130717-18 Jeonju

since i didn't get to go busan in the end, we went to jeonju instead. (well actually i think we would have gone to jeonju either way haha). it's a 3-4hours bus ride away. our hotel was 5-10mins walk away from the folk village and we mistakenly took a taxi to the village thinking it was there. bleah. in the end took another taxi to get to our place.

it was supposed to be about 80-100k during normal days, but the receptionist told us that we came in the holiday period (it was still a weekday, mind you, and there was almost nobody around) and charged us 120k instead. i felt like we had been cheated... and it was also the small room.

there's actually a lot of other hotels that's cheaper and nearer to the folk village but this place looked interesting so we decided on it. but when i saw the room, it was so not worth it...

it's pretty and traditionally built, but it's just not worth the price. and i slept on the floor with that blanket and decided i'm not suitable for floor sleeping afterwards. almost died of backache. well anyway, we headed out for lunch after that. took another taxi even though i was sure i walked the right way... =_=

the thing is you have to get here from 12-3pm to enjoy their value lunch, which otherwise would have been twice the normal price. ddeogcalbi 떡갈비 is one of the signature dishes of jeonju so we had a set of it that comes with cold noodles. it was delicious!

i must say that i haven't tasted any other cold noodles that's as tasty. after eating all those ddeogcalbi i could still finish this bowl. it wasn't the normal big size though, thankfully, but just enough for me. definitely a must try here. in fact i think the cold noodles is more a must try than the ddeogcalbi!

after a good lunch, we went exploring the hanok mael 한옥마을, which is the place we had our lunch at and a place to visit when you come to jeonju.

i think this cafe looks really awesome!

bear bear shoopppp

jeonju is also famous for their paper crafts and fan arts, so there's a really small museum for each of them.

we walked till almost the edge of town till we came to some place that looked really rural.

there's like even kids playing in the rivers. just like long ago. it's quite nice to be in the relaxing lands instead of looking at commercial buildings all the time. but there's also nothing much we could do so we decided to head down to the shopping district and the film lands.

unfortunately the film lands is merely made up of this board, and a central building with movies to watch. nothing much... so here goes shopping instead. and it's within walking distance from the village, just that we didn't know our way so we took a taxi instead.

we shopped for a while and decided to head back to rest a bit before coming out at night again to look for chinatown. but chinatown was worse than the film street, there was literally nothing except for the street sign...

no interesting shops or anything to see, just a normal korean street with everything closed... =_= so our footsteps took us to the shopping district again. night view is pretty nice.

i think this cafe Ann House has a branch in a lot of places, even in yongin, but it just happens to look nice from here. the interior looks so princessy and doll-like that 00 said i should go with a girl instead. lol.

this place is also a performance place for growing artistes. too bad none was going on when we were there...

we passed by a really mysterious cafe and we decided to go in to try. the signboards outside was all filled with cobwebs though. but still!

and i wasn't disappointed! it's like a mini museum of all things vintage inside, a very quaint little cafe indeed!

it just sort of makes me think that with all my old junks at home, i could open a cafe like this also. hehe. anyway, we ordered the snow ice bingsu. it was delicious!!! i loved the milky shaved snow ice, it just made the whole thing tastes awesomeeeee.

since there wasn't much to look at afterwards we decided to head back, and chanced upon the wedding alley (which was closed). so it was back to the hotel for rest! oh guess what, we flipped through the channels and there was one that was locked and when we unlocked it... it was... uhmm... let's just say it's my first time watching something like that. *gulps*

the next day we awoke in the noon again and got out to eat jeonju's signature bibimbap.

since 00 wanted to try other places too we only ordered 1 bibimbap to share, the yukgae bibimbap. the quantity was not so great, but enough for me.

i don't know what's the yellow thing on the extreme left hand side is, but it's really nice! their side dishes are whoaaaa.

a lot of people came with high expectations for jeonju's bibimbap but was disappointed because it tasted the same or worse than those sold in seoul. however, i still think that it's delicious! i waited so long to eat the most famous bibimbap!!! still, for one bibimbap, it's about 11k. pretty pricey.

there was a museum that hosted all the ancient kings' paintings so we visited it.

inside this house, it's air-conditioned. wheeew. that's not the point, but it's still a point.

what it basically tells is of the relics and records and how they safeguarded it and kept it in pristine conditions from generations to generations.

some more museums behind the houses.

the first floor only had a painting. the basement was much more interesting.

to send the painting to this place, they had like a massive parade carrying that one thing over. wow.

and you wonder how people in the past spend their time and money. here's the cart that the painting was carried in.

i wasn't supposed to take pictures but i did, so here's the paintings of all the kings. well, almost all anyway.

there's also a corner where they displayed the traditional royal costumes worn. i do wish i can make one of them.

well anyway, we headed out and guess what! there's costumes wearing booths!!! wheeee! but we happened to be on the same visit as a bunch of annoying exchange students who seemed to be filming the place so they flooded all the booths and we had to wait for quite a bit T_T students are annoying when they come in a bunch!!!! pffftttt. at least the guard uniform is freed up for now... so i forced 00 to try it with me. hohoho. it's 3k won each, and additional if you want a polaroid.

hahahah! i'm finally wearing a magistrate costume! a real junki cos! lololol. though the costume is too big for me ._.

we moved to the palaquin shots while still waiting for the hanbokh one.

had to wait for these people to finish their documentary filming... still they looked pretty nice!

that's the king and queen costume, but i didn't like the queen's hair so i picked the prince and princess' costumes instead.

why does mr k looks so childlike all of a sudden? hohohoh. i think he would have fitted the king's costume more though!

there was an arrow throwing game so we tried it out for a bit. managed to get one in, to the side holes. hahaha.

there was supposed to be another good bibimbap served in one of the cafe that we took great heed in finding, but realised that because it's summer, they only served bingsus.... T_T so we had one anyway. it's called Olden Bingsu (옛날빙수). nice! despite how it looks!

after that we stepped out to find this market that was just in the area, but it's just like any other markets we've been to so we decided to head back to our hotel to rest before going to the wedding street.

this castle is like in the middle of the roads, like a lot of other olden castles everywhere in korea.

we had toast and tea back in our hotel while 00 changed to something more comfortable... which was essentially the same shirt anyway =_=

then we walked out to the wedding alley. it's actually just a few bridal shops and traditional hanbokh shops. nothing much... zzzz... they are all so overclaimed...

then we decided to search for another of jeonju's famous cuisine, a beansprout soup rice (콩나물국밥). passed by an olden tavern on our way.

in the past it didn't tasted that good, but suddenly it got all famous and the quality improved lots, and it was even featured on tv shows.

the best thing is everything here is like 6k won or below, including the bibimbap!!! so we ordered the beansprout rice and bibimbap. essentially what we ate in the morning could pay for a 2 person share here...

and this is the beansprout rice.

what you do to the half-raw eggs on the side, is that you scoop like 12 spoonfuls of soup into it and drink it.

when you eat the beansprout rice with the seaweed, it's really very nice! despite me not liking beansprout, the beansprout taste is not strong and is very nice. a pity we couldn't finish everything because of the great cream toast we had. but i'll wanna eat this again someday again when i'm not so full!!!!

this is the last stop for our trip, before we headed back to yongin via the latest bus 6pm... goodbye jeonju!