There are very few bars and clubs, though North Korean beer is available at hotels. Some may also offer Chinese and other foreign beers, such as Heineken. The local draught beer is excellent, costing from â¬0.50 to â¬1.40, but the bottled beer can give bad hangovers.
There are three main places, apart from restaurants and hotels, where foreign residents go to socialise; the old Diplomatic club, near the Juche tower by the river, the Friendship, inside the Munsu dong foreigners' compound, and the Random Access Club RAC, run by the UN, also inside the foreigners' compound.
Provided that transport difficult and permission less difficult is obtainable, all of these can be visited. The RAC Friday nights are legendary not in an "Ibiza" way, though, although what passed for nightlife has dwindled as foreign aid organisations have left the country during 2009.
