I'm meeting my sister tonight for one of our semi-monthly trips to the Olympic Spa. I'm all about spas. I haven't met a spa treatment I haven't loved.
But the Olympic Spa is no Burke Williams or Golden Door.
Don't get me wrong. Burke Williams and the Golden Door may be two of my favorite places on the face of this planet, but for a regular indulgence, they're a little pricey, not to mention impractical (in the case of the Golden Door).
Meet the Olympic Spa. Located in the heart of Koreatown, the Olympic Spa is a communal experience. No quiet private rooms filled with aromatherpy candles and attendants in smart white smocks.
Imagine if you will a huge room. At one end are a sauna and steam room. In the middle of the room off to one side are the showers. Then there are a mugwort tub, jacuzzi, communal scrub area, and a cold tub. At the other end of the room are open areas with vinyl-covered tables, in clusters of 6, where uniformed attendants (the uniform being black bra and panties) scrub and pummel you into silky submission.
I'm all about the Olympic Spa.
My treatment of choice tonight: Simple Pleasures. It will be 90 minutes of intensive exfoliation, so quaintly called a full body scrub, followed by a scalp treatment, facial, and finally an intense shiatsu massage.
It's a funny place the Olympic Spa. One of my Korean girlfriends says it's very typical. And while I like nothing better then a nice private treatment in a luxe room, there's nothing quite like it. Because it's as private as you make it. As you lay on the treatment table getting rubbed, scrubbed, and pummeled (and I mean that in the most divine way humanly possible) you're surrouned by these naked and underwear clad women who all speak to each other in Korean. So it's easy to get into your own zone and melt into the moment.
I'll be smooth as silk and as loose as jello by the time my attendant is finished with me.
The end of my work day cannot come soon enough.