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Uwoo?

Awkwardly trapped by wedding photographs

B R

B R

— 3 min read

28 April, 2023 | Seoul, South Korea

Rain does not stop the small street market restaurants from plying their business.

Finding good bars has never been so difficult. The entire trip I’ve been searching and marking locations using Apple Maps, with some occasional assists from Lonely Planet. It’s been pretty good so far, but both fail miserably in Seoul. Lonely Planet in particular has been just a long uninterrupted string of “Ls” here. The only thing that has worked is an elaborate process involving cross referencing Naver and Google and just random internet searches. It sucks.

Somehow the name of this bar is correct but it no longer exists. Another L for Lonely Planet.

Now back on my bullshit: a brief mention on gay bar naming - Korea is all over the place and I love it. I was hoping to use spoiler tags so you could guess at your leisure but that isn’t supported in Substack:

  • The Flair Bar: Straight
  • Bottoms up: I mean, come on
  • Friends: gay
  • Shortbus: actually gay
  • Tender bar: Straight
  • Orb of Light: Straight?
  • Gnome: Gay
  • Yahoo: gay, doesn’t exist
  • Just Hommes: actually a perfect naming
  • Why Not: oh yes
  • Hoegaarden: straight
  • Organic Orgasm: Not even a bar
  • Vers: Somehow no
  • Cafe Bone F: no

A few more, in image form:

Yes. I think?
No (actually fashion)
I genuinely couldn’t tell and no search engine hit anywhere on this place. But yeah, probably.
That’s about 7 inches. Again, I still don’t know. Half the venues in this town are impossible to search.

While trying to find Uwoo, I stumbled into a scene that I did not expect. Like Japan, outward public displays of affection are very uncommon in Seoul. In the pouring rain walking down an otherwise empty alley, I turned my head to see a cute young gay couple kissing just in the sheltered recess of the stoop of an apartment building.

In the pouring rain walking down an otherwise empty alley, I turned my head to see a cute young gay couple kissing just in the sheltered recess of the stoop of an apartment building.

My queer heart fought my bashful impulse to give them privacy, and the former lost. Blushing, I ducked into the next venue I saw.

This place, called Friends, is a pleasant cocktail bar that caters to both locals and foreigners. It was here I met Louis.

Here is Louis, trapped in the library of Changdeokgung Palace because of what I believe was some active wedding photography taking place to his immediate right, which he is politely and adorably waiting to end.

Louis is from Paris and travels substantially more frequently than I do - 70 countries in all - principally for work. On this vacation however, he couldn’t get his usual friends to join him in Asia. He lamented the difficulty of traveling alone in Seoul - so many places are basically designed for two-or-more people. A number of restaurants won’t even serve a single person, unless you intend to order as much as two people would.

It was thus I acquired a traveling companion for a portion of my stay in Seoul. We exchanged numbers and parted at the bar, ready to meet back up to explore the aforementioned Changdeokgung Palace, Namdaemun Market, and Noryangjin Fisheries the next day.

(Edit: I can’t believe I forgot this one)

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