13 April 2026
Hanok time
Daejeon to Jeonju on the KTX
Now I am again somewhere I have not been to before, Jeonju, famous for its Hanok village. A Hanok village is somewhere to go to wear a Hanbok. Yesterday I was at the Hanbat arboretum. Anyway, if you want to come to Korea and play dress ups, and cry in close up slow motion, Jeonju is the place to come to, apparently.
Getting here on the bullet train from Daejeon was only a 90 minute ride, first class because I am a big spender (about $15). As is often the case, the bullet train station is a bus ride away from the city, and what a bus ride, an old guy had a stand up shouting match with the bus driver for 30 minutes, with the driver trying to push him away through the plexi glass divider. Of course because this guy was the oldest person on the bus, we had no choice but to accept our fate, because disrespecting anyone older than yourself is punishable by death, death of an entire plane load of people on more than one occasion.
My hotel seems nice, but the air conditioner does not seem to be working and it is about 30c outside, so I will make sure someone younger than me is on the reception desk, and go and yell at them for an hour.
To get to the KTX station, which is different to the one I arrived in Daejeon from, I had to go to Seodaejeonnegeori subway station, yes all one word allegedly. Anyway, right near there, a mystery bonus department store, and I thought I had seen all of Daejeon.
Between the subway and the station was the saddest shopping street of all time.
The station itself is new but very small.
Although the inside actually still manages to have a few stores to buy nothing from.
4 platforms. A surprisingly large number of trains come through here.
I had the single seat in first class again. No sick people today, but the blinds were all pulled down. There are free bottles of water and boxes of cookies for first class, I did not have any as I prefer to keep my mask on.
A bonus photo, the OUTSIDE of my hotel, a Shilla Stay, which I think is an up and coming Korean chain, there are a lot of them on booking.com all of a sudden. Booking.com got hacked again yesterday, I got lots of emails about it and now there are news stories popping up even on ABC Australia. This seems to be a weekly occurrence.
I was too early to check in so left my bags and wandered around the shopping streets, of which there are many in this tourist focused town.
Now for the hotel pics, first my bed, desk and couch. The entrance area I am standing in is very large, as big as some hotel rooms in Japan probably.
The bathroom is a 3 door setup, I an standing in a door, toilet door on left, shower door on right. No bath.
And finally my view, of an advertising sign for a Hyundai mainly, but also some distant mountains I will soon see up close.