tea known in lao as muktam tea is usually served. Australia and Canada In Australia and Canada, saunas are found mainly in hotels, swimming pools, and health clubs and if used by both men and women, nudity is often forbidden, even if implicitly. In gyms or health clubs with separate male and female change rooms, nudity is permitted; however, members are usually asked to shower before using the sauna and to sit on a towel. In Canada, saunas have increasingly become a fixture of cottage culture, which shares many similarities with its Finnish counterpart (mökki). Europe Dutch-speaking regions Public saunas can be found throughout the Netherlands and Flanders, both in major cities and in smaller municipalities, mixed-gender nudity is the generally accepted rule. Some saunas might offer women-only (or "bathing suit only") times for people who are less comfortable with mixed-gender nudity; Algemeen Dagblad reported in 2008 that women-only, bathing suit-required times are drawing Muslim women in the Netherlands to the sauna. Finnish and Estonian sauna A sauna session can be a social affair in which the participants disrobe and sit or recline in temperatures typically between . This induces relaxation and promotes sweating. People use a bundle of birch twigs with fresh leaves (Finnish: vihta or vasta; Estonian: viht), to slap the skin and create further stimulation of the pores and cells. The sauna is an important part of daily life, and families bathe together in the home sauna. There are at least 2 million saunas in Finland according to official registers. The Finnish Sauna Society believes the number can actually be as high as 3.2 million saunas (population 5.5 million). Many Finns take at least one a week, and much more when they visit their summer cottage in the countryside. Here the pattern of life tends to revolve around the sauna, and a nearby lake used for cooling off. Sauna traditions in Estonia are almost identical to Finland as saunas have traditionally held a central role in the life of an individual. Ancient Estonians believed saunas were inhabited by spirits. In folk tradition sauna was not only the place where one washed but also used as the place where brides were ceremoniously washed, where women gave birth and the place the dying made their final bed. The folk tradition related to the Estonian sauna is mostly identical to that surrounding the Finnish sauna. On New Year's Eve, a