Friday, June 18, 2004
Sydney's ginseng bath house
On my last visit to Sydney, a friend and I decided to give shopping the flick and try a touch of self-pampering. We'd seen an article in one of the weekend papers about city spas but found only one within our price range.
For just $25 it seemed, we could have a relaxing ginseng bath at the Ginseng Bathhouse in Kings Cross.
Although parking under the building is free for clients of the bathhouse, we elected to leave the car where it was in the city and catch the train to Kings Cross. Ten minutes later we were deposited practically on the doorstep of The Crest Hotel, wherein lay the mysterious treat of the bathhouse.
We found for a small extra cost (not sure exactly how much it was now but think about $20), we could also get a Korean scrub. There are lots of other packages and treatments, massages etc available but you need to book in advance. When we arrived there were no bookings left for the masseuses but we did manage to get in for the scrub.
You are issued at reception with a key to a locker where you deposit all your clothes and don a fluffy white robe. Clutching the white towel (also provided) you make your way into a hallway, where you are asked to take off the robe and hang it on a numbered hanger. Then, naked and afraid, you tentatively tippietoe into the baths.
Stools facing basins with hand showers and a complementary selection of liquid soap and shampoo line the wall on your left, and to the right, three deep square roman-style baths await, while straight ahead are the wet and dry saunas.
First a quick shower, quite pleasurable in its novelty, then into the ginseng bath, foaming, dark and warm to 'soften the skin and eliminate toxins', the brave can follow this with the hot (very!) and cold (very!) baths. The procedure, plus saunas can be repeated as often as you wish and for as long as you wish all the for $25 entry fee.
On the way out a comfortable dressing room offers free use of hair products, hair dryers and full view mirrors to ensure you step out looking your best.
This was all pretty good but it was the Korean scrub that really won me over. An all-over massage, front, back and sides from a tiny Korean girl with very strong arms wielding a loofah like scrubber. I can only liken the experience to spending 15 minutes being licked all over by a lion, interspersed with sluice-downs with buckets of body-temperature water.
I left there feeling so relaxed my legs would hardly keep me upright and my speech had slowed to a drawl.
I can't wait till next time I get back to Sydney to do it all over again.
By the way, men's and women's areas are separate and I've got to say you'd have to be very self-conscious indeed to feel uncomfortable in the atmosphere - at least in the female area.
For just $25 it seemed, we could have a relaxing ginseng bath at the Ginseng Bathhouse in Kings Cross.
Although parking under the building is free for clients of the bathhouse, we elected to leave the car where it was in the city and catch the train to Kings Cross. Ten minutes later we were deposited practically on the doorstep of The Crest Hotel, wherein lay the mysterious treat of the bathhouse.
We found for a small extra cost (not sure exactly how much it was now but think about $20), we could also get a Korean scrub. There are lots of other packages and treatments, massages etc available but you need to book in advance. When we arrived there were no bookings left for the masseuses but we did manage to get in for the scrub.
You are issued at reception with a key to a locker where you deposit all your clothes and don a fluffy white robe. Clutching the white towel (also provided) you make your way into a hallway, where you are asked to take off the robe and hang it on a numbered hanger. Then, naked and afraid, you tentatively tippietoe into the baths.
Stools facing basins with hand showers and a complementary selection of liquid soap and shampoo line the wall on your left, and to the right, three deep square roman-style baths await, while straight ahead are the wet and dry saunas.
First a quick shower, quite pleasurable in its novelty, then into the ginseng bath, foaming, dark and warm to 'soften the skin and eliminate toxins', the brave can follow this with the hot (very!) and cold (very!) baths. The procedure, plus saunas can be repeated as often as you wish and for as long as you wish all the for $25 entry fee.
On the way out a comfortable dressing room offers free use of hair products, hair dryers and full view mirrors to ensure you step out looking your best.
This was all pretty good but it was the Korean scrub that really won me over. An all-over massage, front, back and sides from a tiny Korean girl with very strong arms wielding a loofah like scrubber. I can only liken the experience to spending 15 minutes being licked all over by a lion, interspersed with sluice-downs with buckets of body-temperature water.
I left there feeling so relaxed my legs would hardly keep me upright and my speech had slowed to a drawl.
I can't wait till next time I get back to Sydney to do it all over again.
By the way, men's and women's areas are separate and I've got to say you'd have to be very self-conscious indeed to feel uncomfortable in the atmosphere - at least in the female area.
Comments:
Sounds terrific and VERY relaxing -it's always wonderful to be pampered, but I'm just too shy for that. And I feel much too fat to parade about in my birthday suit.
Believe me HR lady, OLD is much uglier than FAT and at least there's a cure for fat. Plenty of us were both, and after you've had a look around, you realise we're all pretty much the same just bigger, smaller, older, younger - and it doesn't really matter which. Beauty is perception not fact :)
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