Korea yet again for the 7th time - March and April 2026 - Page 5

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!

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.

Last time I took a subway and then a bus, today I took just a bus which went right to where I wanted to start today, in the same place as 7 April 2019, 6 years and 3 days ago.

The map. I should have paid attention.

These stairs were not here last time.

If I recall, this used to be a spot where you pay to fish, now it is a public park.

It almost looks like snow, but no it is blossoms.

As mentioned, the golden hands were the landmark I was looking for to ensure I was on the right trail.

There were many graves around.

Here comes the fog. With stairs.

Purple and fog. Nice.

The only real summit of the day. Not very high, it was here that I think I took a wrong, or at least, different turn compared to the last time I was here.

Great fog, soon I will start talking about clay.

OK, now there is no fog, I was below it, briefly.

I was very surprised to come out into this valley, with poor quality farms. It was at this point I knew I was not on the same track as last time.

Instead I entered via the main entrance to the red clay trail park. Lots of parking and landscaping.

Behold, red clay. This is the path up to the actual loop trail for pilgrims. New clay has recently been layed, it is deep and soft.

Clay and blossoms, but no fog yet.

At this point I have joined the main loop trail. I did the full loop and saw almost no one around the back 2/3 of the trail, just a couple of trail runners. You can see here the clay is older and less red.

And then when it is covered in blossoms, you can barely see the clay at all. The idea is you walk a loop in bare feet in the clay, later you will see why.

Fog and blossoms, but not clay, no trifecta yet.

There are a few spots to stop for a rest, also a few toilets.

And finally, the trifecta of fog/clay/blossoms.

The rest of the 'hike' was foggy - as far as a hike goes it is pretty easy even though it is long, I jogged a lot of it.

Blossoms stopped occasionally, replaced by puddles. It never actually rained on me today, despite what every photo looks like.

This is the point where you turn for home. It gets busier from here back to the start with people who join from different roads and walk about 1/3 of the total loop, I don't think that counts.

This last bit is mostly down hill.

I realised that this rather unremarkable spot is where I joined the trail for my full loop last time.

I also took a photo of this sign last time, it explains why it is important to walk barefoot in the clay.

Near the end (start) of the loop, the red clay is fresh and plentiful.

And then finally, I was once more below the fog. I took a bus back from the park entrance. It was about a 20 minute wait, the bus stop seat was heated, I appreciated this as my hands had become cold, so I sat waiting for the bus, grilling my hands.

The main street, I kept heading straight to get to the Lotte store, should have turned left.

I think I mentioned that the main thing Daejeon is famous for is a bakery that is near the Daejeon train station, I went past it last night, there was a line, but it was not very photogenic. This is not the famous bakery, but there are now of course copycat fancy bakeries everywhere.

I found an overpass, first overpass photo of this trip.

I headed back to a busy night lift area in the hunt for a dinner venue that would serve me at 8pm.

Apparently this is a Korean pub, the sign says so. It is a treehouse facade over an office building.

And finally, my dinner. They can't all be winners.
Tomorrow is a rest day... I have no plan. The sun is supposed to be shining.

The hot spring area is really just one strip of attractions up the middle of a road. First up, swings. The way they are tethered to the ground to prevent you from doing anything stupid is a little disappointing.

There were a lot of empty pools where hot springs should be.

The wooden frame is an addition to when I was last here.

More empty pools, my feet need to be cleaned!

Finally I found some water. I was not really sure about the photo etiquette situation, so I kept my distance.

The message on this giant rock is apologising for all the empty pools where hot spring water should be.

They have provided a selection of shoes to choose from when you have finished washing your feet.

Blossom time. Today's blossoms are courtesy of the river embankment.

Down in the flood zone, it is time for a game of sad old people golf. Literally just a flat grass area with a metal cage to hit balls at. It is very popular along the entire river flood zone.

I had to cross the river. It is not straight, so I believe it is real, or at least AI.

Nobody buys cd's anymore. Instead they buy branded usb sticks? There were at least 10 stores selling nothing except these. I am confident they are going to install some kind of bitcoin related Russian application in addition to feminine Korean boys taking their shirts off while singing about teddy bears.

Now that is what I call a pedestrian bridge. The elevated viewing deck is a fantastic addition. I nominate this for the world architecture awards, Zaha Hadid has finally been defeated.

Time to explore the market again, while it is open. I started at the far end, which seems to be labelled a wholesale market. It was mainly deceased estates.

Here you can buy hi-fi equipment from 50 years ago. Racks and racks of it.

The market was not too busy, but busy enough for some old ladies to spread out leafy vegetables on the ground in everyone's way.

OK, I have seen enough of the market.

Now, one of the reasons I decided to come back here today was to complete my detective work. I thought that when I was last here that they parked cars down there along the river. It turns out that is not the case, it was another nearby drain where this was happening. I have confused my drains.

I headed back into town to spend some time in the gardens. Leaves have arrived.

Surprise fighter jets! Right out in the open in the middle of town. First up, the F-5 freedom fighter, variations of which served as the Russian jets in the first top gun movie and also in the I love the smell of napalm in the morning scene from Apocalypse Now.

And then we have the F-4 Phantom, a much bigger jet, I have no movie references for it, probably because it was too expensive for movie production companies to rent.

And for my final shot on this a day of rest, a rare photo of my lunch. I can assure you I was the only male in the entire store.

The University really looked enormous from what I could see walking past, here is the gate which is of very little interest.

Another nice pollution fuelled sunset.

This is not the actual rodeo, but there are a few crossing streets of interest in the vicinity of the rodeo itself.

I nearly died by scooter. Strangely they are petrol powered here, where every car and bus are battery powered these days. Maybe Taiwan has a patent on battery powered scooters with their gogoro brand.

Behold, Gungdong Rodeo, where meals are too cheap.

A lot of food around here is Japanese and Chinese, I went with Japanese and had ramen. It was ok, nothing special.

I then decided to try my hand at a dark shot of a drain. 1/10th of a second handheld.

And then finally, the aforementioned traders. An impressive behemoth of bulk buy wholesale goods. I did not go in.
Tomorrow is a hiking day, on a Sunday, in a national park. There will be a lot of other people.