Jacquie Does Kongnam

Thursday night found me in Kongnam, sandwiched between Kyle and Caitlyn (uber-cool coworker, archaeologist and traveller extraordinaire... plus fellow Canadian... straight from Peterborough.) and basking in the neon glow of the excessively lit streets that permeate this country. It’s like Times Square on acid, everywhere.

Anyway, I think they were feeling a bit sorry for me, seeing as that day I’d been shipped out to the hospital for my obligatory drug and STD testing, for which I had to starve myself for eight hours (anyone who knows me knows what a huge deal THAT is), have blood drawn and pee in a plastic cup. They were feeling sorry for me, and therefore decided to show me Kongnam.

This place is pretty much ridiculous.

After shopping for a while, they took me to this tea house where we shared smoothies and gelato, and I had my first Dr. Fish experience. Dr Fish is a very interesting concept. You sit on cushions with your feet in, well, in a fish tank. For fifteen minutes these teeny tiny little fish swim around your feet eating all the dead skin off. It tickles like you wouldn’t believe, gives you the heebie-jeebies and leaves your feet feeling pedicure-fresh!

Once our feet had been beautified by our little friends, I was taken to Rainbow, this cool hooka bar/ lounge. It’s a traditional type of place where you take off your shoes at the door and sit on cushions on the floor. Traditional in a Korean sense, but with a crazy Bob Marley vibe. Kyle swears that’s what Thailand feels like, only outside. I can’t argue with him, having never been there. But if that is the case, then you can sign me up. It’s the type place I could spend many an evening in!

We made a relatively early night of it, seeing as we had to wrangle five year olds the next morning. Deciding that a bus would be our fastest option home, we found one going in our general direction and hopped on. This was also my first Korean bus experience, and let me tell you! Korea has public transit figured out! City buses here are like Greyhound buses back home. If public transportation in K-W was anything like Seoul, you might almost be able to convince me to use it ;)