Many a night out in Hongdae

Dear Seoulites:

While I’ve had many a night out in Hongdae in Seoul, it never ceases to surprise me the weird things I see and how many new places my friends and I find.  I’ll take you on a little tour of what I’ve seen and done so far in this bustling and popular district that truly is the nightlife soul of Seoul.

Stepping out of the exit 9 at Hongik station (of course, after a good 5 minutes of being herded out like a sheep and losing all sense of personal space), you seriously don’t know where to look. Street food all around you, bright lights, throngs of people heading to restaurants and bars, exciting stores lining the streets...

One thing I noticed right away was the abundance of Ho bars. I think any Seoulite who has even been to Hongdae once would agree. Sure, I thought it was excessive in Bupyeong with its tripartite collection of Ho Bars: Ho bar I, Ho Bar II and Ho Bar III... but so far my friends and I have seen all the way up to Ho Bar XII. Can’t count that high in roman numerals? It’s 12. Twelve Ho Bars. They’re all quite similar with their wooden floors, walls, stairs, tables and their disco lights on a little dance floor and their hof-style service where they prefer you to order food when you order drinks.

When it was warmer out in September and October, the music park became a magnet for us and our near-empty wallets, tempting us with its vibrant musical atmosphere and “do-it-yourself outdoor-bar”, made possible by cheap convenience store drinks. Most popular convenience store drinks? Most definitely Cass and Soju cocktails, with OJ and Aloe juice being the most popular mixes. So far I’ve seen traditional Korean dance and drumming, Korean rappers, indie bands, and buskers/street performers.

Walking away from the music park and venturing even further from Hongik station, there are *gasp!* more bars and clubs that are worth a try. So far the ones that I’ve tried and haven’t forgotten (for good reasons, I swear :p) are Exit, Shamrock n’ Roll and GoGos. Each caters to a very different crowd, but hey, if you can’t quite decide what your mood is, do all three in one night – I did! Exit is a grungy, garage-looking hole in the wall with a DJ that rocked it one time I was there and epicly failed on another occasion. The drinks are good and the complimentary chips and snacks are a bonus. If you like to dance all night in a crowd in a laidback atmosphere and you don’t care for something fancy, it’s a good choice. Switching gears, Shamrock n’ Roll is your typical Irish pub, complete with a large bar, lots of Irish decorations, plenty of seating and tables, decent music, a pool table and a nice balcony to watch the drunk people walking below. There are lots of beers and even lots of great cocktails – unfortunately it’s a little expensive if you aren’t drinking beer, especially compared to Club GS, AKA a convenience store. A short walk across the street brings you to the third place, GoGos, a club with a few floors. I can’t remember if I was at GoGos or GoGos 2 (they seriously like sequels in Korea when it comes to bars and clubs!) This place was extremely packed, had loud music, a few bars, plenty of dance floor and was essentially what I was looking for: a club to dance my face off! There were two main dance floors. The top floor was dance and top-40 music and the basement was a lot of indie-dance, electronic and rock-dance. We stayed here the majority of the time because the music was familiar and more our style. There wasn’t any seating available because it was crowded and I lost my sweater (it turned up after 2 hours thankfully though!) but other than that, I have no complaints!

For the musical Seoulites, you don’t have to just settle on the music park to get your fix. Hongdae plays host for many concerts, shows and even music festivals. I’ve been to two music festivals so far and had an amazing time. For both, you paid one fee (I think they were about 10,000 and 20,000) and was allowed to venture into a bunch of different venues in the Hongdae area. Each venue had a different type of music so you can pick and choose! I actually discovered that the lead singer of one band I saw, the Rock Tigers, is actually the sister of one of the teachers at my school. Apparently the Rock Tigers are fairly well known in the underground music scene in Korea!

 For the shopping Seoulite, Hongdae also provides. I was exploring solo one evening and realized that I could literally spend hours perusing all the little clothing and accessory shops lining the streets. It’s the smaller side streets where you find the independent shops and lots of both popular trends as well as alternative looks. On the bigger streets I seemed to notice bigger brand name stores as well as chain restaurants.  And hiding down a little alley walking along one of these streets I discovered a little Hello Kitty Cafe! Can’t wait to check that out sometime J

Many expats hang out in Hongdae, but despite this, it is still quite “Korean”, with the majority of restaurants being Korean and not all “touristy” with souvenir shops everywhere, unlike Itaewon, the international hub of Seoul. It is still very possible to find international food though, and most trips to Seoul (including Hongdae) usually end up with us expats satisfying our international cravings. So far in Hongdae I’ve eaten Indian curry, a burger, chicken salad (except with dried squid “croutons?” ew...!), Middle Eastern (a very tasty schwarma), Vietnamese (steak pho noodles) and bubble tea (that was where I had my first Korean one since being in Taiwan. Doesn’t quite live up to Taiwanese bubble tea, but still very tasty!)

Last weekend, I became very “Korean”... Being a Soulite, you also know that many Koreans are camera-crazy. With a group of my expat friends, we went to the Trick-Eye Museum and went camera-crazy too. For 13,000 won, we spent just over an hour going through and taking funny pictures. The museum is smack-full of paintings, portraits and scenes that fool the eye. The idea is to take pictures with the backgrounds/scenes and stand in the perfect pose so that it looks like you are really in the scene. It’s a great novelty museum and worth a visit! Lots are pretty funny or amusing. Here are a few photos...

Following the trick-eye museum and a Vietnamese dinner, we ventured to Xylophone, a cocktail/flavoured soju bar in a central part of Hongdae, a few minute walk from exit 9. With a slight bohemian vibe, incense, comfy seating (we got a private booth!) and a wide range of drinks, it is definitely worth a visit. The best part though? Getting served our cocktail soju in gas pumps! I think it’s more of a novelty and not somewhere I would go many times (I mean hey, you can get soju for 1,000 won, the equivalent of $1 at the convenience store) but it was a soju-riffic good time! I recommend the strawberry soju (with an extra bottle of soju added too!) but I also loved the apple-grape soju and the pineapple-mango soju.

For those interested in leaving the area around Hongik station and walking 15 minutes, one station over, Canadian Seoulites would appreciate a visit to Mike’s Cabin. Owned by Canadians, this small bar boasts a small (but perfect-sized) dance floor and a fun drink menu. Try the hosta la vista senor or the *something* motherfucka *something* ... the exact names have escaped me, but they’re the top two on the menu and are deadly blue concoctions that will get you every time. So strong I had to share the 10,000 won with a friend both times I went there! The beer pitchers are also cheap and the B-52 was pretty epic because they lit it on fire and it went down really warm and smooth.

After your night out, going back to Incheon has always been a pain. The last subways run around midnight and the last late-night bus to Incheon is at 1:30am – which is better, but still not ideal. Not to mention, it can be tough to find the right bus stop if you aren’t familiar with the area.  At least taxis are cheaper in Korea! 30,000 won from Hongdae to Gyesan at night isn’t too bad :p

Without a doubt, Hongdae really is the nightlife soul of Seoul. Hope to see you there,

Signed,

L.