Seoul

[mydontay]

anyone been to seoul ownself f&e? any reccomrndation on num of days, places to stay, food,places to visit? me thinking of going on thai airway, gd?

[Cosmo guy]

I went to Seoul LY via Shangai with China Eastern Airline

If you have more free days , its better u fly to Jeju Island, stay there at least 3 days, if you like to do Mt Hallasa Trekking, its better to stay 5 days. there is a nice backpack opposite the bus station

From Jeju, you can take local budget airlines to Busan for few days, Busan City also very nice, they have beautiful  sea side promenade , and beautiful mountain trekking as well. can stay 4 days 

From Busan, take bullet train to Seoul ( if you want to save the money, choose off peak time) Many things to do in Seoul, depends how many days u have. at least 5 days to spend in Seoul 

 

There so many things to do in Korea, since you are going to do FE , its better to do home work first , such as reading the city guide, plan the itinerary, and book the accomodation

Wikitravel is very  reliable on all the info 

 

Happy travelling !

[Guest loveseoul]

going to Seoul next month.

 

i am choosing to accommodate in Guesthouse near Myeondong area.

 

You can visit KTO Singapore office at Samsung Hub first floor to collect some brochures/maps.

 

If you can read Chinese, i would recommend this website which provide translation for Seoul map.

 

cn.konest.net

 

You can also visit the Seoul metropolitan website at visitseoul for an official map of Seoul with public transportation guide although it is not as detail as the map provided by konest.

 

 

[Guest VTL Traveller]

Hi all, didn’t see much reviews about Korea these days with the travel restrictions. But with the recent trip I went with VTL, thought I could share the gay-component of my itinerary to update you guys how it has been during pandemic. Several big changes to the 2019 and earlier Korea we see in the gay scene.

 

I will not cover the preparations for the trip under VTL. I used this https://milelion.com/2021/11/02/full-details-singapore-south-korea-vtl/ to help prepare for all the pre-trip admin matters. Very well-written. https://milelion.com/2021/11/22/south-korea-vtl-my-experience-with-covid-19-rules-and-testing-in-seoul/ also talks about what to do daily for the contact tracing effort in Korea.

 

Cruise Clubs (aka as Saunas):

1)     PRINCE: on the first trip I went, there was a guy who was wiping down the interior with the lights fully on. Upon my arrival, he signaled to me that’s its closed (with his gesture) I could tell and the shoe lockers with all  keys on. I thought it was simply closed for the hour or that day since it was a mid-Wednesday noon. So fine, I went down again on a Friday peak evening and realised that the door was locked/shut. I guess this one bit the dust and has closed down permanently. Do not waste time going down, since in 2019 when I last went, theres wasn’t many souls around in the first place.

 

2)     BLACK (NOW KNOWN AS CUBA): https://cafe.naver.com/kangnamblack?utm_source=travelgay

They do have a website in Korean language. A quick scan using translator shows that they do not welcome “fat” people or skin disease people. On my first trip, I was quiet all the way, from putting my shoes into the shoe locker, taking a key and heading into the reception (as usual the reception is only a small slit of space for staff to see you through). The staff then showed me a list of hotline, which back then I didn’t know was part of the contact tracing where you had to call in and log your visit. I replied in English that I didn’t know what that was, exposing myself as foreigner. Immediately they said no foreigners and I was turned away. Wisen up a little, I tried my luck on the second trip, now knowing that the toll number was for contact tracing. The guy was all ready to give me my change for a big won note, and directed me to call the number. My call number couldn’t get through as I didn’t activate IDD calls. The staff will be watching over their side of the phone to see if you have called. I took quite a delay. The guy watched me and discovered I looked very lost and concluded I was foreigner, immediately returned back my original money and said no foreigner, and walked away. So upset, I am mid 30s and in good shape and looks, but guess they are really strict about this. Anyone who wants to try, just note the address is still in Sinnonhyeon metro exit 3, but closer to exit 3, on building level 4. Refer to the map given in the website. Make sure you can pass through my hurdles by appearing confident in doing the contact tracing process.

 

3)     SHELTER (same locations)

I went on a weekday and the crowd was little but the quality was good, some hot men and decent looking boys there. They asked for a document to take my name down as contact tracing which I gave my NRIC. This after the staff knew I was foreigner and even orientate me through the use of the locker (accidentally locked myself up with the number pads) and had to converse in English to get help. Things were not so rosy on my second trip though. It was a different staff who spoke a long sentence of Korean, presumably wanting to provide them something to record as tracing, but I didn’t understand and exposed myself as a foreigner, immediately got rejected when they say “for Koreans only”. I decided to try my luck the next day, hoping it is the same old staff I first saw. Again, unfortunately, it was another different new guy (they seem to have a lot of part timers), who very quickly spotted I was a foreigner and opened the door to say no foreigners to me. Sigh.

 

 

Saunas

 

1)     HYUDAE SAUNA (Now called He’s Sauna). Same location. Still a sleeping lounge and broken down sauna dips. This allowed foreigners, despite my failure to call the toll-free line for contact tracing or scanning the notatised SG QR code to prove my vaccination. They guy just let me in. Price is steep at 200000 KRW, equivalent to $20ish per visit. THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE SOUL, except one Caucasian who was smoking. So I decided that maybe weekend was better. It was indeed, there were about 4 more people on a big space that Saturday evening I went, not muscle bod, 1-2 young boys and many mature ones. The big lounge with a huge TV projector is a good place to start going close to people sleeping (or pretending to rest with their phone on), then proceeded to smaller rooms with doors and beds. I thought the place make good if you want to stay overnight. Cosy and warm for a bitter winter. Condoms and lube packs are sprawled around beside the bed basket . Walk around with given black pants or 2 small towels given

 

2)     Hamilton Hotel Sauna – No longer operates 24 h, seems to be because of COVID. Even weekends close at 10pm. No actions at all on sleeping level. The baths were so-so, mainly straight, 1-2 gays if you make eye contacts, they will signal to the steam room and some actions can take place.

 

 

3)     Dragon Hill and Resort – Definitely not a gay place. But need to make mention that it is closed, (unsure if temporary or permanent, even the bright neon lightings and labels were still around, misleading. Even on Google search, it mentions temporarily closed. When peeped inside, all fixtures were removed already. So sad.

 

Drink clubs

1)     From one local’s account, it seems they open on Fri, Sat and Sun only, operating under curfew till 12 am. King is still there. Eagle is the one at the top most of the homo hill said to operate until 6 am only. Crowded with little social distancing when I went on Sat

Apps like Jackd and Grindr

1)     Locals don’t seem to use Whatsapp or Telegram. They have this naver app that worked similar to whatsapp. Unable to sign up as its all in Korean and requires a local number.

2)     Grindr is less used by locals. Most of the profiles have no photos

3)     Jackd is more widely used, beautiful photos there shows how handsome most of them are, photogenic.

4)     In replies, if you speak in English, you typically get only 5% response rate back

5)     Maybe 10-20% if you try typing in Korean, using some sort of translator, though I was told the translators do a bad job as sentence structures were awkward.

6)     A few locals are really good at English, because they went through international schools/worked/studied overseas for a few years.

7)     Spontaneous in meeting, especially if you have place for fun. They will really come by and not go MIA when they promise.

8)     To them, 30-60 min journey is considered as short/nearby to them. That’s 6km apart.

9)     Will realise that their profiles are very detailed, writing their stats, and their roles, T, B or ab. A. I suppose Ab or A means versatile? They keep such info transparent and it seems to be the norm

10)  The bottoms are asking for raw sex, at least the 2 I encountered. Not sure it cuts across the country. They both claimed they are clean, on prep etc.

 

Hotels

·        If you are a gym fanatic like me, you would know that gyms in korea are hard to join due to language issues and prefer longer term. As such, I had to book a hotel with gym

·        Hotel Newv in Seolleung is my preferred. Is a full-fledged gym (they even open to public for PT sessions), squat rack, smiths and dumbells and plates, machines all avail , making other gym hotels inferior.

·        Good speaking receptionist too. Nice housekeeping.