Busan & the Love Motels (South Korea)

Busan is the second largest city in South Korea (the first being Seoul). Busan is what Cape Town is to Joburg – its coastal, scenic and chilled sister.

Getting from Seoul to Busan cost me a few of my ZARs using the KTX (the train system). It was about a 3 hour uneventful train ride that I cannot recall much of. The railway station looked like an airport though – but I think that might be because it’s connected to one!

We arrived in Busan pretty tired. Wrapped up in a winter jacket and a tight coat over that is not very comfy. Add some heavy bags to carry to the mix and you feel like a stuffed butternut.

We jumped on the Busan Metro and headed to the popular Haeundae Beach. I could tell we were out of the major city because the locals sort of stared at us inquisitively and greeted politely.

We had no accommodation booked but my friend had done her research on some cheap accommodation aka Love Motels. As the name suggests, we can only imagine what goes down in Love Motels. According to the interwebs, they are great, cheap-ish places to stay in Busan. Love Motels are usually quite flamboyantly decorated and there are tons of them along Haeundae Beach.

My friend and I walked around in search of a cool looking Love Motel. We went into several and they were all more or less the same price. We were tired of walking with all our luggage and finally settled on one. Unfortunately, with Korean being pretty foreign to me, I do not remember the name.

The room looked really funky! There were sexy pictures all around and there was an amazing looking jacuzzi-bath.

Looks can be deceiving, though. Trying to bath in the jacuzzi tub was hazardous at best and we couldn’t figure out how to put the heated tiles off. In addition, the ‘door’ to the bathroom was basically transparent!

I woke up feeling dehydrated and was not a happy chappy in the morning, but it was a cool experience anyway. To perk myself up, I had a Starbucks Cappuccino (for the first time) overlooking the beachfront. I imagined that it would taste far better than it did, considering all the hype I’ve seen about it on TV. I was a bit disappointed with Starbucks. It seemed way too healthy for my liking.

Staying in the Love Motel was one my favourite parts of my trip to South Korea. It made my stay in Busan so much more interesting. It was really fun to check out all the different motels. Many of them are upmarket and very cool.

– Rif

Note – while googling travel time between Seoul and Busan, I came across this website which says they have free shuttles for tourists! http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/FU/FU_EN_15.jsp?cid=1214472