South Korea & Taiwan Blog 6: Gyeongju to Jeonju
Day 11 – Monday,17 April Gyeongju to Jeonju
Fine and warm in Gyeongju and Jeonju, 21ºC
We got up at 7:00am after a restless sleep; a combination of sleeping Hanok style ( on the floor ) and the heated floor being a little too warm. Went down to the ‘restaurant’ ( actually the kitchen ) for toast and coffee ( included in the price for our room ). We appear to have been the only guests last night; the ‘house’ has 10 rooms.
Went back up to the room and packed our bags, then went for a walk around the streets behind our Hanok, passed lots of traditional houses and guesthouses and schools, then back around the block and back at 8:45am.
Got our gear then walked to the bus stop on the main street, and caught the 51 bus back to the Singyeongju Station, arriving at 9:30am. On the bus ride we passed at least 5 schools and a University all along the same road, and travelled on surface streets and a short section of expressway which was still under construction.
We waited for our train to show on the departures board then headed up to platform 4 to wait for it to arrive, and to watch the non-stopping KTX / SRX ( a high speed train run by a different company to ours) trains shoot through the station at 300km/h ( it is always fun to ‘feel’ them shoot past and not just see them ).
A 200m long KTX Sancheon Train passing through at 300km/h
Our train arrived at 10:50am ( this is the same service that we got off 24 hours earlier from Busan ), we jumped on board, found our seats in 2nd class ( going backwards ) and settled in.
Thoughts on Gyeongju: we had come to Gyeongju purely to visit the Burial Mounds so 1 night was enough for us. The town felt a little too touristy ( mainly Korean tourists ) for our liking, but was worth visiting.
After a quick trip through lots of tunnels and the mountainous centre of Korea, we arrived at Onsong station, after a couple of stops, at 12:11pm. This is where would change trains from the Busan to Seoul line onto the Seoul to Mokpo / Yeosu line.
We went down to the main concourse and had lunch at a café ( as always yummy bread and cakes ) then back up to the platform to wait for our next train at 1:27pm. It pulled in on time ( this one was 2 train sets coupled together, each with 8 carriages, as 1 part was heading to Yeosu ( via Jeonju ) and the other to Mokpo ). We got on in 2nd class again ( facing forward this time but not seated next to each other ) and headed south. Not long after leaving Osong we headed out across flat plains on the coast; a contrast to the hills we had travelled through from Seoul to Busan to Gyeongju to Osong.
The train stopped at Iksan to be split in half, then our section ( thankfully ) headed on to Jeonju, arriving at 2:15pm.
We left the station and walked to a bus stop 5 minutes away, and caught the 513 bus to near our hotel ( Best Western Plus, W230000/NZ$255 for 2 nights ). We picked the hotel because it was close to the main attraction of Jeonju being a large ( mainly recreated ) Hanok village. We walked the couple of hundred metres from the bus stop to the hotel and checked in at 3pm.
To navigate in Korea we were using Naver Maps ( a local map app on our phones ) as Google Maps does not have the ability to provide directions. This app was really useful as it would update with the next bus & train times / routes, and even told us which carriage to get on in the Metro systems to be near the right exit.
We headed up to the room on the 8th floor and relaxed a bit, then headed out for a walk around at 3:45pm. We found a café for coffee/tea then found some shopping streets nearby. We walked through the shopping area ( centred around Jeonjugaeksa 5-gil ), looking mainly at shoe shops, then walked back back to the hotel at 5pm, after a stop at the local Family Store ( convenience store ) for supplies.
We immediately got a good feel about Jeonju; even if it seemed really quiet on the streets most of the time.
We went out again at 6:30pm, walked to a local small historic house ( Pungpaejigwan ) for some photos, then for tea in nearby shopping street ( Had Bibimbap’s at an upstairs restaurant, W18000 ), and then walked back to hotel at 8:15pm.
Day 12 – Tuesday, 18 April Jeonju
Cloudy, thunderstorms, rain, misty, 19ºC
Up at 8am, downstairs to the buffet breakfast (W22000 ea ), then back to the room, got ourselves organised then out at 9:30am
We walked to Hanok Village area, about a kilometre south of the hotel, bought tickets for Gyeonggijeon Shrine ( W3000 ea ), and walked through the shrine. The shrine was very quiet at this time of morning but very pretty with gardens and recreated houses inside the walled area.
We headed back out at 10:30am, took a quick photo of the Cathedral opposite, then along the road ( Taejo-ro ) looking for a coffee stop. Most places were still opening up and we got caught by a short burst of rain and had the sound of thunder all around us.
We found a coffee stop that sold ‘Godong Coin Bread’; which a waffle mixture with cheese or other fillings in it, shaped to look like coins. We bought a W10 bread ( W4000 ) with sweet cheese in it and coffee and ‘cider’ ( and later had the W100 one which had a tomato salsa in it ) and sat up stairs. The Coin Bread with cheese was nice, but the salsa version… not to our taste.
We carried on exploring the Hanok village at 11:15. Unlike the Hanok Village we walked around in Seoul this one is not really a residential area but is mainly guesthouses, souvenir shops and cafes, which a small amount of housing scattered throughout.
We headed south to the Jeonjuchun River and then back up Eunhaeng-ro, passing more shops then a 600 year old Genko tree, then out of the village area and back towards the hotel at 12:15pm. We added another W10000 ea to out T money cards at Emart24; these cards work on buses / metro all through Korea so we found them really useful. They can also be used to pay for goods at some shops, taxis etc.
Rested at the hotel ( Liz starting to feel unwell with a sore throat ) then out again at 1:30pm, walked past City Hall to HomePlus store, had Dunkin’ Donuts for lunch ( wasn’t a lot of choice ) ( W18000 ) then walked around the store ( B1 supermarket, 1F department store, 2F clothing ). Liz bought new suitcase ( old one has slowly been dying since our flight from Napier ) ( Tracker hard shell bag; W69000 / $87 ).
We walked back to hotel at 3:15pm
Out at 5:45pm walked to shopping street Jeonjugaeksa 5-gil, tea at Katsu restaurant ( no beer ! ) ( W24000 for 2 chicken katsu’s and 2 soft drinks ) then walked around shops and back to hotel at 7:30pm.
We booked our last leg of our Korean journey; a KTX train to Seoul ( Jeonju to Seoul, W85470 / NZ$100 ), and our final 2 nights back at the L7 Hotel in Myeongdong ( NZ$579 for 2 nights )