The Love Motel

The idea of a "Love Motel" is by no means unique to Korea, but its ubiquitousness, usefulness and staggaring range of (or lack of) comfort offerings makes it very worthy of detailed mentioning.

While I have no facts on the rates for monogomy and infidelity in Korea and no idea on the prevalance of prostitution, the sheer number of motels and hotels marketed towards guest looking for brief and discreet stays makes me think both are quite common. What makes these motels so nice is that they are so cheap, and so long as you check that the room is OK, they can be quite pleasant. Any overnight stay away from Mokpo will usually take on the following routine:

1. FInd a busy part of town, and look for a not-too-shady side street.

2. Duck under the hanging-rope car entrance used to hide the identities of people walking from their cars to the motel.

3. At the front desk, bend over so your head is level with your hips - the front desk window is kept low and tiny so the clerk won't know who you are.

4. Avoid paying more than $30 a night, but be sure the room is clean from cigarettes, dirty laundry and previous guests (that hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure it will one day)

5. Avoid like the plague the terrible horrible X-rated movies playing on the TV. Even if you wanted to watch pornographic materials, you'd probably have a better time watching animals at the zoo than the painfully unflattering material offered on these TV's.

My previous stay at a love motel went quite well until I tried to actually sleep in it. Not only was the parking lot used as a drunken teenage sports field at night, but there was a noraebang (karaoke bar) right below me. By 3am I fell asleep, but I nearly lost my mind when at 6am the singing started again, now more drunken and off key. By 6:15 I had packed up all my bags and was asking the front desk for a new room upstairs, but they had none to give me. By 7 the singing stopped, but then a new game of baseball had started in the parking lot, and so rather than spend my morning sleeping, I spent it walking around looking for a new motel. The one I did find was amazingly better, putting me on the 5th floor and giving me free access to the public sauna/bath house in the building, which made me very happy once again.

This last motel adventure was during a trip to Busan to play ultimate. It turned into a great time despite my crazy-making first sleepless night. Here's some shots of me on the beach - the close-up is just after a dive for the disc, that left my face full of sand.


It's a quiet few weeks I think for now, then it's off to Jeju as a dozen of us go play in one of the bigger ultimate touraments around. There's even a team flying in from the US to play, which is pretty unexpected yet quite exciting.
In the meantime, it's busy times at school, as all my classes are coming these days and none of the teachers are showing up to help. Means of controling students are usually available to me, but it sure takes a lot of energy to get 30 kids who don't speak English under control, and I think I may have to have a talk with my administration staff about making all teachers accompany their students. Otherwise, it's going to lead to one unhappy mind-melted me.