October 9,

We were both awakened by our alarm at 0645!! The set alarm was for us to try and schedule a train in Taiwan that sells out quickly. Jeff was doing it straight up at 0700, but found out it’s a day too early, hence the alarm was a waste of time. The good thing was that we were both able to sleep in that long. Anyway, we got around, having our Javas, and readied.

We left around 1000, walking to explore. We went directly to the Jeonju Hanok Village area, which was set up to experience the traditional culture of Korea. Where we are staying at is a 2.7 km walk, or 1.7 miles. Jeonju metro is 667.000 people – side note Korea is the second densest population in the world per square mile to number one, Bangladesh!! Anyway, the name Hanok comes from the traditional house of Korea. Many of these recently built or restored houses are now places converted to home stays – this is the tourist hub.The people we see mostly seem to be Asian, maybe Chinese(??). Also a number of people have rented the Korean traditional dress to walk around in- young and old alike!

We found Jo Jeom Rye – Korea Food to eat brunch, at the old market here Nambu. This place does blood sausage. I have tried this before and did not like it, in fact, I hated it. But I tried it again as it is a Korean dish as it has been awhile. The young male waiter helped us immensely. We both had soups that had the blood sausage in it, but no offal or intestines. First all the Banchan or free side dishes came – a total of six – with two small bowls of rice. Next the soups came out, bubbling hot, one at a time. Again it was too much food, and well… very different. Overall, though, I am still not a fan of blood sausage, but it is the best version I have had. I could eat it, but I don’t need to have it anymore. I had a coke and Jeff had a beer. We finished what we could, paying 24,000 KRW or $16.79 and left.

We scouted out some tours that are free and may be of interest. We walked by the South Gate, or Pungnammun Gate. The South Gate is the last remaining gate of the four gates from the Jeonjuseong Fortress in Jeondong during the Joseon Dynasty, although it has been restored numerous times.

Around noon, we walked to a hill for a hike up and for a viewpoint over Jeonju. The hike was along a path carpeted with leaves – used enough to be visible, but not well trodden. There were many different bird calls and songs. We saw a couple of squirrels, and some butterflies. We also saw huge seedpods- one was opened and we realized they may have been chestnuts! Jeff will be looking for roasted chestnuts now. There were also different liken and mushrooms- maybe toadstools. Anyway, it was nice and a great way to work some of the bunch we had just consumed. The view didn’t work out so well due to trees obscuring it. But we were at 139.9 m 459 feet according to signage. There was a national geological marker in the ground that read 478 feet from 1884! Interesting!!🤔  Has the ground shifted 20 feet or is measuring more accurate??

We hiked back down and walked back to our place, stopping at a convenience store for cool drinks. Then I actually took a bath, as our place has a bathtub. These are a rare commodity in Asia.The hot water felt good on sore muscles from the hike and walkabout. Then we had popcorn from a popcorn popper in the hotel lobby with some packaged mango slices for supper.