Also...

Have to note on a funny moment Kim and I had together. She and I live on literal opposite sides of the country. She's on the west coast; I'm on the east. Since it's quite a trek to get through the central mountains, we met in a city that was easy for us both to commute to. Thus, we had to get a hotel.

Since neither of us was familiar with this city, we didn't know where the best places to stay were. Well, we had a recommendation but no clue how to get there or even ask where it was. We did actually ask a local barista and she had no clue. We were left to our own devices.

Typically, there are always cheap hotels near the bus terminal in most cities. (See my "Dirty Thirty" post!) In this city, some were dingy. Others were flat out gross-looking. We saw one that looked like a German-style building and thought that it would suffice. There was no one in the front office so we left in search of somewhere else. As we're exiting, here comes this old-as-dirt man, with skunk looking hair from a bad dye job to cover his white hair. Even better, he has red chili sauce stains from his lunch. Perhaps he was saving it for later?

After some language barrier communication, everything was clear that we needed one room for one night. 25,000 (about $25). Perfect! So he grabs several sets of keys (only, this wasn't a quick process since he was over 100 years old) and takes us up the elevator to our room. The place is pretty desolate but well stocked with VHS porn tapes. Once we get to the eighth floor, however, it was quite noisy. The old man goes to a door and attempts to unlock it (once again, not quick for Father Time) and opens to reveal a room full of Korean men with their shirts off. He'd heard the noise and instead of knocking and asking the guys to keep quiet, he just opened it. Room full of half naked men? I wasn't even about to ask questions... But needless to say, Kim and I got quite a laugh out of it!

"Our room," was less than pleasing. While it did have two (old) TVs (that may or may not have worked), it had no bed. With our first-world preferences in tow, we opted not to stay at this place. Grandpa was quite disappointed that we didn't want to stay there but reluctantly gave us our money back.




(For $15 more we got the Windmill Motel - with a windmill on top, next to the New York Motel - with a giant Statue of Liberty on top!)