My Night at a Love Motel with My Female Co-teacher

Several weeks ago, I read about a Kimchi Festival that was going on in the southern Jeolla province of Korea, and it sounded really interesting. I mean, come on, a whole festival devoted to kimchi? How could it not be interesting, not to mention the prospects of eating all that kimchi, lol. Anyways, I mentioned it to my coteacher, and she was nice enough to arrange the trip for us. And so, last week we took a 3-hour long train ride all the way down to the southern tip of the peninsula to Gwangju.

When we got there, we decided that neither of us really wanted to spent the money for a decent hotel room. Neither of us are particular when it comes to living, so we decided to ask tourist information for a recommendation. That was not a good idea.

Apparently in Gwangju, the only motels that are available are love motels, and the one that tourist information recommended was this UBER cheesy one called Motel Opera. Think of the worst, most stereotypical love motel from Asian soap operas that you can imagine; that's what Motel Opera was like. No joke. The moment you walk in, you can hear really cheesy jazz music being played in the background. There's tacky vases with fake flowers all through the narrow hallway. The hallway leads to a small glass window with a super sketch guy behind the counter, and right beside the counter is a poster with pictures of three different types of rooms, all of which boast of a big queen size bed with red velvet covers.

My Female co-teacher and I were speechless. We didn't really know what to make of it, but it was cheap: 30,000 ($25) for the night, a third of the price of any hotel. We considered it, and we figured that neither of us really cared all that much; we just need a place to crash. So we payed. As we got to the elevator, though, we saw this couple come out, and that did it for us. The reality of the sketchiness of Motel Opera sank it, and we couldn't get in the elevator. We quickly asked for a refund and bolted out.

Later on in the taxi, she told the cab driver about our experience, and he just laughed. He said it was common knowledge that that was the way motels are in Gwangju. He told us we were better off getting a hotel in this one part of the city, but we still weren't ready to pay for an expensive hotel. We decided to check out the motels around the area that the cab driver mentioned because we heard that there would be better quality motels there.

Finally, we ended up in this dinky little love motel in the downtown area. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as Motel Opera though. The only thing cheesy about this place was the pink hallway lights. It was an older building, so there didn't seem to be other guests there (which in this case was a great thing). Later, my co-teacher told me she was okay with this place because the manager was a woman, lol. Unfortunately, the room was older so it was kinda gross but still tolerable. At least though it turned out to be even cheaper than Motel Opera.

So there you have it, only two months in Korea and I end up in a Korean love motel with my co-teacher. The things you'll do to save a couple bucks... ~sigh~