Ville Memories: The Rendezvous Club
This posting about memorable bar brawls over at Blackfive got me thinking about memorable brawls I have witnessed during my time in Korea. I have seen plenty of stupid drunken beer brawls in the ville, but they usually ended pretty quick and were relatively unmemorable. Just a bunch of drunks pushing and shoving acting tough, the whole while someone would break them up. There was a couple of fights though that were quite memorable that I will never forget. The first one was at the Rendezvous Club over in Dongducheon.
Back in the day the Rendezvous Club was a nice place to go to meet local Korean girls because there were no juicy girls there at the time. The club was really the only place in the ville where locals and GIs mixed. The locals would arrive in the club right after curfew hit because back then the vast majority of GIs in the ville were gone and back on Camp Casey because of the curfew. The few GIs that remained in the ville past curfew had what was called a Warrior Pass. Back then every company had a limited number of Warrior Passes that the First Sergeant and Commander could give to people to stay out after curfew. The soldiers that had Warrior Passes were usually older, more mature, and higher ranking and not from the younger 18-21 year old age group that statistics show cause the majority of alcohol related incidents. Plus the younger soldiers that received a Warrior Pass for the weekend usually used it to hang out with juicy girls all night and not to hang out at the Rendevous Club with local Koreans. The locals all knew this and thus had no problems mixing with the soldiers that did go to the Rendezvous Club after curfew.
The Rendezvous Club was really a nice place back then and was operated by a guy named Mr. Han. Mr. Han was not your average GI ville bar owner. Mr. Han if I had to guess was about 35-40 years old back then and over 6 feet tall, well built, with really long hair. He had a few huge Koreans working security for him at the club and he always made sure his club had the most beautiful female bartenders in town. The local police would occasionally stop by and pay their respects to Mr. Han as well. In short he was the perfect stereotype of a Korean gangster.
Mr. Han from what I heard was one of the head Korean mob bosses in TDC and operated a number of the juicy girl clubs in the ville. Anyway there I was, drinking a few beers with Mr. Han with a few of my buddies at the bar counter. We were all friendly with Mr. Han since we frequented his club so often. He spoke good English and despite being a mob figure was actually a really nice guy to us GIs. Anyway a fight broke out towards the front of the bar where the dance floor was at. No soldiers were involved, it was strictly a Korean on Korean fight. There must of been about 15-20 people going at it and then some guy grabbed a beer glass and threw it at this other guy, but missed and the glass shattered against the wall near some Korean females.
That was when Mr. Han sprang into action. He suddenly jumped over the bar and landed a round house kick on the guy that threw the glass. That kick could have been straight from a Korean gangster flick. From there he preceded to kick the living crap out of him and then turned his attention to another guy and began using more kung fu moves on him. Mr. Han and the club security got the fight under control and literally kicked the people out. The first guy Mr. Han had kicked the crap out of could not leave the club under his own power. The club security just grabbed him and threw him out in the street in front of the club. After the fight we figured it was probably a good time to finish our beers and get out there.
We walked outside and the guy that got the crap beaten out of him was still laying in the street in front of the club. A soldier I didn’t know was walking down the street and saw the guy bleeding and came over to assist him. He said he was medic. He started checking the guy out and one the club’s security guards that was standing at the entrance of the club came over and told the medic to leave him alone. So that is what we did, we left him alone and walked way. There is times where you have to let Koreans handle business their own way and this was definitely one of those times. The guy was left to bleed in the street as a reminder to everyone else to not start any fights in the Rendezvous Club.
I haven’t been stationed at Camp Casey since then and I haven’t been to the Casey ville for years so I have no idea if the Rendezvous club is even open any more or if Mr. Han still operates the place. If so he is a nice guy to us GIs, but whatever you do don’t piss him off. If anyone has any interesting fights they remember in Korea feel free to comment on them. By the way here is a link to the funniest fight I have ever seen in Korea.
Don't let the Koreans at VANK read you saying stuff like that….
GI wrote:
"near some Korean females"
That's an interesting choice of words. Were they not worthy of being called "ladies" or even "women"? 🙂
I think I subconciously used females because of my recent postings on females in the barracks. The vast majority of military types will say female because we don't say women soldiers, we say female soldiers and vice versa.
USinKorea, I never seen Tae Kwon Do like the ass whooping Mr. Han put on that guy. But the wankers, I mean Vankers are welcome to protest.
Uh. No. Mr. Han is not a nice guy. Oh he’ll talk nice to GI’s spending money (just don’t look at what he says when he turns around) He is still there as is the Rendevous. He’s got Filipina LADIES working there now, for him and all his little gang-pei buddies not to mention the odd GI who can get on the “in” (CID don’t stand a chance”. He is a human trafficer. There’s also a little dope trade out of there as well. There have been a couple stabbings, and some very unsavory 3rd country nationals hanging out in there.
I have never been able to figure out how he avoids getting put off-limits. Who is getting paid? You’ve got PHT, drugs and force protection issues.
I guess I should reemphasize he was nice for being a Korean mobster. He was definitely not an upstanding citizen by any means. The fact he is behind a number of number criminal enterprises is not surprising. Do you know if the knife fights were gang related? I heard that after 2BCT left the competition for business from the clubs up in TDC was pretty competitive between the different gangsters up there. The possibility that he is paying people off would not surprise me in the least.
Shame on you, GI. You kissed Sonagi’s over-sensitive ass.
You do not need to rationalize why you said “female” instead of “lady”.
You subconsciously, or consciously, used “female” because there are very, very, very few “ladies” that hang out after midnight in gangster-run bars in GI bar districts. Most of these trollups might not classify as women.
There. I said it… and I’ll take the heat for you GI, if anyone cares to disagree.
I don’t know, but I suspect Elly May’s take on the situation is more accurate than transitory GIs who get a cold drink and friendly conversation from a scumbag bar owner and claim he is the greatest guy in the world. Yes, a GI’s loyalty can be bought for a couple shots of whiskey or a free beer.
What she described about Mr. Han could accurately describe a number of bars in Songtan…
…and, I can echo her sentiments, “I have never been able to figure out how he avoids getting put off-limits. Who is getting paid? You’ve got PHT, drugs and force protection issues.”
It never ceases to amaze me how nobody wishes to address this issue. I guess because, despite the rot of corruption in the American military, the system works.
J!
I am curious..are the clubs there still segregated by race?
ChickenHead wrote:
"Shame on you, GI. You kissed Sonagi’s over-sensitive ass."
Love and peace, Brother ChickenHead. 🙂
Chickenhead, I never claimed he was the greatest guy in the world. The guy is a gangster so like I said he is not an upstanding citizen and everything Elly May says is probably true. That doesn't change the fact that he was always nice to GIs that drank beers there and the place back then it was a nice place to hang out because it had no juicy girls. Obviously things have changed there since then.
GI,
You seem to know Chickenhead better than I do. Was he vocal online or in the community about prostitution and corruption before his bar in Osan was put off-limits?
Oh, Chickenhead is the guy who owned a couple of clubs and one that got blacklisted in part or whole by the MP who got busted for corruption…
I'm bad with names….
OK…
A few years ago I was operating my excuse for a bar in Hongdae. This was back during the previous time Hongdae was off limits. Which of course made the area THE place to be (this time is likely no diffrent). My place was even more of an oddity since we were not on the specific patrol list for the CP's, so we got some business when the CP's made their sweeps of Stompers and such.
For a short while to increase business we used to serve a breakfast about 2am or so to increase business. We eventualy stopped it, but every so often we got one or two trickle in looking for something. Since we had the eggs and such anyway, I usually obliged.
One very quiet Saturday night, my then wife went home I was left to watch the place. I was looking forward to wrapping up early, like say 1 or 2 am. Just when I was about the make that ulitmate decision in my empty place, in walked one of my semi-regular soilder customers came in. He was rather drunk and wanted breakfast, meanwhile I really did not want to put up with this stuff. In the end, not wanting to piss off a semi-regular, I said no problem and went off the kitchen. I saw him grab a beer from the fridge and settle down in one of the sofas we had.
When I came out with eggs, sausage, toast, and a bit of fruit the young PFC (yes I knew his rank) was passed out cold. I tried to wake him, I tapped, nudged, and shoved him to no avail. I thought he would wake up eventualy, so I placed the food down and took my seat the bar to wait.
130am became 2am which became 230am. Now I am wondering what to do. I could not wake him. The guy was too big and too passed out to throw him out. And I could not speak enough Korean to get help. So I make the unfortunate decision to try to contact the CP's, which I did not really want to do since its tough enough over here already for these guys. I got a few numbers for Yongsan from scouring the internet. No luck though, they were all closed (it was 3am by now after all). So I then make the fateful decision to call my then wife to call the KNP's to get a drunk out of my bar.
About 4am in come the KNP and I point to the lump in front of a plate of cold eggs. They jostle him with as much force and effectivness as I did nto wake him up. Finaly one reached down and rubbed the guys belly, litteraly rubbed the guys belly. Apprently this was a bit too intimate of a violation for a drunk to ignore because the guy was up like a bolt of lightning.
Then suddenly time slowed down, and I could really make out the phrase in my mind, "OH SHIT, DONT MAN! REALLY DONT!" That was going through my head as the young PFC was taking a swing at the KNP belly rubber. Either luck, KPN alertness, drunkness, or a comibnation of all lead to the punch not connecting. However the KNP's lost what little good humor they had right then. One of them pushed him over, he hit a chair, and somehow they caught him before his skull hit my very hard tile floor. One grabbed one wrist, the other grabbed the other and they litterly dragged him out kicking and screaming.
That's my third party brawl memory in Korea.
Sonagi,
I don't know Chickenhead and have never been to his bar. Being a 2ID guy I have actually only been to the ville area outside Osan AB only one time so I am not familiar with the Osan ville or the Chickenhead Club. I only know Chickenhead from his postings at Nomad's site and here.
Dram Man,
That sounds like a typical night on CP. I have had plenty of stupid drunks try and take swings at me before while pulling CP. The best thing to do is keep the MP station's number. Every post has an MP station with MPs on duty at all times. If the soldier gets picked up by the MPs he will get in trouble with his unit's command but it is better than possibly getting in trouble with the KNPs.
Dumb ass drunks like the one that came into your club need to get in trouble with their command before a larger alcohol related incident with them occurs. So I can't fault you with calling the authorities to have him removed because you may have prevented this guy from getting overly drunk again and possibly committing a serious crime.
Dram_man… dude… that's a little harsh.
When that happened to me, I talked to them and told them I was going to walk them to a hotel and that they had best get up. Of course, they ignore you… thinking you might go away or something.
I just chatted away with a friendly voice and told them exactly what I was going to do to provide proper motivation to get on their feet. And I did it.
"See, buddy, you ARE going to get up and walk to a hotel with me. This really isn't negotiable because you don't want to lose a stripe for being a drunk dumbass. We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. Next, I'm going to dump cold water on your chest. Do you want that? No? Here it comes. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… OK, fucker, you asked for that. Now, are we going to go to the next step? Do you think I'm kidding?"
A friendly, cheerful voice is the key.
I stood out of range of flying fists, of course, but the Regiment of Awakening started with irritating poking and ended with pepper spray on the nuts. That NEVER failed… and it burns like hell for 15 to 20 minutes… long enough to get them to a hotel and all tucked in… and they frequently double-time it in anticipation of a shower.
The few who are slightly combative can be controlled with one hand on their neck and the other on the back of a wrist. Pinching a thumb/top-of-fist full of love handle works wonders as well… you can guide somebody and they can't get away.
I payed for the hotel and I NEVER had anyone who didn't come in within a week, thank me for taking care of them/saving their career and pay me back (sometimes with a tip).
Side benefits, of course, include you don't get "noticed" by SP/MP/CP/KNP (which can't be a good thing), you build an incredibly trusting and loyal customer base (especially when they tell their friends how you took care of them) and you get to spray someone on the nuts with pepper spray and be paid for it with a smile.
Life is good.
J!
Yep chicken head has all the answers.
He is a human rights advocate.
Fights for GI rights.
Loves all. Respects all.
No axe to grind with him.
He has never banged a 14 yo hooker, not chicken. He protects them.
God bless chicken head.
If only the Military would just listen to Chicken Head!! Goddam brass!!
Well. Finally. Someone recognized the truth.
When are you going to morph back into Silly Sally? She's all smartalecky wisdom without the bitterness and the barroom language.
If I ever start a blog, I want Silly Sally as the resident troll pointing and laughing at imperial commenters with no clothes.
[…] Dongducheon. They would flock to the clubs up there to hit on drunk GIs. I was at the infamous Rendezvous Club one time and saw this soldier hanging all over what was obviously a transexual but he was too drunk […]