Birthday Rub

One thing I love about birthdays is you get to pamper yourself. This year I took myself to the spa for a full-body massage. Now one thing you must know about bath houses in Korea is that you don't wear bathing suits. So here I was, laid out on a massage bed in the corner of the womens' bath house in my birthday suit :)
The masseuse laid hot towels on me, washed my face and covered it with grated cucumber. She then started to scrub my legs and worked her way up over every inch of my body exfoliating my skin until I was sure that I wouldn't have any tan left (and would be pale white as is popular here). And then she did it again and again for what must have been 45 minutes.
And just when I thought, this must actually be a body rub and not a massage, she poured hot water on me, covered me with massage oil and began to knead my back. She proceeded down to my legs, my arms... several times over - and then stood on me and massaged me with her feet... several times over - and then continued to massage me by stretching my limbs in all directions and working the kinks out of my joints.
At times it hurt, but boy did it feel good! One and a half hours later and I felt like she had scrubbed and rubbed and jabbed and stretched and pressed away 24 years worth of tension.