Bangkok is hot and humid year round so the ice baths were a great find. I was telling a friend about them, and she asked if I’d been to the Japanese spa in my neighborhood. When I looked it up, I was amazed to find this place with 7 different pools hidden on a street I’d walked numerous times.
Yunomori Onsen & Spa is a Japanese bath house, based on the traditional Onsen bathing facilities where Japanese would go to bathe before they had private tubs in their homes. They are typically heated, which is the last thing you’re thinking you need when you’re in Bangkok. Fortunately, Yunomori also has cold tubs.
You might not even notice the place from the outside as the building is fairly plain and there’s a large tree hiding the upstairs windows, but once you walk into the lobby, you are immediately transported to a place of natural tranquility.
There are lockers for your outdoor shoes and clean slippers ready for your use throughout the facility. Once in your slippers, you check in at the front desk where they take and hold the key to your shoe locker. You can choose the day pass which is the equivalent of $15 USD. You do not need to make reservations for access to the facility, and you can use any of the pools.
They offer the full gamut of spa treatments from massage to body scrubs, but they are all significantly more expensive than the ones you can get anywhere in Thailand. True, you’re probably getting a trained professional and access to the facility before or after your treatment, but I’ve already picked out my favorite massage place for a fraction of the price. That being said, I am not a fan of the traditional Thai massage that involves poking and contorting your body in a way that feels more like torture than a therapeutic treatment.
I received a silicone bracelet with my credit card information embedded in it and headed upstairs to the men’s spa. The facility is cash free so you simply tap your bracelet when purchasing items. It also allows you access to the spa rooms. Men and women are on separate floors for privacy, and I wondered if they intentionally put the women’s spa on the top floor so that they didn’t have to worry about men passing through their floor.
At the entrance to the spa room, there is a towel boy who hands you a couple towels and slippers before you enter the locker room. Since it was my first time at a Japanese Onsen spa, I did have to ask the towel boy some questions about protocol, like whether you walked naked around the spa room, and why I received two towels.
It turns out one is for drying and one is for covering yourself, the smaller for the latter purpose. I used my bracelet to unlock the numbered locker printed on it and put all of my things in there except my modesty towel and water bottle.
There are toilets just before you enter the spa room, and the only other thing you have to do before getting into one of the pools is to bathe yourself. I’d seen these kinds of bathing stations before at a hot spring I visited in Taiwan. There’s a little stool and a bucket in front of a wall with a shower head. You sit on the stool and clean yourself by using the showerhead, or more traditionally by filling the bucket in front of you and pouring it over your head.
I chose the pouring water over my head method as I love the feel of warm water pouring over my face and down my body. I was first introduced to this when I visited a Hamam (or Turkish bath) in Istanbul. The difference is that there, you have someone bathing you. It is a truly luxurious experience, but I thought better of asking the stranger next to me if he’d pour the bucket over my head. I’d heard enough stories about men’s bathhouses when growing up in San Francisco.
Once cleaned, I had my pick of the place. I’d arrived at the spa when the doors opened, and there were only a few other people in there already. With 7 pools, a steam room, and a sauna to choose from, none of us had to share a space for the first 30 minutes we were there.
Most people seem to start in the Yunomori signature bath, which is a warm bath infused with essential oil. I chose to start with the Mineral water bath. The mineral water is actually transported from hot springs in Kanchanaburi, a province about 150 miles NW of Bangkok. It is better known for the setting of the movie Bridge over the River Kwai. Both baths have still water so they are tranquil soaking experiences.
Ready to introduce some stimulation to my soaking experience, I moved to the Soft Bubble Bath. Think of it as a stoned hot tub, producing streams of soft bubbles as you relax and imagine shapes in the clouds. Another opportunity to elevate my experience came with the Silk bath, also known as the micro bubble bath. The jets of tiny bubbles not only give the water a silky feel, but the water appears milky in color. Neither of these two baths did much for me, and I decided it was time to move on to the jet tubs.
At Yunomori, they call these the Sleeping jet baths. As a kid, I’d been told horror stories of people falling asleep and drowning in the bathtub so I didn’t know what to make of this naming. It was your basic hot tub, except that each person had their own molded bed to lie on.
Throughout my experience, more people arrived, and I finally learned how to use the modesty towel appropriately. As you walk around the pool area, you simply hold it in front of your genitals, as if strolling through the garden of eden. I had to wonder if women were given two towels so that they could also cover their breasts.
I experienced a bit of confusion over what to do with the towel once you were immersed in the water. I observed a variety of solutions with my other spa mates. Some draped it over their heads, others used it as padding when leaning their heads against the edge of the pools. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn this until after I had left mine draped over the railing of the hot tub I’d entered.
After sampling all of the warm pools, it was time for the cold plunge. There are two cold pools: one shallow and one deep. I decided to start with the shallow as even at the Bangkok ice baths, I had never fully immersed myself. As it turns out, the cold pools at Yunomori were much warmer than the ones I’d tried and seemed almost hot by comparison. These pools were 62 degrees compared to 44 degrees at the Bangkok ice baths. It made the dip into the Deep cold pool much easier than anticipated, and I was even able to dunk my head under water.
Despite the water being perceptibly warmer, it is still cold, and I headed straight for the sauna when I got out. It was a large sauna, and I shared it with only one other person. Unfortunately, several people opened the door to look inside though so it was hard to keep it hot. I decided to pour some water on the heating element which vaporized into steam and quickly elevated the perceived temperature of the steam room. In fact, the other man in the steam room moved to a lower bench to escape the plume of heat that was circulating near the ceiling.
The last thing for me to try was the steam room. I was not as much a fan of these as I was the baths and sauna. It’s the one thing that doesn’t seem to have a lot of therapeutic value, unless you have a cold and want to humidify your sinuses. It was warm and wet, and due to the lack of anyone else in it, I guess other people felt the same about its value. After a short sit, I headed back to the baths to begin my rotation again.
Having paid for access for the whole day, I wanted to get the most out of my time, but at a certain point you become waterlogged or saturated, so I did a final self bathing back at the shower stalls. I dried off, dressed and returned my towels to the towel boy. While you can walk around the facility in your robe and slippers, I was finished so headed down to the cafe fully clothed.
The first place I arrived was a tea room where people waited for their massages. It was a beautiful space overlooking a Japanese garden, with soothing music playing. I passed through it on my way to the cafe but ended up returning to enjoy a cup of tea as I felt it was a more relaxing space to cap off my visit.
When I couldn’t relax any further without falling asleep, I headed back to the reception area and traded my electronic bracelet for my shoe locker key. I headed outside and made a note to look at membership options. The Yunomori spa is another great find in Bangkok and provides a great break from running around trying to see all the sights. I would definitely include it in my tour of Bangkok.