Lunch at Tong-in Market

Tong-in Market is a traditional Korean grocery market. What makes this an interesting destination is the Dosirak Cafe here (dosirak means takeout lunch boxes). You get to go around the market filling up your lunch box with some traditional Korean brass coins.

The market is quite easy to get to. It's in the Seocheon area, within walking distance from Gyeongbukgong Palace.

What you do here is that you first buy 10 brass coins called yeopjeon for 5000 won. That means each coin is worth 500 won. You will be given a lunch box. Then you go around the various stalls buying what you like with the coins.

Not all stalls participate in the Dosirak Cafe. Look out for the dosirak sign. But you can always pay with cash if necessary.

You go around different stall filling your lunch box with what you like. Then you go to the cafeteria on the 2nd or 3rd floor to eat. There are tables and chairs there and chopsticks are provided. You can also buy rice or soup for one coin each.

There is a stand up poster explaining how it works in Hangul and English.

It was crowded when we were there, packed with many Korean students on an excursion. Most of the dishes costs 2 coin (1000 won).

What is good that you get a chance to taste a bit of various Korean food. For example, if you order a pajeon (spring onion pancake) from a restaurant, it would cost about 10,000 won for a very big piece. (I always thought 10,000 won for a pan cake was expensive). But here you get to try a small piece for 1000 won only.

The downside is some of the dishes are pre-cooked and cold already, and hence not as tasty as if it is cook to your order and served hot.

If you prefer your food hot, there are two microwave ovens on the second floor cafeteria for you to heat up your food.

Between two of us, we had 10,000 won worth of coin. We quickly filled up our lunch boxes. It didn't look like a lot of food, but we will full when we worked through them.

I liked the kimchi jeon and the pajeon. The potato pancake was not bad. The bindaetteok (mung bean pancake) would probably be nice if it was hot. I didn't like the vegetable chapjae (sweet potato glass noodles).

There are enough vegetarian options here for the vegetarians to try.

It was an interesting traditional market experience and enjoyable meal. This makes a great lunch stop after or before exploring Gyeongbukgong Palace.

You buy a string of 10 brass coins and a lunch box with 5000 won

Poster explaining how the Dosirak Cafe works.

A stall selling tteokbokki, sundae (blood sausages) and vegetable chapjae. There sign there indicates this stall participates in the dosirak system.

Hotteok for 2 coins each. This is a good vegetarian option

Traditional Korean cookies, not part of dosirak.

Another stall with many food choices, including fruit salad.

Our haul. Doesn't look like much but we were full.

Tongin Market (통인시장)

18, Jahamun-ro 15-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul

서울특별시 종로구 자하문로15길 18 (통인동)

Operation time of the Dosirak Cafe (not certain):

11am - 5pm, closed on Mondays and 3rd Sunday of each month

Getting there:

West side of Gyeongbukgong. Nearest subway station: Gyeongbukgong.

If you take bus it's just 1 or 2 bus stops away from Gyeonbukgong (depending on the stop). Many bus service, e.g. 1020, 7016, 7018, 7022

Vegetarian in Seoul

Heading back to Seoul

After spending 3 days in Jeonju, it was time to head to Seoul.

From Jeonju, there are buses from the Inter City Bus Terminal that go Seoul southern bus terminal (Nambu).

From the express bus terminal, there are very frequent buses to the Express Bus Terminal in Gangnam as well as several services to the eastern bus terminal (Dong Seoul).

There are two fares for express service to the Gangnam station: express (gosuk 12,800 won) and premium (18,700 won).

I had planned to buy the cheaper tickets, but when I bought the tickets, I forgot to tell the counter staff I wanted the "gosuk" tickets. I just got the next bus and it turned out to be the more expensive ones.

For the relatively short journey (2 hours and 40 minutes), it wasn't necessary to pay for the 6000 won extra.

Oh well.

Buffet at Seaon's Table on a rainy day

The weather had been very pleasant for the past few days, but it started to rain when we got into Seoul.

One good way to spend an afternoon on a cold raining day is to eat buffet! That was exactly what we did. We headed over to Season's Table in Insadong for buffet.

It was about 2pm when after we checked into our hotel. But we didn't have to rush as the lunch buffet runs up to 5pm. (After 5pm, it would be charged as dinner).

Since it was a weekday, the lunch buffet was really cheap! It was only 14,900 won per person!

For lunch, there were no cook-to-order options. But the buffet spread was big enough.

This is not a vegetarian restaurant but there are plenty of vegetarian dishes, on top of the salad bar and fruit bar.

There is a bibimbap corner where you can make your own bibimbap. There is also traditional Korean desserts. I was intrigued by the mugwort ice cream and tried it (and regretted).

We ate till 4pm. We were so full we skipped dinner that night and just had some street snacks.

Season's Table is a very value-for-money buffet in Seoul, especially if you go during weekday lunch. It is a great option for vegetarians travelling with meat-loving friends.

I found out later that there's a branch at the Seoul tower too. It is just slightly more expensive. That would also be a nice location to have a meal.

First round. The potatoes and the tofu was really good. Didn't like the chapjae.

DIY bibimbap!

Chilli and garlic to go with the food. The green chilli had not much heat

Mugwort ice cream. Yucks!

Saw a poster at Seoul Tower advertising their branch there. Note, it is located on the 4F of the tower plaza, not the tower itself. The buffet on the 4F of the tower is another restaurant.

Gyejeolbapsang (계절밥상) Bibigo Season’s Table (Korean Buffet)

Weekday lunch KRW 14,900 (11:00 to 17:00)

Dinner and weekend lunch KRW 22,900 (17:00 to 22:30)

Insadong branch (196-10, Gwanhun-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul)

Basement 1 of Insadong Maru along the Insadong Street

Very busy on weekends and Friday evenings

Oh Se Gye Hyang

This is restaurant is practically a must-go for any vegetarians visiting Seoul. You get the real deal vegan Korean food and it's all very tasty.

This is a restaurant I will not miss whenever I'm in Seoul.

My non-vegetarian partner fell in love with the jjajang myeong. The Korean version of jjajang myeong (it is Chinese in origin and introduced to Korea by Chinese immigrants. There is a Jjajang Myeong Museum in Incheon's Chinatown if you are interested) is really a great comfort food.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how good the mandus were. I had never order mandus here before because I thought they were a little expensive (4 for 4000won making it S$1.25 per piece!). They turned out to be really good.

I try the deonjang jiggae for the first time here but didn't like it that much. It had too much deonjang (fermented soy paste). But the side dishes were all good as usual.

We had a great feast here

We order 2 jiggaes, a jjajang myeong and half order of mandu. The bill was about krw 30,000. It was a great meal. I like the side dishes that came with the meal.

.

I have not tried jjajang myeong anywhere else (difficult to find vegetarian ones) so I do not if there are better ones else where. It's a simple dish but makes a great comfort food

I tried biji jiggae for the first time. Sundubu (soft tofu) jiggae is better.

Their version of doenjang jiggae had too much doenjang (fermented soy paste). I prefer the clear and lighter version I had over the past few days that came with dolsot bibimbap.

I've seen complains about their service on Happy Cow. Don't let that deter you. The food is good. They are quite short handed. There's only 3 staff. So don't mind the service and just enjoy the food! And don't go any later than 8:30pm for dinner!

Oh Se Gye Hyang

14-5 Insa-dong 12-gil, Jongno-gu

(11:30am-3pm, 5pm-9:00pm)

http://www.go5.co.kr 

Jeoksubang (滴水坊)

Jeoksubang is a cafeteria run by the Taiwanese temple Fo Guang Shan Monastery (佛光山). It is located at the basement of its temple.

This is another of my favourite in Seoul. The food is predominantly Taiwanese home-cook food with some Korean dishes. Food is very tasty and wholesome.

It is also conveniently reached by subway line 3 (Dongguk University Entrance Station), just three stops from Jongno 3ga station. The temple in the alley on the left just a few steps away from the station exit 2.

The buses to Nansan had a stop nearby so we had an early dinner here before taking the bus to Seoul Tower.

The dinner format has changed since I was last here a few years ago. They no longer have a cook to order menu. Instead, dinner is a set Korean style meal of rice and several small dishes and a soup.

We were back for their buffet lunch on our last day before heading to the airport. The poster said buffet lunch would be served with rice, 5 dishes and a soup. But there were way more than 5 dishes. It was a wholesome & sumptuous lunch.

One of the staff was explaining that they run the restaurant to serve vegetarians rather than make money, and it would be a filling and balanced meal if you have rice and a bit of every dishes. If you take too much of any dish, it puts a strain on the restaurant. It sounded like a gentle hint not to eat too much of the dishes... So I was careful not to over-eat, though I did go back for a second round...

Food here is cheap and wholesome.

Jeoksubang
Seoul-si, Jung-gu, Jangchung-dong, 2-ga, 188-6, Fo Guang Monastery
Dongdae Entrance station
Mon to Sat only.
Lunch buffet - 11:30 - 2:30 pm KRW7000 per person
After 2:30pm, Korean Style set meal at KRW7000 per person.

The lunch buffet spread.

The set dinner for two.

Information about the set dinner at Jeoksubang

Lunch @ Tongin Market

I had an interesting lunch at Tongin Market. Read about this in the next blog entry.

Dookki @ Myeongdong

Dookki is a chain offering cheap tteokbokki hotpot buffet. It is not vegetarian. But it is quite vegetarian friendly.

There was a dookki outlet in Myeongdong right next to the Nanta theatre. We headed there for dinner after the Nanta show. (There are no vegetarian restaurants in Myeongdong area anyway.)

The staff asked us where we were from. We said we were from Singapore and she passed us a sheet of instructions in English that explains how the buffet works.

Basically we first select the sauces to be mixed into a pot of broth. Then we just get whatever ingredients we want and cook it in the spicy soup. After that, you have eaten most of it, you can fry rice in the same pot. If that's still not enough, you can cook another pot of instant noodles.

There are many different type of sauces. As my partner cannot take too much spice, we went for the least spicy sauces.

There is quite a variety of tteokbokki. I never quite like tteokbokki, as I find them too tough, but the sliced ones were ok. There was a variety of noodles, bean sprouts, cabbage, mushroom, onions, some greens, and hard boiled eggs. There was also cooked fish cakes, some fried stuff like mandu and chicken as well as sweet potato.

We cooked two rounds before doing a fried rice with sweet corn, kimchi, and seaweed in the pot with the almost dried up spicy soup. I thought the fried rice was actually better than the steamboat/hotpot.

We only cooked non-meat stuff and egg in the pot. My friend ate his fish cake and mandus (dumplings) on the side as those were already cooked. But I found the soup base had a bit of fishy taste. I should have asked for plain water instead.

My first tteokbokki buffet. We just cook lots of veggies and noodles. Save some room for the fried rice!

What was incredible was that the whole buffet only cost 7,900 won per person! My partner could not believe it was that cheap.

Dookki opened an outlet in Singapore's Suntec City recently. The buffet costs S$18.80 per person in Singapore. We had it for half the price in Seoul!

If you are not a strict vegetarian or just go for meatless meal when travelling (方便素), this may be a good option, especially if you are travelling with non-vegetarian friends. And it is cheap too!

There are several outlets throughout Seoul. The one I went to is in Myeongdong. 

Dookki 

14 Myeongdong Rd, 6th floor of Noon Square Mall.

Other outlets I found on the internet:
Jongno Branch : 15 Jong-ro 12-gil 서울 종로구 종로12길 15
Hongdae branch : Hongik-ro 6, Gil 8, Joongbong Building, Mapo-gu, Seoul (Right) 04050 Lot

Ewha branch : Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Ewha Womans University Road 89 2nd floor (ooh) 03 766

It can be difficult getting vegetarian food in South Korea. But with a bit of planning, you can still enjoy your meal here! Hope this helps in your planning.

Day trip to Maisan

It was the 1 May and we were taking another day trip, this time to Maisan.

Maisan, literally "horse-ear mountain", is a mountain to the east of Jeonju. From far, you see two peaks raising from a flat plains and they looked like horse ears, hence the name.
Beside its geologically interesting feature, it is home to an unusual temple -- Tapsa, and that was were I was headed.

The Maisan has two peaks that are shaped like horse ears.

Getting there

Based on information found on the internet, there is a direct bus from Jeonju to Maisan's southern car park from a bus stop outside the Jeonju railway station.

We made our way to the train station and dropped by the Tourist Information center. The staff there spoke English and we were given a slip of paper with details about the transport to Maisan.

The bus schedule posted on the bus stop facing Jeonju Railway Station. The destination is Tapsa, not Maisan.

This is the small slip of transport information to Maisan I got from the Tourist Information booth outside the Railway Station.

We waited at the bus stop for the 9:40 bus. The bus was late and arrived about 9:50. It was a mini bus that turned in from Baekje-daero. The bus did not have a number. Its sign said Tapsa in Hangul, which is the famous temple in Maisan. T-money is accepted, but you need to tell the driver your destination first and wait for the driver to key in your fare before tapping. I told the driver "Tapsa" and was charged 3050 won on my T-money card. (I think the fare is 3100won, but if you use T-money, you get a 50won discount).

One hour later, we were at the southern carpark of Maisan.

There is an park entrance fee of 3000 won and only cash is accepted.

We passed by a stall selling red bean pastry and got some to snack on. But I was disappointed as these were no way close to what I had in Jogyesa in Seoul before. It wasn't cheap either: 10 pieces for 4000 won (it's essentially the same as those fish shape pastries that are sold at 3 pieces for 1000 won in Seoul).

I thought these would make a nice snack but was sorely disappointed. I had better ones in Seoul before. 10 pieces for 4000 won.

There is a temple just beyond the entrance, but most people are here to visit Tapsa and gave the temple a miss.

There is a statue of Maitreya Buddha in front of the temple

Temple near the southern entrance of the park

Sauces fermenting in the shade of a tree.

It was basically a walk in park from the southern car park to Tapsa. There were a lot of people probably because it was a public holiday.

The trail passed by a small lake. You can see the 2 "ears" in the distance.

Tapsa 塔寺

And then we were at Tapsa.

Tapsa is not a big temple. Its temple halls are small and there are no big Buddha statues. Nonetheless, it is an impressive temple, due to its location under an overhanging cliff and the pagodas stacked from stones within its temple grounds.
The stone pagodas are what gave the temple its name: Tapsa literally means Pagoda Temple (塔寺).

It is quite a beautiful and unusual temple.

I was thoroughly amazed when I realized that the stone pagodas are really just stacked stones -- there is no cement or binder to hold the stones together. You can see through the gaps between the stones.

It's amazing the pillars are still standing after so long. I wondered if any of the pillars had been toppled by tourists before.

I saw a few tourist wondering at the pillars and softly pushing them to see if they sway.

Cute statues under the cliff

A giant vine that grew on the walls of the cliff. It looks dead, but is actually alive.

The main shrine hall (Hall of the Great Hero 大雄宝殿) is small, but beautifully adorned.

The two biggest stone pagodas/stupas representing heaven and earth.

The small temple is sandwiched in a narrow valley between the two peaks.

There is a natural fountain. I saw people drinking from it.

There were many small statues nestling in crevices on the cliff wall.

Eunsusa (Silver Water Temple 银水寺) 

There is another temple Eunsusa just behind Tapsa. I found this a beautiful temple too. It is not as crowded since most people just passed it on their way to Tapsa from the northern car park.

Eunsusa (Silver Water Temple 银水寺) is at the base of the two peaks of Maisan. Here's you can see the two peaks clearly. There is an ancient pear tree in the ground.

There are also a few telescopes for you to observe the geological features on the cliffs of Maisan.

Watch out for a signboard that explained the geological features as well as an interesting phenominon that happens during winter: if you place a basin of water out here, you will get an icicle growing skyward.  There is supposedly no scientific explanation for it. I found one through Google: https://seabrookeleckie.com/2008/02/04/icicles-in-reverse/

Eunsusa and one of the "horse ears" peak behind it.

The Hall of Infinite Light. Here you can see the gap between the two peaks of Maisan. The trail between the temple and the northern carpark passes through the gap.

Sauces fermenting under the sun in Eunsusa

The cliff face is full of holes that are result of weathering. This is known as "tafoni" (or honeycomb weathering) and is supposedly the most well formed tafoni in the world.

Heading back

After Eunsusa, we were ready to head back. It had been a walk through mostly flat terrain coming from the southern car park so I wasn't quite expecting to be going upward.

What I found out later was that the path between the northern car park and Tapsa cuts through the "mountain pass" or the trough between the two peaks of Maisan. The southern car park was also on higher grounds compared with the northern carpark. If you are coming from the northern carpark, it actually involved quite a bit of climb.

At the pass, there is a rest area and an interesting feature that shows the watershed point. There is also a trail up one of the peak but we didn't go up.

A feature showing the water shed point at the mountain pass between the two peaks of Maisan.

Now, my partner who does not work out much was suffering from muscle ache from the previous day's hike. So it was difficult going down the stairs.  Luckily, just a short distance down from the pass, we saw a sign about a tram service. We checked it out and indeed there was a tram service.
We paid 3000won each for the trip down the mountain to the northern carpark.

There is a bus stop next to the tram station for buses to Jinan (there were a few bus stop within the large compound). I took a look at the schedule posted at the bus station.
It was 13:45 and we had just missed bus. So we planned to catch the 14:40 bus and get some lunch in the mean time.

The tram road leading to the trail up the mountain pass. The tram station on the right. Many people took the tram instead of walking up. the green shelter behind the tram station is one of the bus stop for buses to Jinan

The bus schedule posted inside the bus stop. The bus runs almost hourly, except for 9am and 3pm. I was careless and thought the bus leaves at 40 min past the hour.

Lunch was dolsot sanchae bibimbap with deonjang jiggae again (9000won a set). I was starting to get sick of bibimbap...

When we get back to the bus stop at 14:35, I suddenly realized I had read the schedule wrongly! The bus departed at 14:30, not 14:40! 14:40 was the expected arrival time at Jinan!

There was no bus scheduled at 15:30. The next one was 16:30!

I wasn't prepared to wait for 2 hours. So we went to the Information center and an English speaking staff helped us called a cab. It arrived within 5 minutes. Jinan is actually very near. The cab ride only took 5 minutes and cost us 4000won. It wasn't expensive since a bus ride would cost 1300 won each anyway. That saved us two hours of waiting time. From my estimate, it would be possible to walk to the Jinan bus terminal within 30 min.

On hindsight, it might have been better to walk back to the southern carpark and catch the 14:05 bus to Jinan instead.

From Jinan, there were frequent buses back to Jeonju (3700 won). We boarded a bus within 10 mins  and one hour later, we were back at Jeonju Inter City Bus Terminal.

We rested for a while in the hotel and then went back to the Veteran restaurant in Hanok village for dinner.

Maisan in the distance, seen from the bus on the way back to Jeonju

Day trip to Daedunsan

On the second day in Jeonju, we took a day trip to Daedunsan.

The Diamond Cloud Bridge in Daedunsan

The mountain is in the Daedunsan Provincial Park north of Jeonju. There is a direct bus to the park from Jeonju Inter City Bus Terminal with limited schedule (06:40, 09:40, 14:20, 15:50).

The bus schedule from the Jeonju Inter City Bus Terminal. The last row is the timing for Daedunsan. Note that the 09:00 is no longer available.

We took the 0940 bus. The ticket was 6400 won each. The bus journey was roughly 1 hour 15 min and it stopped at the park’s bus terminal.

The bus schedule posted on the door of Daedunsan bus terminal. We ended up taking the 16:13 bus bound for Gunsan instead. 

At the bus terminal, I checked the bus schedule for the return trip. The next timing was 13:00 but it would be a mad rush to get up and come back down to catch the 13:00 bus as it was already 11:00.

While I was looking at the schedule, the bus driver got down the bus to go to the washroom and he pointed at 17:10 to me. So it would appear that’s the only option if we want to take our time exploring the mountain. In the end, that that was not to be! But more about that later.

Map of the mountain

There was no entrance fee to the park. There was a row of Korean food restaurant along the road that leads up the park.

One of the shops that line the road at the park entrance. All the restaurants were selling some kind of tempura made with some kind of leaves and root. I later found out that the the yellow colored one was ginseng tempura!

It was too early to have lunch. So we bought some snacks at the CU convenient store to snack on top of the mountain instead.

The cable car tickets costs 6500 won one way and 9500 won round trip. It only run 3 times per hour (every 00, 20, 40 minutes). So it would really be a mad rush to get back down to catch the 13:00 bus back to Jeonju. It only took a few minutes to reach the top.

When we reach the top, there was a sign that said that on busy days, it is necessary to exchange for a scheduled ticket back down. As we were there on a Monday, it was pretty quiet, so that was unnecessary.

the trip up the mountain

the cable car station

Notice telling people to exchange for a time-reserved ticket for the return trip on busy days.

There are several "trick eye" type of murals around the base cable car station.

The main attractions in Daedunsan are the suspension bridge that hangs between 2 peaks and a rickety stairs that goes up a steep cliff.

The cable car station was just below the start of the Diamond Cloud Bridge (金剛雲橋 Geumgang Gureumdari Bridge) and we were at the bridge after a short flight of stairs.

The trail to the bridge is one way only. You are supposed to cross the bridge and come back down on a separate trail. This make sense to keep the human traffic going when it is crowded.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed when I saw the bridge. It was shorter than what I had imagined. But it’s still exhilarating once I stepped onto it. The bridge is quite stable. It does shake a little when the wind is strong and there is people stomping on it. I thought it was quite fun, but not my partner who found it rather scary.

The good thing about visiting on a weekday is that we practically had the whole place to ourselves. We could take our time taking pictures and going back and forth the bridge. Yes, I know it's supposed to be one way, but the Koreans were doing it too...

View of the Diamond Cloud Bridge from the top of Three Fairies Stairs

The next stop after crossing the bridge is the Three Fairies Stairs (三仙階梯). It is a flight of step narrow stairs up the cliff. This one is definitely not for those afraid of heights. Once I got onto it, I had butterflies in my stomach. I could only grip the railing tightly and focus on going up the stairs. Some Koreans turned around in the middle of the stairs for photos but I did not dare to turn around at all.

Going up the Three Fairies Stairs

View of the Stairs from below

At the top of the Stairs

After the going up the stairs we trekked up to the Macheondae Peak (마천대) before slowly making our way down. I wanted to cross the bridge again before taking the cable car down and my partner reluctantly agreed.

The tower marking the peak of Daedunsan

The trees were blooming and it attracted lots of bees. I could hear the buzzing when i was standing below the tree.

It was only about 3pm plus when we got back to the base. We weren’t particularly hungry so we ordered a dolsot bibimbap set to share in one of the restaurants. After the meal we decided to head back to the bus terminal.

Dolsot sanchae bibimbap (mountain vegetables bibimbap in hot stone). The set comes with Doenjang Jiggae (meatless) and cost 10,000 won.

There was a cafe at the bus terminal and we decided we will have coffee there as we wait for the 5:10 pm bus. It was 4pm when we dropped in the cafe. The cafe appears to be owned by a couple and they hardly speak any English. The menu was all in Hangul. While I was struggling to make sense of the menu (I only managed to make out “Americano”), the lady boss produced an English menu for us to order from.

The bus terminal at Daedunsan. There is a cafe in the bus terminal. When we bought coffee there, the owner told us the 17:10 bus back to Jeonju was cancelled!

While the lady boss was making our drinks, the male boss asked “Jeonju? Five?” I told him yes. Then he started to cross his arms. It took me a while to realize that he was trying to tell me the 17:10 bus was cancelled!

I was quite confused as when I arrived, the bus driver had pointed at the 17:10 timing to me. I took it that it should be confirmed.

To be sure, the boss called the bus company to confirm. Yes, the 17:10 was cancelled. That was bad news! I wasn’t sure if I wanted to wait for the last bus at 18:25. What if that got cancelled too! Gasp!

Then the boss suggested Iksan. I recognized Iksan. It is a small city near Jeonju. There is a bus that heading to Iksan and Gunsan departing at 16:13.

Before we could deliberate further, the bus arrived. The male boss kindly came out and told the driver to take us to Iksan. He brought us the drinks we had ordered as the bus was departing.

The bus accepted T-money. But unlike the city buses in which you tap when you board and alight, you have to tell the driver of long distance inter city bus the destination. He would key in the fare before you tap as you board. No need to tap again when alighting. The fare to Iksan from Daedunsan was 7400 won.

On the way to Iksan, the bus had a brief stop at Samnye bus terminal (it just opened its door and then closed it!). Samnye is a small town north of Jeonju. If I had known before hand, I would have dropped off here and take a public bus into Jeonju. From what I could tell from Kakao Map, there were several services that goes to Jeonju. It would have been cheaper and faster to get to Samnye and change to a bus heading to Jeonju instead.

It was another 20 min from Samnye to Iksan. There were frequent buses from Iksan to Jeonju. We bought the tickets for the next bus (the fare was 2400 won if I remember correctly) and within 5 mins, we were on our way back to Jeonju. We actually boarded a long distance bus heading to Daegu but passing by Jeonju to pick up more passengers on the way.

It was almost 7pm when we arrived at Jeonju bus terminal. We were lucky we decided to drop in the cafe at the Daedunsan bus terminal. Otherwise we would be waiting for a long time…

We were tired after the long trip. We decide to just have dinner in one of the Korean restaurants at the bus terminal. I had Sundubu Jiggae while my friend had Donkatsu. The food was bleh…

We just headed back to the hotel for an early rest after dinner.

So the day turned out to be quite an adventure after all!