Saunas and Jjimjilbangs [찜질방] in Korea

You gotta love Korean bathhouse culture. Sure, it can be a shock at first. *Gasp!* The Nudity! But with an open mind and a free spirit (a touch of near-sightedness doesn't hurt), being naked in a room full of other naked people can quickly become second nature.

When I arrived in Korea 2+ years ago, for example, I never expected that I would ever be able to utter the following statement with a straight face:

Getting a full-body naked scrub-down from a Korean man in his underwear is pretty damn awesome.

Now it's pretty much one of the first things I say when I meet people.

Recently, while visiting a jjimjilbang with a friend, I shared my vision for a website (in English) that catalogued and ranked all of the jjimjilbangs throughout Korea. It would be a place for foreigners to find new and exciting nudist experiences throughout the country - indoor, outdoor, milk baths, tea baths, salt, sodium bicarbonate, whirlpools, massage baths, ice rooms, hot rooms, steam rooms, and, well, should I go on?

Then - today - I found one.

Jjimjilbang and Saunas in Korea

Tagged by location and descriptors like 'nice view' and 'fitness center', the reviews are pretty easy to search, and include plenty of pictures and access information. So far the scope and number of places reviewed looks pretty limited - 8 in Busan, 6 in Daegu, 6 in Seoul, and a few further afield - but it's a great starting point.

If you'd like to contribute reviews to the site, the author - Sophia - has posted her email on the homepage.

So throw off your inhibition and underwear and head for the door - there's a lot of scrubbing to be done.

Drinking? Hire a Designated Driver!

The drinking culture is alive and, well, drunk in Korea. Couple that with the fact that almost everyone has a car, and you can see where things have the potential to go. So what's a man to do when he wants to go out and get smashed, but doesn't want to leave his car at the bar?

Enter: The Designated Driver for Hire


In many Korean cities and towns there is a service called Daeri Unjeon [대리운전] (lit: "substitute driver"). When you're ready to go home, the substitute driver will show up at your place of drinking and drive you home - in your own car. Someone else will come to pick up the driver later.

The kicker: When I used the  대리운전 for the first time over the weekend, it was the same price as a taxi. Exactly.

Apparently this service is catching on in some US cities as well.

The next time you're at the bar, ask the staff for the number for a substitute driver, and store it in your phone. You never know when you might need it.

Get a University Job in Korea (and...shhh...without an MA!)

The EFL business has been booming in Korea for the last ten years, and it isn't letting up. EPIK has been increasing recruits, new private academies are opening every day, and foreign teachers are still arriving by the planeload.

But with the global economy in a recession, teaching English abroad has suddenly become much more attractive. The market is competitive - two years ago getting a teaching job in Korea was as simple as applying. Now stories of EPIK or private academy applicants being turned away are increasingly common.

Which makes scoring a university gig - among the most coveted of positions in the EFL world -  seem like a pipe dream. Particularly if you don't have a Master's degree.

But there's hope. You don't need an MA, or even an English degree, to get a job teaching in a Korean university. Perhaps it's a sad reality, but often the only thing required is a foreign face and a university degree.

You Can Get a University Job in Korea 

Without a Master's Degree!

It helps if you have one or more of the following:

1. Friends

There are LOTS of universities in Korea, and many of them do not post job openings online. Some of them don't even have websites. Many small universities in Korea don't have the staff or time to spend filing through a long list of applicants. They want to hire someone quickly, and without much ado. Knowing someone who already works in a university is the easiest way to get your name on the top of the hiring list.

Which brings me to number 2.

2. Persistence

If you don't know someone who works in a university, find someone. Visit the English department at a university and introduce yourself to someone - Korean or foreign - and let them know who you are.

A friend of mine got a university job at a uni on a certain Korean island by looking up an email list of professors and firing off a couple of messages to let professors know that he would be visiting and wanted to sit down for a chat. Although the university wasn't hiring at the time, he kept in touch with his contacts there and when a position did open up, he was already in the loop. The professors knew him, and could put a face to his name.

3. Experience

There are 4 kinds of experience that matter:

- Teaching English
- Teaching in Korea
- Teaching adults (high school or older)
- Teaching in a public school

I'll be honest - you probably won't be able to get a university job without at least a year of prior teaching experience. If you don't have a Master's degree, don't expect to move to Korea with a university job. You'll probably need a year or two of experience here before they'll consider you.



3. Luck

Call it what you will - fortune, timing, destiny - sometimes getting the job has nothing to do with qualifications. It is all about being in the right place in the right time. Every Korean university operates a little differently - and hiring decisions are up to the specific department head. So cross your fingers, throw your chips in the pot, and hope for the best.

(A little bribery never hurt anyone, either ;) )

BURMA: Shwedagon Paya

I don't often travel to see things. Sure, things - buildings, temples, skylines - can be quite eye-catching, but they often give you little appreciation for a place without an understanding of their context. People are much more interesting to me. People explain things. People are vibrant and dynamic and exciting. People define the culture out of which things arise. Yet there are some destinations - some things - in the world that, regardless of the height of your expectations, still live up to (or surpass) the hype. (I've heard that the Taj Mahal in India and Angkor Wat in Cambodia are two such places.) For me, even three visits wasn't enough to satiate my appetite for Shwedagon Paya in Yangon, Burma.

Burma is one of the most overwhelmingly (about 90%) Buddhist countries in the world. And for the Burmese Buddhist there is no more important pilgrimmage site (domestically, anyway) than Shwedagon Paya ("paya" meaning, roughly, "pagoda" in Burmese). Sitting like a giant golden Hershey kiss on the highest point in Yangon, Shwedagon looks over everything, and everything looks up to Shwedagon. It greets the first rays of sunlight in the early morning and puts the sun to sleep at night. Even at night it remains illuminated by floodlamp, when it shimmers in stark brilliant contrast to the inky Burmese night sky. It outshines the moon.

To be fair, the dome is probably worth more than the actual moon itself - especially if the legend of its entombed relics is anywhere close to factual. Supposedly, soon after Gautama the Buddha first achieved enlightenment 2500 years ago under the bodhi tree in northern India, two Burmese merchant brothers encountered him with gifts of sweet cake. In thanks (or perhaps trade), the Buddha gave the brothers eight hairs from his own head (I wonder how many hairs they collected on their journey before they found an actual buddha). The brothers brought the future relics back to Burma and presented them to the king, who promptly enshrined them on the highest hill in the city now known as Yangon. Enshrined along with it were a staff, water filter, and part of a tunic from three previous buddhas. The king erected a giant stupa erected above them in their honor.

To pay tribute to the relics contained beneath her, the Burmese have clothed Shwedagon in a golden bejeweled dress that would likely give the country's central bank a run for its, well, money.

The riches: 

• 5,448 diamonds (including a 76-carat jewel at the top) 
• 2,317 rubies
• Lots and lots and lots of gold. (The entire stupa is covered in actual gold plates.)

By day the soft translucent marble of the pagoda platform cools the bare feet of pilgrims and tourists that flock here. Under the cool evening sky it glows like warming coals under the reflection of the giant golden dome above.

In accordance with Myanmar astrology, 8 planetary posts surround the pagoda - one for each day of the week and two for Wednesday -  AM and PM. Pilgrims locate the post for their own birth day to pray for blessings as they pour water over the buddha image and animals that represent their day. 

The pagoda is best seen at sunrise and sunset, though plan to spend a few hours - at least - strolling around the platform or just sitting in silence and soaking it all in. Monks often enjoy approaching foreigners to practice their English. 

To visit: Everyone must take off their shoes, and foreigners must pay 5 USD (per entrance, not per day). It's totally worth it. Like I said, I visited three times. And that doesn't count the times I went just to hang around outside.