Adventures in Gwangju....The green tea plantation, dildo vending machines and more!

I went to Gwangju last weekend (April 29-30) with my friends Aurelia and Matthew. We planned on visiting some of Aurelia's friends and taking a day trip to the tea plantation. We arrived in Gwangju and searched for a cheap motel...

We found a quaint little "love motel' . The kind of place that rents by the hour, but so very common in Korea. This one was actually pretty nice and even had a dildo vending machine in the hallway. We checked into our room, unloaded our stuff, and tried not to think of the kinky acts that had most likely occurred there the night before.
Then we went to a delicious dinner of shabu shabu with Aurelia's friends who were fantastic. After, we ventured off to a party in a 2 story pagoda with live music and outstanding views from the top.
The next day we headed to Boseong to see the famous green tea plantation. The views were breathtaking. The hills were lined with perfectly hedged rows of lush green tea. From the top of the hills there were views of the ocean and islands off the southern coast of Korea.


We enjoyed green tea ice cream and attempted to get on a nori-bong ,(Korean karaoke) dancing, soju tour bus back to Busan. We knew we had missed the last bus home and would have to take a bus to Sucheon instead. To our surprise, a group of drunk Koreans from Busan told us to go back with them on what looked like a party on wheels. Sounded like a great idea until we went to get on the bus and the driver flipped out screaming in Korean. Some of the passengers yelled back in our defense, pleading with him to let us on. We sat there looking confused and feeling quite awkward. Then one of the passengers flipped out and refused to get on the bus unless we did. It was crazy so we quietly slipped away from the scene and watched the bus depart.
We ended up going to Sucheon and upon arriving to switch buses used their bathroom. One of the stalls said "Foreigner Only" and I nearly fell on the floor laughing after seeing it. I don't think they meant to be racist and only allow foreigners to use that stall but it is racist not to allow Koreans to use it. I don't really understand some of the strange things in this country.
Upon getting to our bus back to Busan there was a commotion because no seats were left. We stood outside the bus as a man with no seat proceeded to throw a fit. He yelled at the bus driver in the sort of madness a guy gets when he finds out his credit card had been charged thousands of dollars. Then he just plain out started punching the driver and some of the passengers had to restrain him. In any other country the guy would have been thrown off the bus or even arrested. This guy just stayed on the bus and everyone acted like nothing happened. He even bought us each a coffee at the first stop. That's when another passenger got off the bus and yelled for 25 minutes. This is going to be a long bus ride I thought.....and we have to sit on the floor between passengers with smelly feet for 3 hours!