"A Bang Lifestyle", Lonely Planet – Korea, page 37
Monday, October 23rd, 2006Since Smithers decided to stay in ‘bama a little longer, you are stuck with me for at least one more post. I want to say one more super cool thing about Korea. Then Smithers will come back and we will get deep into politics and on-line discussions about reds and blues, reps and dems, and figuring out how to get along while maybe avoiding excessive war and poverty to boot. But until then, I will amuse myself by pretending that people care about all the cool stuff they have in Korea that we don’t have here. Thanks for humoring me.
(bang-pronounced bong = room in Korea)
One More Super Cool Thing About Korea = they know how to have good clean fun:
DVD bang, “Smart small rooms with a sofa and a big screen that show your choice of DVD film in English or with English subtitles. Popular with courting couples.” This is very cool, and actually cools you down too because they are air conditioned, which was nice in August. Plus the screen is big and the couch is huge. It’s like a private home theater for the not-so-filthy-rich. One movie + 3-4 cokes and snacks (no twizzlers) for 4 people was like US $ 15.00. The only bummer, no pause button for bathroom runs.
Jjimjilbang, “Sweating in these smart and sultry saunas is part of the Korean way of life.” This was awesome and super cheap, like US $6.00 for however long you want to stay. And you can stay over night in the 24 hour places. Just go from cold room, to warm room, to super warm room, to the super hot blasts-you-with-hot-air oven-type room, back to the cold room. Then you can go into the wet spa area and do the same thing jumping from cold pool, to super cold pool, to super hot burning green mineral pool, back to the coldest pool. Next, you can stand under the waterfall and get a massaging hole drilled into your head. Finally, don’t forget the crazy, mashed cucumber massage & relentless, scrubbing exfoliation treatment for about an hour and a half. Who knows, maybe you’ll get a date with your masseuse out of it! Or – you’ll feel like you should have gotten a date out of it….at least a phone number.
Noraebang, “Small rooms full of happy groups of all ages singing along to their favorite songs. English songs and soft drinks are available.” Although they are everywhere, we never actually got to one of these but I am looking for one in Minneapolis, so let me know if you know of any. We did get to the smaller version that they have in the video arcade in the mall. This “Singing Box” is like a large sized telephone booth, big enough for about 3 people. It has a screen that shows the words to the song you picked and a microphone and a couple of chairs. The music is super loud so you can’t even really hear yourself sing, which is fine with me because then I can really belt it out and no one will know how bad I am! Plus, the arcade is so loud anyway, so no one else can hear you sing either! 
This was so fun. Cost? about US $ .50 for 2-3 songs.
Koreans are really into singing Karoke.
PC bang, “Big rooms that are full of young male computer game addicts and the occassional e-mailer.” We were the occassional e-mailers. OK, maybe we don’t really need these here because lots of peeps have their own computer. But then lots of people don’t. And the PC bang is dirt cheap, like US $1.00 for one hour. Plus you can bond with all the creepy gamers who are there all day, if they would ever look up from their screens long enough to notice you through the smoky haze. (No offense meant to creepy gamers.)
