A weekend of Jimjilbangs in Busan

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Another Busan blog update! Hope its not boring to keep reading about Busan as this time we had some different experiences!

The original plan last weekend was to go to Busan, stay in a jimjilbang on Friday and camp on the beach on Saturday. The weather forecast for the whole weekend looked dreadful but Ash and I along with Nat and Drew and Louis and Philne decided to continue with our trip and make the most of the weekend even if we couldn’t camp.

We rushed to Daegu station after school and boarded the Mugunghwa (slower and cheaper than the KTX) train to Busan. It took an hour and half to get there but the upshot of this was the train having a really good snack bar with computers, a mini noraebang room, a room with a massage chair in it and some arcade games! If you don’t have a seat reserved you can chill out in there.

Our Korean friend JP met us at Busan station and we all headed to Haeundae beach. Friday we were going to stay at the Vesta jimjilbang. I’ve written before about jimjilbangs but as an update they are a really cheap way to stay somewhere if you haven’t got a motel. Usually they have gender separated bathrooms and saunas but facilities vary massively. The jimjilbang aspect is that you stay over and sleep in communal areas there. Oh and you can’t book before going so if you get there early enough you should get in. I think it’s a must if you want to see and get involved in Korean culture.

Vesta Jimjilbang

We had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant and got taxis to Vesta at 10pm. The jimjilbang is up on Dalmaji hill overlooking the beach and the building looked really nice. There is a gym for VIPS (think you need a membership), a restaurant, bar, snack bar and balconies. You get given towels, pyjamas and locker keys at the reception. Here the pyjamas were blue for boys and pink for girls. You wear these in communal areas. The boys and girls separated and we all went to the baths. You have to be totally in the buff and must have a proper shower before using the bathing and sauna facilities. In the girls bathing area there were 5 baths of varying temperatures from freezing to really hot and one of them was outside. There were windows all along the baths so in the day they have a great view over haeundae beach! I’m starting to get used to being in the baths now. Being naked around others is not the norm in England and as a foreigner a few people look at you but because it’s all women its fine and being in the baths is really relaxing. In a corner of the bathing room there are women doing full body scrubs/massages and facials for cheap too.

After bathing we all went back to the common area to find somewhere to sleep. There was a female only sleeping area which was full, a main room where lots of people slept, an ice room to sit in and cool down (my fave!), a hot stone room and some really hot rooms that you could sleep in (one was 70 degrees!). The only bad thing about the experience on Friday was how unbelievably warm the communal sleeping area was, we didn’t get much sleep because we weren’t used to it. At one point feeling like I was going crazy I contemplated sleeping in the cold room but luckily I managed to get a few hours’ sleep without resorting to that.

Saturday – bad weather, aquariums and singing rooms


I woke up a bit later than everyone on Sat so didn’t get time to use the baths properly. It was a bleak looking day, the sky was grey and the sea was black with really strong waves. The clouds hung down in the sky so you couldn’t see the top of the skyscrapers by the beach. There were some surfers in the sea due to a competition at the weekend and although it was windy the weather was hot.

For brunch we went to an Irish pub called The Wolfhound and I had the closest thing to an English fry up in 4 and a half months, they did fish and chips too. Due to the weather we decided to visit Busan aquarium next to the beach. I have never been to an aquarium so was up for having a look. I really liked seeing lots of different types of fish and my favourite part was seeing the jelly fish! They are so graceful and alien-like. I am not a big fan of zoos as always feel sorry for the animals in captivity and I felt like this about parts of Busan aquarium as they had some big sharks that looked bored, dolphins, penguins and otters in need of more stimulation and a bigger space which made me a bit sad. We also went on a 3D simulator as part of our ticket which was loads better than I expected! I remembered the old school ones from when I was little but this was much better. My stomach actually turned upside down on some of the scenes when going down huge hills of snow – the simulator used scenes from the movie Happy Feet 2.

Afterwards Ash and Drew went for a quick swim in the sea, cut short by it starting to rain and the rest of us making them get out haha. Louis, Philne, Nat and Drew were all booking in to a motel for the Saturday night but Ash and I planned to try out another Jimjilbang as we needed to save money. So whilst the rest of the guys went and got settled in Ash, JP and I had a wander around haeundae and sat in a bar for a while chatting before JP headed home.

That evening the weather got worse and worse and wetter and wetter. We met up at Haeundae market to get some cheap dinner, revisited the nice restaurant from our last trip and had tasty stews and soups. We put off going out in the rain for as long as possible but decided to find a noraebang close by for a sing song. Philne and I started by singing ‘Under the sea’, Philne and Louis sang Billy Joel, Ash and I were supposed to sing Girls just wanna have fun – but he took over so I left him to it. Drew and Nat sang some Bruno Mars and Lauren Hill and my final song was Super Trooper by Abba. I stand by Abba being a good karaoke choice.

Haeundae Spa jimjilbang

It was only about 10pm but because we were staying at a Jimjilbang and had experiences before of not getting in too late, we decided to call it a night. We stayed at Haeundae Spa on the Saturday night. This one felt bigger in some ways than Vesta and the décor was newer. The bathing room was AMAZING! There were 8 or so different baths all of different temperatures -one of which had huge jets coming from the ceiling that you could stand under and from the sides that you could sit in front. There was also a huge shower area, scrubbing area and some hot rooms and saunas. I was on my own this time but still felt quite relaxed and had quite a few people saying hello.

I met Ash back in the communal area for a beer before bed. This area was much cooler than Vesta so we had a much better sleep.

We used the baths again on Sunday but the women’s was really busy so the body scrub I planned to get didn’t happen. The only uncomfortable thing that I experienced all weekend was on Sunday morning as I was showering. An older woman came and stood next to me and openly stared at me looking me up and down for what felt like ages but was maybe 30 seconds. She then smiled and told me I was beautiful, I was like oh right, thanks! Ha, I suppose it was nice of her but it made me feel a bit weird. Ash got the full body scrub and massage which he said was amazing. I’ll definitely do that next time.

Sunshine, beaches and turning in to a human tomato

In contrast to the previous day the weather on Sunday was gorgeous so we had breakfast and went to Haeundae beach. We found out we could get a direct train from Haeundae beach station to Daegu later in the afternoon so spent a few hours chilling out there before heading back. I rented a parasol and covered my pale self in factor 50 to keep the sun off my skin. The waves were pretty good so we messed around in the sea trying to body surf, Ash trying to drown me and chucking sand all over me. I realised not long after leaving the beach that my sun care efforts were in vain as I still managed to get really burnt in factor 50 cream and now look like a tomato. The joys of Irish skin eh? Good weekend though! I love Busan. I’m glad it’s so close to Daegu and we can enjoy it whenever we want. We’re also planning more jimjilbang trips on our summer holiday and next time we go to Seoul.

This weekend we’re staying in Daegu and going to our first Korean wedding. We also start properly volunteering at a Korean orphanage where we’ll play English games with the kids.

Speak soon x

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Photos

View from Vest Jimjilbang
Pictures never do amazing views justice!

Hot stone room in Vesta jimjilbang
Im stood like this because the ground was so blooming hot!