This is a bit delicate. May as well go for the VIP option, ran my logic. This was hardly inspirational either, on many levels, but it did recommend the Hera Motel, a Love Hotel near the train station. A quick look at Trip Advisor modern travel in a nutshell brought up some positive reviews — some very positive reviews — and I decided to take the plunge. Staying in a Love Hotel is entirely normal in Korea. Maybe not staying in one all night, but visiting them is an accepted part of life.
They are literally everywhere, judging by their numbers pretty much the entire population must frequent them at least occasionally. Mostly they crowd around bus and train stations — which attract that sort of thing — but you can come across them anywhere.
Love Hotels are not brothels, they are there to serve a need — so to speak. Ubiquitous and well used, their normality makes them anything but seedy. Not the floors, which are scrupulously clean, before you get the wrong idea.
Tacky and kitsch would be the most accurate description of my room at the Hera, also spotless and very spacious. True, there were an alarming number of tissue boxes dotted around, I assumed someone had been suffering from a cold.
Like Korean toilets, there were way too many buttons in the room. Given where I was staying, pressing the wrong button could have unforeseen consequences. I was cautious. No one, absolutely no one, could have slept in a bed that hot. It was almost at boiling point. Then I had to take the duvet off and leave it to cool down for 20 minutes with the AC on full blast.
