Posts Tagged ‘hookah’

The Long Saturday

// March 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // korea

Had plans to view some video art and then head to a club with Candace yesterday, but the day turned into so much more than that.

First of all, I got lost trying to find Candace’s apartment in Gangnam. I was on the phone with her for 40 minutes trying to find it. Then she came to meet me so she could lead me there. That took another 20. But during that hour I got some good photos!

We had a quick snack at her apartment before heading off to Anguk to see the video art. Unfortunately, we were not only too late, but we couldn’t even find it anyway. Fortunately, I got some more cool pictures.

Then we got to Hongdae and went to Yeti (an Indian food place) to use the computer to find a map to get to the club. Then we got some chow at an Italianish restaurant. After dinner, we couldn’t find the club, so we patroned a little record bar and chilled out to some Bob Dylan. I taught Candace some origami shapes I’ve been working on this past week. For the last eight days or so, I’ve really been getting into origami. I’ve made a bunch of cranes, cubes, ninja stars, a panda, a rabbit, and other little things.

Candace’s friend, Kim Yoon Jung, called so we met up with her and her friend at a hookah bar with the absolute dirtiest names for drinks. We all got Pussy shots, and I ordered the Fire Pussy. It wasn’t on fire, so I asked the waiter to light it up. It sat there burning while he came back with the other shots. He said I should drink it immediately. I tried to, but ended up just pouring flaming alcohol on my face. I blew it out and tried to drink it again, sans fire. Success! But my lip felt kinda funky. I thought I burned it.

We stayed there for awhile, and Michael joined us. Then the five of us went to a club. I don’t know if it was the same club we were looking for earlier, but it was surreal. There were very few Koreans in the crowd. I didn’t even feel like I was in Korea. It was really strange. We did clubby things – drank a lot, danced stupidly, and in general set ourselves up for some massive hangovers. I finally got a cab out of Hongdae around 4:00am. It was definitely my latest night out in Korea.

I felt pretty terrible this morning, couldn’t find my phone, and I had two blisters on the inside of my upper lip. On top of all that, the facial hair above and below my mouth had been singed. I went for a long run, showered, shaved, ate, and felt better. But I did have shaving cream stuck deep inside my ear for the better part of the day after showering. That was frustrating. I’ve spent the remainder of the day editing photos from yesterday and catching up on Facebook.

Rainbow

// March 6th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

Had another crazy night in Gangnam last night. I met up with Michael Paul, Dylan, Candance, Michael, Yun, and Matt at exit 7 of Gangnam Station in Seoul. First stop – Indian restaurant. I had the kadhai paneer (I might be spelling that wrong), or cheese curry. It was delicious. Only 13,000 won too. After that, Yun and Matt left, but the rest of us went to Rainbow.

I really need to take some pictures of Rainbow. It’s an underground, psychedelic hookah bar with music ranging from live didgeridoo to the fast beats of DJ-provided techno. Black lights, laser lights, candles, tapestries, and posters adorn the place, all covered with images of mushrooms, counterculture icons, cannabis plants, peace symbols, and other hippie paraphernalia. Denizens sit on colorful cushions surrounding small, wooden boxes marked with graffiti in multiple languages. Looking around, you see people who are white, Asian, black, and other shades darker than white whose ethnicities you can’t really place.

There are dozens of hookah flavors. Last night, we sampled green apple and another flavor – I never found out what it was. The alcohol comes in two liter, square buckets filled with straws. They also offer individual beers and cocktails for the selfish drinker.

After going through three to four buckets and two hookahs, witnessing a hilarious dance off, and discussing everything from first impressions and Texas culture to the French Revolution, we left Rainbow and went to Woodstock. Woodstock is a record bar, where the patrons write requests on cards and submit them to the bar. Eventually, your song may or not play. It may be played from a record or it might be played from a CD.

After being there for awhile, I got pretty tired and convinced Michael that it would be a good idea to take a taxi with me back to Bundang. After some haggling, we got a driver to take us back for 25,000. We were there in less than 15 minutes. By subway, it’s a 45 minute ride. By bus, 25-30. This guy was going 150 km/hr the whole way. That’s 93 mph for those of you without calculators. He ran every red light and had to weave between other cars to avoid hitting them. But that’s Korea for you. It’s not really unusual for cab drivers to be insane drivers.