Ok Dol Mogyoktang (옥돌) Yong San Dong, Daegu
intimate and functional
First visited on May 13th 2011. Not my favourite of bathhouses as it is simply too small and geared more to cleaning than relaxing but it is worth a visit, probably at off-peak hours. I visited on Friday lunchtime and it was almost empty. The staff were friendly
Ok Dol (‘Jade Stone’) Bathhouse lies in a small square of bars and restaurants so I would imagine it is busy on certain evenings as it is a twenty four hour establishment. It has the usual peripheral businesses of barber and shoe shine and a television in the changing area. The bathing facilities are quite small and there are only three baths, a warm pool (온탕), hot pool (열탕) and a cold pool (냉탕). The hot pool isn’t too hot and the cold pool not too cold. Around these are about 12 stand up and about twenty sit down showers. There is also a small jade ondol (heated) sleeping area but it will probably only accommodate about 3 people. As for saunas, there is a steam room (습식 사우나), salt room (소금방) and a pine sauna (소나무방).
The decor is pleasant with plenty of jade and dark brown tiling with sunken gold patterns running through it. The sauna rooms, pine, salt and steam are small but comfortable with ‘jeweled’ walls and ceiling containing plenty of jade and inlaid with slices of impressive geodes. The pine sauna contains a three foot, free standing ‘cathedral’ amethyst geode.
The ‘powder room,’ my term for the room you dry and preen yourself in prior to dressing, was very small and I had to step over a number of used towels to enter the locker area but this is my only criticism. Most notable however, throughout my entire visit, was the fact an attendant continual cleaned, wiping down tiles, rinsing soap of mirrors and polishing the taps. The entire bathhouse gleamed.
Plan
Jade Sauna (옥돌) bathhouse design. Male
Location – five minutes from Song-So ‘Mega-Town Complex’ and a few minutes from Yong-San-Dong, Tesco’s Home Plus. It actually lies at the back of the Lotte Castle Apartments area. (Wiki Map link this is the approx area, I need to pinpoint it exactly)
Times – 24 hour.
Facilities – Tickets on the second floor.
Jjimjilbang – none.
Bathhouse (men) – smallish with an event pool, (이벤트탕), small warm pool (온탕), and medium sized cold pool (냉탕), ‘jeweled’ steam room, salt room (소금방)and pine saina (소나무방) and a very small jade, ondol heated sleeping area. Changing room with television and benches.
Cost – bathhouse 4500 Won.
Others – shoe shine, barber. Many nearby restaurants and bars.
Ambiance – more functional than relaxing, very clean.
Waygukin – No foreigners.
Address –
© 林東哲 2011 Creative Commons Licence.
Samjeong Oasis – Lotte Castle (용산동) Daegu.
삼정 오아시스
First visited August 14th August 2010. Last visited July 2nd 2012. This is a relatively new and very pleasant bathhouse with an adjoining health club located on the edge of the prestigious Lotte Castle Apartments. I have visited here several times and it is very clean. This is a good bathhouse to take a nap in as it has a pleasant raised sleeping area down the far wall and also a large sauna room in which the TV is located. This room is fairly humid and you can easily nod off laying on the floor. Next to this is a steam room with very high humidity. The steam must be pumped in or the boiler situated behind a wall as I didn’t see one. Personally, I love the enormous cauldron that bubble away in a corner and hiss out bursts of steam.
A smaller sauna with no humidity has a jade studded ceiling and the television in the adjacent sauna can be viewed through a window.
There are three central pools, basically a warm pool in the center with a hot pool at one end and a pool in which you lay and press a button to have jets of water squirted onto you spine and legs, at the other. The hot pool temperature varied between 38 degrees and 44 and it heated very quickly. This pool is at the hot and of the spectrum. Conversely, the large cold pool, is colder than some other bathhouses.
For my friend, this is his favourite local bathhouse with Migwang coming second. Personally, I prefer Migwang. Samjeong Oasis is certainly a great place to relax and nap but I find it a little bright and find the rectangular and very open plan, a little dull.
Plan
Sam Jeong Oasis. Yong San Dong. Bathhouse design. May 2011
Location – five to ten minute walk from the Tesco Home Plus at Yong San Dong (용산동). Samjeong Oasis sits behind Home Plus at the furthest right hand corner of the large apartment complex that lays behind the supermarket. (Wiki Map link )
Times – Unsure of timings but I believe the bathhouse is closed on Tuesdays.
Facilities – ground floor ticket booth, women’s bathhouse, men’s bathhouse, health club.
Jjimjilbang – none.
Bathhouse (men) – around twenty stand up shower facilities and fifty sitting down shower units, event pool, (이벤트탕), hot pool (열탕), large warm pool (온탕), large cold pool (냉탕), therapy pool, steam room, jade sauna, humid sauna with television, heated sleeping area. Changing room with television and benches.
Cost – bathhouse 5000 Won.
Others – massage and rub downs, shoe shine, health club, smoking room. Many nearby restaurants and shopping facilities.
Ambiance – relaxing, brightish, somewhat open planned and symmetrical. New and very clean.
Waygukin – Only my second visit but no foreigners.
Address –
Elwood 5566 
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