is where the showers, saunas, and the lockers are kept.

We found our locker (the larger one), and we changed into the clothes that they provided.

NOTE: Ok, so we actually skipped a step. Originally you're supposed to strip completely first and go shower. Then, you can go into the saunas and hot tubs and lounge around there, again, fully naked. When you're done showering and relaxing and stuff, THEN you change into the clothes they gave you and go to the co-ed area.

BUTTTTT, because we both are not...comfortable with being fully naked, we actually just immediately changed into our clothing sets. Do not worry, we showered first at our guesthouse before we came out xD

Oh, and do not expect to be able to go into the saunas and hot tubs without showering first. The older ajusshis and ajummas WILL look at you disapprovingly and might even tell you to get out.

That being said, yeah, we basically skipped the hot tubs.

So we locked our stuff into our lockers and headed to the co-ed floor.

^ a glance at one of the saunas that we skipped out on~

Once we got to the co-ed floor, we immediately craved something to drink/eat, and so we each bought a shikhye and some eggs~

SOOOO refreshing @.@

Everyone was either lounging around on the floor, using one of the massage chairs, or in one of the heated/chilled rooms.

We basically sat there and rested for a while. There was wifi so we happily abused our privileges :D

^ those pyramids are heated rooms (that we later went into)

Prior to coming to the co-ed floor, we actually inquired about the face threading (massages, facials, other services are located down in the 1st floor where the arcade, restaurants, etc are also located). Face threading is basically the removal of all facial hairs with the use of ...I forgot what it's called...I'm not sure if it has an official name...but they look like strings...strong strings xD...err threads? LOL

The ajumma told us to come back at 5.

Soooo....with about an hour to kill, we headed to one of the restaurants inside the building, clad in our jimjilbang clothing and barefoot (xD hey, it's normal). It was SO comfortable though. Who knew walking everywhere barefoot was so comfy?!

I ordered Cheese Deok Ramyun and Lillian got Jajangmyun~

It was 5,000 won each :D not bad, not bad

The ramyun was DELICIOUS @.@

After we relaxingly finished our meals (LOL? but hey it was REALLY relaxing, I was about to fall asleep in my ramyun...in a good way...xDD), we went back to the threading area.

Face threading cost 20,000 won~

It took about 20 minutes each. There were only two ajummas working but one was busy so the other ajumma had to do our threading separately, Lillian first, me second.

Yes, the threading hurt and stung (equivalent to having multiple rubber bands flicking at your face), but it wasn't THAT bad. We just kept our eyes closed and tried to relax (which was pretty easy..xD). The radio was on really softly in the background too and it was just so relaxing T^T

After the threading, they smeared some sort of aloe (?), lotion (?), onto our entire faces, patted a cold wet towel on top, and dried it off.

We felt REFRESHED!

After we beeped in our bracelets into the machine thing, we went back to the co-ed level and tried out some of the various rooms.

Because the signs told us that phones, mp3 players, laptops, etc should not be brought into the rooms (due to the temperature), we left our stuff back in our lockers~ Thereforeeeeeeeeeeee

no pictures xD

But, take my word, the rooms are AMAZING :)

There were about 8 different rooms (I think there were more, not really sure) and they all had special unique features to them~

We only went to three of them due to time constraints:

1) Meditative Exercise Room of Yellow Soil Pyramid (hot)

2) Pyramid Spirit Experience Room of Natural Bijou (hotter)

3) Ice Room (freezing xD)

There were even hotter rooms but we didn't dare xD

After the rooms, we had a ten minute massage on the massage chairs (10 minutes for 2,000 won) which hurt like crazy but eventually the pain sorta...felt good.

LOL, well you get used to it and it begins to feel good :p

There's a TV in the area too and Music Bank was playing :D

After our massage, we ordered a patbingsu and ate that as we sat on the floor watching Music Bank. Then we went to the nail place and got our nails done (15,000 won).

After that, we chilled in the Ice Room for a bit, and then left!

It was 8:00pm when we (reluctantly) left. People do sleep over there but since we already paid for our guesthouse, we didn't.

Sigh....

It was just so relaxing T^T

And it just makes me wonder...why don't I ever do these facials, threading, massages, getting nails done, etc etc back in Canada? It makes me feel so much cleaner and refreshed...

oh right...

I'm broke.

>.>

And well these services are much more expensive over there so...

SIGH

Sad life.

But after experiencing it, I think I will try to do it at least once a month when I get back. Why? Because it just makes you feel better!

I've been abusing my body too much and I guess it's nice to pamper once in a while.

Lol, Lillian said we should be pamper buddies when we get back to Canada xD

Maybe we will :P

After we left, we decided to go grab some street food before we head out to one of the cafes by Han River (because we know cafes are incredibly expensive..and moreover, Han river cafes are going to be ridiculously over-priced).

So we walked down this small street FILLED with street food booths.

And we settled for a random one. Because we didn't really have anything in particular we wanted to order, Lillian just got the "special". I didn't even know so I just let her order and WHOA

We sat down and...

^ WE GOT Odeng + soup, soondae + pig liver, twigim (the fried stuffs), kimbap, AND deokbokki + odeng+ egg

ALL of this was 12,000 won

THAT'S ONLY 6,000 won EACH!

And needless to say, we over-ordered...ONCE AGAIN

Dude, seriously...this is one of our biggest problems...over-ordering due to irresistible cheap prices =____=

And so we forced ourselves to eat it all, but we ended up wasting so much T^T

We barely touched our soondae + liver plate though so we asked for that one to take out.

(But really we were planning to throw it away. Both of us are not huge soondae fans and ESP. not when we are both bursting at the seams. Since we aren't allowed to eat back at our guesthouse anyways, and if we leave it until tomorrow, it'll go bad, we had to throw it out later).

We felt SOOO bad though because as the ajumma was packing up our soondae plate, she was like, "That's right, this will be good to eat at home. Enjoy it ^^"

T^T

I'M SAO SORRY, KIND AJUMMA T^T

We then subway-ed 'til we got to the area with the cafe that we wanted to go to. There's MANY MANY good cafes by Han river, but the one we chose was the closest. It was called Gureum cafe~

^ OMGSH...COUPLES ERRYWHERE

>.>

Ok, there were lotsa couples at the jimjilbang too...but holy crap...at the cafe..it was ALL couples. WE WERE THE ONLY NON-COUPLES.

Oh gosh.

Awkward.

We looked at the menu and indeed, overpriced.

The food was about 15,000 -16,000 and you don't get that much. Compare that to what we got from the street food booth >.>

We just both ordered some ice cream and drinks.

I got pineapple sherbet and apple juice and Lillian got mango sherbet and iced green tea~

Total was 20,500 won :\

Almost double the cost of our meal at the booth.

After having a semi-deep talk about relationships, the future, school, etc again (I realize we do that everytime we come to Han river...LOL), we left.

And may I just say...the view is AMAZING.