More than three months after I took them, here, finally, are the last photos from my summer travelling with Nick. We finished up in Gyeongju, and jumped on a 4 hour bus back to the capital to finish off our 9 day tour with a bit of partying.
We based ourselves in Hongdae, what everyone calls the area around Hongik University. It boasts a lively concentration of clubs, bars, restaurants and shops and even midweek had one of the best atmospheres for going out that I've ever sampled, not least owing to swathe after swathe of pretty Korean students wandering past you. We arrived late, and installed ourselves at the rather swanky Hotel Bobo (Korean for kiss), taking advantage of the rather fetching robes on offer there.
After a day wandering in Insadong and Myeongdong, we were alerted to the presence of proper beer. Well, not ale, but at least German micro-brew, in the extremely Germanically named Queen's Head. Before that we took on some Dakgalbi flavoured ballast, before heading to the pub. The beer was actually pretty good, though not a patch on Harveys Best, naturally.
Following this we wandered for a while, and had a couple of beers in bars where everyone was partitioned off from each other, which didn't exactly help us in our quest to meet some Korean people to talk to. Finally we gave in to the shame of visiting an establishment called "Ho Bar 4" (There are 7 or them in Hongdae alone). This was however, more conducive to meeting people, and we soon found ourselves chatting to "The Crossroads Guitar Project", a bunch of four Korean guitarists who were consoling their friend over his broken heart. Stories were swapped, homes looked at on Gmaps, vodka was drunk, Jaegerbombs were introduced to the Korean element, and generally an excellent time was had by all, especially when Nick and one of the guitarists discovered a mutual admiration for Django Reinhardt. They were also the second group of Koreans to compare him to David Duchonvy, which I thought was hilarious.Once we'd polished off their bottle of vodka, the musicians decided it was time to call it quits, but delivered Nick and I to a club called M2 to continue drinking, and perhaps even do some "eye-shopping", as it's known here. M2 turned out to play some pretty excellent electro, which was being largely ignored by the few Koreans in there, except for three of four spread around the dancefloor moving stiltedly. It later transpired that these were actually members of staff, obviously trying to encourage people to join them, but really making the club look like the formative stages of a line dance. We had a few drinks, and were talking to some students by the bar. Things were going nicely until the electro DJ finished his set, and was replaced by some-one who was apparently in possession of a Now Dance 1998 CD. The final straw was the dropping of "Horny" by Mousse T. Nick and I fled the club and headed back out into the night air.
By now and was 2am, and Nick and I were lightly toasted, but we thought we could probably do with one more beer. Finding a bar proved to be a problem, until a group of girls asked us to take their picture. We did, and ended up going with them to Noise Basement, a hip-hop club. This is, I believe, the first time I've ever been to more than one club in a night. We stayed in noise basement for another hour and half, and I remember getting some free tequila somewhere, but the details are a bit sketchy. I do remember leaving and getting into a taxi, only for the taxi driver to refuse to take us, given that our hotel was around 100 yards down the road. We stumbled home and crashed out.
The following day took us to the clothing markets of Dongdaemun, and Apgujeong, "The Korean Beverly Hills", where the women all have surgically altered noses, and BMW delaerships have unfortunate names (see picture below). We popped over for dinner and a drink in Itaewon, but got disturbed by Americans far too fond of their own voices, and skipped back to Hongdae for one more club experience.
We'd been told about a small indie club, which had previously played host to Xiu Xiu and Do Make Say Think in it's lifetime. Sadly, no underground indie luminaries were in evidence, just some Korean businessmen doing karaoke. Undeterred, and likeing the shabby surroundings, we sat down for a beer. The barman handed us the karaoke book, and we flicked through with interest. I was mostly looking to see if "Monday Morning 5:19" by Rialto was there, as I had previously found it in the Yeongwol noraebang (Karaoke room) way out in Gangwon-do. On my flick through, I couldn't help but notice a version of "Mack the Knife" winking cheerfully at me from the page, and decided to give it a shot. It actually went pretty well, to the extent that I was high-fived off stage, and so Nick and I spent the rest of the evening singing. I can't remember what else we did, but I do have flashbacks of Wonderwall, With or Without You and Come Together (The Beatles, not Spiritualized).
After that there was just time for a sandwich and a beer outside a convenience store (my favourite Korean drinking location) before retiring again. And that was it, the following morning Nick and I said goodbye at the tube station, and he headed off back to the UK, and I to Jinbu. It was a great holiday all around though, marked by some bizzare sights, excellent food and drink and extremely kind and helpful people. I'm looking forward to the next chance I get to travel in Korea now.
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