As it was Friday, there was no Korean class, so right after psych, I went to Gyeongbokgung (Gyeongbokgung, #5) with Belicia, Michelle, Joseph and Jason, who are also people from SG that I met in class. They're honestly such nice people! We paid 10,000W for the ticket that gave us entry to 4 palaces (including the famous Huwon garden) and the Jongmyo shrine, but we really only had time to visit Gyeongbokgung that day.
Gyeongbokgung is one of the many palaces scattered around Seoul. It's not as pretty as Changdeokgung, but it has a fancy guard-changing ceremony to behold. Unfortunately, for both palaces and for other Korean royal places, they were destroyed during the various wars, so what we see are all replicas or reconstructions of the original ones that were burnt down. It made me a little sad that I wasn't seeing the 'real' thing.
We then attempted to walk to the bukchon area where the old and traditional hanok homes were, but we ran out of time because we'd already planned to go ice skating with a few of the SG people, including Genevieve, Eugene and Dickson. We met up at the city hall station and waited for the rest to come. One hour of skating including a pair of ice-skates cost us 5000W. So cheap! Especially considering the fact we were skating in the city on a man-made rink where the grass usually is. I think the lockers cost an extra 500W or something.
Bukchon area where the Korean traditional houses are
As a group, we then walked to Myeongdong (can't believe Myeongdong is so close!) for dinner at 2-2 Chicken where we met up with other people including Kimberley and Amelia (Day 11). While waiting for our fried chicken, a few us played a few drinking games with the beer we ordered to pass the time XP
And again, I went to Solbing for dessert with Eugene, Genevieve and Dickson.
For some crazy reason, as we were walking back to our dorms that night, Genevieve suggested we go to the Octagon club in Gangnam, and we said yes.
Disclaimer: I am not trying to encourage drinking or clubbing!
Genevieve managed to rope in Madeline, who wasn't with us earlier, so that altogether it was five of us, including Dickson and Eugene. And so we set off at 11pm.
We split ourselves into two taxis (a 20-30min ride cost us ~15,000W) and shared two bottles of soju amongst ourselves whilst in the taxi. I'm glad my parents let us drink at home under their supervision, so I can take my fair share of alcohol without becoming inebriated/rowdily drunk.
When we got there, we had to show our ID to the bouncer at the door. Unfortunately, they don't take the Yonsei University student IDs and I didn't have my Singaporean Identity Card or driver's license like the other three did. But it was a good thing I took a picture of my passport for something else previously, and so I showed it to the guy and was able to enter (Gen had the same problem).
It was 30,000W for entry including a complimentary drink. First, we stuffed our items (jackets, wallets etc.) into one incredibly high-tech locker that could only be opened by scanning our wristbands. We then paid 10,000W for a shot of vodka each. Off we went to the dance floor! All the songs were of the techno/dubstep genre so it was really quite jarring after a while, but we all agreed later that the company made it worthwhile. People do try to touch your waist (it happened to me twice) or get you to come with them somewhere (happened to my friends), but because we were in a group and looked out for each other, it didn't go more than that.
After a while, we decided to go up for some fresh air (the club was pretty smoky). It's funny, cause the club is located below a nice-looking hotel. We got out of the club and went into the hotel lobby, all of us sitting in a daze-like state on the comfy sofas and chatting about nothing at all. We went back down, where Madeline and I voted Octagon as the 'best' club and got a free shot of vodka each, then danced for a while more. Before leaving, we bought a huge 1-2L bottle of water. Hydration is important guys!
By the time we left it was 4.30am. We reached the dorm at 5am, where I showered and finally slept at 6am, so it's technically DAY 22 now.
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