Day 330: The Naked Truth

Seoul – Yeosu, Korea

At first, I found it rather troublesome trying to figure out the logistics for cheap transportation and accommodation for the Yeosu Expo. Thinking back about it now, it’s actually quite straightforward.

I think I successfully visited Yeosu and the expo in the cheapest way possible. A $19 intercity bus ride, $9 student day pass for the expo; and $8 Jjimjilbang overnight stay. And best of all? I got a free ride on a police car to the Jjimjilbang!

What’s a Jjimjilbang? Basically, a public bathhouse. It’s rather interesting how it works. You get there, pay the price, get handed a key that loops on your wrist, pajamas, and two towels. The key opens up two lockers; a small one for your shoes and the larger for your pack or whatnot. Once in the locker room, you get undressed then go in totally naked to the public bathroom (gender-segregated). In there, you’d see everybody showering and scrubbing before later on getting into the pools that have different water temperatures. There are also different sauna rooms. What surprised me most was that, after the showers, these ladies would go about blow drying their hair and doing their make-ups butt naked as well. Koreans are a pretty confident bunch, I’d say.

After the bath, both males and females would gather in a public sleeping quarter where there are loads of thin mattresses and boxy hard pillows laying around. Grab yourself one of those and lay down anywhere you want. It’s weird seeing all these people lay around on the floor in the common room, dressed in the same pajamas, and eating on the floor while watching TV. Jjimjilbangs tend to sell food, beverage and snacks. Rather tired and not feeling like eating nor watching TV, I found myself a spot in a separate room with temperature that I want (the sleeping quarters also have different temperatured rooms) and went to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night to find sleeping people scattered all around me like refugees.

Too bad I didn’t have any photos taken in the Jjimjilbang because I wasn’t sure if it’s allowed or appropriate. But here are some Jjimjilbang Google images.

As for the Yeosu Living Ocean and Coast Expo… it was definitely worth every penny. Some stuffs are a bit gimmicky but hey, ocean and technology can never go wrong for me. I also learnt that we can create plastic, fabric and even bio-ethanol from marine algae. And all these, bio-degradable. Furthermore, the algae can be grown overnight. What then stops us from using this technology? Beats me. Probably politics and greedy capitalists.

Some photos from the Expo: