Tongyeong

After finishing Saturday school at 6:00 PM on Saturday the June 4th, John and I set out to officially begin our 3 day weekend.  We were heading to Bijindo, an island off the coast of Busan.  Our friends were already there and while we had missed the last ferry for the day, our plan was to find a cheap motel to stay Saturday night, and then take the ferry to the island Sunday morning.

After getting our train ticket destination wrong (we were able to fix that easily) we boarded a quick 1.5 bus ride to Tongyeong (our port city).  We were told that there would be plenty of "love motels" (cheap motels intended for couples looking for a short bit of privacy) in which we could spend the night.

However, we quickly learned the word for "full/no vacancy" when motel after motel told us, sorry but they were full up.  Luckily, as so often happens when you're traveling, a kindly motel owner managed to relay to us the name of a jimjilbang that was open 24 hours a day.

I could (and will) do an entire post on jimjilbangs, but for now suffice it to say, a jimjilbang is basically an awesome spa with separate men and women areas for bathing, soaking, and scrubbing.  Additionally, almost all have a co-ed area for general relaxing.  We had heard tell that this area is a cheap place to spend a night.

And so we did.

About an hour after we checked in to "Waterpia" at 10:30 on Saturday night, they actually started turning people away because it was so full.  It looked about like this:

This photo is not from our trip, but it helps to give you an idea.

Yep, we were this close to everyone, sleeping on a hard floor with a blanket and a wooden block for a pillow. Actually, we slept in a sauna because all the floor space was taken.  Thankfully they opened the door to the sauna, but let me tell you, I was very sweaty by the time morning came.

Also not a photo from our trip, but just to help you get a sense.

But then after a fitful night of sleep, we woke up, took a shower, had a soak, and were on our merry way, having spent $8/each for our accommodation.

While we're not planning on making it a habit, and I slept better than John, it was totally worth it.  I'll post soon about the island paradise we made it to.