Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

Not any more! Not until next year at least. Because it’s DONE!

Scarborough Faire was another whirlwind of friends, festivities, and Texas heat.  But now it is time to move on down the road again. But before I leave the DFW area, there is one more stop to make. If I had a list of 1000 things to do before you die, this would totally be on it.  In fact, maybe I should start that list.  OK #1 on the list: King’s Spa and Sauna. King’s Spa is a Korean style relaxation center; a “family oriented well-being sauna and spa.”

Walk up a set of marble stairs, past massive lion statues guarding the door, and for $27 for twenty-four hours (yes it is open 24 hours a day), past the front desk and into a world of well-being.  First you go into the gender segregated locker rooms.  Stash your things (clothes and all) in your designated locker and walk your way to the wet room.  Part Turkish Bath part Roman Bath, the wet room has rows of shower stations, three hot mineral pools and a cold pool, a steam room and a massage station.

When you’re done in there, or when you manage to tear yourself away, don a soft cotton uniform and head back out to the main room.  On the right is a cafe` serving fresh and delicious Korean food.  They even have Duckboke, a rice cake slathered with Korean hot sauce. You might not care about Duckboke, but I have fond memories of chowing down on street cart Duckboke after a night of heavy drinking in Seoul while visiting my friend Amy, then teaching English in Korea.  All entrees are served Korean style, with lots of little sides in tiny little bowls.  And the chopsticks are metal! How’s that for authenticity?

But you aren’t there for the food, at least not yet.  You’re there for the nine different sauna rooms. Hot dry rooms filled with interesting details designed to help you sweat out toxins and absorbe some stellar energy.  There are salt rooms, and gold pyramid rooms, and pine rooms, and rooms filled with amethyst stones.  There is even a room heated once daily by a roaring fire (think Italian brick oven) that is so hot they can cook eggs in it. I’ve had them.  The cholesterol cooks out and leaves a black spotty residue on the shell.  They taste kind of like chicken, and are great with salt.  You have to take an extra burlap sack to sit on when you go in there, and there is a constant guardian at the door, ready to pull it open with a string when she sees you at the window, so you don’t have to touch anything.

This place is amazing, and for the price you can’t beat it.

But why 24 hours, you may say. I can only put my body through that kind of detox for a couple hours max.  Well that is fine.  Here’s what you do.  You go in the evening and have a sweaty session.  Then you get some great food for dinner and take a nap in one of the many disgustingly comfortable chairs they have lying around.  Or maybe you go watch a movie in their full sized theater.  You nap and graze for the night, and then when you wake up in the morning you have another complete sauna session, take one final shower, and then carry on your merry way.  I know it sounds crazy, but in Korea it is totally normal.  In a place where space is limited, taking the family to a trip to the spa was sort of like a mini-vacation.

If you can’t make it down to Dallas to visit THIS King’s Spa, there is another one in Chicago.  Or look for a similar spa near you.  Apparently they’re all over the place.  And if you’re suffering from a serious case of travel itch, perhaps a trip into another world for a day will satiate that wanderlust for a bit. Worth a shot right?

Geonbae!!

~Aeri