Day 5
Most of the day was spent at home, trying to recover my strength - South Korea is 'awesome sick' and so am I. However, not wanting to waste the entire day, I decided to explore Gangnam for a couple of hours while Seung was out.
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| Just around the corner from the family home |
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| Gangnam extravagance |
Gangnam has a variety of boutique and big chain stores, though you'll be getting into more expensive territory here. No shop had a lot customers at a time (or at least the time I went) which meant that salespeople had a habit of stalking me in their shop. Pretty desperate, if you ask me.
One of my favourite things to see in Gangnam was a group of friends eating dinner around a table inside a tiny boutique shop. I would have taken a photo, but apparently they didn't like me looking in. I think I'll live.
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| Classy |
Feeling like we'd been eating enough at home lately, Seung and I decided to go out for dinner in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam. (Actually, the amount of smaller districts within Gangnam have made me realise just how big the place is; it is much bigger than I initially thought.) Tonight was a night -
the night - for Korean fried chicken. We went to a hof bar (always displayed as 'HOF'), of which there are many around Seoul. Hof bars are essentially casual restaurants with a focus on social drinking, complemented by party food such as fried chicken. To give an idea of the price, the chicken dishes were all around the 18,000 won mark, with Korean liquor coming to a whopping 4,000 won per bottle (though it didn't encourage us to get more.) We had the 'hot taste chicken' and crispy chicken with the addition of dipping sauces, pickled radish and coleslaw (naturally, the additions were all free.) I can honestly say that I love Korean fried chicken, but I don't think I'll be eating any for the rest of my trip (it takes its toll - a heavy toll.) Oh, the fries were pretty mind blowing as well.
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| The girls next to us never touched their food; they only drank beer and talked |
Through my laughter, I feared that Seung was going to die from intoxication only with his first drink of weak rice wine. Luckily, that never eventuated. However, that's not to say that there were no drunks in the hof. I had to move around the table next to Seung to watch the entertainment unfold at the table in front of us. A bunch of nervous businessmen trying to keep their drunken friend in check whilst still trying to have fun always makes a night more lively. However, the move to sit next to Seung was poorly calculated on my part, as the girls at the table next to us stopped their otherwise ceaseless conversation to give a look that told us how gay we must have seemed. These things happen.
We went to a ho bar afterwards, which was just above the hof. It reminds me of awful bar/club hybrids back in Sydney in that they've tried for a bar with a club atmosphere. The exception here is that the execution was better (not that that's difficult.) Rather than going up to the bar to order, there are fairly androgynous waitresses who give you drinks menus and will take your orders/money for and from you respectively. I felt like the atmosphere was better here than in Sydney bar/club hybrids due to slightly less head-splitting music and even less trashy patrons (they were really just there to chat over drinks, play some pool and bop along to the music.) However, Seung claims that I'm biased, as they were broadcasting the MAMA Awards (a K-pop awards night) on the television monitors around the place. I may or may not have 'fan-boyed' over Lee Hyori a bit too much.
The final leg of Seung's master plan was to go to one of Asia's largest clubs, Ellui. Unsure of whether or not I really wanted to go, it was pretty encouraging to see every young person in the area walking towards the club. However, fate had something else in store for us as we realised that we'd left our IDs at home. Bars in Seoul don't tend to check for ID, but clubs (or at least the ones we've seen) do. We went home (as it was only a 15-minute walk) to get our IDs, but then Papa Ha - Police Officer Papa Ha - convinced Seung that Ellui was a bad idea, due to the number of fights that break out at one of the biggest clubs in Asia. Still determined to go out however, Seung found another place to go to, only to have Papa Ha inform him that girls there like to tug on guys sleeves and then later file charges of sexual harassment against them. Papa Ha's got moves.
I don't know what you readers would think of it all, but suddenly it was 1AM, I was sickly and we were tired; we opted for bed. I have to say that I was thankful for the extra rest. So ended Day 5.
Day 6
Today Seung and I met Soohyun for brunch in Anguk. We were all going to go see N Seoul Tower with some tour guides later, so it unfortunately cut our time here short. From what I saw of the place, it's a historical and cultural tourist attraction. There were many old style buildings and apparently there's a place, too. There was also a public library (which we really wanted to see) and heaps of art galleries, some of which the entry fee was only fifty cents. It's a shame we didn't have time to look inside any of them, but hopefully I'll be able to go back there.
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| A church |
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| "Original site of the Joseon Language Society" |
We had brunch at a place called Tea Therapy, where you could soak your feet in tea (for free if you bought tea and food.) No time for that, though. I had Shirzana tea (I think) and, boy -
boy - was it delicious. I'm unsure of how well old school Koreans understand the concept of brunch, because Mama Ha had made us a breakfast of mixed brown and black rice, seaweed soup, pickles and smoked duck before we left. I'm glad I didn't get food like Seung and Soo, because they had a set tea that came with their meal, which apparently tasted like medicine. Tea Therapy has this fun flow chart to determine which teas on the menu are best suited to each individual. However, I don't recommend it if you don't understand Korean, are with Koreans and you have health issues, because there are some pretty personal questions in there. (e.g. Do you have diarrhea often?)
We met our tour guides, Kyu-Ri and Young, at 1PM to visit the N Seoul Tower (also known as Namsan Tower.) The two guides were Korean university students who volunteer in a program called Meteor Youth (
their website, if you're interested) which provides free tours for foreigners. The best part about going on a tour with Kyu-Ri and Young was that they were there to enjoy themselves just as much as we were. I couldn't have asked for a nicer pair of guides and it just felt like we were travelling around with a couple of friends by the end of the day. Not really being one to spruik organisations and the like, I should note that if you're wanting detailed historical information about the sites you're visiting, you ought to buy a pamphlet or look it up online, because you can't guarantee that the guides (who are volunteers) have been to these places a million times before. That said, I much prefer the more personal and friendly experience that we got to have. I would definitely do it again if I were looking to see sites, as they're especially great for helping you get around if you don't know Korean.
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| (Left to right) Seung, Soohyun, me, Kyu-Ri and Young |
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| Nobody listens when I say not to take photos with the sun behind people |
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| I mean really |
The Namsan Tower area itself is beautiful and provides a spectacular view of Seoul. The only problem today was that there was a lot of fog/dust that obscured the view.
There were traditional Korean performances being held in the square in front of the tower. These included a dance as well as traditional Korean martial arts and weapon performances. All were impressive, though the latter two especially, considering that staged combat is difficult to pull off in my books. That, and maybe because I'm a guy. The accompaniment of metal music seemed a bit out of place for a traditional-style performance. Maybe that's just me, though.
Going up the Namsan Tower was made more exciting by the fact that our tour guides had never actually gone up it before either. I'd say it's the Korean equivalent of the ANZ Tower (formerly the Center Point Tower) in Sydney city, but seeing the sheer magnitude of Seoul in its entirety is breathtaking, complemented by the view of mountains in the background.
Young and Kyu-Ri then took us to eat tteokbokki and soondae for dinner in Gangnam. You might recall that I tried tteokbokki on my first day in South Korea with the Ha-Ha Brothers, but it was spicier (and therefore better) here. Soondae is essentially a sausage of rice noodles, meat, vegetable and possibly a little blood all encased in a pig's intestine. How old school. It didn't taste half bad and even came with some liver on the side to boot. There were also tuigim (tempura) vegetables, the sweet potato which was like an even more delicious potato scallop (though it was sadly lacking in chicken salt.) It made for a nice light dinner with some sweet conversations.
Sending off a tired Soohyun at a nearby subway, the guides exposed me to some Korean street food that I finally adore. They were just marinated chicken skewers, but it gives me chills thinking about how tasty they were. Actually, the marinade reminded me a lot of my own mother's marinade for pork spare ribs. A little taste of home in South Korea is always welcome.
Being the socialite that he is, Seung had organised for us to go to some social gathering in a bar. There were both foreigners and Koreans wanting to practise their English, which made for a pretty good time. I'm glad that Young and Kyu-Ri joined us, because they certainly added to the fun and hopefully had a good time themselves. Whilst I'm sure Seung put himself out there and met a lot more people than myself, I did manage to remember a few new names, including Simona from Romania, Ryan, David and 'Kobe Jordan' ("Why not, man?") from the US, Clement from France, as well as Hunter, Ryan, Sooji, Kate (Korean name: Karam(?)) and Silver from South Korea. There was also an interesting lady from New York there (who's name I never caught) who was working for a South Korean dating service. So fascinating was this to me that I made sure to recommend her services to my friends present. No thanks was needed.
At 10:30PM, after Young and Kyu-Ri left, we were all ushered out of the bar to make our way to a club called TheA. Whilst most people were smart enough to catch taxis, my small group of around ten people decided to walk and enjoy the cool night air. Following a Korean lady who apparently knew her way around, we (of course) got lost, which ended up losing four members of our party. Totally worth the bonding experience though. Along with the Korean lady, whose name we apparently never learnt, we also met a cool Canadian guy, Kurtis. It made for an entertaining walk.
I don't like clubs. I never have and I doubt that I ever will. They're loud, seedy, have expensive drinks and don't often play great music. Korean clubs have the addition of people being able to smoke pretty much anywhere on the premises. It was pretty amusing watching people getting crunk with a cigarette in their mouth, though less amusing when those cigarettes barely missed my face. If there's one upside of Korean clubs, it's that augmented Korean girls tend to look better in the dark on average than people in the clubs I've been to back in Australia. I stress the 'on average' part. Not enough people were dancing to have fun, if you know what I mean. So, in essence, if you enjoy clubbing, you'll probably like Korean clubs (I'll get back to you on that, if I end up visiting more.)
Complaints about clubbing aside, Seung and I went out for a bit to get some refreshments from a convenience store and ended up chatting for a while outside. Seeing a girl standing by herself for what was too long in the cold, I started talking to her, with Seung translating for me. Was it creepy for me to do so? Maybe. Did she think I was a creep? Probably. Did I care? Hardly. Whatever the case, it put me in higher spirits for the rest of the night and I did my best to enjoy the club in the only way I knew how. I danced.
Seung and I ended up leaving with Kurtis when he decided he'd mooched enough free booze off the general manager and figured out just how much that guy reeked of villainy. Thus began the journey home, with Mr Kurtis Dildo (he vibrates when he's happy) to accompany us with his own Canadian person and life story. He's a fun guy who I won't be forgetting any time soon, so said getting home at 4:45 in the morn and sleeping at 6:30 (Seung takes really long showers.)
p.s. Koreans seem to love overripe fruit. I do not.
- Charith
