Amenities: 2.5/5
Cruisiness: 4/5
Price: $15
Pros: Unlimited small towels, not too expensive, three pools
Cons: Seemed kind of dirty, or at least in need of a revamp
I "came out" to a friend of mine regarding this blog over the weekend: I knew that he reads the blog so I confessed to him that I was the author. And... he'd already figured it out. There were a few subtle clues that he picked up on, and he recognized my writing style, and that made him pretty sure it was me. Anyway, it was funny.
Part of our conversation was about Korean spas and how (as I discussed in an earlier post) it's supposed to be this Korean cultural thing (and, to a lesser extent, other Asian cultures) but gay guys are using them to hook up without discretion, thereby being disrespectful to the Asian guys. Which I totally agreed with, as I pretty much said in my previous post. Anyway, this becomes relevant later...
So I was on my way back from being out of town over the long holiday weekend and I figured I'd give one of the other spas in the San Gabriel Valley a try. I basically flipped a coin and decided to check out Joy Spa. It's in a strip mall on Hacienda Blvd, fairly nondescript from the outside.
I paid my $15 to get in, and entered the locker room. It's a big locker room, with lockers along the walls and recliners in the middle facing a television. Kind of like Wilshire Spa. There was only one sink in there, which was odd; even the smallest spas I've seen have multiple sinks.
Unlike most spas, the locks here aren't electronic, so you have a big metal key on your wristband. Not as bad as Lions Spa though, where it makes noise when you move around. So I'm thankful for that. Unlimited small towels are folded and stacked next to the door to the wet area.
Inside the wet area, there are standing showers (6 of them I think) to the right, followed by 6 more seated showers beyond that. On the left are the pools: cold, warm, and hot. The pools were decent size; the middle one had a capacity of 8, the others seated 5. Across from the pools (and next to the seated showers) was the body scrub area. There was absolutely zero privacy there... if you're getting a scrub, anyone in the pools is going to get a full view of what's going on.
Past the scrub area is the steam room and the sauna. The steam room wasn't large; it could maybe seat 6 or 7 comfortably. The sauna was a bit bigger though. Both the sauna and the steam room were at good temperatures: hot enough, but not TOO hot. One thing about the sauna, though, was just that it seemed dirty. The wood was old and was showing its age. The door was supposed to be clear glass but what was probably years of moisture and splashes made it partially opaque on the lower 2/3 of it, with no apparent effort made to get those water stains off. And in parts of the sauna, when I put my towel down, the color from the wood transferred to the towel, looking kind of like skid marks. Uhh, no thanks.
After exploring those rooms for a bit, I headed back to the locker room and found two rooms: a sleeping room (with recliners), and a room that was kind of a clay room (had clay walls), kind of a marble room (had a marble floor) but was hotter than those respective rooms at Century Spa. It was the kind of room I'd expect in a coed Jimjilbang, but it was nice to have one off the locker room where I could be nude.
The clientele varied while I was there: when I first got there (mid-afternoon) it was almost entirely Asian guys. Which was pretty much what I expected, being Hacienda Heights and all. Oh, there were a couple of kids there too, at least briefly. Eventually, though, the crowd changed to probably half-and-half Asians and non-Asians. Then as afternoon started to turn into evening, it got more and more crowded, and I think the balance turned more Asian. And this big group of youngish, tattooed Asian guys came in.
But here's the thing... it seemed like the Asians were being more cruisy than the White and Latin guys. Usually, I go in with the assumption that most of the Asian guys are at the spas for the cultural aspect, and most of the non-Asian guys are there to see penises. But it seemed like a lot of the Asian guys (actually MOST of the Asian guys) were looking to play more than the white guys, at least until the tattooed gang came in. So anyway, so much for my friend's observation that it's the Asians that are being disrespected when white guys come to play!
Oh, I forgot to add: there were signs all over the place warning that anyone participating in "inappropriate behavior" would be kicked out and banned. Kind of tacky, actually. But it was being widely ignored, as far as I could tell!
There was this super cute young Asian guy that I could tell was trying not to get a hard-on (and failing! Ha!)... we fooled around a little bit but it started getting crowded and I'd been there long enough anyway.
Anyway, the place is fine, I guess, if you like Asian guys and you happen to be in the area... but I wouldn't make a special trip out there, to be honest.
Hacienda Joy Spa
2020 S. Hacienda Bl. Suite H
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
http://haciendajoysauna.com
