showering in South Korea

The Bathroom at the hotel near Incheon Airport had a separate shower but so far that was the only place I stayed that didn't have a system where the whole bathroom is a shower in the sense that the whole bathroom drains into the floor with the sink and toilet above. The hotel in Jeju Island had a smaller bathroom with the shower (Grohe style with water wand) built into the sink faucet itself with a line coming out of it.

My friend's place had this same sort of thing with a much larger bathroom and since he is 6 foot 2 1/2 the holder on the wall for the water wand was quite high and worked good for me to at 6 foot 5 inches to wash my hair with it in it's holder on the wall. The only thing is you have to be very careful on the tile floor when most of it is wet while walking. However, for locals with much much smaller feet than my size 15 shoes they have sandals (rubber to wear) so you don't slip and fall on the bathroom tile when it is wet. However, at size 15 that wasn't going to help me I just had to be very careful walking on the tile when it was wet.

This is just one of many experiences that are different here. Like the real fact that tips aren't allowed here at all. They pride themselves in doing the work for whatever price you pay and a tip might insult them because of the differences in their culture. They wouldn't make you take the tip back, however, because that would cause them embarrassment, usually.

So, whatever a cab, restaurant or whatever valet charges you they don't expect a tip so it is better if you don't tip them in this culture.

This was a completely surprise to me too.

Also, many places my friend says there are "Love Hotels". They usually don't provide the "Ladies of the evening" because you are supposed to get them for yourselves and bring them there. So, many places you might go there might not be "ANY" reasonable hotels other than "Love hotels" at a reasonable price for you to stay. So, this is something for you to think about too. This wasn't my experience, however, because I came to stay with friends at their place so I only spent about half my time here in South Korea in vacation hotels because I only stayed right near the main airport in Incheon and on Jeju Island which is a tourist hang out Hawaii kind of place from spring through fall of any year because in the winter it snows one to three days usually.

However, throughout most of South Korea the only "reasonable price" hotels might be love hotels. You can stay there of course without hiring anyone also. Since I have been married most of the last 40 years I wasn't interested in any of this.

When I was in Thailand I was surprised in the 1980s to find girls who are employed by the hotel usually from ages 18 to 25 who literally are sort of "married to the man" who is there for a month or more in that they would do anything a wife would do and maybe more than some wives would including shopping, cooking, cleaning and travel etc. However, I haven't been there in Bangkok for 30 years now since 1986 so I'm not sure what happens there now.