Glitter on the Mattress

 or

Our Stay in a Korean Love Hotel

I had read about love hotels in the guide books and lists for visiting Japan. They sounded so crazy that I was particularly disappointed to miss out on them when our trip plans changed, and we decided to skip Japan on this trip. However, near the end of our travels with Jenny, when we arrived in Busan, I found myself in a lobby of one. Turns out they have them in South Korea too!

Briefly, a love hotel is a place where you can rent a room overnight or for a shorter amount of time. Apparently, in Japan and South Korea, since many extended families all live under one roof, privacy is scarce. Thus, love hotels are available as an escape for couples so that they can have some private sexy time together. They are very discrete, often having very sheltered areas for cars and separate entrances for guests so you don't run into anyone during your visit.

I'll bet porn is probably pretty
easy to understand in any language.

I'm sure the average clientele at a love
hotel don't want their picture taken, but
this guy just never wants his taken. Period.

I was practically bouncing up and down in anticipation as we entered the nondescript entrance of the castle-shaped building. We paid for a night though we could have chosen to pay an hourly rate. As soon as we exited our elevator, the excitement began. We had our own library of Korean porn and action movies to choose from and our hallway was lit with sexy blue track lighting. Awesome start. Our hotel room door even had its own tiny light which only turned on when we were in the room so hotel employees would not accidentally disturb us.

Even more fun lay behind our hotel room door. We had a backlit mural of a Miami beach style tropical mansion on our ceiling done in hot pink and neon green. There was track lighting along our ceiling, a small disco ball and other levels of lighting options incorporated into the mural. Fabulous. And better yet, we had a high tech remote that controlled all the lighting in the room, the sound system, the television, and the bathroom lighting as well (I found this out as I was showering and, in his attempt to turn off a malfunctioning overhead light in the main room, Nathan turned off and on and then off my bathroom light so I was left hollering at him in the dark.) There were energy drinks in the fridge, comfy robes and slippers, and HBO (in English!) Our shower could turn into a sauna at the push of a button and our large bathtub could easily fit two people (this was the only place in South Korea I ever even saw a bathtub).

Since it was clear that we were travelers and not mere hourly visitors (what gave it away?), the hotel manager gave us a quick in-room tutorial on which button on the remote turned on or off which room feature. We would later have to call him to come turn off the overhead light after we had pushed every button on the remote 20 or so times to no avail. He clearly thought we were idiots, but it turned out to be a problem with the remote and not user error (He ended up just unscrewing the light bulb, which was annoying because we totally could have just done that ourselves.).

I can't really speak to feeling very sexy in a room where you have a ceiling that looks like it's been taken from a diner wall in South Florida as the red, green, and blue lights rotate around you, but perhaps that really does it for some girls. I can tell you, however, that it was a great night in a very comfortable and clean hotel room, so I was pretty happy to have had my fun in a love hotel.

Pictures by me.