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Korean BBQ Buffet in Atlanta

I didn’t realize that I hadn’t finished this post!!! My friend Eileen introduced me to this fun place on our first adventure to JeJu Spa for my Birthday last year. This is a super fun place try out if you are down in the Atlanta area. Just an FYI, this restaurant is in the same parking lot as Marshalls and TJ Maxx! Shopping, Food and Spa treatments, sounds like an awesome day to me! I’m not always a fan of buffets but I do love being able to try lots of different things when something is sort of new.

Korean BBQ
Cho Won Buffet

Korean BBQ Smorgasbord awaits!

The amazing buffet at the Korean BBQ
Hhmmm, where does one start…….

The 4 sides of the buffet all hold something different. There is a section for sushi; one of various hot dishes; a side for soups, rice and misc stuff and then last but not least, the big display of all the different kinds of meats and seafood that you can chose and have the ladies grill at the table. The grilled meats can be placed in lettuce leaves and there are options for various pickled or fermented items, garlic and sauces to go with your grilled meat wraps. I am making myself hungry just writing this!

I was SO full afterwards
A Little Bit of This & A Little Bit of That

I love being able to have a little bit of everything. Lots of veggie options and fermented stuffs!

Yummy little fish
ButterFish

Yummy little fish, called Butter Fish. These little guys are so awesome. I think a little on the salty side but very delicious.

Meat - It's What's for Dinner!
Meat – It’s What’s for Dinner!

So much fun to be able to pick out what you want to eat and then have it prepared right in front of you. Everyone for sure had their fill. I forgot to mention there are 2 different types of drinks on the side near the lettuce. They are both delicious. I can’t remember what was in them but they are for sure worth trying.

There is something for everyone really. In the evenings the buffet is a little more because it has seafood on it. It is less than $10 for lunch and around $15 for dinner. Of course it only makes sense to go to JeJu Spa after! If you go check it out let me know what you think!

 

Korean Spa Day in Atlanta

I have been wanting to go to the Korean Spa FOREVER! I finally got to go for my 43rd Birthday! Yes I know that was at the beginning of the year and I went in September but hey that’s just what happens. I went with one of my dear friends who is always up for an adventure.

The JeJu Sauna

JeJu Spa is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. You pay a $25 entrance fee, are given Korean PJ’s (basically a tshirt and shorts) and you can use the 9 different treatment saunas, the pool and the saunas and hot tubs in the locker rooms all for the entrance fee!

Inside the Korean Spa
Inside the Korean Spa

The spa is super clean and well designed. You have 9 different sauna rooms to choose from in the co-ed section (everyone is wearing their Korean PJ’s). So the hardest thing for most Americans to get past is that there are no chairs, benches or lounge chairs; you are simply sitting on the floor. They have mats and these block things for head rests. I don’t mind sitting on the floor or you can just lay down in savasana.

I love to have services done so I had a Full Body Shampoo – oh if I could have taken pictures! That was hilarious. This service takes place in the ladies locker room. Women work on women and in the Men’s locker room there are only male attendants. In the locker room everyone is pretty much in their birthday suit. You need to shower (you have 2 options: traditional standup Western shower or Asian style sitting down). And you have to soak in the Hot, Warm, or Cold tubs before your service.

My Korean PJ's!
My Korean PJ’s!

Then you enter the “zone”! There are 6 or 8 tables and those ladies worked nonstop while we were there. They for sure work you from head to toe and trust me they “miss” nothing! I thought I was going to slide right off the table several times. I kept giggling. My lady was super nice. So basically you get soaped up, exfoliated (the amount of dead skin that came off my body was just gross!), rinsed, oiled, massaged and then I got a facial treatment mask and then she did a head shampoo and massage.

I think the whole service was close to 2 hours. I felt like a marshmallow afterwards.

A one hour Chinese Foot Massage was also on the agenda! I love having my feet worked on. I stand all day long, dance in heels, walk barefoot a lot, and just walk really heavy. So I never pass up an opportunity for a foot massage. This is in the coed section so everyone has their PJs on in this room! If you have never had a Chinese Foot Massage done before, it is basically a 20 minute soak and then they work on your feet for 20 minutes on each side. It also includes massage up to your groin basically (you have clothes on so don’t freak out) and then shoulder and scalp, sometimes upper back. It is heavenly.

One of the things I have been wanting to try is an Herbal Steam Bath for your lady bits! This is supposedly great for the health of your vajayjay area. They use 19 different herbs and spices.

The herbs for vajayjay steaming
The herbs for vajayjay steaming

Basically you sit on a wooden chair with a large cut out. There is a warmer under the chair where the technician places the bowl with hot water.  There is also the magical ingredient – Salt.

Vajayjay steaming at the Korean Spa
Vajayjay steaming at the Korean Spa

According to the ladies that were sitting beside me, this is what helps shrink your “bits” up a little! They were big believers. You are wearing this pink shower curtain-like cloak to keep the steam in and man does it get steamy in there! The aromas coming from the herbs and spices are heavenly. You are steaming for about 30 minutes I think, watching some kind of ridiculous show on TV. I would have rather had a quiet place to have this service done to just relax and enjoy the aromas.

There were also massage treatments, but that creeped me out a little because those are in the co-ed room and you are pretty much back in your birthday suit and nothing to really cover up with. Not really my cup of tea (and I also thought it was the more expensive of the services).

Loved the look of the food area, again this is Asian style so you are sitting on the floor with your low table. They had some yummy Korean food–we had some kind of hot soup that really hit the spot, some ginger tea, and a fruit plate that was super yummy. All very affordable and healthy. They also had smoothies and juices. The kitchen is not open 24/7 but it is open most of the time. I think maybe closed from 2am until 6/7am.

JeJu Spa is totally worth the trip to Atlanta! Feel free to spend the night there or Uber it from a near by hotel. Better than having to drive because you will really just be out of it after your services. It is a super busy place so if you can go during the week it is better than on the weekend or during holidays.

We also went to a great place right down the road for Korean BBQ, buffet style. That blog post is coming soon!

Want to try it out for yourself?

JeJu Sauna – http://jejusauna.com/
3555 Gwinnett Place Drive
Duluth, GA 30096
678-336-7414

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. I did not receive any compensation or free services for this review. I wanted to check out a Korean Spa and so I did! All opinions are my own.

A Little Turkish Fun in China

You never know what you might end up getting the chance to experience when you are traveling. One of my best client’s best friend lives in Chengdu, China so she was our go to for everything. She took such great care of us, she really went out of her way to make our stay as fun and memorable as possible. Rachel seems to be in the know of all things fun! We were lucky enough to get included on her invite to an anniversary celebration of her friend’s Turkish Restaurant called The Sultan  (Su Tan TuErQi CanBa).

Local name 苏坦土耳其餐吧
Local address 武侯区芳华街25号附12

It is a good idea to always have a card or photo that tells of the place you are staying or where you would like to go in Chinese. It makes it easier for the taxi drivers to get you to the right place! After being spoiled having a driver, we forgot to do this one night……luckily we finally made it back to the hotel!

That night my batteries were about dead on my phone so I didn’t get a lot of pictures.  We girls all got some fun henna. There was plenty of hooka to go around, BOGO Vodka Bottles, they were roasting a lamb on a spit out front and we had various salads and extras to enjoy.

The live musicians were phenomenal and I loved dancing to their music. There were 3 lovely ladies who belly danced for us and did an amazing job. Belly dancers seem to be taking over the world! LOL, I love it. It made me miss performing. Although I don’t dance as much as I used to, I try to dance whenever I am traveling. I love it and it makes me happy.

 

Our Stay with the Nomads

Feeding Baby Girl

We walked from town of Tagong into the mountains with a guide and stayed with a Nomadic family for the night. What an experience! Such gracious hosts, big smiles, very hard working and a very simple life. I don’t think I would be cut out for it for sure. I enjoy a hot shower and to pretty much never have one is not my cup of tea. I can manage with a natures toilet but not without my hot shower.

We stayed with a family that had 3 sons and 1 baby daughter. Even though the family didn’t speak English and we don’t speak Tibetan, you learn to communicate with gestures and charades. Learning how they had 3 sons and a daughter was pretty entertaining, LOL.

Mr Nomad GQ

We had a simple dinner of fried potatoes and yak butter tea. The potatoes were awesome. I have never seen someone cut potatoes so little by hand. They looked like shoe string potatoes. Luckily we had enough left over to have for breakfast so I was saved from eating tsampa again!

Morning Chores

This was one of the coldest nights on our trip. The nomads were so sweet. There had been so much rain that the ground was just going to be cold and damp no matter what you did. The husband laid down a plastic tarp and used all their special blanks that have been wrapped in plastic to keep dry. They made our bed as comfortable and as warm as they could. I literally had all of my clothes on as well as my hat, gloves and scarf. I never got warm. It was one of two nights that I wish I had remembered to bring those toastie little hand warmers.

When the sun goes down everything slows down and when the sun starts to come up the nomads were up and working. Momma with baby girl strapped to her back were milking the yaks. Mr Nomad QG (their teenage son who was just the cutest thing) was out doing Nomad stuff and watching baby girl. She obviously loves her big brother. Poppa was out rounding up our horses for our gorgeous ride back to Tagong.

Nomad Horseman
Baby Girl and Big Brother

Once we finally got everyone on the right horse, we were on our way. Our 3 mares all had babies so they came with us as well. I LOVED our ride back. It was great to be on a horse again. It was such a beautiful day. The mountains if Tagong are absolutely gorgeous. They are huge rolling mountains. The sky was clear and crazy blue. We got lucky and made it the several hours back to town with no rain until the last 1o mins or so. I would have loved to stay longer to do more riding. My travel partner, Liz was done with that one ride! She was a trooper but riding long days like that aren’t for everyone.

So if you are ever in the Kham District of Tibet be sure to take the time to stay overnight with the Nomads and go horseback riding in Tagong. If you can handle more time on a horse I would have them take you all over mountains. It would also be worth the extra cost if you find someone who spoke English. There was a guy working at Zhilam who was from Tagong and a horseman, had we known that at the time we would have tried to have him be our guide. He had been super helpful during our stay.

Momma and Baby Girl

 

Horseback Riding in the Mountains of Tagong

I adore the grassland mountains of the Kham area of Tibet. The mountains are so big but with their lack of trees, they remind me of huge rolling hills. Horseback riding over these fabulous mountains was sheer pleasure and was one of my favorite activities on my 6 week journey through Tibet, Chengdu, China and India.  I would have loved to have spent more time riding in Tagong.

 

Breath Taking – Photo are courtesy of Elizabeth Mira
Baby Girl and the Beautiful Grasslands of Tagong, Tibet – Photo are courtesy of Elizabeth Mira

 

After our stay with the nomadic family, the husband took us girls [Liz, Valeria (an Israeli girl we picked up in Tagong who was traveling through China for several months by herself!) and myself] on a horseback ride back to town. After a little challenge getting everyone on the right horse, we were off to enjoy our day.  The guide took the lead and I took up the rear. My OCD of needing to know where everyone is and that they are ok was taking over my brain until I settled in the rear. I could then relax and just enjoy the mountains that I love. It was so peaceful and serene, no traffic, no noise just silence.  He was taking us the long way to see as much of the mountain side as we could. I should say that we also had 3 foals following along with us since we were riding their mommas! They were so funny to watch.

Me and My Girl – Photo are courtesy of Elizabeth Mira

I hadn’t been on a horse for a few years and the last time I was actually on a full days ride was one I was in 8th grade and went to England (I lived in Germany at that time) for a week to go riding. You use muscles that you aren’t used to and it takes a little time to get adjusted to being in a saddle. Liz said she did it once but never again. I could have been out riding for a few days. The only thing I would miss would be a hot shower!

It is funny how you figure out ways to communicate with people when you don’t speak each others languages. Our guide was telling us we were going to go to lunch. I looked at my watch and was pretty sure there was no way that was possible.  The guide and I chatted in our own languages and came to the conclusion we had to head a different way to make Tagong on time. Sadly we were no able to have lunch with a nomadic family as we had to meet our driver who would take us back to Kangding. Although I would have rather kept riding, I didn’t want to keep our driver waiting.

On our way back, we chased off a pack of wild dogs that were contemplating giving us a hard time and scaring the horses. Nomadic horses can be rather skittish. Closer into town some of the other ponies didn’t like our horses in their territory so we had to show them who was boss! My horse’s foal was little Mr. Slow Poke and I had to watch out for him a lot since the horses were picking on the babies the most.

A Nomad and his horses Photo are courtesy of Elizabeth Mira

The weather was perfect. Lovely sunny day until we were pretty close to town and then it started to rain. So great timing. Riding in the rain is not as fun and you have to be more careful with the horses. The ground was already really saturated from the previous days rain.  I only wish we had more time to go a few other places. I might have had to go by myself as my companions were over the horses!

If you get the chance to go to Tagong, I would highly recommend going riding.  Angela who used to run Khampa Cafe & Arts in Tagong set up the ride for us. She is a little hard to get a hold of as are most people in Tagong but when you get there they are super helpful.  She has a new place outside of Tagong that will be opening soon, check her out a Definitely Nomadic.

The new owner of Khampa Cafe is Max and his girlfriend Coco. We didn’t stay there on this trip but highly recommend it. The food is awesome and everything is very clean. Max makes the BEST schnitzel in all of Tagong! LOL

Kris at Zhilam Hostel in Kangding knows how to do anything you want to do so he, his wife and employees are your go to for Kham. More about Zhilam and Khampa in another post.

Just looking at these pictures brings a sense of calm and pleasant memories.

 

 

 

Ear Cleaning at the Dinner Table in China

This fall I had an amazing opportunity to go to China, Tibet and India for 6 weeks. I am going to finally be writing a few posts on my experiences! The first full evening in China we went to Sichuan Opera and Dinner. This was interesting enough all on it’s own let alone when you add ear cleaning at the dinner table to your experience!

 

First REAL Sichuan Food Experience

I love food and we had a smorgasbord of items to chose from. My friend Rachel (so helpful to have a friend of a friend in China! Made our trip so much easier!) wanted to be sure that we got to try a lot of different items.  According to her, any left overs can be taken with you or go to feed the pigs so nothing is wasted. That being said, if they feel you are ordering to much food they will tell you no and won’t let you order anything else!

 

So at first I said there is no way I am having my ears cleaned at the dinner table. My Mother would be horrified! BUT, I am in China and I do wanted to experience the culture so said “What the heck!!”  We called the guy over and he got to work.

Ear Cleaning Tools

He used several different instruments and had a rhythm to his procedure. It felt super strange – at times it tickled and other times it was kind of uncomfortable. He would twirl the metal pieces with like a little piece of fluff on the end around gently in your ear and then flick the wax on the floor! It’s China so everything gets flicked, spat or shoved on the ground.

One of the neatest elements though was when he had this metal prong like object that he placed near your ear and then tapped it so it gave off a vibration. I have had my ears candled before but I have never had my ears cleaned like this or at dinner but it was totally worth it.

 

I love having massage done. The head, shoulder and arm massage he did was greatly appreciated and much needed after such a long flight.

Head Massage – Aaaahhhh No More Headache!

He had large, strong hands so my headache was pretty much gone when he was done. I only wish I could have gotten a full body massage for like 2 hours!

 

So if you ever go to China be sure to experience ear cleaning at the dinner table!