9 April 2026
One and a half museums
Museums of art and geology
Today is the designated rain day, with no rain, then some rain, then almost no rain, and now more rain. So I got different percentages of damp.
According to my research on what to do in Daejeon when it is raining, Daejeon is officially the most boring city in Korea, and has been given the title of 'no-jam city' with jam apparently being Korean for fun. Well this is my third time here so I should know, and since I am also an EXTREEEEMELY boring person, I can confirm that I fit right in, and so Daejeon is indeed a no-jam city.
Despite the various states of rain, I managed to visit 2 boring museums, in fact the first one was not even the museum itself, as that had been taken over by an Andy Warhol exhibit. I find the art of Warhol extremely boring, and and that is saying a lot, so I had no interest in paying to see a soup can.
The second museum was better, as it had dinosaurs, but it was quite a walk away through the drizzle and along a fascinating drain.
Pre rain but very grey as I left my hotel, I walked through the nearby parks and checked out the sculptures.
The streets around all the government buildings are well landscaped. I seem to recall being here in the past when there were xmas illuminations, in November.
Here comes the rain! Also there is no way to cross this road for at least a mile. I had to walk a long way in the rain and double back at this point.
Here is the art centre and art museum. An imposing building.
And yet the main museum has completely been taken over by the Andy Warhol exhibit, so instead I headed into this secret basement, which is a museum of how art that is in storage is packed away securely. Yes really.
As well as a bunch of crates and humidity monitoring equipment, there is this one big installation, called the fractal turtle ship.
Behold the ship in all it's glory.
Nearby is the Hanbat Arboretum. I have explored the gardens before. Often there is a roller blading race going on around these sliding airport hangar things, but not today.
Daejeon is not immune to the silly slogan game.
Over there is the main giant mall of Daejeon, which is in the middle of nowhere. I have been there before, it has a great roof garden, I might go again on Saturday.
That small mountain over there is my destination tomorrow, along with a lot of red clay.
Time to head over the bridge, to yet another of the many, MANY abandoned expo parks of Korea.
My journey went past a designated movie making industrial park, which also appeared to be abandoned.
I walked along the drain/river. On the other side is the science museum with rockets, I have been there before.
The drain was nice and blossom lined.
Behold, the next museum, officially called the KIGAM Geological Museum, I could not determine with KIGAM means, but probably includes Korea, Geology and Museum.
It is not very large, but it is quite good, and as best as I can tell, free - although my research suggested it costs 50 cents to get in, there was no one at the entrance.
There are fossils, small and large, the largest being the T-Rex, the default dinosaur of all museums.
This interactive sphere was actually very interesting. You can plot all kinds of things on it using a touch screen - cyclones, ocean currents, mineral deposits, and then I worked out how to change it to be the moon instead. The instructions on the touch screen were Korean only, so I just mashed buttons randomly.
I had the entire place to myself, which seemed to make it more interesting.
And then the rain returned, but behold, that is my hotel, it is huge!