We left early on Saturday morning from the city bus terminal, just a few subway stops away from my house. It was a pretty long and expensive ride, at about $28 round trip ( I think I would consider that really cheap back home)! After three and a half hours on the bus, we arrived in Jeonju and hopped in a cab to the Hanok village. We couldn't find the guesthouse we were looking for, and quickly realized that this city was not at all English friendly so we were going to have to use our Korean language skills (the little that we have). We finally found a little inn, but it was all booked. Luckily, the owner was really nice called around for us, got us a room and then led us there herself. Now that's service, or "service-uh" as the koreans say. We ended up at an adorable little Hanok house and our room was simple but charming. We dropped off our things and set out for the day.
We spent the afternoon pretty much just wondering around, popping into museums and shops and snacking on the unique street food. The most interesting was the tempura fried ginseng root washed down with a cup of dong-dongju (homemade korean rice wine). It was surprisingly delicious, both sweet and earthy tasting, and we figured that the health benefits of ginseng more than offset the fattening batter it was covered in. My favorite part of the afternoon was when we went to the Oriental Medicine Museum, and learned about all of the wacky things people use to cure ailments. As we were leaving the museum we passed a massage room, where you could experience traditional massages and get all different kinds of treatments. There was a sign listing the prices, but unfortunately everything was in Korean. Using our fantastic skills, we were able to read that a 7 minute foot massage was just $1! We were so excited and obviously decided to do it, so we went up to the counter and showed them what we wanted. To our surprise, he pointed us to the computers!! We were extremely confused. We were like, did we just buy 7 minutes of internet time at an Oriental Medicine Museum?? It turned out to be a health consultation program for some kind of ancient healing system, in which you had to answer a questionnaire to find out which type of person you were and how you could best be healed. The questions were HILARIOUS. Some of my questions included, "Is your head big, in comparison to your body?" and "There are times when digested food come up through my throat for no reason. Yes or No?" We had a lot of laughs and decided that it was worth the dollar spent.
That night our mission was to have the famous Jeonju bibimbap and see a traditonal korean music concert. A women at the tourist center told us where to find the best bibimbap restaurant, so we headed there for dinner. It was a simple place but it was packed and we were lucky to get the last table. We sat down for dinner and they immediately brought us about 10 little side dishes to start. Typically in Korea, when you order a main dish, you will get 2 or 3 side dishes, usually kimchi and pickled radish. But in Jeonju, its what they're known for (along with the bibimbap), so it was something very special. My favorite of the side dishes were seaweed and clear noodles in a wasabi vinegrette and boiled sweet potatoes in a sweet sauce. It was all delicious, but the bibimbap itself was the star of the meal. For those who have never had it, bibimbap is a very popular korean dish and it means "mixed rice." Typical bibimbap is a bowl of rice with a vegetables, a fried egg and spicy red sauce on top. You then take your chopsticks and mix it all up into one mush of deliciousness. It's always good, but this bibimbap was something special. Served in a gold bowl, with a beautiful array of bright colors, it could be considered edible art. We dug in and came to the conclusion that it was definitely the best we've had. At dinner I had a thought, which I shared with Alexis; "If Korea is the best place to eat bibimbap and Jeonju has the best bibimbap in Korea, and this is the best bibimbap restaurant in Jeonju, then are we eating the best bibimbap in the world?" We decided that the answer was yes.
After dinner we walked to the Jeonju Culture Center and saw a wonderful traditional Korean music concert. The music was captivating and the people dressed in traditional attire were beautiful. It was a thoroughly enjoyable night, and when it was finished we picked up a bottle of Korean wine and went back to our little Korean guesthouse and stayed up talking until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer.
The next day, we still had a a few unfulfilled goals- to hike up to a temple nearby and get a birds-eye view of the village, and to experience a tea ceremony. We grabbed some coffee and made our way up to the temple. It was really nice, but I'm sure once the leaves are out it will be even better. The view of the village, with all of the old asian style roof tiles, was great. We snapped some pictures and then made our way down to get some lunch. After round two of bibimbap (this time in a hot stone pot) we found an beautiful tea house, situated around a courtyard and garden. They didn't have a ceremony like we were looking for, but they were able to offer traditional tea in a perfect setting. The owner was really interesting, he looked like a mix between a monk and a hippy, with long hair and a beard and mustache and dressed in monk-like clothes. He showed us how to steep the tea and then offered to take a picture of us, which turned into a photo shoot of us around the tea house. It was pretty funny. After we finished, it was time to head home. We made our way back to the bus terminal and made the three and a half hour journey home. It was a nice end to the winter break and a great way to get refreshed for the new semester.
Oh and one more thing...I've finally added videos to my youtube page, enjoy and leave some comments!!
http://www.youtube.com/user/LCurrie711
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