Love Motels are a Korean Phenomenon - and an excellent one at that.

For the equivalent of $A45 a night we are ensconced in luxury only known in 5 star plus hotels. The catch is Love Motels are hard to find and, well, there might be a little nocturnal noises of the amorous kind to contend with. We don't mind given the upside. Back in Seoul we ended up in a love motel by default, but this time we sought one out on the advice of a fellow backpacker who said, "You are not going to believe how good the Elysee Motel is! "

The Elysee has a king bed, spa, sauna, shower with jets in every direction, hot and cold drink machine, HUGE flat screen TV with latest release free movies, computer, double set of front doors (to keep out the noise of other err.. more amorously inclined guests) and free soft drinks in the mini bar. The lighting was quite exotic with special effect lights on the ceiling and a remote to control how many lights we wanted on at once. Mirrors of course were everywhere. The entrance to reception was via the car parking. We had to duck under a discrete screen which covered the view of passersby, as to whose car was in the motel car park. Motels don't appear on any hotel booking engines (well at least not the ones I am looking at!) and are designed to cater for sexual assignations. This is mostly due to the fact that Koreans live at home with their parents until they marry.

For backpackers on a budget they provide a respite from cheaper end accommodation.

We arrived in Busan with the English version of the address for the motel only, and had not been able to access the email with directions on how to get there, after we alighted the subway. Looking a bit lost we asked some girls who immediately set about looking up the address on their iphones then said they would take us there. The girls had fits of giggles over the fact that it was a "motel" and its implication. The generosity of spirit and helpfulness of Koreans is amazing. We chatted on the way and they said they were out together for a Friday night shopping trip and didn't mind going out of their way to help. It was almost a kilometre away and quite a bit uphill, but they took us right to reception and even talked to the receptionist for us to make sure we were in the right place and the Motel had received our emailed request for a room.

The next day however it was a bit harder to achieve the help we needed. We wanted to book some flights and accommodation to the Korean island paradise of JeJu. We found the tourist information office, but they had less English than the girls who helped us so spontaneously the day before. 

The "English Speaking" Tourist Information Centre Officer said " I am sorry, we do not have much information, we are only tourist information centre. Maybe you try the Internet?" Hmmm!!!!. 

Back in our motel room we did just that and booked our flights and accommodation for the next day. The rest of the day we went out exploring and took the subway and buses to see the fortress walls high on a mountain and tried to find the natural spa which is reputably the largest in Asia and able to cater for some 2,000 people. After asking many people and going around in circles we found that it had been incorporated into a 5 star hotel and was now a very different and sterile 5 star experience and further more the sexes were separated for bathing. We were by now cold and tired and decided we had a perfectly good spa back in our room and did not need to see the biggest spa in Asia, in gender separated areas!

Nearly back to our Motel we spotted a restaurant with live seafood outside in an aquarium and thought fish for dinner would be great. There was no English menu and no English speakers among the staff so I drew a picture of a fish and vigorous head nodding followed. I should have drawn a cooking pot underneath as well - we got a massive plate of raw fish! Actually it was very tasty with all the side dishes and sauces, but it was not quite what we had in mind for a cold night! 

Back in our room and warm and cozy again we booked massages and enjoyed getting some of the knots out of our muscles from all our recent exercise. (the massuese was very skilled and great value at about $45 A each).

Reluctantly we leave the luxury of our love motel for a trip to the airport and onto our next adventure, two days in Jeju Island.