What to do when you really feel like taking a bath but all you got at home is a shower

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Some options I’ve come up with:

  1. Visit your friend or family member who does have a tub
  2. Check into a love motel that’s got a nice bathtub setup
  3. Hot springs
  4. Fill your entire bathroom up with water like that scene in The Shape of Water

None of these are as convenient as I’d like them to be. I’m actually thinking about hitting up one of those mom and pop everything stores just to get a huge plastic 盆子 like the ones I bathed in when I was a child…since I’m really not that much bigger now than I was back then, anyway.

Any other ideas?

2 Likes
2

go to a place with a nice bath. the baths suck in taiwanese apartments anyway. i have one, its plastic and lame. i went to a nice hotel a few months ago which had an awesome bath, i was having 2 a day.

1 Like
3

Yeah, out of my four options I’d only really like to do the first since going to grandma’s house for a bath is free and convenient. Just wish I had a tub at home…sometimes I sit on my bathseat and soak my feet in a small basin but it’s not the same.

4

Suddenly I feel sad

1 Like
5

Those bathtubless blues…

6

Go to a sports centre. The ticket for the swimming pool is usually 100 nt and you can use the pools AND hydromassage machines, sauna and steamer.

2 Likes
7

Pretty good idea but I can be a tad squeamish about public places, especially gyms and the like. How’s the hygiene?

8

It’s alright I guess.

9

At least you can get a steamer.

10

It’s … variable.

I like the public hot springs, but I have to exert considerable mental effort to avoid thinking about what I’m sitting in.

If you’ve not tried them before, you might enjoy the saunas. They’re probably your best option for avoiding other people’s exudations.

11

About 25 years ago, I went to a public bathhouse in Korea. I’ve never felt so filthy in my life. I scrubbed myself raw, but was ordered to wash again before getting in the soaking pool.
When i left and rejoined my female friends outside (caucasians), they said exactly the same thing happened on their side.

12

Buddy got one of these for his wife. Pretty sure he picked it up at Carrefour.

1 Like
13

I think I am too germaphobic for your standard male-approved public bath, never mind only somewhat approved. I’m trying to relax, not freak myself out even more…

Sauna sounds good! But where to go? I thought that was something only the boys go to enjoy, if you know what I mean.

14

It’s because you is a foreigner. Everyone knows foreigners are dirty and don’t ever wash. I’m surprised they didn’t all evacuate en masse and leave you alone in the pool.

1 Like
15

Ugh. Nightmarish.

16

Hot damn! Might just have to get me one of those, after all. And here I thought it was kind of a ridiculous notion on my part.

1 Like
17

I mean the dry (Scandinavian-style) saunas. Most gyms have one, but not all gyms allow casual visits. A lot of them are membership only.

If you can go at off-peak times, you’ll have the sauna and steamroom all to yourself, so less worries about germs.

18

*steamer -> steam room. Just in case…

19

It seems like this sort of thing only happens to particularly hairy foreigners. Something about all the hair, and the idea of it detaching and floating around in the water, seems to scare others away.

Source: hairy friend is hot tub kryptonite. Hairless blonde friend has no issues.

20

Yet I’ve seen bald men told they can’t swim without a swim cap and men with full on Santa / ZZTop beards swimming without any harassment.

Go figure.

1 Like