Saunas are sacred shit. It's like a gay bar, if you want to not be seen as a pest you 100% must stop acting like a moid when you enter. And some people just don't want to be spoken to

Any place you go regularly can become a place to make friends.

What's wrong with going to the bar to meet people?

The sauna, steam room and hot tub at my gym are conversation areas, but that's also gender segregated.

People like this don't realize how much creepiness they ooze without saying a word.

I also wonder, if he had said something normal immediately after entering it probably would have been fine. Imagine sitting in silence next to someone for 10 minutes and then they ask you a question. That's weirder to me.

Are there places without saunas?

Every major city in America has a spa or even gym that have saunas or stream rooms. Or mountain retreats..

It seems the rest of the world has decided that saunas need to be quiet, when the actual Finnish thing is a social event. You have a beer, sometimes a sausage on the oven. I don't know what the point of a stfu wellness sauna in a gym is.

At my local it's like a fucking pub in there. Yapping away. I wish they would all just shit up and sweat silently

In places I've been to, yeah.

I'm not interested in making small talk while trying to unlock all my chakras points and reach my final form.

A "do you mind if I pour some water on the stones?" Is a good opener. Then you wait for them to engage. If they don't, so be it.

Not true, you may address anyone at any point in the sauna if you bend over, spread your ass cheeks and lip sync every word you say with your anus.

Also, always assume your intentions are transparent as glass even before you open your mouth. People can see and tell why you're talking to them. I hate that this is something's I learnt through trial and error.

Only things said to strangers in a gym:

You finished with that, or can I go in between?

Can you spot me?

That's not really true, or it might be in some parts of the world.

However, in the land of the Sauna, that is the place to talk. It's where you ask someone to be your best man. It's where you ask your boss a raise. It's where you agree on a business deal, or maybe to set up a monopoly with your competitors. And you best abide by these words: Never enter a Sauna sober, nor without a drink.

Never been to a womens Sauna, but I expect them to do something naughty as they don't allow us guys there...

That's not really how it works in the US. People talk so much in the steam room/sauna, that you're pretty much expected to have a conversation when you step inside of either one. As an introvert it's very anxiety-inducing.

I've never even crossed the borders of Idaho and even I know not to talk in a sauna.

Sauna basics from KAJ : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSh7U3m9KgA

I've never seen any no speaking rules in Germany but "no flirting" is very much an implied rule and the way anon describes her has having a "good body, tits and butt" he probably might have been creepy before even saying anything.

I'm not a big sauna guy and thus mostly was there with my girlfriend. And in the setting where you're there with a partner, causal small talk with strangers was quite normal. I think it heavily depends on being able to read the room.

Mixed gender saunas exist