Sweat Out The Old, Sweat In The New! 2017 Edition

As I've done a few times before, let's do a New Years Day spa meetup!

When: January 1, 11:00am until night time.
Where: Wilshire Spa (Note: according to some of the blog readers, the price is going up to $20 on January 1)

Rules:
- Don't wear a towel!
- Be respectful!
- Don't be that guy that's jerking when nobody else is interested.
- Be careful!
- Say hi to me!

I'll probably get there around 11:00am or a little after that.

Review: Midtowne Spa, Los Angeles

Amenities: 3/5
Cruisiness: 5/5
Price: varies (See their website for details)

Pros: All the action you want without worrying about being caught, unlimited towels (sort of), you can get a room if you want, free condoms.
Cons: Sketchy neighborhood, paid parking (or take your chances on the street), $4 processing fee for new customers.

I was debating whether or not to review this place. First off... it's not a Korean Spa. I'd almost hesitate to call it a "spa" at all, but it has a steam room and a sauna and a jacuzzi... so I guess it technically counts. Plus, if people are looking for more action... they'll find it here.

It had been years since I'd been here. Didn't really have fond memories of the place, but a friend (with benefits) had never been and insisted that I take him here, so I figured, why not?

When you arrive, you go to the window and tell the guy whether you want a locker or a room. They ask for your ID. Since it had been several years since I'd last been, my info had been purged from the system, so I had to pay the $4 "processing fee". He told me that they purge the customer database of anyone who hasn't been there for a year. So anyway, it takes forever to enter the information, pay the fee, sign a waiver, etc. If there's a line to get in, prepare to wait a while.

Once you've gotten past there, the attendant hands you a padlock with key (for the locker), a towel, a condom, and small packet of lube. If you need another condom, there are bowls of them all over the place.

Once you get in, where you go from there depends on whether you for a room or a locker. I've only gotten lockers. The place is kind of annoying to navigate... it's a three-story building (plus a basement and roof deck) and the stairs are easy to miss. But the locker room is on the second floor. Get naked on the locker room. Although I guess it's not required to completely strip down, but I'd say 98% of the guys were naked, with one or two that I saw wearing sexy undies. Like Century Spa, almost everyone wears their towel around their waist... I was one of the few that just walked around naked. If you need a clean towel, exchange your old towel at the front desk for a clean one.

The first floor of the building, where the entrance is, is also where the group shower, sauna, steam room, jacuzzi, and pool are. The showers are kind of annoying, as they have a motion sensor. You have to keep your hand over the sensor to take a shower. I get that they don't want to waste water (and presumably have an orgy in the shower) but it was still annoying.

The steam room is huge (at least three times as big as any I've seen in a Korean spa in LA), with benches and little cubbies to get a little privacy (not much) if you want to get it on in the steam room. The temperature isn't too hot in there, making it tolerable to stay in there for a longer time than some much hotter steam rooms at Korean spas. The sauna and jacuzzi are tolerable temperatures too, and the indoor pool is pretty much a perfect pool temperature. I'd honestly be happy if all of these amenity temperatures were at a Korean spa. (ok, maybe I'd like a slightly hotter steam room)

Also, off the pool room, are a couple of outdoor patios.

On the second floor are a bunch of private rooms (which cost extra). The locker room is at the far end of the hall. At the other end of the hall is a TV room, a room with vending machines (snacks and drinks and stuff), a porn video theater, another room with some booths (I guess glory holes? I didn't inspect too closely)

On the third floor, it's all private rooms except for a ridiculous gym with only two cardio machines, more lockers, and that's it.

Above the third floor is the roof deck. There are a bunch of lounge chairs to get some sun if it's daytime. They also allow smoking up there, which isn't my thing. In the back, they have a "maze" with twisty passages for you to explore.

All the way back down to the basement, there's another maze (really dark down there) with little rooms. There's one room with a sling. There's another little porn theater in the back. And a few more glory hole booths.

It happened to be "Bear night" when we went, so the guys there were a bit larger than usual. My friend and I fooled around with one of them though. And there were some guys that were younger and cute and not at all "bears." My friend and I did a lot of exploring and checking guys out, but mostly we just fooled around with each other and let other guys watch. It was pretty hot.

It seemed cleaner than the last time I'd been here. Doesn't mean it was spotless, and I still brought flipflops to wear... which is what I'd recommend. I enjoyed myself more as well. Maybe because I had my friend to keep me entertained.

The steam room and the basement was where most of the open action were happening. A lot of guys up in the rooms as well, hanging out by their open doors, waiting to invite someone in.

So if you're looking for a place to hook up without worrying about getting in trouble, for a price similar to a Korean spa, I guess I'd recommend Midtowne. I have never been to any of the other bathhouses or sex clubs in LA, so I have no idea how they compare.

Midtowne Spa
615 Kohler St (near 6th and Central)
Los Angeles, CA
https://www.midtowne.com/index.php?fuseaction=dsp_city&c_city=los+angeles

Film: "Spa Night"

There's a film playing now at the Sundance Sunset Cinema called "Spa Night"

If you're expecting a lurid exposé of gay cruising in Korean spas, you'll be disappointed in the film.  It's primarily a drama about a Korean-American family in Koreatown trying to survive financial hardship and the closeted son trying to figure out his future.

I'm not really a film reviewer so I won't go into too much detail. I liked the film (except the ending) but it really focused mostly on the family, with a few scenes featuring the Korean spas and a young Korean-American's coming to terms with his sexuality. It's not a porn film; you see a few out-of-focus background penises here and there, but most of the sex is only hinted at or offscreen.

I liked the film, though. The family drama was interesting, and the later scenes in the spa were all too familiar to me and I'm sure many others.  I laughed when a sign was taped onto the wall warning about inappropriate behavior... just like the ones at Wilshire Spa. I didn't like the way it ended (I won't spoil it for you), but I didn't think it detracted too much from the rest of the film.

The actor who played David was cute, too.

Anyway, I think it was worth checking out. I think it'll be playing at least through Sept. 8th, so if you want to get a glimpse of Korean-American culture along with some spa fun, check it out.

Review: Descanso Garden Spa, Tujunga

Amenities: 3.5/5
Cruisiness: 2/5
Price: $20

Pros: Plenty of parking, unlimited towels, quiet, clean
Cons: Out of the way unless you're in the area, stuff seemed just barely too hot.

It's my first review in almost a year!

I just heard about Descanso Garden Spa a few weeks ago and finally got a chance to check it out. It's in Tujunga, so not to difficult to get to from Pasadena/Glendale or the northeast San Fernando Valley, but otherwise it's kind of a trek to get to. Fortunately, I was in the area.

I was kind of surprised to see a real Korean spa in this part of town, but here it is. It's in this mini-mall on Foothill Blvd. with plenty of parking. I parked and walked in, handing them my $20. After stripping down, I went into the wet area, where there are signs on the door that say "No clothing allowed!"... I liked that. More spas need signs like that.

I was meeting a friend there, and he and I were the only ones in the men's area when I arrived. Seriously, it was otherwise totally deserted. The men's wet area was surprisingly similar in layout to Natura Spa: octagonal hot tub in the middle of the room, cold plunge off to the side, steam room in one corner and dry sauna in another corner, seated showers in another corner, and upright showers in a couple of locations to fill in the rest of the space.  Oddly, though, some places where there were pairs of shower stalls, only one of the showers would have soap/shampoo dispensers. There were also shelves with towels, scrub cloths, toothbrushes and razors.

The spa area was fairly upscale and very clean. It was one of the nicer spas I've been to, although it was pretty small... (the sauna and steam room were about half the size of Natura's)

After showering, I tried out the hot pool. It was slightly hotter than I normally like; it was tolerable, but I would have turned it down by a degree or two. The jets were controlled by a timer dial on the wall (which wasn't really obvious at first), which lasted longer than the 5 minutes you get at Spa Palace. Maybe it was 10 or 15 minutes. But the temperature was such that I didn't want to stay in the pool for longer than the timer lasted.

The steam room was next. When the steam jets weren't going, it was fine in there. But it got hot quickly when the jets were on. And they were placed weirdly, under one of the benches. I was sitting next to them when they turned on, and had to move because the hot steam was too close to me and hitting my legs. The steam room is pretty small, not large enough to hide in the steam to not be visible from the outside.

The sauna was a good temperature. It had large windows that looked right into the adjacent scrub area (as well as to the rest of the wet area), which was kind of weird, but there were no scrubs going on when I was there.

After my friend and I had been there for a little while, more people started showing up. Mixed crowd (a couple of Asian guys, and maybe 5 or 6 white or Middle-Eastern guys while I was there) and ranged in age from 20-40. A couple of the guys (I think they might have been Armenian) were really good looking. (Although my friend was pretty good looking too, haha!)

In terms of places to fool around, there is plenty of opportunity when the place is otherwise empty... while you can see into the steam room from the rest of the wet area, you can't see the steam room at all from outside of it. Also, the seated showers are arranged in such a way that they could conceal you from people outside if you wanted to play in the seated showers.

While I was there, I got a playful vibe from one guy, so it's a little cruisy there. I'd never go there expecting anything to happen though, the crowd is too unpredictable. You could be all alone in there or there could be a bunch of people in the spa.

I also checked out the coed area. They have a small restaurant, several saunas, a cold room, and a patio. They also have separate men's and women's sleeping rooms, although the men's sleeping room is down the same hallway as the women's restroom, and the women's sleeping room is down the same hallway as the men's restroom. They should have planned that better. There's also a "Cedar Oxygen Room", which smells cedary and I think they were pumping oxygen in there but I'm not sure.

Anyway, it's worth checking out if you are in the area and don't want to make the trek to K-Town.

Descanso Garden Spa
7226 Foothill Blvd
Tujunga, CA 91042
http://www.descansogardenspa.com/

Wi Spa Pricing and Discounts

I was at Wi Spa earlier this week and there were signs up about changes to their admission discount pricing. Starting May 1, the following will be in effect:

- Tuesday admission will go up from $15 to $20. This also applies to Senior Thursdays, and the birthday discount.

- Wi will no longer offer the discounted "Sauna Only" admission.

On the plus side, there's a good deal on their website: You can buy 10 spa passes for $150. The catch is that you have to buy it through the website and it takes 24 hours for it to process, at which point you can pick it up at the front counter. But when you pick it up, you get 10 individual passes. Presumably, you can share them.

Usually the main reason I go to places other than Wi is because of Wi's pricing. But now that it works out to $15 a pop, I will definitely go more often. And I can share passes with friends that come with me! 

Cracked post about swimming pool cleaners

Thought this article was interesting and relevant to spas:

http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1996-semen-clogs-so-many-pools-5-lessons-pool-cleaner.html

Mostly... if a pool smells like chemicals, it's not clean.

Bare Ass Creek

A couple of years ago this French film came out called "Stranger By The Lake". It was a sort of murder-mystery/thriller that took place at this remote gay nude beach and cruising area. The location of the movie reminded me of this place in Angeles National Forest that a friend of mine liked to call "Bare Ass Creek." (only I never heard anyone else call it that.) It was up off of Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road.

This was a creek (there was usually water flowing into the summer, although it was usually mostly dried up by July or August except for a trickle) with lots of rocks that made for great sunning spots. Gay men would go out there to get some nude sunning in. It was the closest thing we had to a nude beach in Los Angeles County. I went up there sometimes when there'd be up to 30 naked guys up there.

And of course, sexual escapades happened. Not everyone took part; most were content to just get some sun, although nobody complained about the activity. It was just a very free, relaxed naked place in nature.

Then, a few years ago, the Station Fire tore through the area. This creek was actually right around the very edge of the fire line. But the damage was done, and the entire area had been closed to recreational uses for years.

The area is back open now, but road signs in the area around where the creek is seem to indicate that you can't park there anymore. I have seen sources that say that the parking restrictions aren't enforced there; the signs were put in place back when the area was still closed, and they never bothered to take them down. At least that's what I read by a guy who claims to have talked to a ranger.

I went up there with a friend a couple of weeks ago and there were two other naked guys up there. A lot of the trees had been burned... some were coming back though. We stayed for a couple of hours, got some sun and naked boulder-hopped, and didn't get a parking ticket. Still, I wonder if the creek and the crowd will ever come back to its former glory.

Grand Spa stuff

I went to Grand Spa last week... I like going there because it's a great deal at $10 on weekdays and the facility is pretty good.

Anyway they seem to be actively trying to prevent inappropriate activity there. The doors to the sleeping room (back off the TV room) and the other warm floor room (across from the lockers) have been removed, and the sleeping room mats have been replaced with recliners, and another TV has been put into that room. At least both rooms are dark, though.

But it's annoying because none of them are really quiet with the missing doors.

Also, an attendant seemed to check the steam room every 5-10 minutes.

A friend of mine was there earlier this week, though, and didn't notice an attendant checking the steam room. However, he did tell me that they seem to have raised the weekday price to $15. Hmm.

TV Show Visits a KSpa

The TV show "Grandfathered" had an episode a couple of days ago where they visited a Korean spa.

The main character (played by John Stamos) joins his coworkers at a spa... He makes jokes about seeing them naked in the locker room (yawn)... Then he wears a robe through the entire visit. (Guessing Stamos is not in his peak shape and doesn't want to be seen shirtless)... All they showed was the locker room and dry sauna. Everyone wore towels all the time. There was a woman(!) folding towels in the men's area. There was a creepy older gay white guy cruising in the locker room. (OK, that might be a little accurate...hahahaha)

Anyway, not a great depiction of Korean spas.

Another Wi Spa Groupon

There's another deal for Wi Spa on Groupon... $15 for full entry. Use the code CANDY25 to get 25% off... So you only pay $11.25. You can buy two, but you have to do them in separate transactions in order to use the discount code both times.