With the start of the western part of the tour the 6 of us from the eastern part of the tour joined the 9 new people and had a late start at at 1100 when we took a train south to Jeonju where we arrived at 1400. We got taxis to a fancy hotel from where we walked a few minutes into the old part of town and checked in for the night's hanok stay. This is a traditional house so we were put into rooms with mattresses on the floor - but otherwise "normal" as in with power and in suite bathrooms. There was also heating in the floor, but it seemed that most people struggled with the controller as most kept their doors wide open whenever they were around to try and lower the temperature inside. There was a lower and upper floor, with one mattress each place, and one would assume that the upper one would be in the warmest place. That was not the case - due to the floor heating whoever was below would have the feeling of getting fried. I couldn't be bothered conquering the steep ladder so I stayed down - but being alone I used both mattresses and that seemed to keep me from the worst of the floor heating. But the room was still warm enough to be able to sleep without covers and a window slightly open despite the temperatures outside dropped to 5-ish degrees.
Our hanok stay in Jeonju.
View of the old part of town.
In the afternoon we were introduced to the Gyeonggijeon Shrine, another temple on our way. The old part of town was fairly small so everything was within walking distance. It was similar to many other temples, but this also had (replicas off) paintings of former kings, and there was a small exhibit showing the techniques they used to copy the originals (or rather the remains of them) as faithfully as possible. From there we had free time to roam before meeting again at 1830 to go to a local restaurant that served a hanjeongsik dinner - a traditional full-course meal with pork, fish and numerous side dishes (rice, vegetables, broths etc.). With the seemingly endless dishes being presented on the tables it felt like a insurmountable task, but we got through most of it and it ended up being a very tasty experience.
Main street in Jeonju.
The following morning we left around 1000 and drove towards Yeosu where we arrived in the early evening around 1800. Along the way we stopped in two locations; the Damyang bamboo forest where we also had lunch and the Boseong green tea field. Arriving in Damyang we started going our separate ways for lunch - apparently a street along the river was called noodle street as it was known for the endless noodle eateries along the bank. We found a place and got one of the benches outside and enjoyed a tasty round of noodles. It felt very local as only very few of the signs were also in English - luckily they have a habit of putting photos of the dishes on the menu (and Google translate also helped). The bamboo forest felt like a bit of a letdown as while there was a large area with bamboo, the combination of them putting a lot of paths in and the ground being broken up by varying height differences and rocks it never really felt dense but rather like rather thick fencing between different paths and areas. The hour we had to walk around was nice but it never felt as forest-like like what we experienced in Japan.
Plenty of small statues and oddities spread out in the bamboo forest.
This cube was one of the weirder things.
An hour's drive later we arrived at the Boseong green tea field were we also got an hour to walk around; here we were able to walk through the field and up to a lookout point we're we could see the entire field and also see the see. Once again the great weather and visibility made it a climb very much worth while.
Walking in the green tea field.
Arriving in Yeosu we checked in and we all (or at least most of us) got a room with a view. The main part of the city is on one side of the river and our hotel was on the other side, looking out over the river and the city and it's waterfront. Most of us got rooms having this view, which only go better during night with all the lights turning on. A couple of us went down to a chicken restaurant next door for dinner, and while sitting there most of the group came trickling down for dinner. Our guide had recommended it, and the only other option was the hotel's restaurant or a supermarket meal unless you wanted to walk across the bridge to the city. While the chicken to our disappointment wasn't fried it was still very good. Though awfully difficult to eat a wing that's greased in sauce and all you have is a fork and a tong.
View from the hotel room in Yeosu.
At 0900 the following morning we drove off to Art Land, a building with various activities where our guide took us to the open air sculpture exhibition where the was a giant hand you could walk up into that overlooked the sea and nearby islands. We had almost 1½ hours free time here, but it seemed like most people weren't interested in the other activities (a Ferris wheel, media - and trick art exhibitions and go carts). It seemed to be a resort of some sort where there were rental houses surrounding the establishment and it honestly felt a bit out of place. The time we had seemed to be spent by most by just hanging out and relaxing until we'd continue the day's schedule.
Reaching out (big enough that 6-7 people could comfortably stand in the palm).
There were some very weird statues at the sculpture exhibition.
Stairs to... Nowhere.
From here we drove to the maritime cable car ride across the river into the city which gave a great view of the city and it's waterfront - though having the view we had from the hotel it wasn't much different - especially considering part of our view from the hotel is the cable cars going by outside! Though if you did get a room overlooking the main road instead this would definitely be a nice ride. It was also an easy way to get to the other side (not figuratively). We were then brought to Yisunsin Square in central Yeosu where we had time to go for lunch.
The afternoon was free but we had the opportunity to return to our bus which would take those interested to the ARTE museum. This is basically a visual exhibition which is very instagramable; dark rooms with mirrors and projections which give an almost surreal and at times slightly disorienting experience. A room could be covered in animated roses, endlessly in all directions due to mirrors, and in the middle there could be small box, covered in mirrors but with a door into a small room with a completely different visual. Like walking around in roses and seeing an opening in nothing into a completely different world. It was quite the experience and quite fun in a way, and despite it being Sunday there were very few people there which enhanced the experience. This is not something that would work very well if it was crowded.
From there we walked out to and around Ogongdo island before walking back to the hotel and arriving in the late afternoon. After a short walk back out onto the bridge to see the sunset we gathered a few people and left for the city waterfront where we sat down and had a round of delicious seafood and pork. They do seafood very well here and pork seems to be universal in the entire country.
Sunset from the bridge.
The bridge seen from opposite the hotel (which can be seen on the right of the bridge).
Eateries in the tents underneath the bridge (and further on to the right).
They all had almost the same menu and prices so in the end it (probably) wouldn't matter where you ended up sitting down.
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