I was going to an event last night in Koreatown. I was heading there straight from work so I decided to stop at the 24 Hour Fitness in Koreatown to shower first.
Man, that place was nasty. Half the shower doors were missing. Not a big deal for me (I don't need shower doors) but it added to the rundown vibe. Seriously would have been better to just remove all of them. Garbage on the locker room floor and the floor in the shower area seemed unclean too.
I had ten or fifteen minutes to spare so I decided to check out the sauna. Just... Disgusting. The floor was literally MUDDY from guys going in with their dirty street shoes. It smelled awful. (Funny how everyone ignores the "shower before using the sauna" rule that's posted right next to the sauna, but try to use it nude and you'll get called out on it.) And there was enough dirty, smelly gym clothes hanging in there to dry out that it resembled a third-world clothesline.
I've been to plenty of other gyms with similar traits, but i don't think I've ever seen a sauna as bad as the one last night. I was at the Glendale Super Sport once and there was literally a layer of sand at the bottom of the jacuzzi. Ugh.
We have it so good at the various Korean spas in LA. For the most part, saunas are clean and not smelly and people don't abuse them as they do the gym saunas. Nudity is the rule, not the exception. and people just treat them better.