Guess what? It’s Jeonju again!! Hahahah!! Long time no see Jeonju! The previous time I went, I dropped by Taeyeon’s parents shop, but this time I went with a lot of exchange Singapore kids so i just stuck by them haha.
It was a very last minute decision actually, at that time Jasmine’s buddy Yoojin had already booked two rooms and the people going were still pretty uncertain, some dropping out and all. So I just decided to secure a spot while there was still one. This was a month ago, the hanok stay places get snapped up really fast so be sure to book way in advance.
It was a mix of us Sogang students, Hanguk University students, Jasmine’s room mate from China and Yoojin the only Korean haha.
I met up with Xiaochen (jas’s roomie) first to go to the bus terminal as the rest had free shuttle bus. She could only speak Korean or Chinese and I opted for the first option, it wasn’t easy but we kept up at it all the way throughout the trip ^_^ proud of it, but at the end of it i was so drained i didn’t want to speak a single word of Korean again. Same repeat as with Zenn and Shaun xD I got better through the trip and the other Singaporeans noticed too, asking how i became fluent in Korean. when actually i’m not, i just sound fluent because I speak Korean a little more naturally like a native compared to most foreigners but i don’t actually get much point across in a sentence because i go in circles LOL.
We regrouped in Jeonju Hanok Village and grabbed a quick lunch, before heading to Nambu Open Market.
Obligatory shot, i’ve taken so many pictures of Jeonju the previous time alr 😡
I’m not going to make Jeonju food recommendations because the place is so small it’s not that hard to find food~ Jeonju is famous for its bibimbap so you might want to give that an obligatory try HAHA. I say obligatory because well, it was normal to me… yeah.
As you can see, such food as the one above can easily be found in Seoul too ahahaha.
We arrived and dropped our stuff at the hanok we stayed at before going to Nambu Market to take a look. Most of the stores were closed so there was really nothing much , but we did find this youth/artsy area on the second floor of Nambu Market.
Found a cute cafe called Cafe Nabi in the area and decided to chill around for a while! It was my first time meeting the other HUFS people and i remember two of them from some modules i took back in SMU and i remember they are big fans of Korea too. We talked a bit and got to know them a little better!
Found a random pony along the way, not kidding man it was super random .___.
Stopped by a museum~ it contains the portrait of Joseon’s first king, i think. I wasn’t paying much attention D:
There really wasn’t much to be honest, I don’t mean to sound unenthusiastic LOL.
We chilled around for a while before deciding that maybe it’s time to grab dinner, walking in circles to find this Dakgalbi place. It was nice bu
t i didn’t take any pictures because phone dead haha.
Then we walked more just to locate this famous bakery called PNB, which didn’t turn out to be good… the chocopie was supposed to be famous but to me it was just dry and tough and like a brownie-cookie confused piece of pastry, and i much preferred my cheap choco pie off the supermarket shelves ._. i’m critical aren’t I D: But yeah not gonna recommend it, although you’ll see it quite prominently in the Hanok Village with long queues which i still can’t comprehend. Are people just blown away by the ‘trend’??
disappointing chocopie that i’d give up for a supermarket one anytime…
famous PNB that didn’t live up to expectations.
Then we decided to try this beer that looked like a beer with ice cream like a beer float. But it turned out to be just ice. So you will drink the beer through a layer of ice that’s the concept.
clearly looks like ice cream ok
See how pictures can be so deceiving?? That clearly looks like ice cream to me.
I talked more with Rynn and got to know her better, she’s a bubbly girl so it was easy to talk to her because she broke the ice in the beginning~ And also Yiwen because I met her before during the NB2 clubbing night, and she’s mostly rather nua as well so we got along well HAHAHA. She kept saying it felt like 5 hours but only 1 hour has past, and like ‘it’s still 2pm??’ ‘it’s 4pm again??’
After a tiring day of mostly walking around the ‘slow city’, dubbed not by me but by the korea tourism site (i can testify to it, i bet i could get all my work done there because time slows down in that city), we finally retired back to our Hanok. The best part of it!!!!! The one we stayed at was called 모련다원 address: 전로북도 전주시 완산구 교동 137-2 however i think you have to reserve by phone which is what Yoojin did for us. 
otherwise i’d suggest just looking from the korean tourism sites, they have some recommendations. Probably more expensive though, but plenty available. Remember to book in advance, like at least a month or two before.
I really liked this hanok!!
❤
The room wasn’t fancy but it’ll do! Fluffy blankets and rectangular pillows. Sorry i’m not very cultural to know what theyr’e called xD
Mr/Mrs/Ms Moon *sings Moon Embraces the Sun OST*
What I found quirky in particular was how they named the rooms. Mr/Mrs/Ms Sun, Mr/Mrs/Ms Moon and Mr/Mrs/Ms Star. And then there’s one random room called “Smile”. It’s pretty 😀
We gathered at the pretty traditional table outside and tried to play Go-Stop, to no avail. Yoojin wasn’t sure either how to play so she literally stopped two Korean guests and asked them for help haha. They were about our age and were surprised we didn’t know how to play Go-Stop, since i’t s a pretty popular game here. But even after intensive explaining we still didn’t get it OTL so we gave up and just chatted a bit before sleeping.
Go-Stop!
The next day I woke up the latest as expected. The rest went exploring to buy dumplings etc but i lazed in and ate the horrid chocopie for breakfast.
But at least we went to a good place for lunch. Yoojin booked this traditional restaurant for us and we got a private room. At first i though it’s the Royal Table thingy but turns out it was ordinary traditional Korean food ._. but it was still delicious and the price wasn’t too bad, about $15.
Brief review of food: soondubu tasted fantastic, easily the best i’ve tasted. Everything else was just… salty.
After that we parted ways and some of us went to eat desert while the rest queued to get hoddeok.
Patbingsoo!!
We went to this place called Grandmother’s Best, seems to be a pretty popular Patbingsoo place! It didn’t disappoint though, i loved it 🙂 Reminded me of Homilbat~
You can read more about it from this blogger here, they’ve reviewed and left the address too.
After that we hung around some more wandering around in the rain, and finally decided to just drop by a cafe LOL. SEriously that’s all we do, eat and drink… but granted, this cafe was a true gem! It’s called Sarang Namu. The moment I stepped in the cafe was playing Wait a Minute, one of my favorite songs in SNSD’s new album, and that basically won me over LOL. We stayed there for so long because it was so comfy sitting at the corner sofas right next to the window on a rainy day~
I requested takeaway to be able to keep the pretty coffee sleeve for memory sake. They served the tea in really cool cups, you can’t see it clearly here but it’s like double-layered glass so it won’t be hot to the touch. They also give you a tumblr of hot water to refill.
The view from where we were sitting!!
View from outside
A pretty toilet too!!
Sunlight at the back so not a good picture, but yep we had the best seats in the cafe!
Sarang Namu address: 86 Eunhaeng-ro, Wansan-gu, Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do
I’m posting the address because on the namecard there are directions but they’re in Korean so it’s rather complicated anyw :X it’s basically opposite Grandmother’s Best. If you must look at the map though, because i was lazy to upload the pic of the namecard I found a Korean blog who had it so here
So basically we sat there until it was time to go to the bus station xD Half an hour earlier the rest left to get Jeonju Bibimbap but i didn’t really want to as I was full and I’ve tried it before. So I just sat on with Yoojin stoning haha.
And finallyyyyyy it was time to go back! Haha. Slow city indeed. But no regrets, loved the Hanok stay and it was nice to chill and do nothing for a weekend 🙂 Good company too.
darmawanders 