I’ll echo my earlier statement about Korea, it’s certainly not the best place to monger and it's expensive. But if you have to be there for business or a long layover, there are some places to check out.

First, outside most of the major hotels such as Lotte, Westin, etc. there will always be guys waiting out by the front door trying to hook you up with working “amateur girls”. The costs were very high, about $150-$200, but this was for 2-3 hours or more. The girl I took from the Westin was actually pretty cute, and provided a good session.
Other places to check out is Hooker Hill in Itaewon where they have a lot of bars, and SW on the side streets/alleys. It's near the U.S. base in Yongsan in Itaweon. Once you get to Itaewon by subway or taxi, just look for a small hill or ask any vendor or GI that walks nearby where Hooker Hill is. At nights, the place is festive and full of tourists and U.S. GIs.

Also, better places, if you have Korean associates or friends to take you, are the “room bangs” that are private, karaoke type rooms where the hostess will do what you desire for a fee. Fortunately, I never went there without having a client pay and so don’t know the exact costs, but I’m certain it is very expensive. The girls are dressed very nicely and will go out with you to your hotel afterwards.

If you’re really adventurous, there are places for the locals with attractive girls. Many of these places may not take foreigners, unless you take along a Korean friend or associate here. A few of the places I’ve been to are Miari (Mee-ah-lee), 855 (O Pal Pal) and Shinyongsan for some short time action. The costs range from 60-80 won.

At Miari, which is actually an alley, there are a row of glassed houses where you’ll find several girls at each house on the floor in flowing white dresses. Kind of cheesy, but lots of girls to choose from.

Chyongnyangri is a big train station and behind it is an area called 855. There is a subway exit for Chyongnyangri and most taxis know of this place as 855 or "O Pal Pal" in Korean. This place has a few streets behind the Lotte Department store where they have good looking and skimpily clad girls sitting on stools in rooms with glasses (kind of like Amsterdam). Some real lookers as well here, some of them 8s and 9s in my book. In fact, you can even drive through these streets with your taxi driver if you want.

Another option is, as one poster noted, Turkish Bath places located at most of the major hotels. The costs are expensive, about $120 U.S. or so, and you get a bath, a good class massage, and sex. YMMV with the girls.

GETTING IN TO SEOUL

Inchon airport is about 1-1.5 hours from downtown Seoul. The cheapest and easiest way to get into town is to take the shuttle bus service for about $10 U.S. Once you clear customs, look for the shuttle bus ticket counter/stalls before you exit.

Taking taxis in Seoul is expensive and there is way too much traffic at all hours to make it worthwhile. Instead, Seoul has a decent subway station that links most places. The fares are pretty cheap, under $1 U.S. to most places, and very efficient.

I was lucky enough to be there on business once and was taken to the place where the hotties(relative to Korea) are. I still stand by my statement that Korean Women are the ugliest women in Asia....barely beating out Japanese girl but in every country there are cute women. The difference is that Japanese girls are cool and Korean girls can be wretched cunts....horrible attitudes. Talk about low shelf life...cant find a girl over 30 that doesn't have broad shoulders, a gut and a short perm haircut. Only a place to monger if you have no other choice or are there on a layover. I would rather just go to a Korean BBQ, drink some beers, watch some Korean soccer, rub one out and go to sleep than deal with the local girls....but that's just me.

Re Blazers' statement about Korean women being the ugliest of Asia, I agree. I was in Korea for 16 months in the US Army after having spent four months in Japan. When I first got to Korea and saw the women, I said to myself, "I will never have anything to do with such ugly girls", but something of a miracle happened: after I had been there about a month the girls suddenly bacame better looking :-)

Blazers & Abuelo: Korea will never be a mongering destination, perhaps a pit stop to other destinations. There were, however, some lookers at some of these places, and interestingly, in Macau, the Korean girls at the sauans were really hot and were commanding much higher prices than the local Chinese.




(Message edited by merlin on June 06, 2004)

Merlin --

Likely because good looking Korean women are very rare. Like every other rare commodity- top dollar is asked for and paid. Beautiful Chinese and Thai women are literally a dime a dozen.

CORRECTION:

Going over my notes, 855 is actually "588" but still pronounced "O Pal Pal".

Also, the cost for the local establishments were 60K-80K (about $50), not 60-80 won.

KM, so true, I'm missing LOS now believe it or not, I've forsaken that place for far too long. Merl.

Blazers, to read "rub one out" is so sad and kind of pitiful! But, I understand were you're cuming from:-(

I think we all are in agreement here that Korea is not best of the mongering destination and neither much of Korean girls are desireable. I agree with all of this but if you know a lot of the massage establishments in US employ Korean workers and some of them are very attractive. Whenever I can't go overseas I visit these establishments in mostly Bay Area, California, even though it is very expensive you can still get a decent service from decent looking Koreans.

Merlin,

As usual, excellent reporting! (I love your reports because they are so informative.)

I'd never go to Korea or Japan to monger, but it's good to know what the available options are, in case I find myself there.

Merlin and Blazers,

With respect to quality of Korean ladies and mongering cost in Korea, here is my sole experience in Seoul, Korea several years past.

A friend of mine took us (business associate and I) to a night club (they called it ‘room salon’) after very nice Japanese cuisine. The club was high-end club by its interior decoration, manner of attending staff and killer looking young ladies who were there for the club guests.

We were led to a room by a hostess (who was also great looking young lady). The room was elegantly decorated with posh sofa’s and a large table which was eventually covered with bottled water, soft drinks, liquors and finger foods like fruits, some dry fish stuff, and the likes.

In any case, three ladies were brought in for three of us. Everyone was near perfect – face, figure, height, makeup, and unhurried and affectionate mannerism. I loved them all.

We were there for about 2 to 3 hours for drinks and fun (kissing and touching) with ladies. The bill for the house was about $500.00 that I picked up and a buddy of mine gave each lady about $80 or $90 ($100,000 won – Korean currency) for their “effort” to entertain us. Then he told me (us actually) that these ladies would be available for approximately $200 to $300 for entire night if we chose to bring them home. Both of us passed – too tired and I already foot the bill for dinner and the bar tab.

So, you are absolutely right about the cost of mongering in Seoul, Korea and you can find a few knockouts if you are willing to pay and know these places. I think it is only worth it when you are stuck in Seoul and have the itch for mongering.

By the way, I’m changing my travel to Asia/pacific region from Latin America/Europe so I could use your help and orientation in a/pac region.

Off2Golf, thanks for your insights and thanks for sharing your experience. Good to see that you're interested in Asia. There is a wealth of info from the Asia Vets, just holler if you need us.

I also experienced the Room Salons or Room Bangs as I noted and found the girls that were sent over to us to be incredibly fun and really good looking. But definitely expensive and not a first resort for mongering, but an experience nevertheless that was unique to this destination.
Often times, business meetings eventually concluded with a trip to these room salons.