...The one sauna room could fit more than 10 people, and through the glass I saw a party developing. Bridging the sauna and steam room doors were a number of showers stalls, which was a relatively tame open space. I headed to the steam room, where most of the cruising — the perusal of anonymous sex — went down. But for some, the space was just a place to relax and unwind.

Wading in mist for five minutes, I began to recognize the passing faces, with each go round their eyes narrowing and becoming more devilish.

I crossed paths with at least 35 different men, ranging from fresh meat in their mid-twenties to virile elderly men. All body types were present, and no hierarchies were evident in the silence. I sat beside a person who looked closer to my age than the other men around us, but he eventually walked off. After five or six minutes ruminating in the steam, I began to wonder what the etiquette of this place is.

I found some luck and was led back to the private rooms, past the urinals, where further into the hallway grainy old pornos play on small TVs. This part of the building has multiple corridors — housing about 60 private booths, with different rates for the Crew rooms or larger Captain rooms.

Walking around might lead you to a stranger beckoning you to come inside. The doors on the booths said only one occupant at a time. At the time I thought, that's rich...