Korea is notorious for heavyweights in drinking, the birthplace of soju, alcohol goes hand in hand with eating and socialising. When my friend asked me what I wanted to do or see during my visit, on my list was drink soju and experience Korean nightlife. So one Friday night, she took me to the centre of nightlife in Suwon, a big city outside of Seoul, and we walked through big streets filled with all sorts of bars for drinking and eating, loud clubs with queues outside and bars my friend called 'Hunting Bars' - bars frequented by young people trying to find boyfriends or girlfriends. It was amusing and highly enjoyable to walk through the crowd and people watch, and try to manoeuvre around regretful cars slowly trailing along. Being in that atmosphere was exciting and fun, everyone was laughing and shouting with a jolly and drunk sociability. 

We settled on a fishcake bar (탱탱오뎅) that wasn't overcrowded or too loud, because what we really wanted to do was talk and make up for lost time (two years to be exact). What this bar specialised in was fishcake and was similar to Japanese oden. Koreans also use the word oden, but it's pronounced more like 'odeng' and the word is usually used to refer to Korean fishcake, not the Japanese dish. Along and imbedded in the table of the communal bar were individual baths of hot soup with all sorts of fishcake skewered on wooden sticks. Each stick had a coloured stripe to indicate what it was and the price. We were given cups for the odeng and soup, soy sauce, pickled daikon and water.  My friend told me that Koreans always drink with food, not full meals, but share plates, so we ordered grilled shishamo as an addition to the fishcake we were freely available to pick and eat in front of us. As for alcohol, we shared three bottles. The first was original soju - strong, sharp and surprisingly easy to drink with a slight bitter after taste, chungha - clean and refined, more gentle and dangerously easier to drink than soju despite the similar alcohol content, and Korean plum liquor - sweet and fruity, similar to umeshu with a lower alcohol content. It was actually my first time trying soju and I really liked it, it was easy to drink and it was the perfect accompaniment to the odeng and shishamo.

Other things to note: we down soju in one shot with no sipping. Soju is so cheap (but of course I'm comparing it to Perth, where everything is three or four times more expensive than anywhere else), bottles of soju go as little as 1500W ($2) from supermarkets, and around 4000W-6000W ($5-$7) in restaurants and bars. 

2. The next typically Korean experience I had was going to a Korean sauna

Although I had some inclination of what to expect, I had never actually been to a sauna before, so I was lost as to what to do, but I had my friend there, which made it so much fun and easier. I always assumed that the sauna involved nudity, I had images of slick naked bodies sweating away in communal heated rooms made of wood, but you're not actually naked in the sauna, you're only naked when you head to the baths and showers after you've sweated it out. At the sauna (which was open 24 hours btw: we went around 10pm), they gave us a small locker for our shoes, and a bigger one inside for our belongings, along with two small towels and a set of clothes similar to loungewear. I followed my friend's lead, changing into our given loungewear and storing away our things. We then went to the 'Rest Area', where you basically just rest and relax or sleep or waste time on your phones. It was a communal wide open space, with sitting areas on the floor, massage chairs and those exercise machines where you look like you're riding a horse. There were children milling about in the playground or distracted from a video on a phone or tablet and families and couples lounging and resting. That area and the sauna rooms were mixed sex, only the bath area was divided. Off to the side, there was a little cafeteria selling smoked eggs and a iced rice drink called sikhye that is typically consumed at Korean saunas. The eggs were a nice experience, I wasn't a fan of the rubbery texture, but the drink sikhye - ice cold, sweet and refreshing was doubly delicious and thirst quenching and was the perfect drink for our parched bodies that had been sweating out in the saunas. They also have a separated games room, where you can play ping pong or arcade basketball for a small price. There were four sauna rooms with varying temperatures, as well as a cold room with ice covered walls. The first one we went into was 51 degrees Celcius, there was a TV in there and it smelled woody. It was quiet and sounds echoed more, it was enclosed and dim like a cave.

The next sauna we went to was more interesting, it was the salt room, I can't recall what the temperature was (perhaps around 56 degrees Celcius?), and there were large beds of rock salt. It was hot, but my skin and the soles of my feet adjusted as we laid down on the salt. It was surprisingly more comfortable than it sounded, there were also wooden blocks that you could use as a pillow. Things sound differently inside sauna rooms, everything is hushed and dimmed down, it was quite calming. If you're wondering if saunas stink with all the sweating bodies, it actually didn't. The salt room smelled slightly salty and I think due to the design of the sauna rooms, there was always a slight earthy and woody smell that permeated the air. It was relaxing and destressing.

There was also a cold room with iced walls, the air was refreshing and crisp. The last room we stepped in was the daunting 99 degrees Celcius room. Devoid of children, it was sweltering hot and the heat hit us upon entering the room. I never even knew sauna temperatures could go that high, being a newbie I couldn't handle the heat for long, so we left and headed to the baths. The public baths are very similar to Japanese onsen, there was a seated shower area and then several baths at different temperatures. What was different was that there was a standing shower area, a separate area for Korean scrub and exfoliation (you have pay extra) and the showers didn't come with any shampoo or soap.

The additional charge for certain services like exfoliation or a hair dryer was understandable and seemed to be the norm, seeing as it was a day sauna and not an accommodation like a ryokan onsen. It was such a good experience though, the act of resting, sweating, hydrating and replenishing with eggs and refreshing sweet rice water, all while talking and catching up with one of my best friends.

3. Eat ramyeon along the Han River (Hangang)

This was a funny and quintessential Korean experience I had always heard about and managed to experience. It was as simple as it sounds, buying a packet of Korean instant ramyeon (ramen) from a convenience store along Hangang and cooking it on the spot and eating it. It was really fun and amusing, to have ramyeon for dinner from the convenience store, to cook it ourselves in the provided tin tray and the automated ramyeon cooker, the act of it was similar to getting a cup of cheap coffee from a machine. I’d highly recommend the night view of Hangang too, the scenery looks different from every angle and the walk along the river was lovely and refreshing after dinner.

4. After eating our ramyeon dinner, we left the river and headed to Coin Karaoke

Which is exactly what it’s called. Small and medium sized booths, that are semi-soundproof, equipped with everything you need for karaoke and where you pay per song with coins or small notes. Everything was self-served, there were no employees present, you find a free room and pay via the booths, much like a vending machine or a photo booth. It was 3000W for three songs, and we took turns singing classic karaoke choices You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban, Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas to lift our festive spirit and an emotional Korean ballad. The sound in each booth was pretty impressive booming out of its surround sound system, although I think our laughs and singing equaled the music’s volume.

5. Nighttime coffee and cake in the city

An aspect of eating out culture differences that exists between Perth and a big Asian city such as Tokyo and Seoul that I’ve mentioned numerous times, are café opening times. Sometimes I just really want to drink coffee after my dinner or at 11pm – which obviously I can’t do in Perth, as coffee is seen as more of a daytime thing. That’s why one of my fave things to do is head to a café as my last stop of the day before heading home and kick back with a black coffee and eat something sweet. My friend brought me to her favourite sushi place for dinner along with her close friend, and after dinner we headed to a café and coffee roaster called Valuto. We ordered on the ground floor from their range of coffees and housemade cakes, waited until our buzzer went off, collected our goods and went searching for a place to sit in the multi-storey building. These sort of late-night opening cafes is the perfect place to study or to relax and enjoy conversation. Along with our pot of fruity tea, latte and filter coffee, the three of us shared a perfectly sweet sweet potato cake and an earthy and dense matcha chocolate and yomogi cake. I am a major fan of Asian desserts, the more traditional types for example that involve glutinous rice, as well as western style cakes with Asian flavours. It’s like that saying, it’s the best of both worlds.