Itaewon-foreigner's paradise

So on my second night in Seoul I traveled to downtown Itaewon with my recruiter Ellie and some other Canadian teachers she's friends with. It is a very energetic area with so many shops, pubs, bars and neon lights. I even saw a handful of American military soldiers walking down the street from Yongsan Garrison, the largest American military base in Korea with apparently over 30 000 troops.

So we funny enough went for Indian curry as my first meal in Korea, as the other 2 teachers were from out of town and rarely get a chance to have a good curry so we went to the Maharaja restaurant and had some shisha after the meal :)

This is my recruiter Ellie with me in the middle of Itaewon!

 Where everybody knows your name...in Korea!

Ellie, myself, Mary-Anne and James at the Maharaja. After our meal we smoked some shisha, however Ellie declined. She told me that it is somewhat taboo for women to be seen smoking in public in Korea.

After our dinner we ventured out onto the small side streets with no sidewalks and small motor bikes riding by to find endless pubs, restaurants and the tiniest bars I've ever seen!
We went to the 'foreign food market' to find an array of exotic things like avocados, Nutella, maple syrup and nachos :) We wandering around the area and saw many interesting names of clubs and bars and there were flashing neon lights everywhere!

 We passed one side street called 'Homo hill' which is where the very quiet Korean community comes alive at night. Ellie and the other teachers informed me that LGBT rights in Korea are not as progressive as you may find elsewhere, and the reason that the biggest gay community is found in foreigner's paradise is because that is where they find the least amount of scrutiny and can enjoy their nightlife with an array of bars and clubs. Needless to say when I asked when gay pride is..there is no gay pride.

 A club with a cool name :)

 The lights in real life on Itaewon street are sooo bright however because my flash was on it looks darker than it actually was.

 By the end of the night I did end up going to a local tiny restaurant and bar with Ellie and a new American teacher she introduced me to from L.A. named Eli. The green bottle is called 'Soju' and its the absolute cheapest liquor you can buy. So Ellie told me it's my initiation to Korea to drink a shot of this. 25% alcohol and that green bottle costs about 85 cents. The brown bottle is beer and i'm not sure how much that was.

 This was our Korean food we ordered. The orange and red small bowls in the middle are kimchi which comes with absolutely everything. Delicious!

This is Eli and Ellie taking a shot of sujo at the table.

Itaewon is a very exciting happening place with tons of stuff to do. There is an English bookstore here called 'what the book?' and when we ventured inside Ellie joked that she was the foreigner in there as it was all Americans and Canadians. The culture shock is definitely less here than anywhere else which I will admit serves a nice purpose. The majority of the city can give you a solid Korean experience but admittedly Itaewon will be nice some days when I can relax and perhaps read an English newspaper or order food in English. It's nice to have just around the corner.

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