The landscape of possible lodging options in Korea went well beyond our familiar world of Airbnb, VRBO, Agoda.com, Hotel.com and Bookings.com. Fortunately a few websites and facebook groups gave us an overview before we headed out.
Most families doing this trip seem to camp given the abundance of free camping options, including covered gazebos and flexibility in distance that camping provides. However, we were doing this trip with what we had which meant no bike shorts, no bike computer and no camping gear.
There are many different types of lodging, one blog post talked about the twelve different types of accommodations, from minibanks, to pensions, and jimjibangs. It is a whole language itself learning the ins and out of Korean lodging options. Through the center of Korea and off the beaten track however our options were limited by distance between towns, distance from the bike path and not wanting to add too many additional miles through cities. We also wanted to stay together as a family, eliminating many of the cheaper dorm style options and usually found lodging the day we got into the city and occasionally the day before and so began our love affair with the love motel.
Most of the motels found off the beaten track are near train stations and bus stations. They take no reservations, can be rented by the hour or day and are reportley used by couples looking for some alone time. We had heard that you and identify a love motel by the large strings covering the opening to obscure the cars parked inside and our adventures through them were continually entertaining and they were our cleanest most reliable source of lodging through most of our biking adventure.
Mirrored ceilings, partially frosted bathroom windows with naked women etched in the glass, bed heater and bed vibrators, multicolored LED lights in every room, whole arrays of body lotion and hair spray, men and womens condoms come in every room as regularly as soap and conditioner. Inspiring love poems on walls where it often felt like something got lost in translation and curtin reception areas where not seeing the desk clerk made our lack of Korean even more challenging. It was our biking, Korean version of sex ed class for this final stage of homeschooling and a source of endless laughs.
Lily making her way thought he “curtains” that block the visibility of who comes in and out of the love motels.
The door near our love motel one day
Waking up to our color LED lights
so many options
Ahh the quotes, always love the quotes.