In a Special Place

Korean night club experiences are different than anything else I knew in America! My first time was with another expat, so I thought all nightclubs were the way I am about to describe, little did I know that I was in a SPECIAL place.

This special place looks like a normal club. You have the dark room with lasers, neon lights, loud music, fog machines and even bars with booths for sitting in with little candles on them.

We sat down at a booth, guided by some Korean in a tux... which is common for Korea, they dress up for everything. Service is very formal in Korea and nice. There must have been at least 20 of those butler looking dudes in suits in the club. Within a few minutes we had a huge platter of fruit, pitchers of beer, and women on our laps... all without getting up or pulling any strings.

In this special place, which is called a hooking club or booking club; couldn't understand their pronunciation. The tux dudes pay attention to new people that walk in and they are your personal attendant for everything. For the women that come to this place, they know the procedure. A normal woman, that isn't a hooker or anything, just a shy Asian woman... she can walk in with her friends and just enjoy the music and wait for a tux dude to escort her to a table of eligible men. The men choose if the woman/women stay or go. To keep the women you don't have to do anything except look like you like what you see. If the tux dude see that you are not liking, he will take them off your lap and they go back to waiting in the general population for the next opportunity. If you really don't like the women, then you just raise the candle up... with a bolt of quickness, the tux dude will appear and apologize and get you a new girl.

So, my first time here was only my second week in South Korea. I spoke not a word of Korean. I understood nothing, so I was open to all. If this was how it was in Korea, then that's how I'd do it too.

We had a good time that night! I think we only raised the candle once. There is no obligation to have sex or anything like that, it is all free to do or not. This is just a way for the Koreans to get over that initial shyness and meet new people.

One time, these girls took me to a club... and they tried to get me to pay for all their food and drinks. I didn't even understand Korean very well, but I understood what was going on... so my friend and I walked towards the exit and then bolted, jumped in a cab and went to a karaoke bar instead. Clever boys we were.