Changwon Spa

Friday night after being out, I decided to stop by the Earth, Wind and Fire sauna before heading home.  It was nearly 3am, but earlier in the week I’d check and I was pretty sure the place was open 24 hours.  Entered the office building, caught the elevator to the fifth floor, put my shoes in the locker, paid 8,000 Won and walked inside.  Standard locker room.  The attendant was asleep, can’t blame him.  There was a nice scale in there, sinks, shampoo and aftershave and towels.  Entering the clothes-free hot tub area there was a naked man sound asleep on a deck chair.  Awesome.  4 large pools each had a temperature reading above them, but degrees Celsius means nothing to me unless it’s 0 or 100.  I do know that three of them were hot and one was cold.  I showered and spent about 15 minutes in one before trying the sauna.  Well, I tried to try it.  The hot tub area was hot, I was sweating the whole time but when I opened the door to the sauna I couldn’t even step inside.  That is clearly a level I haven’t yet reached.

They hand you some loose-fitting clothes after the tubs and I ventured upstairs to see what else was there.  Now remember, it’s closing in on 4am and I’ve seen 3 patrons total.  Upstairs, though, there are at least 50 people, men and women, just asleep on the floor.  It’s a sprawling area, like a ballroom and nearly pitch black.  The people had grabbed blankets and pillows from a giant stack in the center of the room and then staked out some real estate…so I decided to try it.  I ran back to get my iPod from the locker room and found a spot on the floor, looking at the ceiling and listening to Zero 7.  It was the perfect formula for falling asleep.

Four hours later…and it’s Saturday morning!  I’ll certainly be returning to Earth, Wind and Fire!  Great place.  And a kick-ass name!

There are photos of the Changwon Festival here and I did some Noraebang singing this weekend, but otherwise nothing spectacular.  Spent a ton on groceries.  The goal is to go seven days without eating out.  1 day down!

CF5