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!
Daejeon station area
Still raining, needed to go somewhere undercover, so the underground shopping street and world famous sky road at the Daejeon station area in the old down town dong of Eunhaeng was an easy decision. Getting to the subway however, was a 1km run through the rain, which had onlookers very concerned about my mental stability, however long term readers (this is my favourite joke) know that I despise umbrellas.
Once at the station area I checked out the far side, still nothing there, then headed underground, back above ground, underground, through the rain, back on the train, running again... and eventually had malatang - Korean style (apparently).
This is the inside of the Daejeon station, bigger than I remember, but I am still not sure if it is new or not since I was last here.
Out the back of the station there were, puddles, and not much else.
The underground shopping street here is long, but closes quite early.
I headed back above ground to the huge Jungang market, also closing at this time, but still very interesting.
Some parts were still more open than others.
These are all actual sit down eating areas. Generally deep fried food that gets re deep fried to kill the flies that have been on it all day. I do not know what many of those deep fried things are.
The underground shopping street has a gap where this river is, however it was not raining too badly when I needed to cross the river. Possibly it qualifies as a drain. Actually it is a drain, its too straight.
Now for the nightlife and restaurant area near the station, site of the famous sky road...
The sky road is turned off! The roof of this structure is normally a giant long LED screen, I have previously shown photos of people playing tetris on it. If you go to google image search and type Daejeon, you will see mainly the sky road. I am not sure if it is off permanently, or part of the fuel saving initiatives I keep hearing about that is forcing them to dim outdoor displays across the country.
Great damp road reflections.
It started raining more, so back to the underground shopping street, which has many attractions such as this forest with fountains.
Right at the end where only fortune teller shops are located, a scary teddy bear and a couple of homeless guys.
The mascots are guarding the indoor below ground theatre. There is no show, but people are sitting and waiting anyway.
And finally after a subway ride back to my hotel area, malatang, advertised as Korean style but I am not sure what made it Korean style, surprisingly plenty of ma not just la.
Tomorrow should be a hiking day, I may need to start a bit later than normal to wait for the rain to pass. It will probably be muddy as it is a red clay trail.
The end for now
There are currently 1 comments - click to add
adriana on 2026-04-09 said:
What is Malang and where from?