I just came home from my absolute favorite indulgence that I must share with you. It’s called a Korean Spa. I live down the street from one and treat myself once a week. The Korean spa is an absolute delight for the senses. It is a wonderful bonding experience – all the ladies are so friendly – and it is nice to be around bodies of all shapes, sizes, and ages. It always comforts me that in all the time I’ve been going to the spa, I have never seen a ‘perfect’ body. They’re all perfect in their imperfection.
Back to the spa.. first a shower and you must put your hair up. You then transition between soaking in Jacuzzi’s, hot tea baths, ice baths, wet sauna, dry sauna, oxygen sauna and culminated with a nap on a jade tile floor wrapped up like a burrito. That is just the tip of the iceberg though. What I just described is my typical weekly visit to the spa which takes about 2-3 hours and puts me back a measly $15 dollars.
What I really want to share with you is the monthly spa treatment that I indulge in. It’s called the Milk and Honey Body Smoothie. First, I go for a quick soak, from there my therapist retrieves me and lays me down on her table. She drenches me with warm milk containing citrus oil and then the fun begins. I get scrubbed from head to toe with silk mitts that exfoliate every inch of my body and leave me slippery smooth. What follows next is a pineapple body shampoo, another exfoliation, and then a scalp massage with essential oil before a shampoo and conditioning treatment. It’s usually by this point the stress that has built up over the past month has been released and I’ve become one with the experience.
After a complete and thorough rinse, I am escorted to the oxygen sauna to dry off while the second half of my treatment is prepared. When the table is dry and ready, my therapist comes and gets me again, puts me face down and pours oil all over me. Oil mixed with honey! The scent is amazing as my hour long massage of oil and honey begins. I’m then flipped over, my eyes covered, and the only weight in the world is the weight of the freshly ground cucumber that is now being placed on my face and neck. As a hot towel is placed under my neck, cool cucumber on my face, my body is massaged, stretched, and drenched with more oil and honey. When I finally leave the bliss coma and regain consciousness, I’m rinsed, dried, given a cup of barley tea and wrapped in a blanket on the jade napping floor. This incredible 2 hour experience, with tip, is 120 dollars and is the best deal I’ve found in LA! Where else can you leave your body and experience such absolute pleasure for a price like that? I would give up men, my car, my job or anything else before I gave up my visits to the spa. It is the nicest thing I can do for myself.
If you aren’t fortunate enough to have a Korean spa in your town, you must visit Los Angeles and I’ll show you the ropes! It is so worth the experience!
What is your favorite indulgence?
I wouldn’t say “Measly” 15 dollars if it makes you feel like a million dollars :-p then it is just money well spent.
The way you describe the spa makes me want to send my wife there all the time!
Laters
Evan