Jeonju Hanok Village – 14D Korea Part 7

Next up, Jeonju Hanok Village! Headed there from Gwangju, I had a one night stay in the village of traditional structure and immersed into the old cultural feels! Along the way, was all about indulging in food, people watching, and randomly hopping into open museum and such.

Day 7 – Afternoon

I left leaving Gwangju for Jeonju via inter-city bus. When arriving at Jeonju bus terminal, there were some luggage lockers so you can lock up your stuff if you don’t plan to drag your luggage with you. Decided to bring my luggage along as I won’t be passing by the bus terminal after my short stay. Hailed a cab, and had to call up my Hanok host to navigate the driver.

Shortly, we reached the place after some navigation, and it was drizzling slightly. And the host unnie came out and ushered me in – greeted me so warmly that I felt like I was at home! Lol, she tugged me around by hand and showed me around. *^-^*

I realised I have only these 2 photos! Kind of regret not taking more shots. Anyways, this a good plus point is that this room came fitted with its own bathroom. 😀 Well-furnished and clean 😀 And at a good price point as well – about ~SGD$38. Free advert for them: Pinetree Hanok Guesthouse. And yes, this is located right within the Hanok Village.

Bibimbap for Lunch

Next, head out to randomly explore – and also seek out my bibimbap for lunch! There were plenty of options, given that Jeonju is the home and origin of bibimbap. There were so many choices during my research (eg Seong Mi Dang, Family House Jeonju Bibimbap, etc) but I decided on:

Gogung 고궁수라간
31 Eunhaeng-ro, Pungnam-dong, Wansan-gu, Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea

And heres my bibimbap! Gave they generous servings of veggies as sides – although I found the green leafy salad a little weird in this combo – I rather they give me green pepper. 😀

Bibimbap served in here (or in Jeonju) is really interesting – a whole lot of ingredient that I haven’t noticed in other bibimbaps before. I thought the most interesting ones had to be the little yellow jellies in the bowl – I liked that especially. A little reference from sis – bibimbaps in Jeonju all come with that.

The little red bowl on the right is a korean alcoholic drink – called “muju” – it is sweet, a little thick, but not spicy at all. Something I feel like kids would like?

Exploring Jeonju Hanok Village

After the lunch, started my exploration of Hanok Village. Its a pretty simple formula, just wander about, look at people strolling (and camwhoring) in hanboks – and that is pretty much all to do here. There are some landmarks, and exhibition plotted on mini maps along the way while I was – eg Kimchi exhibit. But these exhibitions were lacking in English so I couldn’t much enjoy them.

And that day, the weather was cold and it was drizzling slightly. But I can’t help feeling amused by people in hanbok – it was cold, and they were all hiding inside their warm coat, unable to show off their hanbok.

Along the way, spotted these few kids who cross-dressed. 😀

And many other kids who were shouting excitedly to their friends that they saw these bunch of cross-dressing dudes. XD. I spotted a girl in a male scholar outfit, but obviously guys-in-girls outfit gets more attention. 😀

Chocopie

Can’t say you visited Jeonju without getting a Chocopie!

Apologies for the photobomb – apparently, this was the only photo I’ve got ><!

I actually tried this and another Chocopie shop. But frankly, I felt they tasted alike and I don’t really have a preference for either. There was one particular bun I liked from PNB – it had an uneven crispy crust and super uber soft insides! I can still remember that! There wasn’t any filling in it, perhaps buttery flavour? I highly recommend!

And lastly! The classic view from the top.

I think I took this while trying to hike up to the Omokdae and Imokdae historical sites. But the rainy day made the hike too slippery that I didn’t actually found the actual place and gave up halfway.

Other random sights that were outside of Hanok Village

Jeondong Catholic Church 전주 전동성당
51, Taejo-ro, Wansan-gu, Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do
전라북도 전주시 완산구 태조로 51 (전동)

Pungnammun Gate  전주 풍남문
1, Pungnammun 3-gil, Wansan-gu, Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do
전라북도 전주시 완산구 풍남문3길 1 (전동)

And I wandered all the way outside of Hanok Village and ended at Nambu Market – there wasn’t much to see here however.

Not sure where this was, but it was towards the south area of Hanok Village. That stretch of big road…Got a little carried away editing the dramatic sky 😀

And I detoured back to Hanok Village. This was one of my favourite capture – saw these little figurine couples wandering on a shop’s rooftop.

By then, it was already evening hours and tourists in hanboks were disappearing from the streets. Lesser people-sights to see. I returned back to the Hanok stay and dropped off my stuff and headed out again for dinner!

Ending with comfort dinner

My last stop for Jeonju – Hyundaiok 현대옥. This place specially serves the Jeonju specialty: beansprout rice-soup! Lol, I was wondering why is this the specialty – and yeah, it was just on my food list because so. So I went and tried – honest review, this falls under comfort food category. Theres no “wow” factor, but the fact that it was a cold day, and the steamy, simple, beansprout-only soup gave me much appetite! I reckoned, this is still a must-try.

And lol, I ordered myself a Makgeolli – because blogs online say, in Jeonju, Makgeolli is The Food, and all other food are “ban-chan”. So it shall come in a pot. Mine came in a bottle, contrary to what I saw on blogs. >< Something went wrong here haha. Anyways, half a bottle in and I was slightly in a dizzy state which I don’t like to be in.

Funny though, as I was paying for my table, I gained more guts from being slightly tipsy so I asked the shop owner, if they wanted my half-bottle of makgeoli, or will they throw it away? “Throw, yes”. Asked other diners, and they didn’t want it either. Ouch, that didn’t sit well with my waste-not principle. So I lugged that half bottle, and we went home. And all the way to Seoul 😀

Apparently, having Makgeolli as food will happen in some designated restaurants, but I have no chance with that. xD. This should also require a larger group rather than me trying to solo it. So, till my next visit I guess! Hanok village is nice, but I think prancing around in a Hanbok will complete the experience, and theres more to explore outside of Hanok Village too! Food tour maybe?