Of course, not every man in Seoul is looking for girls, and Paris ain't the only gay city under the sun. This is a city with half a million Utopians, as the Utopian Gay and Lesbian Site points out. According to Utopia, Seoul is home to Queer culture and film & video festivals, Utopian beats in dark parks, and a part of town straightforwardly known as Homo Hill. But yet according to Korean sons and daughters I know, to be in gay in Korea is a stigma quiet unlike any other (worse even than being lesbian in Japan.) Erotic Art Museum and Gallery Behind the Hyundai department store near the Sinchon subway station. Stand at the entrance to the car park at the rear left side of the Hyundai building. Across the street you will see a rather severely paved, triangular park. Cross the street and enter the park and follow the diagonal yellowish brick pathway (we're off to see the whizzers!) to the lane at the opposite side of the park. There, just to the left you will see a large glass case at street level displaying a gold copy of Michelangelo's David (only the Koreans have given him a partial circumcision and a bath towel instead of a slingshot). Enter this building and take the elevator to 3/F (erotic art gallery) and 4/F (erotic art and sexuality museum). The museum is small, but nicely laid out. The fascinating artifacts and folk curios are unfortunately overshadowed by the many explicit photos showing every sort of sexual freakism that you never wanted to know about. Then again, what better place than a sex museum to view the extremes of human physiology and behavior? Homo Hill -- Bars with names like Queen, Trance and Always Homme, Oz. Parks Namsan Park Top of the hill behind Itaewon, between the Hilton and the Hyatt. After dark. The small park on the opposite side of the Hyatt, near Namsan, has become a cruising area at night, not exclusively yet though, and you have to be discreet as plenty of straight people come for a walk with their dogs or friends, even at late hours in the evening. JUMP TO:
SECTION In the last year, more wax has been played on their decks than any other club in Korea . Garden strives to cultivate a unique evocative experience where style merges with culture. This establishment can definitely be considered Seoul 's most intimate and affluent club, offering guests an affordable and upscale venue that is equipped with two distinct sound systems. www.clubgarden.co.kr A group of Uzbekistani construction workers got drunk in a corner, watched suspiciously by the thuggish security, there to "keep the peace". Suddenly the music stopped and the sound of broken glass filled the air. Some of the Uzbekistanis had got involved with a few Koreans. Things soon got nasty and as blood was being literally splattered about the place, four musclebound Korean mafiose ran in wielding chains and generally kicking the shit out of people. Predictably this "peacekeeping" measure didn't calm things down and soon the only people not involved were ourselves and a gaggle of peroxide whores standing nervously in the corner. Eventually the fight ended, the music restarted and everybody went happily back to boozing and whoring..."

If this account does not detract you from your search for Russian girls in Seoul, Gwanghui-dong's Central Asian village:

By five years later, their population had grown by 65% to an estimated 33,000 individuals, or 1.2% of the entire Mongolian population.[1] The government of South Korea estimates that one out of every two urban households in Mongolia have a family member working in South Korea.[4] 70% are believed to be residing in the country illegally.[5] The growth of the population has been so rapid that the Mongolian embassy in Seoul is largely unable to provide assistance to Mongolian residents; as a result, Mongolians have set up their own non-governmental organisations to provide mutual assistance, such as Dalain Salkhi ("Sea Breeze")..."

02) 793-3092 Darth Babaganoosh said on Galbijim: "Hottest chicks go to Korean clubs, most of which don't let foreigners in through a whole host of excuses (too old, we have a dress code, too many guys inside already, it's a special party tonight, etc).
"Club Circle in Apkujeong is pretty good, but they are both expensive and almost exclusively Korean. Hot chicks, though.
"If you can go with a group of Korean friends to a Korean club, that's where you'll find the girls..."

Rooves covered with giwa tiles... Korean red bricks...

Bonghakgwan: (031) 592-9522.

Go down to Incheon (the port not the airport); it costs only a dollar (or 95 Yen) for the one-way subway ticket. Now that is what I call cheap travel -- Korea is certainly an economical country to travel inside now. The Marmot's Hole considers the Jung-gu district of Incheon (otherwise known as Chemulpo) one of his favorite parts of Korea. Just going by Marmot's photos alone, the place reminds me of Yokohama in Japan -- and just like Yokohama, there is a Chinatown nearby. Just like Yokohama, Chemulpo owes its existence to 19th Century trading treaties. As The Marmot explains: "Chemulpo was nothing more than a small fishing village until the 1880s when, following a series of essentially unequal treaties including the Treaty of Ganghwa (1876) and Chemulpo Treaty of Amity and Trade (1881), the village became a full-fledged treaty port, complete with self-administering foreign settlements, Christian churches, Western-style parks, foreigner clubs and extraterritoriality.

"Unlike Busan, Gunsan and Korea's other treaty ports, where the foreign settlements were almost entirely Japanese, Chemulpo's foreign settlement was much more diverse. The General Foreign Settlement of Chemulpo, formed in 1884, was composed of six nations �EQing China, Japan, the United States, Great Britain, Russia and Germany (although China and Japan also maintained their own exclusive settlements in the city). Chemulpo became Korea's closest thing to Shanghai, home to missionaries, soldiers, traders, diplomats and rogues, brought to together in their search for fortunes, souls and imperial aggrandizement..."

Nori People: RODEO DRIVE, APGUJEONG Tel: 02 549 6674 Website: http://www.noripeople.com/. Phone: 657-12 Shinsadong, Kangnam-gu, Seoul.
"Turn left off Rodeo Drive as after the large convenience store and you will find Nori People on your right. "It is called a lounge but is an open-fronted korean "pub" full of good looking 30-somethings getting drunk, eating and having a real laugh. Funky korean tunes play and posters for reggae gigs are plastered around the walls. The toilets are outside round the corner, basic but have loo roll. Metal and plastic tables and chairs and good service from cheerful bar folk.

We loved this place. It feels real and gives you a good look at Koreans having a good time. A mix of couples out on a Friday night, mates having some beers and a chat together and small groups of friends in cool kit ready to go clubbing later (it didn't look like some of them would make it, though. There was a guy at the table next to us with his mates, just passed out fast asleep, sprawled on the table - too much Soju I think, or maybe too much beer, or perhaps a mixture ... his mates were absolutely plastered, funny to watch, lots of animated conversations, back slapping and swaggering around with their hats on sideways).
"On another note, and following our visit to a pretty people bar, there are some mighty good looking Korean men here..."

Saunas are a big deal in Korea, almost as big a deal as onsens are in Japan, and in fact a lot of Japanese girls go to Seoul specifically to spa it (especially now that the won is so weak.) Brucie G said on his Wondrous Blog of Adventure and Mystery: "On Sunday, I went with a friend to one of these "Jimjil Bongs." Bong = room and Jimjil = sauna. At least I think it means sauna cause that's the main attraction. And it's really not much like the only sauna place I've been to in NY (the russian one downtown). It was bigger and much more family-oriented. Lots of little kiddies running around. In the main area there's a big wooden floor with people lounging on little pillows, eating, watching TV, playing playstation, sitting on massage chairs, and probably doing some other Korean things that I didn't understand. This is right next to the different types of saunas that you can go in and out of at your leisure (mud walls, jeweled walls, super hot ones and so on in that order). There are vary degrees of these places, but this one was really clean and nice. The extreme male nudity in the locker room and single-sex whirpools/hot tubs will probably take a little getting use to, but I sort of steered clear of there this first time. I'll venture there next time I suppose. Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it. Decent article about it here: http://www.seoulstyle.com/art_naked.htm The article starts out with this line: The Korean sauna may seem a bit daunting if not outright surreal for the uninitiated foreigner. But I felt right at home! It seems that whenever someone tells me I might have to "adjust" to something, there's not much adjustment needed at all. So I guess either I was initiated well with my plethora of Asian friends or, like Colbert, I don't see race.

STARBUCKS IN SOUTH KOREA
Starbucks might be closing coffee shops around the world, but they seem to be still thriving in East Asia, South Korea particularly. If you are on your game, a cafe like this could be a good place to pick up. To see the full catalogue of Starbucks in Seoul (in Japanese and Korean) hit up Paretake's StarBucks Korea Site. Paretake lists this branch, in Sosomun (that's literally "Western Little Gate" in English):
명지빌딩점(79호) 서소문점(181호)
There is also a Starbucks outside Jonggak Station, near the Kyobo Bookstore. NORTH EAST ASIA VS SOUTH EAST ASIA
답십리역

You could call this the pot street of Seoul -- for Japanese language confirmation of this fact, click here. It is one of the first places I visited on my first visit to Seoul back in 2002, and it continues to fascinate me today. According to Gatoko: "The antique street in Dapsimni, filled with stores dealing antique goods and porcelain, is a living cultural asset and a museum. The dealers of old calligraphic works, antique furniture, and porcelain works that used to be scattered in and around the areas of Cheonggyecheon 8-ga, Yitaewon, and Ahyeon-dong, gradually came to be concentrated in this area starting from the mid-1980s. There are currently 139 stores on this street alone, dealing in over 500,000 pieces of antiques. The street, extending between Dapsimni 4- and 5-dongs, is divided into the eastern street (Jang-anpyeong Retail Mall) and the western street (Samhee Retail Mall) with the Police Station of Dapsimni 5-dong in between..."

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