My First Jjimjilbang: A visit to Dragonhill Spa and Resorts

Burrrrr! Its been super cold these past few days and the weather seems to be getting colder...is that possible? All I want to do is to soak in a hot tub...wait I did do that! This weekend my friend Jungyoun introduced me to 찜질방 (Jjimjilbang). Jjimjilbangs are public bath houses and very popular here in Korea. Jjimjilbang's are usually open 24 hours a day and tons of people come here to bathe, eat, hangout, and even sleep here. My first Jjimjilbang experience was at Dragonhills Spa and Resort in Yongsan.

I don't have any other Jjimjilbang experiences but this was pretty nice. I'm guessing that this is one of the nicer jjimjilbang's because it had a spa, pool, food court, arcade, and even golf area. 

Normally people just come here to bathe but I got to go to the whirlpool room (they even had a tv)! It was so relaxing and the hot water felt so good for this negative degree weather. 

Along with being a public bath house, jjimjilbang's are known for their saunas. They have small to giant stone bricked saunas and people can sit or lie down.

Sauna's

They even have cold rooms that have ice/snow inside. I guess its to recover from the hot saunas. Normally you see people come out of the hot sauna and into the cold room then go back to the sauna and repeat the process.

What really shocked me was the fact that there were so much people just lying around on the floor sleeping or lounging around. Definitely something you don't see everyday back at home.

The arcade

Cafeteria

Overall, it was a great cultural experience and great to get out of the cold. I've been to the sauna room back at home but I've never experienced anything like this. I still can't believe people go to jjimjilbang's just to take a bath...a public bath! But I guess its alright if you go to jjimjilbang like Dragonhills, since its also a spa.