July 15, 2007
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with love, from seoul
saturday
6:55pm
get into gimpo international airport, still feeling trippy that i'm here...
7:05pm
the taxi driver asks me multiple times if i'm really going to the shilla seoul. it's apparently the ultimate "old money" establishment of the city, studded with celebrities and the various web of samsung heirs. my flipflops and torn jeans apparently don't mark me as one of the typical clientele. nor am i hot enough to be a professional golddigger.
the shilla turns out to be freaking amazing, it turns out. i am completely impressed.
7:45pm
it IS nice. damn. the handicapped bathroom on the lobby floor has an automated touch-sensitive sliding door.
8:55pm
we head to the college student district hongdae, where fare is not as ritzy it can be compared to the union sq area in my mind - full of fairly stylish but not necessarily unlimited expense account types..
FRICKIN AWESOME. korean bbq, straight from the source. i am so freaking happy about this. look, an apron to limit splatter!
and then...dinner ended and the night officially started, with a wonderful korean raspberry wine i absolutely love.
11:34pm
the area is largely college students, so not as ritzy and glitzy as it sounded like the previous day was (when frank/dennis apparently hit up the grand hyatt and got charged about 34% gratuity) but pretty fun just the same. we hit up a local bar and got some whiskey, but not before taking frank's new profile picture:
gotta love the tasteful bar names around here. what girl wouldn't want to frequent a place called ho bar VI??
1:00am
ICE BAR! the place is beyond cool. no pun intended. see for yourself:
poor frank. death by ice toilet.
1:40 am
harlem is a pretty nice club, largely hiphop. i've blown pretty much all of my 100,000won at this point, and counting. awesome. going out in seoul is CRAZY expensive (or maybe we were just hitting up the costly spots, since our tour guide was a banker) cover charges range from 20,000-35,000 won (about 25-40 bucks) but are inclusive of one drink. the guys here are what they call kind of "hard"...the girls look like gangsters too. some dude tries to hit on me in korean but i'm completely clueless as to what he's saying.
2:30am
standing in line for circle, we notice a heavenly gleam: ddukbokki street stand!! YUMMY! far superior to street meat!
2:55am
we party like champions. models and bottles. Circle is as "it club" as you can get here, and we are not disappointed in the least - i'd say 80% of the girls i see walking around are at least a 7 out of 10 and above, but SHOCKINGLY, so are ~60% of the guys! according to dennis, circle is a nightclub whose 3rd and 4th floors actually belong to a modeling agency. ah, it all comes full circle now (excuse the pun).
there is one particular guy-model in a white button-down that is possibly the best-looking asian guy i've seen in my life. whole package - 6'1", cut, great skin, great face. the only strange thing is he is definitely touching his other guy-model friend...i'm sure every girl in the club is hoping it's just a cultural thing. one of the girl-models takes his shirt and straight up unbuttons it right in front of the entire circular bar of people. welcome to asia.
speaking of "hard" guys, one of them breaks out in a fight with another in front of our eyes - instead of backing away though everyone seems in good spirits, giving them good-natured verbal jabs.
btw, can you believe the asian girl is 31?!
5:05am
what time is it? god..how does this happen?
sunday
2:15pm
AHhHhhh half a day wasted because i'm a lazy bum!
2:35pm
Amazing home-style korean cuisine...so many dishes, pretty reasonablly priced at 13,000 won/person. the pork wrapped in kimchee leaves is amazing hangover food. my theory is that koreans can drink mainly because they know how to take care of themselves afterwards - korean food is amazing for the drunken palate.
4:15pm
random watermelon shot du jour.
Meet up with Maiko at the half-department store Doota. flipflops unite! maiko: "judith look, i'm so hot."
man, this shirt is almost painfully ironic...
(yes, maiko and i found many a classy fashion statement at doota.)
6:32pm
stopped by a place called red mango that was like pinkberry on crack!
8:00pm
quick dinner at a mom-n-pop place, then walked around and finally headed up to apkujong, where dennis took us to the most amazing desert bar ever...soo cute
oh happiness!
3:00amfrank: wouldn't it be awesome if we wandered around the entire hotel, seeing as to how we both have 9am flights tomorrow. me: yeah!
yes, we're geniuses like that.
6:30am
SO PAINFUL.
made better by the incredible poshness of the shilla buffet breakfast though...i was so amazed:
what a great trip!!
Comments (1)
that is so weird. i was here around that time too. especially around Circle club, and apgujung. =D I did an internship in korea for two months and my friends took me to the "expensive spots" as well..
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