Trip to Jeonju, May 2018

It's been a while since I last blogged. I just came back from a holiday trip to South Korea.

As I have obtained valuable information for my trip from various blog, I decided to contribute by providing information in my blog.

For this last trip, I went to Jeonju and then Seoul. As I have been to Seoul several times, the fun part is really Jeonju.

Jeonju is still pretty much off the tourist maps. It is a major domestic tourist destination, but relatively few foreign tourists come to Jeonju.


Getting to Jeonju

Getting to Jeonju is pretty easy. There are frequent express buses between Seoul Express Bus Terminal at Gangnam and Jeonju. For convenience, I took a direct bus from Incheon airport.

My overnight flight from Singapore landed 6:10am at Incheon International Airport. After clearing immigration and getting our luggage, we head straight to the CU convenient store that is far right end of the Terminal 1 arrival hall.

This is the first stop to get a T-money card and to charge the card. I still had my card from previous trip but my friend needed a new one for himself. The card is important for getting around in public transport. It is also useful for buying stuff at convenience stores as you don’t have to deal with small change. I always use T-money to pay at the convenience stores and top up at the same time if necessary.

The inter city buses are just outside the arrival hall. I inquired at the ticket booths and was told there was a bus leaving in 10 min at 7:20am. We decided to skip breakfast and take the bus as we had some bread with us. There are apparently different bus companies with different fares and timings. The bus we took was run by Jeonbuk Express and the fare was 24,500 won. The journey took roughly 3 hours including a 15 minute stop, and the bus took us to the Jeonju Inter City Bus Terminal.


Gung Tourist Hotel

I had booked a hotel room at Gung Tourist Hotel that is located just behind the Inter City Bus Terminal. It was too early for check in so we just leave our luggage at the counter. I highly recommend this hotel. The room was very spacious and comfortable. There’s a mini fridge, microwave oven and a huge TV with many channels (including some English ones). The bathroom had a bath tub. I paid about SGD56 a night after taxes (without breakfast) and it’s good value for money. I sorely missed the spacious room when I checked into a more expensive and squeezy room in Seoul.

It is location near the bus terminal makes it convenient base for exploring the region. The Jeonju Express Bus Terminal is also very near, so it was easy to get to Seoul when we leave Jeonju.

Lunch


My first stop was Garobee Well Being buffet which is a short walk from the hotel. Unfortunately it was closed on Sundays (should have check Happy Cow for the hours before heading there!). So we went to the basement of the Lotte Department Store opposite the Garobee restaurant where I had a Vegetable Bibimbap. It was a set that came with tofu soup (sundubu jiggae) for 8000 won. I asked for the soup to be “chaesik” (vegetarian). I was told there is no meat (“gogi obseoyo”) but it still came with clams in it… Apparently Koreans do not consider seafood as “meat” (gogi) as this happened again at another restaurant.

Garobee is on the 2nd floor of the building just behind Lotte Departmental Store. Unfortunately it was closed on Sundays.

Vegetable bibimbap at one of the store in the basement floor of the Lotte Departmental Store. 8000 won for the rice bowl and another bowl of tofu stew (sundubu jiggae) not shown in the picture.

Hanok Railbike

Rail Bike

After lunch, we took a cab to Ajung Station (7200 won paid with T-money). Ajung is an old disused railway station, now converted into a rail bike facility. If you prefer to take a bus, number 102 goes there directly but is infrequent. Alternatively, take any bus to the Jeonju railway station and take the more frequent bus 100 which stops in front of Ajung Station.

The Jeonju Hanok Rail Bike is relatively new, just started a year ago. So it is not as well known as other railbike. (http://www.jeonju-railbike.kr/)

The fare was 20,000 won for 2 persons, 25,000 for 3, and 30,000 for 4. All the bikes are 4-riders, but you won’t have to share.

We were the only foreign tourists there. The rest were all Korean tourists. The operator spoke enough English to tell us to buckle up and how to use the brakes and off we go.

The terrain looked flat but it was actually sloping gently upwards, so it took a bit of effort. We passed by 2 tunnels and after maybe 2 km, we were turned back. Now it was sloping downwards and the bike was moving without much paddling.

Railbike is an uniquely Korean activity. But honestly, after paddling for a short while, it’s kind of boring. I am not likely to pay for this again.

From Ajung Station, we wanted to get back to hotel for a rest as we didn't sleep much on the flight. I checked Kakao Map and found that there is a bus 102 that goes to the Inter City Bus Terminal. Unfortunately we missed the bus and ended up waiting almost 1 hour for the next bus.

Getting around with Kakao Map


Kakao Map was the main app I used to get around. 

If you click on the bus stop, you can see the bus service numbers as well as the expected arrival time. The down side is that it doesn’t show scheduled time. Timing is available only after bus leaves the first station so it’s difficult to tell when’s the next bus arriving for infrequent services or if you are near the start of the service line.

What I found really useful is that I can see bus route on the map. I used it to see the if an arriving bus would pass by near my destination instead of waiting for a particular bus number.

I would highly recommend getting this app if you plan on taking buses in Korea. There is an English version available from Google Play.


Jeonju Hanok Village

After a rest in the hotel, we took bus 79 from a bus stop in front of the bus terminal to Hanok Village.

As it was Sunday, the area was crowded with people, probably with day trippers from other parts of Korea. The crowd was overwhelmingly Korean. There was a very festive mood in the village.

If you are here to see traditional houses, you might be disappointed. Most of the houses were converted into shops or restaurants. And the area is mostly flat, so you really do not see much of the old architecture. I found it more like a theme park.

It still nice to stroll around and just soak in the atmosphere.

There is plenty of street food too.

We had dinner at the Veteran restaurant and desert and Grandma's Best (see next blog entry)

From Hanok Village we walked to the Jaman Mural Village. We were tired and it was dark, so we just walked through the village. From there, we walked back to the village via Omokdae.

From the main road beside the Jeondong Cathedral, there are many buses back to the bus terminal. Bus 79 and 1000 are the most convenient as they stop directly in front of the terminal. However, instead of waiting for 79 or 1000, I just boarding an approaching bus that passed near the terminal along Girin-daero.

Compared with the Bukchon Hanok Village which is mainly residential, I found Jeonju Hanok Village over commercialized. It's still enjoyable though.

A narrow house further away from the tourists shops encountered on the way to Jaman Mural Village.

Fountain created with an old manual water pump

An Hanok converted in a desert restaurant. We had Patbingsu here.