Naked Seoul

The downside of making several trips to Korea in the last few years was the flight: Almost 14 hours on Korean Air (direct) , or over 18 hours on United, connecting through Tokyo or San Francisco. After you've had a snack, done some reading, watched a movie, taken a nap, gotten some work done, listened to some music, had a meal, done a sudoku puzzle, and napped again, you look at the time -- and you've still got 4-6 hours left to go. Ouch.

The upside was getting to stay at the nicest hotel I've ever been in, the Shilla.

Part of the corporate hotel deal we had with the Shilla was limo service from the airport, included. So when you ooze out of the Seoul airport customs area, tired, blinking and aware of your own breath, you're met by a driver with your name on a sign, and he takes your bag and whisks you off to your limo (a very nice Hyundai Equus). During the pleasant one-hour ride he'll make a little small talk if he speaks a little English, and he always touches base with the hotel via cellphone when you're getting close.

As you pull up to the hotel you're then greeted at the curb by a front desk clerk and a bellhop: "Welcome back to the Shilla, Mr. Harrigan. I hope you had a good flight from Chicago." They take you and your bag straight through the lobby and up to your room, hand you your key, and check to see if you need anything special this time. No front desk stop for paperwork (it's already on file), just efficiency. Now that's how to arrive at a hotel.

The rooms are done in clean, understated Asian luxury, as is the whole hotel, but the real treat is the fitness center/health club. Working out in the morning really helps me function when I travel, especially if I'm jet-lagged and not getting a full night's sleep. And this place makes it worth getting up at 5 or 6 a.m.

Again with the service: you check in with your room key at the main health club desk, get a locker key from the friendly attendant, and by the time you get up the stairs and down the hallway the fitness center guy is out of his office to greet you: "Good morning, Mr. Harrigan. Can I help you with anything today?" Half of the fitness center usage is from hotel guests, the other half from local members: very successful Korean business executives in their 40's through 70's, by my estimate. (I'm sure membership is super-expensive.) The gym is very well-equipped, especially by hotel gym standards.

After the workout it's spa time, where it gets interesting culturally. For me the perfect ending to a workout is a heat treatment of some kind, and here I get to do the trifecta of steam room/sauna/whirlpool, with a few additional variations available (medium- and super-hot whirlpools, cold pool, wet sauna, etc.) Plus showers with amazing water pressure, and scrubbing cloths and brushes, and a variety of soaps and shampoos and such, and plush, thick towels. You're warm, relaxed and squeaky-clean when you leave.

But in a dozen mornings at the Shilla I don't think I ever saw another Westerner in the men's spa; just me and a bunch of late-career Korean executives.

Naked. Really naked.

I understand that the whole naked-spa thing is part of Korean culture, but it did take some getting used to. I'm in a foreign country, tired from working out, a little muzzy-headed from sleep deficit, and surrounded by naked Korean businessmen strolling, chatting, and doing the spa thing without a care in the world. Since I don't speak any Korean (just a couple of words) I have no idea what my naked brethren in the whirlpool were talking about, but it's hard not to be self-conscious and imagine they're talking about me:

• "Hmmph. I'm not impressed."
• "Look at him -- if he were any more white he'd be clear."
• "I hope he's not in the whirlpool just to fart."

They probably didn't really care that I was there, and I shouldn't imagine the worst of anyone, but still...

I'm happy to report that in a typical Korean business setting everyone wears clothes, all day long. (I'm pretty sure it wasn't just for my benefit.) And the Koreans were polite, on the ball, and generally a pleasure to do business with.

The project that took me to Seoul ended, so I won't go back there for a while. If I ever do I'll try to stay at the Shilla, rejoining my naked brethren each morning, emerging self-conscious but squeaky-clean, ready to start the day.

Pat