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So it's my last night in Korea (I can barely believe it! Where did the time go?!)
Tonight my aunty and uncle took me out for one last delicious meal before I part with this country. We had 'bo ssam', and the version we had included marinated pork, duck, octopus served with various kinds of kimchi (pear, radish and cabbage) and eaten with leaves of lettuce and raw cabbage. We sat at a 'floor table', which required us to first take off our shoes and sit on a heated floor. Since I wasn't used to it, I was constantly balancing the bliss of Korean cuisine with the pins and needles in my legs! It was still an awesome experience.
After dinner, my aunty and I went to the Korean baths. I won't say much about it except that if you ever get a chance to go, you really should give it a try. Embarrassment and awkwardness aside, it's really quite an experience and you come out feeling squeaky clean. There's one particularly interesting thing about it - after people have finished washing, they put on some clothes provided by the staff (t-shirt and shorts) and walk to a common area (ie. male/female area). This place is like no other. It has restaurants, pinball machines, internet cafes, a gym, children's playroom, cafes, a Chinese massage room, massage chairs (which only cost about $1 for 10 minutes of massage heaven!), heaps of TVs, AND about half a dozen saunas (ranging from 0 degrees celcius to -no joke- 81 degrees celcius!). The floors are also heated, so if you go really late at night, you can see a whole bunch of people sleeping here and there on the floor (I even saw whole families sprawled out and snoozing away). However, with all those features aside, the thing to do after an envigorating bathing experience is apparently to get a cold drink (I got milky coffee) and eat a boiled egg.
There's one other thing you may see at these baths, and that's couples on dates. That's right, dates! I heard that the Korean baths are a quite popular destination for couples - they walk in, go their separate ways and get cleaned up, then meet in the common area and hang out. I'm still not sure if the baths would make my list of top romantic spots, though...
Anyway, it's late and I still have to pack! I have an early start tomorrow!
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