BANGING IN KOREA

If one visits Korea, then one will almost definitely participate in banging of some kind, whether it be naked in a public bath or drunkenly singing at the top of one's voice.  Let me expand....  For those of you reading this with a dirty mind - shame on you.  Bang or 방 is the Korean word for 'room' and is one of the main leisure activities for anyone in Korea.  There are so many different kind of bangs.....I will explain some of them here!

Jjimjilbang 찜질방


This is the one which is most westerners find the hardest to get their heads around, although it is such a prevalent part of the culture here.  Jjimjilbang translates to 'heated bath' and is basically a place to go and relax.  There are two main areas - the dry sauna area and the wet bathing area.  When you first arrive, you take your shoes off and are then given a key for a small shoe locker - do not step in with your shoes on, and do not put your shoes on before you exit - you will be shouted at by an angry Korean (and they often sound angry at the best of times).   If you want to go to the dry sauna area, you change in to the shorts and t-shirt provided and then do whatever you want - sleep, read a book, sweat in a pizza-oven style sauna, chill in an ice room (literally...ha)(sorry for that bad pun, but it had to be done. Then I did a poem without even knowing.  Ok I'll stop now.)  But the dry areas are amazing - depending on the size of the jimjilbang, some have a cinema (only ever showing Korean films, but the novelty is there), they all have a restaurant of some description and they all have sleeping zones - many people just come here to sleep as they are open 24/7.  Many people come to them drunk for a cheap place to stay - I can honestly say I've not had this privilege yet.  I think I'm missing out on sleeping on a hard floor next to snoring men with a block of wood for a pillow...But, ho hum.


Now we get to the exciting bit - going 'native' in the pools area.  Ok, the first time I did this it was confusing terrifying to say the least.  I went on my own (I thought that I'd be more comfortable getting naked in front of people I didn't know), but OMG it was a scary experience!  For starters, the lady on reception spoke no English, so I had to navigate my way around a 6 story jjimjilbang, not knowing where to go.  So I explored for a bit and got worried when it dawned on me that I had no idea which was the men's floor and which was the women's, so I went back to reception and casually followed some women to the right floor.  The actual bathing area was pretty amazing.  The awkward feeling of nakedness never went away, it was even worse knowing that I was the only foreigner in the building and that even fully clothed I got stared at and talked about every day.   I have to say though, that now I absolutely love the jjimjilbang experience.  It's so relaxing and refreshing - there are so many pools/jacuzzis, all of different temperatures, heated floor slabs to sleep on, spring water pools, green tea pools, more saunas, strange fat-breaking water streamers (I'm not too sure about these...).  But you feel so clean and relaxed when you leave.  Hey, I even took my mum when she visited!   The sight of Korean women vigorously scrubbing eachothers backs to the point of being red raw is pretty funny too.




DVD Bang


Whenever I mention to a Korean that I love DVD bangs, I get such a strange look.  They are basically a mini private cinema with a sofa and huge projector screen.  Just like Blockbuster, you go in and select a movie from the hundreds available and then you are shown to your room where you watch your movie.  It's so much better than watching a movie on your laptop; however they are notorious places for young couples to  'make out.'***  There is also a section of dvds devoted to porn - not subtly on the top shelf either, but eye level graphic dvd cases, sometimes quite hilarious.  Not that I spend time looking at these...  But porn aside, these are really cool places. 


***Thanks to Ian Robinson for the appropriate 'bang bang bang' link...


Noraebang 노래방

Karaoke rooms - what's not to love!!  Hours of entertainment are to be had in these..... Just on my street alone, there are probably 50 of them... and I'm not even exaggerating!  There are literally EVERYWHERE!  Karaoke is about as popular as kimchi (the national dish of spicy garlicky fermented cabbage which is served with every meal and more).  You've got millions of songs to choose from as well as a few instruments to play along with!


There are more bangs to talk about, such as board game bangs, but I've not visited any others, so I couldn't possibly comment!


Chow for now :-)