Duckling To Swan - Life, Style, Travel Blog: Road Trip

My road trip seems like an eternity ago thanks to the last two weeks being crazy hectic! I'll fill you in on a bit of what's going on with me in another post, but right now I want catch you up on my mini-adventure. Road tripping is an absolute favourite of mine, I love to chatter and sing in the car as we cruise along the highways and detour around the sights. I love that feeling of being on the road, going wherever you please along the way, don't you?

For this trip, we headed down the country stopping off for a night in one of Korea's lesser known cities along the way. We took a walk around one of the popular districts and found a shabby chic restaurant to enjoy a few drinks over dinner before finding a place to stop for the night. Usually when we visit new places we book ahead, opting for the safety of a hotel. In Korea though motels are hugely popular (mostly thanks to a lot of extramarital activity and young couples looking for places to eeehmmm....hide-out??) and quite unlike what we westerners think of as a motel. For a start, there are hundreds of them in every city and even the small towns, mostly all doing a roaring trade. They do of course come in a full range of stereotypically drab, dodgy looking rooms that would be apt settings for a thriller movie. But, they also have various styles of themed motels and some insanely gaudy 'luxury' motels. We decided we'd try one out ourselves after spotting a 'luxury brand' themed one in the area. Sadly the Chanel and Prada rooms were all full when we arrived, but we managed to bag a Louis Vuitton room for only $50 (that's got to be the cheapest Louis Vuitton you can buy!) complete with neon LED lighting and a massive jacuzzi bathtub.

Let me tell you, pulling into a private garage with automatic doors that slide down immediately behind you, getting out of your car to be serenaded by piped music as you walk up your private staircase to an automated check in on the wall outside the room (so there's not one person who can physically identify you as ever having been there), it's certainly a unique experience that's sure to make you feel just a touch seedy even in the most 'luxury' of the motels. And if all that doesn't (trust me, it will), then the free 'his and hers' gift bags in the room sure will! You don't even want to know some of the things that were in them amongst the toiletries. Seediness aside, the room was actually probably one of the best $50 we've ever spent. It had all the mod-cons, complimentary everything and we spent a good 15-minutes checking out the various rainbow lighting patterns. I really should have taken more photos, but honestly we were just having such a laugh, it was hilarious!

We woke up early and hit the road for a little exploring on the 'scenic route', stopping off for bagels and coffee along the way. We made it to our main destination, the coastal city of Busan, in the evening. We had an awesome dinner and took in some of the famous city sights. We had booked ourselves a hotel for the night, which much to my disappointment, despite being astronomically more expensive than the previous night, did not have rainbow lighting or even a hint of gaudiness. No, it was just nice, and luxurious, and chic, and civilised, and...well...quite frankly, boring! Thankfully it did have the comfiest and possibly biggest bed I've ever had the joy of sinking into, so at least that was something!

The next day we hit the road again for a little more exploring in the area, coffee and some shopping before embarking on the trip back. I have a million photos of beautiful landscapes and weird 'you wouldn't see that back home' type photos but for the purposes of keeping things brief and not boring you to death, here are just a few.