My daughter on occasion does some modeling work for a children's clothing wholesaler (this is what happens when your Asian wife is convinced that your Amerasian child needs to be shared with the entire world). Today was one of those days, only with a difference. Usually the photo sessions take place on a Saturday morning at the company's office, but on this Saturday, the time was changed to the early afternoon, and the location was at one of T'áichūng's 臺中 infamous boutique hotels, the Mùlán Motel 沐蘭旅館.
For those who are unfamiliar with the concept of boutique hotels, they are basically overdecorated, overpriced...sorry, "upmarket" versions of what the Japanese introduced to the world in the postwar period as "love hotels" ラブホテル. For NT10,000, you and your loved one (or whomever you just happened to have picked up that evening) can spend the night getting horizontal (or vertical, if the case may be) in a "high-class" room complete with a home entertainment system, jacuzzi, a themed bedroom and, for some strange reason, a toilet sans door (how that might excite one's erogenous zones is beyond my comprehension). Yes, that's $350 (or ¥28,000) for a night of sin in a room the aesthetics of which can best be described as appealing to a poor, barely educated farmer who suddenly struck it rich in the lottery. It's lust the nouveau riche way!
What I can't understand is why the company chose a love motel as the setting for photos of children wearing the latest summer fashions. While standing around outside waiting while the room was being readied, there was a busy stream of couples driving in and out of the motel, including a foursome in one car (cue the imagination to get a workout). I don't know what the visitors were making of the sight of seven adults, four kids and several bags of clothing and equipment, but hopefully their thoughts were of the clean and wholesome variety, even if their nights (and afternoons, in some cases) probably weren't.
The bedroom. The kids made a beeline for the bed and started bouncing up and down on it. Fortunately, none of them noticed the dish of condoms on the chest of drawers next to the bed, and so no awkward questions had to be answered.
The bathtub area, complete with tastefully arranged faux palm trees.
Amber strikes a pose. Yeah, baby!
For Amber and the other kids, the highlight of the afternoon came, no doubt, at the end, when they all got to play in the tub.
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