A week ago Janey and I thought that we couldnt get the Jeonju Shuttle bus tix as there were only 37 tickets with 88people who balloted for it. So we scrap the jeonju plans. It was only a few days ago, i received an email that we managed to get the shuttle bus tickets!
I was so happy as this means that i can save arond 34000won on express bus fares. And yay i can travel out of Seoul 😀
Info on how to get the tickets:
Visit http://shuttle.dongbotravel.com/en/index.php and apply .
You will need to sign up, do sign up as soon as possible! And start praying that you will get the tickets! There is round trip and one way trip available. You can ballot for 2 tickets too!
Ratings: 5/5
Review: They provided us with jeonju maps onboard, they have it in many languages, from what i remembered, they have it in English, Chinese, Japanese. The jeonju tour staff spoke english. We had a stopover at a resting place to buy snacks etc.
When i ran out of the house, i nearly slipped on the road . It turned out that it was snowing last night, so the road became slippery. I slipped on it before but thanks to my winter jacket cushioning, i didnt have any injury. Kudos to the feathers in my jacket.
As i approached the bus, i noticed hot air risng out from every building. Quite an interesting sight.
As i didnt have much sleep the previous night, i slept on the bus. I couldnt wear my contact lenses as it was too early in the morning. My eyes had a hard time opening. After everyone had boarded the bus, there were a few vacant seats so some people who did not managed to win the shuttle bus tickets were allowed to board the shuttle bus. But there was one more vacant seat right in front of me and janey’s seats, so the tour guide let the japanese lady sit while he himself sat on a portable stool. So nice of the tour guide! The shuttle bus left around 8.10am and off to Jeonju!
the lady sitting in front of us, and the green portable seat. random shot.
After a 3hour ride, we finally reached Jeonju! It wasnt very cold, slightly warmer than Seoul. And the weather was rather goo. Our tour guide told us that we had to report at 4.30pm for the shuttle bus at the drop off point. Initially i thought, 5.5hours, would it be enough? I was a little worried that we might not have enough time to sightsee, but it turned out that i neednt worry that much.
we were dropped off at this carpark
first thing first, a photo with Jeonju Hanok Village Stone Sign
We had lunch at this restaurant, it was around 10-20minutes walk from the parking lot.
we ordered Jeonju Bibimbap, it cost us 13000won each.
Rating: average , same as other normal bibimbap
Review: Perhaps i have tasted bibimbap quite a number of times while at seoraksan, so the taste wasnt anything special. The only uniqueness is that they put raw egg on my raw beef. Usually they dont put beef or egg on my jeonju.
Directions: From the parking lot , walk towards the Jeonju Village Stone Sign then turn left when you see the sign and walk all the way straight. You will see the famous Taejo-Road ,turn right and walk along the Taejo-road and you will see the restaurant on your left.
Address: Deokjin-gu Keumam-dong 712-4
contact: 82-63-272-8611
the above 2 photos are photos of the Taejo Road, where it is a famous filming site for movies like Promise. Frankly speaking , i have never watched the movie before, just snapped cuz its famous, teehee.
First we went to explore the Pungnammun Gate (전주 풍남문) as it sounded interesting. But….uh blehhhh ,just a gate.
nevermind, we will make it look more interesting with our poses hehe
Ratings:1/5
Review: its just look and see. nothing much. mehh
Directions: walk along the taejo Road and you will pass by the Jeondong Cathedral , Cross the road when you see the 4-way intersection and turn right, you will see the gate in front. Its like in the middle of a roundabout.
When we walked back , we came across this sculpture, quite a creative one so we decided to show our creativity too (;
eek im scared!!
ahhh! dont come near me!
As we walked back along the Taejo Road, some of the views. We just walked past the cathedral, didnt go in at all.
Jeondong Cathedral
saw them learning to make their own candies. i didnt try it as my friend told me that it was very sweet. Im not a sweet tooth at all.
Next we went to visit Gyeonggijeon Shrine (경기전) , at that time i didnt even know its a shrine. I thought it was the filming site and was quite disappointed with it. It was only when i got back home and doing a review on it then i realised that its Taejo Road that was the filming site. *Facepalm*
after the rain, the soil was yucky gross. dirtied my boots 🙁
i like this trapdoor, it looks so cool!
outside the hall where they stored the artefacts
random shot
Queens ^^
some people playing the traditional games. cant remember what game it was though
Ratings: 3/5
Review: the interesting thing is finding out about the portraits and its history. But i hateeee the yucky soil sticking to my boots. arghhh. oh and the admission fee is 1000won i think ,cant really remember. it feels like those palace again, like gyeongbokgung,deoksogung etc.
Directions: Its near the Cathedral.
Saw some nice flowers near the entrance of the shrine
the power of pop art!
more picture of Taejo Road
Next we wandered around cos there isnt much stuff to do and we had a lot of free time.
This is the 600year old tree, hmm maybe cuz all the leaves are gone, it doesnt look very nice. But the thought that it is 600year old, thats cool man! 6 centuries.
Directions: Just grab the jeonju map and refer to it!
random shot at the cute drains , cute pictures
feeling like eating ice-cream, we bought waffles with ice-cream in it. And i saw this shop selling insects. Eww Ewww Ewww. omg i peered at it, Janey asked me , u want ? me hurriedly replied,’ NONONONONONO!’
my mouth was full with the icecream when she snapped this photo
too much time and too little stuff to do, we wandered around aimlessly.
a lady preparing food in the middle of the yard
this toilet door is very cute. its super small, like smaller than my height so you have to bend down to enter it. we tried to enter it thinking its only 1 cubicle but it turned out that its the entrance to separate toilets.
saw this teddy bear shop and went up to hug it. haha apparently they sell teddy bear kits whereby you can DIY, and sew your own teddy bear. I didnt buy one cos ill prolly leave it at one side even if i were to buy it. my hp laptop are much more appealing to me than the sewing kit.
wandered into this hanji paper exhibit and saw this mirrors, had fun playing with it hahah
and outside i saw this uncle playing with the hoop, keeping the hoop rolling in a circle continuously.
we saw many people carrying this paper bag so we went to the shop to buy some too. We couldnt figure out what the poster was stating so we just blindly queue up and see what they sell. It turned out that they sell biscuits and it tasted quite nice, not too sweet so i got my parents some. I bought a chocolate pie but i didnt like it.
here is the yummy biscuit. i forgot to take a pic of the chocolate pie. but im not a sweet tooth so thats why i didnt like the pie, it was too sweet for me.
after that it was like 4pm, we walked back to the meeting venue and took our last few photos before we headed back to the bus.
Ratings: 3/5
Overall review of Jeonju:
Considering that the transportation was free, i was satisfied with my trip as this meant that i managed to cover another part of Korea while having my SEP. My main purpose was to visit as many places as possible. Initially i thought that the place was huge and was prepared to have an itinerary. It turned out that the place was so small that you dont need one. Previously i wanted to try a hanok stay in Jeonju as it is famous for its hanoks but my friends told me that it is similar to the temple stay, like just ondol heating, sleeping on the floor, not much difference hence i didnt opt for overnight stay in Jeonju. Compared to Seoul, indeed here is really a slow Jeonju. Relaxing place. I rated 3 as i feel that there isnt much to do, so it was a little boring. also the bibimbap wasnt very special but im a little biased since i have eaten a lot of bibimbap already so im already sort of tired of the taste. But for a newbie who have yet to try it, i think you would like it. The pros is that i can save money because of the free shuttle bus, its easy to travel anywhere as the place is sooo small. You feel relaxed and away from fast paced life in seoul.
I would recommend Jeonju if you have yet to experience staying in a hanok and eating bibimbap. Jeonju is famous for their bibimbap and hanok stay.
Directions to Jeonju:
1) apply for the free shuttle bus( steps to applying has been explained in the front part of this post)
2) Express bus terminal line3.
Back at Seoul, i went to meetup with Yuni and Julie for dinner. And we went noraebang after it. Sky Noraebang is damn cheap, 1 hour for 7000won.
disco lights and big space for dancing. hahahha
Review:
its cheap but at the basement and there is cigarette smell. hard to avoid in korea. usually noraebang has poor ventilation. but its the cheapest noraebang i have gone to near snu station.
directions: come out from seoul national university exit 2, walk straight all the way and up the hill( you will pass by body shop and medicine shop and a provision shop) and turn left at the 3rd street. You should see japanese restaurants around you in the 3rd street.
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