Seoul at Night

If you're wondering what there is to do in Seoul other than shop the markets, just wait until the night falls. We did and discovered exactly how wild Seoul gets on a Saturday night.

We were a group of 7, and it was a bit difficult scoring any of the swank spots in one of the snug Korean food clubs. Eventually we did, and it was well worth the extra time scoping out the University food scene. The cozy architecture and warm food were the perfect way to start an all-nighter.

Not without some surprises, however.

We parked it in a heated tent adjecent to a restaurant, where the server set down two fresh 3000cc pitchers of beer on the table along with a spread of typical Korean appetizer food. Most restaurants here offer little appetizers for free, which is usually a random assortment nuts, edamame, gherkins, or corn puffs.

In this case, we got peanuts and edamame, both delicious. We then added a storm of courses including seafood stew with octopus, egg and fish egg omlette, spicy sausage and vegetable medley, and finally some kind of meat skewers. This is where it got interesting.

The skewers appeared to be beef, but after a few bites everyone realized that this indeed was not beef. Nicole, who has lived in Africa and Mongolia, insisted that it was a kind of rodent; it could have been marmot, or ferret. Others insisted it was, yep, dog. A quick whiff of the skewers after tasting them and we realized it could be anything. More curious than devastated, I called the chef over and pointed to the Korean word for beef in my Korea Guidebook. He shook his head and nodded when I pointed at chicken. It definitely was not chicken. I then pointed at dog, and he almost laughed. Instead he looked stern. Koreans do frequently eat dog, but I don't think they'd serve it in the city, but rather in the country where imports would be expensive and luxury. I also think it's a bit of an insult in this country. Korean restaurants are fully aware that Westerners are not comfortable eating dog.

Anyhow, it ended up that we never discovered what it was. Claire, from Wales, is bound and determined to believe it was dog, but I'm not sold on that.

After the meal and the complimentary dessert salad, we took off across the market to a club called Tin Pan 2. The dancing crowd was energetic and we stayed for a good hour before moving on to a less crowded club across the street.

At Club # 2, the music was more hip-hop and less dance. After Samantha began to show the signs of having had way to much in her glass, we moved on to give her a break. It turned out she was already beyond repair for that night, and we sent her home in a cab.

At this point it's about 2:30 am and we headed to an underground club whose owner, Andrew knew. After we're waved in past the 15 dollar cover, we're the newest guests in a beautiful wide open room with plenty of space to dance. Although it's location was discreet (the entrance was in an alley) the place was full of great college bogey, a marvelous strobe light setup and robot nachos. We stayed here for the rest of the evening dancing the dog off. :)

There is definitely a population of Korean men who seem to pine after American and English women. Although they are very kind, they only know enough English to ask your name, where you are from, and tell you that "You look like model".

You could tell that we've all been cooped for too long in classrooms, as we all hit the town high energy and never really slowed down. It's been a while since I've lost track of time until 5:00am, but it was perfect. Everyone was in a terrific spirit and we even saw two of our teachers begin a love affair. ..

At 5:00 am the subway lines open up again, but we weren't having that. Although the subway system is very safe, Me, Emily, and Byrony split a cab fare home, which cost about 50,000 won, or about 55 dollars.

Well worth it.