In New Zealand we call it a “stag do” but in other countries it is known as a bucks party, bachelor party etc, it’s the big party the groom has before he gets married. 

This was my first stag do, and it has been great.  There were about 15 of us kiwi’s here, all of Ben’s (groom to be) mates from high school, and a few of us from university, a lot of us whom had all lived here in Korea 5 years ago teaching english.

From what I have heard about stag do’s it is a time where grown men no matter how old go back to having the maturity of a high-school kid,  all whilst drinking copious amounts of alcohol.

On Saturday night after the family dinner with Ben’s family from NZ and Europe and Mia’s from Korea we got Ben dressed for the stag night in a pretty pink dress, pink tights, and pink hat. 

Then it was onto the bars/clubs  of the funky university area of Hongdae.  Without going into too much detail, there was a lot of soju(Korea’s version of Sake which is drunk in shots), maekchu(beer), norae bangs (private karaoke rooms), dancing on tables, nakedness (there was no stripper, the nudity came from members of the stag party and the old Korean men in the bath house where we slept) and general antics which are probably better off “left on tour”.

After partying in Hongdae, we ventured to the nearest Jimshilbang (24 hour bath house) for a bath and a sleep on the floor with the other guests. 

After waking (Sunday morning), it was off to a galbi jib (restaurant where you sit on the heated floor and meat is cooked on a communal hot plate in front of you) for breakfast/lunch before our stag soccer game. Well about 4 hours later, and half of Korea’s soju consumed, we bought a soccer ball, and headed to the closest soccer field. By field I mean flat hard dirt/sand area with soccer posts as they don’t really have grass in Korea, and if there is grass your generally not allowed to walk on it.

We found some university students who were keen for a game against the unruly mob of 11 foreigners.  After the worlds most pathetic haka (a famous maori war dance done by the New Zealand rugby team before every game) it was action.  We started shakily, but as we found our Northern soccer (the Dunedin university soccer team a lot of us played for back in NZ) combinations and sweated out the soju, it was great.  Long story short, the foreigners took the game 3-2 with the stag Ben scoring the winner.

It was in our celebration of our glorious victory I had my near death experience. As you have seen on the TV, when the professionals in the European league celebrate they jump on top of each, forming a human pile on the ground, usually a couple of players high. 

So, it seemed like a great idea to celebrate in this way. Unfortunately for me, I was the first on the ground. After about the 3rd 80 kg team member to jump on the accumulating pile, I was finding it hard to breathe, then add to this a full team, I could not expand my rib cage, I could not breathe. I was thinking “wicked, I’m going to die on freezing cold rock solid ground under a human pile of my mates in Korea”. That was my last thought, life went black!

The next thing I remember is slowly coming around, not being able to see, just seeing black, then my vision came back, and noises too, I could see a couple of faces really close, then I remember thinking that I should know who they were, they looked real concerned, it was my mates, I was alive!  I was still dazed, the boys were hugging me, obviously quite ecstatic themselves, as 30 seconds ago they were checking my vital signs and thinking how they were going to explain my death to my family “Ummm yeah Mr and Mrs Cameron, you see, we played this great game of soccer, and we celebrated the victory by all jumping on top of Hap until he couldn’t breathe, sorry about that”.

To celebrate my new lease of life, our soccer victory, and it being Ben’s last Sunday night as a free man, its was off to the after match function, and then another Jimshilbang.

More people arrived today to join the stag bunch, including Mandy from Perth, so don’t worry mum, she will look after me and make sure I’m on top of the human pile when we celebrate our next soccer victory!

Best be going, having great times, loving being back in Korea, so weird and wacky.