Anyone who travels will always end up in places that are a little strange. If you do not pre-book everything exactly like a cruise, but allow yourself to land where the day ends, then of course things happen that you don't necessarily want. We were stranded years ago in a motel belonging to the Old Scotsman chain in the USA, where the rooms smelled like cigarette ash filled the mattresses. And another time we got a room where you could only use the toilet if the toilet door was left open.
Looks like a normal Motel, but it isn't
Construction flaws, construction defects, different cultures and foreign customs - but as long as the bed is up and a roof is over it, you learn to come to terms with everything. In some countries, however, one encounters more new standards than elsewhere - and most of them you will find in Taiwan, the island formerly ruled by the Portuguese and Spaniards, which was once called Formosa and is now called the "Republic of China" (see my former posts), the capitalist alternative to the People's Republic of China the nearby mainland.
The manual for the very special electric chair in your room
Taiwan does not have such a distinctive motel or hotel culture as the USA or many European countries. Because most tourists actually only come to the capital New Taipei and make excursions from there, travelers who want to drive around the complete island are not allowed to ride with great demands. But there is even more to experience on the route.
You have your own garage under your room so nobody can see your who's in your car
So we ended up in an upscale beach hotel on the first night that was completely empty because the bathing season had not yet started and the waves of the Pacific hit the beach so high that a bath would have been suicidal, the second day of travel ends in a parallel world. A start that promises a lot!
Clean and modern - your room, with the chair
And the Love Motel on the next evening looks completely normal and fine at first too. A wide driveway, a high gate, you can drive your car directly into the underground car park and when you book the parking space you book your room straight away. Well thought out, and even more perfect that the access to the room is through a single garage. Park, close the gate, up the stairs, welcome.
A normal beach hotel, empty before the season
What looks a bit spooky at first, but makes sense, as it will turn out later. Because the Love Motel in Su'ao in Yilan County is not called that because the operators love their guests. No, we landed in a sex hotel: if you turn on the TV in your room, you land on a porn channel, if you pick up the remote control for the bed, you can set the endless pillow landscape in rhythmic movements. And the comfortable leather armchair that stands on the right side is not intended for television. But according to the information in the attached operating instructions for completely different purposes.
Back to the manual ;-)
This motel is built to serve as a secret sex hangout. If you drive in below, you can completely hide who you are with in your car. For the Taiwanese, who are incredibly shy about sex, it is a very important thing to be shy with all these thing. And if you are planning an affair or a meeting with a woman you can buy, you can do so here without running the risk of anyone being watched.
The normal room at the beach, with air conditioner (right)
An ingenious concept, because even breakfast is anonymously placed in front of the garage door. Not quite this stealthily, you book into iHotel E-Sports in Taoyuan City where we land one night later. The iHotel is not a real hotel by European or American standards, it only occupies one floor in a high-rise building.
Motel guests at the gamers motel
What is striking, however, is the number of teenage couples in school uniforms standing in line at the reception, especially boys and girls who giggle nervously before booking a room. That is not a problem, because the iHotel publicly advertises being a games hotel: There is fast internet and huge screens in the rooms, but only a tiny shower and an almost even smaller bed.
The sea where nobody is swimming
So the cover story is: boy invites girls to play video games in the ihotel rooms they rent regulary for one hour. But you can ask for a stay for the whole night, it's the same price, but it is cheap. What really happens then is easy to imagine, because most families in Taiwan live in such a small area that it is absolutely impossible for teenagers and young adults to bring their boyfriends home undetected. Instead, they play video games in the video game hotel. When the giggling and red-cheeked couples walk away after an hour or two, you can see that it is actually not the whole story, because they have played completely different games.
The iHotel is a motel for special games
So strange, so strange that the Hoya Hot Spring Resort & Spa in Zhiben Hot Spring seems almost normal. In the whole complex, an concrete skyscraper, it smells terribly of rotten eggs, but that is exactly the great trump card of the hotel, which stands near a dry river bed.
Small rooms, but a lot of electric
And on an active volcano: In the indoor pool in the basement, the water of a hot Qzuelle gushes straight out of the ground, because of the sulphurous water it smells unpleasant. But the guests, here no teenagers and no managers with their secretaries, enjoy the booth because the water is considered to be very beneficial to health.
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Never forget: No smoking in bed!
A normal hotel in Taipeh, recommended
The one at the beach, great
The view from the hotel room
Come in and find out
The bed is electric too
All the instructions, but only in chinese
Fabulous.