Friday: Part 2 - The Evening

We got back to the apartment after the mountain quite sweaty and fairly tired. A round of showers, some laundry, and some napping made up the afternoon. When the evening hit, we went out for our night on the town.

Look at these GQMFs

The plan was to go to Itaewon with a number of other English teachers for some Shabu-shabu (hot pot!). Sadly though the restaurant turned out to be tiny and unable to fit really even half of us. So we went to a nearby Indian restaurant and, due to the group's size, spilt tables with us at the one and all of the teachers at the other. It was tasty tasty food. The nan was awesome and the biryani came in the shape of a heart (awww). Everything else was good too.

We drank our usual beer with Soju mixed in. After dinner, many of the teachers were heading off to Hongdae, but we took a trip elsewhere. Our destination was a bar in Apgujeong called Monkey Beach, a Thai bar with buckets of mixed drinks and live fire shows! We got there and they were actually checking id at the door (never seen this in Korea). This was bad for Adam, as he lost his in the ocean at mudfest. However we sorta milled around the bouncer and took our time pulling out ids and stuff and Adam was able to just walk in with me unquestioned.

Once inside we hit the bar and got ourselves our drink buckets. The bartender must have liked my fiancee as we saw him put 8 or 9 shots into the two buckets she ordered for us. Daniel on the other hand only got 3 or 4, found the drink rather crappy, and quickly switched to beer.

Buckets!

We danced for a bit. The place was kinda wild with people dancing on the long tables in the center of the room. It was fun though. Branko disappeared, dancing with a girl for a while, and the rest of us lined up a spot to watch the fire show. It was pretty good. The guy spun burning chains and staffs and stuff around to a barrage or dance and trace beats. Impressive. Afterwards there was a basketball shootout to win bottles of booze. A few of us got in line and my fiancee just missed. Branko rejoined us and we left the bar to meet up with everyone else in Hongdae.

When we got outside, it started to rain fairly heavily. The subway wasn't too far, so we ran for it. Branko wasn't pleased though, he hates being caught in the rain, and kept asking if we could just get a cab. He offered to pay for the whole ride himself, and even said he'd pay double, but we were so close we just went to the station. A subway trip later we were in Hongdae.

Branko doesn't like the rain and is dangerously close to Buzz Kill Zone

I however have no problems being wet.

We met up with everyone at a bar called Jane's Groove. It wasn't particularly crowded, but it was still early. They had a cover to get in that was a tad higher than what we like to pay, but they gave out a free drink ticket with it so we were cool. Plus, they accidentally gave some of us a second ticket. Sweetness! We danced for a while and the crowd stated to get a bit bigger.

Branko owning the Jane's Groove dance floor.

Eventually we left and went to Go Go's and danced there for a while. Here we lost Branko, as he went off to party with people he had met at Jane's Groove. There were some interesting characters in the crowd, including, inexplicably, some guy with a tiger head.

Tiger head? I don't get it.

Hey, where did Branko go?

As the night went on, the place started to clear out a little after 3am. We left after they played Bohemian Rhapsody , clearly an end of night song (though they weren't closing yet). After Go Go's my fiancee and I split a shawarma from a street vendor. The shawarmas in Korea seem to be called kabobs (even if it is in fact shawarma), and aren't particularly amazing (especially when compared to Scarborough shawarma). We ate and then went to Norae Bang! The place we went to is a luxury Norae Bang (though no more expensive) in the middle of the clubs. It has glass walls on the front of the building, letting you see the singers inside having fun, and letting the singers see out into the Hongdae crowds. We got a room without a glass wall and queued up quite a few songs. I sang for a while and then Adam and I passed out while the others continued.

At about 5am, we left and went to the subway to catch the first train home. We found Branko sitting outside of the apartment with stories to tell. A classic Korean foreigner party night.

The tired trip home

And here's Branko!