When friends or family when ask what I miss most about living abroad, I respond by telling them that I miss them. But in reality I think I miss my dog the most. Since it is really hard to communicate with him on Skype. At least I can talk face to face with my friends and family regularly. But it is almost impossible to get ahold of my family dog Max. He hasn't figured out the latest in Video Chatting technology, I guess I can blame his lack of opposable thumbs.
I am an avid dog lover and really wanted to play with dogs. Luckily Korea has figured out a simple solution. This weekend I headed to grab a drink and relax at a Dog Café. This is a great place where you can enjoy a coffee, smoothie or some snacks while playing with dogs of all shapes and sizes. Before going to this place I really had no idea what to expect. The picture that came to my mind was a pet shop mixed with a coffee shop, which was actually sort of accurate.
The dog café is three stories: 1st floor is the coffee shop with dogs, 2nd floor is a sitting area with more dogs and the 3rd floor is for grooming. We spent most of our time on the 2nd floor since it was less crowded and actually had more dogs running around than the first floor.
The strawberry smoothie I ordered was 5,000 Won and tasted great. They have a pretty nice drink selection to please everyone. The café is fairly cozy and there were about 10-15 dogs running around and playing with each other and the customers. The majority of the dogs seemed to be fairly young and untrained. This was fine, but it was actually kind of hard to pet or play with them since they were so distracted with the other dogs.
One thing to keep in mind is that practically all the dogs are not potty trained so watch your steps. Although there are some accidents around, the staff does a great job of quickly cleaning up the mess. You can also bring your own dog here to play with the others. Combining a pet store, dog park and coffee shop into one is a great concept. They have taken a few great ideas and placed them into one unique setting. Playing with dogs and having none of the responsibility is a great feeling. You can follow more of Swig's journey on his blog.
The name of the shop is Café Flying Dog and is pretty nearby to First Alleyway. You can see the map below for directions.
I've held off from commenting because I wanted to get a handle on your style. If I may, I'd like to offer some advice. Please remember you are writing for a larger audience than just those new to Gwangju or South Korea. Whereas pet cafes and kimbap restaurants are different from back home, most people here are very familiar with these. Try to broaden your perspective. Find the places and events that few people know. One of the previous bloggers, John Crook, used to write about activities and locales even natives knew nothing about. His articles were also rich in detail and written with great care. Perhaps your readership will expand if your posts focus less on the regular and reach for the extraordinary.
Thanks for the read and comment. I appreciate your feed back and advice. Although, the concept of Pet Cafes might be familiar to you I still think very few have visited the one in Gwangju and that's why I chose to cover it this week. As for Kimbap, it was a segment where you can spend a day on 10,000 won. Kimbap wasn't the main focus of the article. John Crook did a great job covering places around the city, but I am writing about Gwangju from my own perspective. If you have anything specific (events or locations) you would like to read about please let me know.
thanks for sharing! didn 't know that there is a dog cafe in gwangju.