korea :: seoul :: general

[dismalfuture]

i'm still mad you weren't in seoul when i was dismal.

Man, I have been doing some serious soul searching, and just can't come up with any more excuses for being in Seoul anymore, I've wasted them all away over the past 5 years. You came during that really short time I was back in the States, but I've been over there otherwise going at it so solid, I look so shit and have aged in Itaewon/Hongdae years, which are much like doggy years. I was serious in the DMZ thread when I said that the next Team DMZ meetup needs to happen in the Greek Islands, I'm trying not to be seen in the ROK anymore...

[thomas_highstreet]

ahahahha good read!

"Always Homme" is such a good name too. im not even a bum boy but id make it my regular hangout just for that.

[dismalfuture]

Man T, you would surprised how many Korean girls are down to hit Homo Hill with you if you offer, it's a safe hangout. As with everything else in Seoul, nothing is going off until like Friday and Saturday, but the weekend rolls around and if it's a warmer season, you will find yourself walking up Homo Hill being accosted by hundreds of shirtless Korean men in nice pants and shoes til you get to the bar.

Homo Hill on Saturday night after the Namsan Park cruising grounds shut down is a total shitshow, but it's actually the only place I've seen Korean guys in designer clothes as well, go figure, haha.

[thomas_highstreet]

ahhaha..

italian designer clothes?

[dismalfuture]

yeah, Koreans had a real stiffy for Italian gear awhile back, but they change with the times as well... I bet they're all up there on Homo Hill still shirtless, but in those loopless Raf trousers and metallic sequined derbies nowadays...

Homo Hill guys inevitably look very similar to sufu WAYWT posts, always asian homme...

[thomas_highstreet]

hahahaha!!!!!

cool cool.. well.. gay bars are like my secret weapon for gettin the honeyz. they love the gay club atmos.

homo hills in itaewon though right? is ther any other areas that are similar bumvibes but elsewher?

[dismalfuture]

nah, there's Namsan for hard cruising and American Apparel shops where I always get cruised on by shop staff... there's the Hamilton Hotel's Sauna too, where I went for a month before finding out it was a gay sauna... I SMS'd kimchigirl to verify after this famous comedian jumped around with his schlong bouncing around in front of me while I was trying to watch TV... the same guy had tried to cruise me at a club like3 months before so I put 2 and 2 together after my 18th time there...

I whipped up this gay little Google map for ya, with my super noob photoshop skillz. Maps out Sodom and Gomorrah, and then S = subway exits, M = models!!!!!!, T= trannies, and then the relevant... you can compare it to the reg Google map for bearings...

[thomas_highstreet]

ahahhahahaa

whats actually in nigerian alley?

[dismalfuture]

Nigerian alley is a taco shop, a few Nigerian cell phone shops, some Nigerian groceries selling hair products, a Turkish shawarma stand (the fucking best!!) at the end corner near the tube exits, and then the rest of the street is Korean food stalls selling like steamed octopus and scallion pancakes... I sat down at one and ended up sharing a nice meal of dumplings and scallion cakes with a nice Filipina hooker who was there this past summer after I'd been on the whiskey from sundown til sunup, and I ended up getting rickrolled by like 3 angry Korean guys in slippers, I don't remember the rest of the story but Nigerian alley isn't the happiest place on earth mate....

[thomas_highstreet]

kebap?

yeah sounds a bit poo, but potentially great fun, i want to make friends with all the working girls

dude, are ther any hippy vege wholefood hoe downs in seoul? surely?

[dismalfuture]

Nah, there seriously isn't. I know of one great restaurant that is vaguely veggie, but still dishes up a couple fish things.

There is a page of the handful of veggie places, there's one veggie restuarant (or was, not sure if it's still there now) at Ewha, TVP bulgogi and all, and there's a free veggie buffet run by something like the Krishnas, but I think you gotta endure their lecture before they let you at the food...

Most veggies in Korea are fat Canadian girls (yeah I know, wtf right) and they usually end up pigging out on total garbage food. Among Korean people themselves, 100X better chances of being a homosexual than a vegetarian... veggies do a lot of cooking at home in Seoul...

[dismalfuture]

oh yeah, you might get by at some places in Itaewon for eats, veggies pass through there pretty often. There's an Aussie tuckshop up on the other end that has veggie jaffles and garbage like that. There's Pita Time along the main drag that's not too shabby either...

I foresee A LOT of fry ups in your future though...

[thomas_highstreet]

noooo no more fry ups! haha

seriously man i havent been running much over the winter, its so fucking cold, so in turn, im not as trim as i was so ill be pissed if i have to eat shitty food when i get ther. i need to get down dior skinny before i set off otherwise im in trouble. haha.

i just realised there has been absolutely no club roundup!!!

?!

dos and dos looks.. HIP

[dismalfuture]

You will lose weight in Korea, I don't know how all those white girls manage to gain weight over there but I always ended up emaciated, losing like 15-20 lbs through the year and then gaining the 20 back in my 1 week trips back to the US or when I'd go to Japan.

Dizz and azn8oi saw me last year at my worst, I was like 120lbs and totally Dior Homez cabana boy weight back then, I have been eating non-savage food in the US and am normal now though, thankfully.

Cigarettes are 2500W a pack over there so I was on the supermodel diet of Marlboro Lights and Diet Coke most days.

I was pretty serious about Korean food not being vegetarian, I have been trying to think of a list of safe food, but honestly I haven't gotten past white rice yet. I'll come up with something, I am seriously worried you will starve man. I am not down with Korean food either so I starved third world steelo...

Clubs... dizz needs to report back on that one. More than a couple months and I'm already out of the loop. Dos a dos is sporadic and unfortunately the reality of normal nights out is decidedly less hip... Koreans all dream of being the Beckhams or some shit, so yeah not the coolest kids out usually... go to M2 and watch how they dance, your opinion of Korean 'cool kids' is likely to hit rock bottom insanely fast...

[azn8oi]

lol @ M2. I went there during club day, a couple of nights before i left. dancing? ha.

as for vegetable dish.. how about chap chae? there's no way to find a non-chicken or pork chap chae?

[azn8oi]

oh and for the record, your pants fit godly that night (nohomo).

skinnyboi diorHOMMEZ tip.

[madeinkorea23]

damn dismal, its the other way around for me. when i went over the summer, in a matter of 2 weeks i gained 10-15 lbs with the amount of drinking and eating i was doing everyday. i didn't work out a single day in korea so i guess thats what happens but i came back to the states and worked out and ate very little so im back at where i was at which is still not enough but is something i can live with for now.

[thomas_highstreet]

right so im askin about clubs and your hitting me with dietry advice?

ahaha..

well, ill gladly adopt the diet coke, lettuce and lights. sounds pretty romantic!

[madeinkorea23]

you gotta waait for dizz on the club advice. he is the expert in that field

[thomas_highstreet]

i want more sexy dayglo google maps

[kuhui]

m2 was pretty big but i feel like it kinda fell off

u gotta check up ANSWER in Atown (formerly Veil, which was formerly Tool Pub)

it's right next to Club I and the youngdong bridge.

the bakdegamne down the street is always good after a long night too

ALSO,

JJ's at the hyatt is also pretty bumpin when they have parties.

the age group is a bit older (later 20's) but the older women love the young-gyes, if u know what i mean

[thomas_highstreet]

JJs at hyat sounds v. interesting.. more info on that? is it more like private fashion functions etc? or do they have reg. nights?

[dismalfuture]

lol @ M2. I went there during club day, a couple of nights before i left. dancing? ha.

as for vegetable dish.. how about chap chae? there's no way to find a non-chicken or pork chap chae?

I forgot that you'd gone up there that day. Club day in Hongdae = the only day I purposely avoid Hongdae. M2 isn't terrible in that the trim is usually cute enough if you stay away from the ugly mopheads who hide behind the speakers way up front and all the girls are fairly easy, and the drinks are cheap enough at 5,000W a pop (the girls at the right side main bar have always given me plenty of buybacks)... can tend to be full of cunts on a Friday or Saturday nowadays, but Spring is a good season to be out before the summer crowds come through...

I was there on a Tuesday late night at like 3am once recently with some white girls, and we were blind, and the floor was empty for the night, so there in the middle of the floor this girl dropped down and did the caterpillar dance in the middle of M2. Needless to say we had to cut that out, but definitely a hilarious memory...

M2 is a multi-plex jawn, but nowadays you gotta pay cover per club on regular nights, which is cruel. The upstairs club, Q-Vo, is a hip-hop/Top40 wanksta's paradise. Imagine some Korean clone kid in black glasses, maybe Diet Butchered or Dior Homez'd out downstairs at M2, then imagine the exact same kid jumping around upstairs at Q-Vo in a Supreme pack and tee and Dunks, that is the only difference really. I used to go upstairs more often because I used to get free cover and drinks, and I seemed to serendipitously meet up with this crowd of gyaruz who would visit like every fortnight from Japan on buying trips for their rasta-gyaru theme store in 109, but I always ended up going back to M2, because the crowd is better looking...

I'll make some more frute maps, which neighborhoods you curious about T?

[dismalfuture]

Ah, and JJ's at the Grand Hyatt is a bust, that is our version of Heartland. 40 year old foreign exec types off work trying to pull high-mileage 30 year old trim by buying them drinks that are priced double of any other bar in a TGIF'y/Chicago'y gameroom'ish interior, I'd drink there with my dad (as long as he was footing the 15,000W Coronas w/ lemon wedges in them, fuck that shit!)...

The Park Hyatt's Timber Room on the other hand, nice in a nice way. Not a meat market and no riff-raff running around because of the bar list prices, but if you have a hundred to burn, it's a nice place to have a proper drink and cigar or something in a Super Potato-designed enviro...

[thomas_highstreet]

hahaha

damn, im not sure where i want particularly covered, its all good info, all the little bits and pieces id need to make the trip gel nicely really!

a cover of all the majour clubs and hangout areas with a couple little maps would be cool, whatever you got the time for really - all greatly appreciated of course!

[kuhui]

hahah dismals right on the 40 yr old exec types, but i dont think ur there to check out the guys. and yea i have to stress the 'when they have parties' part of it

props for the rundown on the m2 + q-vo types, gotta admit theyre 99.9% on point haha made me laugh just because its so true

[dizzhizz]

Sorry for the late response...just got back skiing from Kangwon Land - High One Resort - which to my surprise was quite nice with a decent amount of slopes for Korean standards. Despite the influx of clusterfuck snowboarders, newbies at that, it was a good weekend.

And now, my list of clubs:

Kangnam

1. Mass - the most recent addition to the Kangnam clubs located in Kangnam station. Apparently, its the same owners as M2 with deep house spinning on the 1&2s. Kids there are a bit younger, with a lot of model kids running around wearing fake Dior and pleather jackets. The mood and ambience is fun and tends to get packed at 2am. Definitely a good place to check out and hit on little girls and buy them watered down tequila and get your groove on.

2. Answer - like the previous poster mentioned, its the former Club Veil across from the Prima Hotel and at given nights, has the best looking chics. Usually a lot of sool jib girls can be found here in addition to the mix of model chics with a lot of hard-techy house being spinned. Prices here are exorbitant for Seoul standards, but on a good night you will be impressed to see some good looking girls. Ambience is snoby and the boys like to wear them jeans sufu tight, so look sharp because a lot of fucking gold diggers be up in here. Trendy as fuck so put on your A-game.

3. Air - former Garden located across from the California gym in Apkujung. I haven't been there as of recent, but the best times are for launching parties with industry whores sipping their cosmos and what not. Not a consistent venue in terms of popularity, but might be worth checking out if going for free.

4. Cirlce - is now dead. Once the hotspot and heavily promoted by Miggi during its peak, this spot was the shizznit and the girl to guy ratio was unbelievable as they had proffessional go-go dancers shooting up gelo shots and abundant supply of girls ranging from professionals to students to models to room salong type chics. Not anymore. Don't wast your time here. Your better off checking out the clubs listed above. Wednesdays are high class hip hop nights (whatever the fuck that means) while weekends are mostly house and techno.

5. NB - hip hop 24-7. Full of young college kids trying to get their pimp game by grinding and getting wasted on cheap tequila. Music tends to be a bit more east coast oriented, so baggy pants, jerseys and bad hair-dos are the norm. You'll easily find young college girls looking for fun in groups of 4-8, so get your freak on but once you realize they're 22 and still a virgin, you might want to either run away or find something sluttier. As for the guys in there, try not to laugh at them. They look tough but really are just pussies in disguise. Genuine vaginas.

6. Harlem. Literally right next door to NB in Kangnam station. They have recently linked up with NB and thus one entrance fee will get you into both clubs. Not so packed as NB, but you'll still find the same type of peeps as you did in NB but since they have poles, it can make for good entertainment and observation.

7. JJ's in the Hyatt Hotel basement - as of recent, this place has been getting seriously packed with your mix of financial expats, Engrish speaking chics who work in foreign based companies, and younger working professionals. Bar prices are scary but the danceroom is small and thus its easier to meet and bump into some decent girls who will look at what type of shoes and watch your wearing. A bit more of an older crowd and the polar opposite in what you would find in NB, but might make for an interesting night. Be sure to get drunk first and then grab a spot by the bar immediately facing the dancefloor for best results.

I haven't been to Hongdae in a while, but its known for its numerous clubs and cheap drinks. As Dismal mentioned, Club Day takes place on the last Friday of every month, so its best to check out all the clubs for one entrance fee. Clubs worth checking out are M2, the original NB, Underlounge, Q-Vo, and just too many other dinky little clubs to explore and get silly.

Hope this helps.

[sleazie ninja number 47]

4. Cirlce - is now dead. Once the hotspot and heavily promoted by Miggi during its peak, this spot was the shizznit and the girl to guy ratio was unbelievable as they had proffessional go-go dancers shooting up gelo shots and abundant supply of girls ranging from professionals to students to models to room salong type chics. Not anymore. Don't wast your time here. Your better off checking out the clubs listed above. Wednesdays are high class hip hop nights (whatever the fuck that means) while weekends are mostly house and techno.

That usually means no new eras, no white t's and no sneaks (but timberlands are ok).

i'm so hood.

[dismalfuture]

Circle is already dead? I guess that figures. Korean kids are probably sick of the 30,000W cover, but are probably now ready to step up to 20,000W across the board because of Circle.

Air, when it was Garden, was a real shame. It's a great space (better than M2 as an electro club), it's in a good spot, has the two separate rooms with sidelounges for each and good balcony space, but honestly that place was doomed because no one cared to promote it. There's a fat fuck Canadian guy who has gotten himself all party-promoter type for some ESL teacher website and I see hit fat ass all around town, but he throws the deadest parties semi-full of the ugliest people and no one ever paid cover because it was all guestlist through this completely obscure fat guy, and Garden was his spot of choice for most of the past 2 years.

I once went there for my birthday pre-bash on Christmas Eve a few years ago, met this hot Japanese girl in fuckme boots, a microskirt, and partly cornrowed hair, and then she disappeared into the night; I ran into her again within the week at M2 and made it happen up there in Hongdae luckily, but I have to rate Garden lowly because of the fact that there's no likely Apku afterbar/parties going on where you can run into people on/off again on the streets and in the bars in the same night like Hongdae offers. That girl was like 9.5/10 on my all-time scale so I am pretty down on that place, but yeah. I'd still go there begrudgingly when all my mates were tired of my Hongdae shit, but we'd get depressed and leave everytime.

Dizz's mega-club roundup is choice, I gotta clarify though that there are 3 NB's, Hongdae (original), Apku, and Kangnam branches. Harlem has 2 branches, Hongdae and Kangnam, and then I think there might be more nowadays like that? Either way, the general rule for Seoul is that if a club is playing hip to the h. o. p. then the clientele is likely to be s. to the h. i. t. You will see my confused Asian brethren in 'urban' gear (I once walked into NB with a black friend and this random Korean wanksta in full chicano getup got in his face and greeted him with a 'wassup nigga' in broken English...) and then all the girls staying out hoping to catch the 5am trains home.

Korean sexuality is really, really, really lame, (easier to understand once seen) and they go about things really awkwardly over there, and it's pretty common for a bitch to profile and style all night and try to 'sexy dance' alone and then go off to have a cry if you laugh at them. Guys don't know how to smile and the clubs are like middle school dances and the proms.

There are some good tiny little dives in Hongdae that are a bit more satisfying as in you will meet some wackos and the music will be better than in the multi-million complexes, but yeah the plastic girls are in the big spots.

That Club Day offers something like 10-15 different clubs on one wristband for 15,000W cover plus a free drink, so it's a bargain seeing as though most clubs are 15 individually any other day of the month, but all the clubs are a clusterfuck.

Besides M2, NB, Q-Vo, Harlem, and Saab, the other clubs on the wristband are Club Ska (real hodgepodgey music/crowd in a space that is smaller than my current bedroom, and the interior looks really really dodgy, like an outhouse, but people are friendly here), Club FF (rock only in a tiny space, Korean 'indie kids'), Joker Red (d n b but s h i t) and then a couple more, maybe Go-go's and some others. There used to be a reggae club I liked but that died. Hongdae has enough to make you want to go there often, but I really, really overdid it.

Club Day is the last Friday of each month, the 2nd Friday of each month is 'Sound Day' which is all live music with the same wristband/similar club roster, fewer people.

Beer is actually relatively expensive in Korea, I suppose. You can't take a 6-pack of complete piss home from the corner shop for less than like 8,000W. Beers at clubs start at like 5000W'ish for a bottle of piss at the worst places, up to 7-8-10-15,000W at the bigger places. Mixed drinks are usually cheap and you can complain to the bartenders that they are shit at pouring and they'll get embarrassed and top you off with more since they're all noob kids.

I used to hit the LG25 convenience stores as they has Kronenbourg and Asahi tallboys for like 3,000W, so a couple of them for the taxi over, one for waiting in the lines, and then gin and tonic all night in the clubs and I'd spend like 50-100,000 for a night out including a couple drinks and the taxi ride home for the trim...

[dizzhizz]

^^

Dismal - they shut down the NB in Apku. Low turnout and that jigsaw dancefloor layout was just crap. It now has become a haven for wannabe models as DCM has turned it into some sort of modeling school for the likes of potential wannabe wearing slim jeans, AF1s and fake Dior Homme.