The pictures end abruptly after Yongsan market. The Korea I visited was very urbanised and sometimes I wasn't motivated to take pictures. Perhaps if I liked architecture and design more; they seem to be good at that. There is a country Korea which I only had a glimpse of in Seoraksan and Jeonju. But it's hard for me to access that without more knowledge of the Korean language and culture. A lot of travel information on the Internet is in Korean as domestic tourism dwarfs foreign tourism. And it's a populous and crowded country.
I found the Koreans very polite and helpful. It's a very co-operative society. I liked some of the food. I found Korean flavours strong, but many dishes I felt had too much sauce of some kind or other.
It's a mountainous country and if I visit again, I would try to see more of the landscape. I was particularly taken by the pristine landscape in the 2003 film Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring which is a Buddhist moral tale.
I didn't want to buy any electronics, phones or computers since these days it's easier and cheaper to order them over the Internet. But I was curious about the goods sold in the Yongsan Electronics Market. It's actually not a single building or even market, but an area in Seoul that such shops are concentrated in. It's near the Yongsan metro station, but I had to hunt a bit for the connecting walkway to the area.
This is the phone market. Besides the latest models there are also many used phones looking for a new owner when the previous one upgraded. It's said that a used phone can be acquired for a pittance, but I didn't need one. Korea is a very wired country and latest models are eagerly sought after. On the bus from Seoraksan I observed a passenger watch live TV on his phone as we barrelled down the highway in the middle of nowhere.
The inside of one phone shop.
This was another building which housed a PC market. Besides new computers and peripherals, there were also many shops selling refurbished computers. They took working parts from old machines, and combined them with replacements in new cases to rebirth a PC.
This was a store on the street selling phone cases.
This is in fact the last photo I took in Korea. Not even a photo of the departure lounge at the airport. You might guess I was suffering from Korea fatigue at this point and wanting to move on.
I decided to check out a mega shopping complex owned by Lotte. It also incorporates an entertainment centre which I didn't visit. I had probably budgeted too many days for the second part of my Seoul visit. This was just outside where I had a lunch of Pad Thai noodles. The taste was ok, but the texture not quite right because they didn't cook it on a very hot wok.
These adults were playing this augmented reality game outside a hamburger chain store. Their hands appear as mitts on the screen and they grab falling food items like buns, fries, patties, etc. for points. It seems that if you get enough points you get an e-voucher for free food which you can claim by entering your mobile number for a SMS. I saw several players come back for more rounds.
Back in the suburb of Hongdae, I stopped for an afternoon coffee at a boutique café overlooking a small park. If I recall correctly the park area used to be a waste water treatment plant and when that was put underground, the land was given over to municipal use as a park.
This photo is out of sequence and taken in the evening in the same park. A sax busker is playing to a small audience.
In the evening I explored another area of Hongdae. I'm posting only one of the photos because really they all just show Koreans shopping and enjoying company. I suppose that as many live in the suburbs, their preferred way of socialising is to meet at one of the many cafés in Seoul.
I did stumble upon something I had read about, a cat café, where people who can't keep one at home can appreciate felines for a while.
It was in an upstairs apartment. There were already some visitors there, but no sign of the owner. After a while the other visitors left and I was left alone with the cats. The beverage counter was closed and the owner was nowhere to be seen.
One Scottish Fold cat with a flat face was especially appreciative of the petting it got.
Eventually the owner returned and pointed out that I had neglected to remove my shoes and paddle around in slippers. Embarrassment time. I had been there long enough anyway so I mumbled my apology and left.
I had the morning to explore the open air museum that is the Jeonju Hanok Village. It contains some 800 traditional houses many of which are used as cultural attractions. A bit of consultation of the maps and a short walk found me on this main street. It was drizzling but I had a rain poncho.
Lanes are narrow like this.
A souvenir shop. The brightly coloured traditional Korean Hanbok dresses are for rental. More soon.
A modern restaurant at the end of the street. The village is an open air museum but people live and businesses are active in it. However there are concerns about the encroachment of commercial elements into the village.
A frontal view.
This was a cultural centre or museum of some sort, I can't read the hangul and neglected to note translations if any. Notice the curved eaves similar to Chinese buildings. Speaking of translations, the tourism authority should provide more for foreign visitors.
Peaceful pond in the same compound.
The official plaque of the village.
Coming back down the next street across, I found this water canal.
It's actually the sink end of the canal.
The canal runs almost the length of the street.
Streetside fountains.
Small formal garden.
With an artificial waterfall.
And this is the source of the canal.
A water mill.
At this point I spotted a couple of girls in Hanbok crossing the street. They disappeared around the corner before I could get a focused shot.
I needn't have worried, because other girls were all over the village. It seemed to be a fun thing to do, rent a traditional dress, walk around the village, take selfies, and have photos taken. There were some boys in traditional dress but they were far fewer than the girls.
Here's a procession of them.
This is the entrance to the Gyeonggijeon.
And this if I'm not mistaken, is a side view of Jeonju Cathedral.
At this point I had to catch a taxi back to the station to board the KTX to return to Seoul. For this half of my stay in Seoul, I had picked a guesthouse near Hongik University, abbreviated as Hongdae.
I wanted a short stay in a counry town and Jeonju was said to be a gastronomic centre and also had traditional Korean houses so I opted for that. I should have booked an earlier departure from Busan Station as the itinerary I got would have me arriving in Jeonju after sundown. Also there was a lengthy transfer between Daejeon and Seodaejeon stations. The KTX counter clerk had written down a suggestion to take a taxi but I worked out that there would be enough time to catch the subway and walk.
I took a taxi from the station to the lodgings, a traditional Hanok guesthouse with floor bedding, as investigation showed that trying to catch the bus would be complicated and require some walking. As it was, the guesthouse owners were worried that I did not turn up around 1700 as I had stated in the booking and sent me an email which I received when waiting in the lobby.
The room I got had modern fittings and the mattress was on the wooden floor, as advertised. Room heating was embedded in the floor and thermostatically controlled. In ancient times there would have been a slow fire underneath the floor to provide heating.
I went wandering in the old town streets in search of dinner. Lots of townsfolk enjoying the evening air. Young boys were zooming around on motorised scooters; it seemed to be their evening pastime.
There was a lot of food on offer, mostly street food. Jeonju was said to serve the traditional version of bibimbap which means mixed rice. The colours, black, red, green, white and yellow, are rich in symbolism. It was good but in future I would like try the hotpot version instead of the room temperature version I got. Note the side dishes, as always.
Haeundae Beach, along with Seogwipo's, are the best known beaches in Korea. It even features in a Korean tsunami disaster blockbuster. It's very popular with Korean visitors in summer. It was shoulder season and rather windy so I was spared the crowds.
It's a fairly long beach at a couple of km but South Korea being a populous country, it becomes a wall of humanity in peak season.
I created a panorama of the beach using photo-stitch. Click on the image for a full size version.
The aquarium where visitors can see sea life that would never come near this beach.
Curious sculptures on the other side.
The backdrop of high rises on one side.
And the other.
The promenade is popular with cyclists.
The busy avenue just behind the beachfront.
The main artery leading to the beachfront.
"Friendly ice cream store that gives the impression of having always been around". I'd have to give the translator full marks for using the correct tenses. I didn't try the store though.
The side streets of the area were filled with eateries and shops selling tourist merchandise.
A couple of photos from my evening excursion.
Night as bright as day seems to be par for the course in large Korean cities.
Opposite the train station is Busan's Chinatown. The sign on this entrance proclaims the Shanghai Gate. Another sign nearby proclaims Chinatown, partly to woo growing tourism from China. It was said to be a somewhat risque area but probably is tame these days.
A stroll along the street which is decorated with red lanterns. However one notices the Cyrillic characters on shops.
The big characters on the shop say Hua Qiao, meaning overseas Chinese.
It turns out that there are few Chinese left in these Chinatowns because many of them emigrated to Taiwan, US or elsewhere in search of better opportunities in the 60s or 70s. So these shops are likely run by Koreans.
However the Russians are arrivals after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Not the white Russians we normally imagine but former people of the Koryo kingdom which covered more territory than the Korean peninsula and were included in the USSR, until that collapsed, and they were allowed to emmigrate. There is some anecdotal background information here.
The last post is an outlier. For dinner I scoured the nightlife area, not finding much to my fancy, until I spotted this Vietnamese eatery. The procedure was different, you paid at a vending machine you see near the entrance for the dish of your choice, gave them the ticket and collected your food later. It was alright but having had real Vietnamese noodles, it wouldn't compare.
