Bathhouse

One nice thing about Korea is that you don't have to make hotel reservations anywhere, because you can stay in one of the ubiquitous jjimjilbang instead. They're open 24 hours, you just drop in whichever one is closest, and they're cheap, too.

A jjimjilbang is a public bathhouse, which some of you may not have experienced before, so I'll walk you through it:

First you go to the women's sauna, where you get nakie in front of everybody, shower, sit in hot tubs (or cold tubs), or the sauna or whatever -- for as long as you want. Then you put on the little pj uniform they give you (pink for girls, greyish blue for boys) and go to the common room, which has a marble floor and bright overhead lights, a snack counter, a kimbop shop, video game room, manicure counter (closed), etc. Great sleeping environment, right?

After reading for about an hour and a half and eating a bowl of ramen, you try unsuccessfully to sleep on the marble floor with a little softish block for a pillow like everybody else is doing. Then, since you're smart, you venture to explore the stairways which (yes!) lead to dark sleeping rooms. But since you're not entirely smart, you find the MEN's sleeping room but don't think much of it, cus it's labeled "cinema", not "men's", and you lay down and try to sleep.

Then one of the workers comes in and tells you you have to leave, so you muster up a few Korean words so he'll show you the women's room. THEN, you're really excited because not only are there little sleeping pads there, there are also blankets!! woohoo! So you lay awake for the next three hours because it's too hot in there to sleep, and finally wake up the next morning resolved to go home and take a nap.