lesson #2
Personal space is a real thing. Respect it.
If you haven't already been to Beverly Hot Springs in LA, you haven't lived. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you are genuinely being deprived of an extraordinarily character building experience. After being thrown into what initially sent my nervous system into a panic and had me bordering on tapping out/blowing the rape whistle, to something that apparently ended up being the direct route to attain complete enlightenment, I've decided that this can go on no longer. I must share with the proletariat my discoveries.
It's taken me a couple of days to come-down from my euphoria and really grasp what happened to me and my state of well being, but I'm back and better than ever after my discovery and I'm ready to share my findings.
Beverly Hot Springs is essentially a spa. Basically what happens is you withdrawal your entire lifesavings from the bank, phone BHS, make an appointment, and you walk bare foot and naked with cut feet and no water through the Sahara Desert fighting off a herd of aggressive camels during mating season if you have to. You find a way to get there. When you arrive you'll grab your two towels and hairnet off the lovely Mexican lady on the front door and you waltz into the dressing/undressing room like you built that place with your own two poorly manicured hands.
Once you've reached this check point I want you to get completely naked. Oh, and don't be alarmed by the fifteen other naked ladies standing around you completely nude, it's all part of the experience.
It's amazing. You've never seen so many different shaped bodies. It's a fruit salad of physiques but you have to hide your horror because it's a VERY confronting situation and you do not want to be caught staring at anybody under any circumstances whatsoever.
This is where it begins.
Suddenly you notice you're standing in what appears to be some kind of Yucatan Cave in Mexico.
This is the hot spring. You sit in here for as long as you need to. It's as hot as a bath - which isn't surprising because that's pretty much what it is. A giant bath full of naked strangers. Did I mention it's a female only area? Well it is so calm yo farm. So there's this hot spring and then a smaller pool with ice cold water that pretty much makes you feel like a complete idiot and ponder how you could be so stupid as to spend your rent money on an activity that is clearly damaging to every single one of your limbs. *As a side note, this is supposed to be amazing for circulation.
Moving on from this, here's the nitty gritty. A member of the staff will come and collect you from the pool and take you to the room where your treatment will take place. The room looks like a gas chamber and I'm not trying to be funny or cruel, this is a legitimate comparison to provide you all with a realistic depiction of what to expect. There are several cubicles all separated by individual walls about 6ft high. The mattress you lay on is rubber and it's already wet, as is everything else in the gas chamber. I mean treatment room. You are still completely naked. You lay down on the bed and the treatment begins.
I'm not going into any more detail, because if I'm going to be totally honest, it really was hands down the single best spa treatment I've ever experienced. All I'll tell you is that for the next two hours or so, you will be taken to places you never knew existed.
One thing I took home from my trip to BHS was the importance of personal space. In a place where literally everything is being shared; the air, the light, the obvious nips and tucks, the bath water, and pretty much what you had for breakfast, you really need to have a good understanding and appreciation of the space around you and the distance between you and thy neighbour. Things can get very awkward. Don't speak to anyone, this is a quiet place. A place of solitude and peace. They save the violation of personal space for the actual treatment - leave it to the professionals.
