17 April 2026
Lucky number 10
KTX from Jeonju to Seoul
Now I am back in Seoul, and somehow on this trip that featured 5 hotels, I have always been on level 10, and twice in the same room number as my apartment number in Melbourne (which I will not write here). That seems statistically impossible, I can do the maths.
Getting here today took a long time, not that the bullet train ride was long, but I got to the station in Jeonju too early, then once I got to Seoul I had to transfer to the other side of the city on the Subway, and then find an ATM, and then go to the landromat, and then translate all the sings in the laundromat, and then wait for my underpants to dry.
Anyway, now I am in Gangnam, and have the greatest view imaginable out of a very dirty window (see below).
The Jeonju station is nothing to write home about. But there is a lot of construction going on nearby.
Perhaps this is the new Jeonju station?
Back inside the current station and it has a few shops, it is not too busy now but when I first arrived it was overflowing, hence why I went off for a walk around the block dragging my suitcase.
As I was early, I decided to have the Jeonju speciality - this sort of a cake. They are available everywhere in many flavours, including the train station. The name seems to just be, Jeonju pie. They are basically, a wagon wheel, complete with strawberry jam in the middle. So there you go, sometime in pre history, mr wagon came to Jeonju and stole the idea. Also that's my pants.
The inside of the train is the inside of the train. I have the seat on it's own in first class again. No more bullet trains on this trip.
Behold the laundromat. I purchased a card that you cannot refund because I could not find the coin changer machine... then once I had purchased the card I found the coin changer machine. So I had about $5 left on the card that can only be used at this specific store. I tried to give the card away to 2 different people, they looked horrified and left the store rather than talk to me, so if you need $5 laudromat credit, there is a card on the table.
Now for the exciting hotel room photos, and I have outdone myself. This is Hotel Eliena in Seoul Gangnam. As far as I can tell it is not part of a chain. I booked a year ago for under $100 a night, it is now 3x that price. Room is huge.
The main fault is that the work desk, part of which is showing on the bottom left here, has no power points, I now have a power cord running across the floor.
The bathroom is marble.
But the best feature, despite the very dirty window, is my 10th floor window. Check out the view and the great clouds. Another cloud shot coming up this evening.