South Korea - 4

It is already Thursday.

My daily routine is more or less the same. After breakfast I have a 9 o'clock appointment a the gym. Working our is getting better, I can feel the muscles protesting less and less, which is great. At the end of my stay I hope to be addicted to the exercises .. hungry for more.

On Tuesday I set my mind to find out about the spa. There are so many baths and saunas in there and places to scrub (room for at least 40 women to scrub at the same time!!!). I have never seen anything like that before. Okay!! Where to start, without knowing the language. Trying to play the copycat, of course. I decided to go to the whirl-pool- like bath first. To my surprise a Korean lady came to me at once, instructing me on how to stand under the jet :0) Okay, I understood that. When I had enough and waded towards another set of possibilities in the room, the same lady came to me and pointed out the Korean instrucions to me. I felt so helpless and she showed me their meaning to the amusement of the other ladies present. Then, all of a sudden I heard a voice saying "welcome to South Korea". How grateful can one feel, to be addressed that way, naked, far away from home, amidst a couple of naked Korean ladies. Well this lady, fortunately, spoke a bit of English and after the adventure in that particular part of the spa I went for the srubbing place, with my scrub glove and a bar of soap. The English speaking lady grabs it out of my hand and starts to scrub my back. Great. I did the same for her later and with a rosy feeling and glow I left the place, having felt the harmony of women together, no envy or negativity.

Yesterday I skipped the working out because we went to a beautiful valley in the neighbourhood. It has a Buddhist temple where people can "temple-stay". If you book you have to participate in two ceremonies. One at 4 am and one at 6 pm.

Today was very quiet. It seems like I am settling down in this strange environment .. a rather luxurious hotel with enough space to create something homelike. I visited the whale and fossil museum, which is about 5 minutes away and where they have an interesting collection of fossils.

"http://www.travelwireasia.com/2010/08/destination-whale-fossil-museum-donghae-gangwon-do/"

I am trying to learn a few basic Korean words, which is not easy. I have written down the most important conversational items which is interesting. It is really back to the basics :0))