LUUUUURRRRVVVVVEEEEE

Standard room at the Relax Motel, Busan

So this is going to be a bit random, and mainly directed at people actually in Korea, but it occurred to me that a post on love motels, particularly decent ones that I've stayed at before might be helpful, not in the least to myself if I later on can't remember the details. For the unitiated, love motels are basically just cheap and quick accomodation (usually). Unlike hotels, people don't usually book ahead for them (although you can with most of course) and as the name suggests, are commonly used for couples looking for some privacy, whether it be from parents and siblings or from spouses and co-workers. Which is not to say that everyone who uses love motels is a no-good cheating louse, but the fact that you can often rent rooms for a one or four hour stint rather than for a night, and the fact that you can sometimes only check in after 10pm, and the fact that the carparks usually have some sort of rope curtain that goes down to about a metre off the ground so you can drive right in and check in without being seen does kind of hint at an illicit kind of reason for many clients being there. Having said that, when most Koreans live at home with their parents until they are married, and even then will probably frequently come home to visit - for example, a friend of mine lives at home with his parents and four of his five siblings. The other also often sleeps over because his workplace is closer to his parents house than his own, and then his wife and child also frequently visit, so no-one really has a permanent bedroom and finding sleeping space is a bit first-come, first-served (Koreans traditionally sleep on the floor, which is heated during the winter). So a bit of privacy might be hard to find at home, especially because (apparently) many Koreans don't necessarily tell/introduce their parents and family or even friends about the person they're dating until it's serious, which to some people might mean 2 or 3 years into the relationship when they decide to get engaged.

Bathroom from a 'themed' love motel

At any rate, for whatever reasons they are used for, love motels are also great for travellers looking for somewhere cheap to crash without having to worry too much about security and shared bathrooms. While some of the cheaper options in the love motel range are decidedly seedy, there are many that are not and are as nice or nicer than a hotel, and whatever deficiencies they might have, these are easily overlooked when you might only be paying from 30 000 to 60 000 won a night (from about $28 - $55), or maybe a bit more if you want somewhere 'themed' (each room is individually decorated in different themes) or with something fancy like mirrors on the ceilings and plush padded walls. A standard room will come with a double bed, a bathroom with at least a shower and toilet, and if you're lucky or it's a bit more of an upmarket motel, it will have a bath or a hot tub. There will also be a kettle, some basic hair stuff (brushes and a hair dryer, maybe a straightener), satellite tv (usually with at least three 'adult' stations), towels, a computer with internet access and a mini-bar fridge with complimentary water and probably a can of coffee and a cold drink in there. Although the dodgier ones there for mysterious romances are sometimes not too worried about things like replacing sheets with cigarette burns in them, for the most part, if you're paying more than 45 000 won for your room you can expect a decent standard of cleanliness and shouldn't be too worried about sleeping in the beds. On the other hand, if you're just looking for somewhere to crash and have a larger number of people, some of the dodgier places don't bother to check (or don't care) how many people come back with you to your room, whereas the more careful places will either make you pay more to have more people in your room or will downright refuse.

To date, these are the love motels that I've stayed at this year that I can still remember the names of and a quick rundown of where they are and what they were like:

- Busan, Haeundae
The Relax Motel (은하수 모텔): A 'luxury' motel at Haeundae Beach, about five minutes walk from the waterfront. I don't know why they decided to translate the name of the motel as 'Relax' when I've always thought '은하수' meant 'Milky Way', but there you go. I've only ever stayed there on the weekends (Friday and Saturday night), and rates are usually a bit higher then but still reasonable - 50 000 for a normal room, 60 000 for an 'executive', which means you get a bigger room and a nicer bathroom with a hot tub (I think). I believe the rates are 40 000 and 50 000 won respectively during the week, which is bordering on amazing for nice rooms, clean everything and somewhere that doesn't even have a hint of cigarette smoke, desperation and regret. However, because this motel is right on the beach, it does mean that prices skyrocket during the high season (think the second week of July through until August) as I found out after rocking up at 11pm on a Friday night expecting to find a room and being told that a standard room was now 160 000 won and an executive room was 200 000. If you do go to Busan during the summer, you're better off looking for cheap accomodation around KSU or somewhere not on one of the beaches, but unfortunately I can't remember the name of the motel I stayed in there.

Directions: go out of Haeundae Station, exit 5, walk down and take the second road on the left. You should see a big parking tower with a 'P' on it close by.


- Seoul, Sinchon (신촌)
Q Motel (큐 모텔): This is a pretty average motel, 50 000 a night per room (w/e rate) which will be about the size of a standard (Australian) dorm room. Still, it's not too bad, and although the floor space is pretty minimal and they are shower + toilet only bathrooms (I don't like bathing in a bathtub anyway so I don't have a problem with this), it has all the rest of the regular facilities, including a huge range of porn channels - beware, Japanese porn is not for the conservative, easily frightened or slow on the uptake. You may find yourself slightly aghast, confused and disgusted if you aren't quick to change the channel, unless of course that's what you're after. Someone crying and looking frightened on tv? Nope, it's not a horror movie, it's Japanese porn.

For those of you not familiar with Seoul or Korean, I wrote Sinchon in hangul because there are two very similarly spelled - one is this one, which is near Ewha, Yonsei, Hongdae and Sogang Universities, the other (신천) is over near Jamsil Stadium on the other side of the river. Unfortunately I can't find this motel exactly on a map, but here's an approximation:

Directions: Go out of Sinchon St exit 7, walk past Grandmart, away from Sinchon Rotary (the intersection). Walk down until you pass a Hana Bank and get to a pedestrian crossing. Cross the road, turn left and then take the first right. This road should go up a hill which will be pretty steep at first and then level out. The Q Motel is on the 3rd block with a red 'Q' on a green sign.

- Seoul, Gangnam:
BNN Motel (바나나 모텔): A fairly nice hotel, but with an awful curling brush to which I almost lost a sizeable chunk of hair! I now realise why brushes in hotels are always full of hair - it's because idiots like me think they can use them (don't worry, this one had been cleaned and was in a sealed packet) and then get them stuck in their hair and have to yank out half their scalp to get free. If it weren't for my friend Chauntee and a lot of patience I'd probably still be wearing it. Now Gangnam does tend to be a little more expensive since it's where the rich kids play, but it's not necessarily that much pricier than the rest of Seoul by Western standards, and even then it's usually worth it. BNN/Banana had good sized rooms, about the size of my current five person office, and a really nice bathroom complete with bathtub if you are that way inclined, as well as all the rest, and best of all was clean. Also, it's really close to the subway (the hotel is represented by my demented picture of a bunch of bananas on the map), and most of the bars and clubs are over at exits 6 and 7, so it's very handy. Also also! Now that I've found some decent and affordable places, I've found that Gangnam is a good place to stay because it's where the inter-city Express Bus Terminal is, which is handy for us out-of-towners. Seriously, after a big night out when you suspect that you're still drunk on the after effects of the soju you had the night before, the last thing you need is a 40 minute subway ride across town with a bunch of tutting ajummas and ajosshis coming back from church.

Directions to BNN: Go out of Gangnam Station exit one and you'll see a kind of side street/alleyway immediately on your right. Don't worry, it turns into a proper street. BNN is maybe 5 minutes walk at most, next to the Chocolate Motel.

Directions to IMT: Same as to BNN, but keep walking down for about 15 - 20 minutes (depending on how fast you walk, your shoes, and how much you're carrying of course). This is the blue 'X' on my map (too unco to write IMT, sorry).

IMT Hotel (IMT 모텔): We probably wouldn't have found this one if it weren't for the fact that everything else was either booked, unavailable until 10pm or unreasonably expensive for 3 people. The concierge here perhaps took pity on our sweaty and weary looks of beseeching exhaustion and only charged us an extra 10 000 won for the extra person rather than making us have two rooms or one of the big family rooms that motels sometimes have which are usually for 4 - 6 people and about 150 000 - 200 000 won. So it was 70 000 all up and the couch was comfortable enough (if a little short) to spend the night on. Like most of the others here, it was clean, didn't smell bad and had a decent bathroom. Oh but here I should add a quick note of warning: because it's assumed that most people staying in a room together are a couple, the bathroom doors are usually semi-transparent. If you're lucky the bedroom and bathroom are accessed by separate doors in the little hallway where you leave your shoes, but sometimes this isn't the case. If you're a little less lucky than that, the transparency will be minimal (i.e. mostly clouded glass) and/or the bathroom door will be at an angle that gives some privacy. If you're completely bereft of luck you better be willing to see a bit more of your friends than anticipated because the door will be facing straight into the bathroom and either be almost completely transparent (think a clear glass door with a clouded glass bubble pattern which does nothing to hide anything) or if they got really creative, may have a reflective doorway which effectively lets you see right into the bathroom. Why these things are necessary... well it's probably best not to think about it. Anyway, this one was of middling luck (the bubble door but tucked away at the end of the room... however, it did face the toilet, similarly partitioned, and had the sink right between the two doors) and was of middle size, but apparently the jets in the bath didn't work. Mind you, the shower was freakin' awesome! After 12 months (effectively) of shower-nozzle showers this one was brilliant - it was like standing in the pouring rain, but warm :)

Anyway, as you may have noticed, BNN and IMT were on the same street - in fact, the street was almost entirely love motels. I haven't been in them, but it's probably safe to say that they are of relatively high quality. EXCEPT FOR ONE! Unless you are really desperate or have no money, do NOT go to the first motel (it is on the right side of the alley before it even becomes a street). We went in there to ask prices and immediately noticed that rates were quoted by night (40 000 won) AND by 4 hour stints (20 000 won). The guy at the front desk looked decidedly seedy, and then also decidedly pissed off when we asked to see the rooms. He took his sweet time getting up, but by then we'd decided to play it safe and left. It's probably a bit mean to cast aspersions, but if I had to stay there I'd want to be sleeping with a cast-iron wallet and a cast-iron belt around my kidneys.

Anyway that's about it. Of course, the other alternative is always jjimjilbangs or bath houses, but that's another post for another day. If any of my dear readers have their own favourites that they'd like to include, please feel free to post a quick description in the comments section.

Much love intrepid travellers!

Good lord, it's a bus full of teachers!



Hello all! Yesterday being the last day of school, today was the teachers' end of year 'picnic' trip. And oh boy was it a wowser! I can in all honesty say that I've never been on such an interesting and also possibly such an illegal business trip in my life. It wasn't that we did one particular thing that was spectacular, but rather, the whole day added up to .... well, something pretty darn memorable!



Lucy and I braving a taxi

 Ok so first things first. The lovely Lucy came to visit on Sunday last week and stayed with me for three days, discovering the joys of ondol heating (Korean underfloor-heating) and particularly, how awesome it is to sleep on when it's cold outside! Also, the joys of noraebang (karaoke), soju, Korean taxis, snow, snow and more snow. On our first night, in the space of a 20 minute journey, our taxi driver managed to only just miss colliding with a delivery bike and another taxi, and then dropped us off in the middle of the road, nowhere near the pavement, leaving us to splash through a pile of dirty slush.

Introducing Lucy to Cass beer

Oh and the snow... so yes, it's been cold. It was so cold that on the way to and from Incheon Airport, the condensation on the inside of the bus windows FROZE, even with the heating on. Luckily it started raining on Lucy's last day, so the snow melted a little and wasn't so bad... or so I thought. At about 12, the rain became snow. And more snow. And more snow. About 10cms later, it eased up a little.. needless to say, I am very definitely sleeping on my floor these days as even with a hoodie, trackies, three blankets and my heating turned up full blast, my bed isn't cutting the mustard any more. (If you want to see snow pics, you can have a look at my facebook albums - will post a link in a bit). Oh and hehe, I have a confession to make here - as previously confessed, I am not a fan of snow. But I don't mind it so much when it's as thick as this was, as it's way easier to walk on and more crunchy than slippery. As I was meeting Lara for dinner on Tuesday, I remembered that she had professed a wish for a snowball fight. Obligingly, I decided that a surprise snowball would be in order, that I would spring out with. Going for the surprise 'snow' factor rather than the 'fight', I decided that I'd only toss it, and throw with my left hand so there'd be a chance it wouldn't actually hit her at all. So I hid behind a car, and got ready to girly-throw my ball of powdery fluff...

Ba-bow. Failure. Not only did I manage to hit her, I managed to hit her right in the face. O_O

So back to the story. What with the cold and all, most of us had our fingers crossed that the teachers' trip today would be cancelled, as we knew we were going to Namiseon (남이선), an island in Gyeonggi-do famous for its scenery and for being the site for much of the famous Korean drama [Winter Sonata] ([겨울 연가]). (These days, apparently some famous Thai film has also been shot there.) But no, so we all turned up at school and hopped onto the bus at 9 and set off. Being in Korea, this meant, we immediately cracked open the food, so everyone got their roll of kimbap, as well as a bottle of water, a packet of songpyeon and sweet ddok (see earlier post for an explanation) and a little snackpack consisting of a packet of salted peanuts, two mini nougat chocolate bars (like Milky Ways), a small packet of Gosomi biscuits, two mandarines, some gum, some caramels and a cheese sausage stick. And of course, the alcohol. Most of the male teachers were sitting at the back of the bus, like where the tough kids sit, and three bottles of soju immediately found their way there.


Mohyeong Joong library entrance

Before heading to Namiseon however, we made a detour by Mohyeon Middle School in Yongin which is famous for both a high record of academic achievement and for it's excellent afterschool- and mentoring programs. It was amazing! Perhaps because it was kind of on the outskirts of the city, almost in a kind of small satellite town, the grounds and buildings were twice the size of ours with space for gardens and some small fields for their agricultural program. Once inside, everything was clean, well sign posted, very modern looking and brightly decorated. We peeked into a classroom, which looked to be about a third again as big as ours, and then went to the library to watch a short video on their afterschool program and talk to some of the teachers in charge of it.

It. Was. Amazing! The library was beautifully decorated, both structurally and by the students (presumably), and very inviting. Apparently Hankook University of Foreign Language Studies has a campus in the town nearby, which supplies their Mentoring (like after-school tutoring) programs with all their teachers too. My co-teacher Ms Shin (who is also in charge of supervising the afterschool program) asked their supervisor what their secret was to a successful program, to which they answered "it's magic!" Cute, but possibly somewhat smug? ... Anyway, it was a beautiful school, so any smugness would be well justified!

1/3 of the school building and a third of their playground





Another 1/3 of the total building




Handing out the Cass

So after Mohyeon, we piled back on the bus and started the 1 and a half hour trip it would take to get us to Namiseon. By now it was about 11.30, so obviously, it was beer o'clock. Since it was a more reasonable hour, some of the female teachers joined in, so I didn't feel so bad about sharing a beer with my bus-buddies Miss Cho and the tech teacher Mr Lee Soong-Gi, although some of the other teachers made surprised noises that I was able to drink. Even more surprising however was when the bad boy teachers at the back lit up and started smoking. Yep, you read that right - teachers, smoking, on the bus. Oh, sorry, smoking AND drinking, on the bus. Just like would probably happen if it was a school trip with the kids and one of them had lit up (probably without the alcohol though), soon the other teachers up the front noticed and started yelling at the smokers to put out the cigarettes and telling them off for the smell. The rebels tried cracking open the hatch at the back, but eventually put out their smokes, thank God.

Some six packs of beer later, we got to Namison, just in time for lunch. Keep in mind the food that we had already had, as well as two more boxes of mandarines that we'd been munching our way through, as well as the beer and soju... but this was barely an appetiser. Lunch was dak-kalbi (닭갈비), bing-eo twikim (빙어 튀김) and makguksu (막국수), a kind of broiled chicken marinated in a spicy sauce, deep-fried freshwater anchovies, and buckwheat noodles in a spicy sauce/soup served cold, like a mix between mul-naengmyeon and bibim-naengmyeon, but with julienned carrot strips, lettuce and kim (seaweed). Unlike the kind I'd tried before however, this dak-kalbi was grilled like samgyeopsal over a firepot. Of course, it was all delicious! Especially the bing-eo, which had really soft and almost creamy flesh, and wasn't crunchy like it's saltwater cousins, myeolchi (멸치) which is usually dried before it appears in dishes. And of course, there was more alcohol. Since none of the three teachers I was sittng with drank however, I didn't have anything either, which was lucky because I don't think I could have knocked back the three or four (or five or six) bottles of soju that ALL of the other tables were managing. Don't get the wrong idea (if you've never been to a Korean meal in Korea before), it wasn't a general lunch-time sot-fest. It was very convivial, with everyone pouring drinks and toasting each other, and as is usual for Korean meals, making sure everyone had lots to eat and sharing the best bits of the dishes with everyone else, in some cases force-feeding each other by holding it to their mouths and insisting "먹어! 먹어!" ("mok-o! mok-o!"/ "eat! eat!")

Soju bottle Christmas tree

After lunch, we sauntered onto the ferry and made the 5 minute journey out to 'The Republic of Namiseon', highly amused that our tickets were in fact 'visas' and that the boat proudly declared "We Are All Naminarians! Welcome!" on the front. Despite the snow, or maybe because of it, it was beautiful! Many of the teachers had been at least once before, so we just kind of wandered around the tiny island, looking at all the displays and trying not to make the resident wild ostriches and Muscovy ducks angry (if you know anything about either of these animals, both can be prone to rather violent anger) and taking lots of pictures. Despite the large crowds of tourists, many from Japan, Thailand, China and Vietnam, it was very serene and peaceful, and we saw various ice-sculptures (or rather icicle-sculptures made from frozen fountain jets), the UNICEF Hall of Peace, dozens of different artworks made of soju bottles, the Cheot-kisu (첫키스 or 'first kiss') place from 'Winter Sonata', Meta-Sequoia Lane, a strange kind of pyramid made of books, and so on. And there were periodic woodfires to melt yourself in front of, so it was very nice ^_^

Meta-Sequoia Lane

My principal and Mr Park having a snow fight

Ms Ha (?), Miss Cho, Ms Shin and Ms Park

**Sadly, I don't have any more photos after this point as my camera has gone kaput for some unknown reason**

After an hour or so of wandering around freezing our butts off, it was home time, so we putted back across the semi-frozen river on the ferry and gladly scrambled back into our warm bus. Once we were all in, the teachers began again on that consummate solution to the cold - more alcohol - and began shouting for another - noraebang! Others brought up the small point that karaoke on buses is now in fact illegal in Korea, to which the Principal, Mr Kim, responded that yes, and so was drinking alcohol. Twenty minutes of discussion later, as one of the teachers who is leaving next year to do his PhD moved down the bus pouring shots for everyone (Miss Cho, who doesn't drink, was very smart and took a very small amount, then discreetly spat it out while pretending to drink a cup of coffee), and the art teacher Mr Lee Kwang-Jae solved the argument by putting a song on, picking up the microphone, and belting it out, followed by four others, all male, and all most likely the biggest drinkers. Having warmed up the bus-mosphere, they then decided that since none of the women were singing, the best way to spread the trend was by making ME do one. I am by no stretch of the imagination a good singer, being mostly tone-deaf, but I can usually hit a few of the right notes (mostly by accident). So I wasn't exactly keen. Nonetheless, seeing that there was nowhere to run away to, I thought "why not? Better to embarrass myself having a go at something rather than falling over drunk at a dinner at some point", took a deep breath, got up and belted out "All I Want For Christmas" by Mariah Carey. Having been completely abandoned by Miss Cho, thankfully then EVERYONE (including the people who had been pretending to sleep) on the bus started clapping along, in some cases singing, and then my Principal, bless him, got up and danced along to the music. If you've never seen a short, stocky, slightly tipsy Korean man in his late fifties with a jolly face and a decided pot belly in a suit dancing along to Mariah Carey, pulling faces, pouting, cheering, and occasionally shouting out "WOO WOO WOO!" behind you on a moving bus while 35 other teachers cheer you both on, you've never done karaoke.

My martyrdom over, everyone politely cheered and I sat down highly embarrassed, and highly amused :) The singing and dancing, including the Principal pretending to pash one of the other male teachers, and at one point what was almost a six-teacher conga line in the aisle, continued for another two hours, and we finally reached our school once more at 8pm after what was possibly the most illegal and interesting bus trip I've ever had in my life. P.S. the cherry on the sundae (or even Thursdae, ㅋㅋㅋ) - I don't have to go in to work tomorrow. My school rocks!

Making and then fixing foot problems

Taking a kimbap break on our danpoong

Not exactly sure why, but last week my foot started aching. Specifically, the arch of my foot, possibly from wearing cheap ballet flats with no support and even though I have awesome sneakers, running at the gym probably didn't help. I was then dumb enough to go ahead with hiking in freezing weather a week ago last Saturday to Mt Kangcheong in Sunchang, Cheollabuk-do (which was beautiful and great fun) to see the autumn leaves. BTW, on a cultural note, just to show that I do do cultural stuff too, Koreans call this kind of outing danpoong (단풍) and because you only get the most brilliant leaves for a few weeks, weekends tend to be extremely busy and every mountain is usually swarming with busloads of Korean ajummas (a ferocious breed of middle-aged or at least middle-aged looking ladies) and ajosshis (middle-aged to elderly men) in a variety of very impressive hiking gear, various stages of boisterousness and usually for the men, some degree of drunkeness.  There are also the usual family groups with their kids, tourists and school excursion groups, so it's not a good idea to go if you aren't prepared to occasionally have to push your way through a crowd and be elbowed in return, but everyone usually has a good time looking at the pretty colours and if you get a bottle of makkolli (a kind of cloudy grain alcohol that tastes like a mix of beer and yakult) like we did you don't tend to feel the cold as much :) And also, if you make everyone on your bus sing karaoke for 3 hours on the way back to Cheongju like we did, it's a lot of fun even if you aren't very sporty!

So consequently, even though I had a great time admiring the colours of the leaves with my friends, I spent the rest of the weekend, and the first couple of work days limping around like a lame duck. As my English lab is on the fourth floor in a different wing of my school, this means a lot of stairs. Up until Tuesday, I put off going to see a doctor because I didn't think it was that bad ... and I didn't want to be sent to an acupuncturist (I hate needles) or made to take some awful tasting and horribly expensive Oriental medicine which would be the normal Korean course of action for a sore foot. I think my co-teachers got a bit worried about me hobbling around though, since my school is like an Arctic wind tunnel, and the heating hasn't been turned on for any of the classrooms yet, so on Tuesday they ganged up and organised getting me to an orthopaedic doctor (orthopaediatrist???).

And it actually turned out to be pretty interesting! True to form in any country, the consultation with the doctor was predictably short (less the 5 minutes face time). After looking at an x-ray of my foot, the good doc agreed that it was probably just a strained muscle, gave me a prescription and said goodbye. All pretty routine, right? Well that's where it got interesting - as well as some pills, my prescription included something that the teacher who'd brought me (Mr Lee) translated as "massage". Ok. Sounded good. So upstairs we headed... where there was what I guess was the physiotherapy centre. Mr Lee had to head back to school for class, and sadly I had to miss out on my class with the ... shall we say, most rascally and lowest level 2nd year girls' class with the worst attitudes? (Normally that phrase would be replaced by one word, beginning with a 'b', and well justified for a class where a student used the 'f' word to my face twice the week before.)  So somehow I didn't feel too upset about missing a class with them. :D

Heat pad sandwich with my foot

Anyway, I settled in for my "massage". (Here you'll have to excuse my complete lack of knowledge about both medicine and machinery.) This began with thirty minutes of lying down in a quiet room with a hot compress on my foot. Napping optional ^_^ Then a lovely nurse who didn't laugh too much at my knee-high stripey yellow witch socks or at my Korean name (which is very old-fashioned and for some reason was decided to be my real name for my health insurance here) came in, took off the compress and squirted some sort of anti-inflammatory blue ultrasonic gel over my foot, and massaged it in with this weird kind of ultrasonic machine (I seriously have no idea what it was!). Once that was done and the excess gel wiped off, she then attached some gel pads to my foot and hooked me up to a kind of neuro-stimulator gadget thing which sent series of gentle electronic pulses through my foot while a heat lamp thingy kept it warm.

My neighbour with some sort of butt problem.

As you can see in the picture to the left, for deeper intramuscular injuries, there was also the option to get some sort of sucker things attached, presumably the electronic version of the Asian practice of cupping. And yes, that's a sneaky photo of the lady who was in the other bed in my stall getting her butt cupped, just because I thought it was a funny picture. The nurse was very professional when she had to massage in the gel and the lady pulled her pants down further and told her that the pain was 'further in the middle' but I think I saw her sigh silently ㅋㅋ

Mr Lee then came back to collect me and took me to the pharmacist to get my medicine.

Just a quick note for those of my dear readers not in Korea, when you collect a prescription in Korea, they give you each dose of your medicine individually packaged in little, well, packets, usually only for a few days at a time to encourage you to come back for a check-up. This is great because it's really convenient and also keeps prices cheap because you don't have to buy a whole box.

Foot-twitching machine

Heat lamp

The teachers at my school were very relieved that I was getting treatment, and after a good night's sleep, I was very impressed at how much better my foot felt! Two more days of treatment and the pain was virtually gone! So much so that I elected to choose partying over prudence and wore heels for two nights straight. Feeling slightly less spruce today so I may have to go back later in the week. But nevertheless, the detrimental effect of my own determination and the seductive lure of a pair of very beautiful boots aside, I was thoroughly impressed with Korean orthopaedics! Oh and the best bit - cost! Extremely low (by Australian standards).  Even without health insurance, Korean consultation fees and prescriptions are extremely cheap.

pulse machine generator whatsit

Prepare to be amazed:
X-ray: 70 000 won (about $60)
Doctor's consultation fee per visit including 'massage': 2300 won (about $2) each time -> 3 days, 7200 won (about $6.80)
Prescription (6 days of medicine): 4600 won (about $4)

Yes. All in all, I paid less than $80 for a week of specialist treatment, most of which was the x-ray. Korea - you rock.