South Korea: Day 14 - DMZ & Buchon Hanok Village

Today we awoke with difficulty to a blaring alarm at 5:30am. Oh the humanity! Finally on our feet, we dressed, groggily, and then force-marched ourselves 25 mins in the pre-dawn chill to the Koreana Hotel. Our DMZ tour group was already waiting for us (oops) but with sleep still in my eyes, very few fucks were given.

Nestled in our warm minibus, we drove 1 hour towards the North Korean border; finally halting at  Imjingak Park (gateway to the DMZ) as the sun peeked over the horizon. Being a little further north, with snow all over the ground, it was cold as fuck but yet another bright and sunny day.

After an hour wait while tickets were procured, we jumped on an official bus and drove over unification bridge, through road obstacles to the official army checkpoint. Here MPs boarded the bus and checked our passports, giving us the hairy eyeball for a few minutes until we were all allowed to pass.

Our first stop was the 3rd tunnel, thus named because it was the third found. Donning hard hats we walked down the endless (and steep!) access tunnel and finally found ourselves surrounded my North Korean handiwork hundreds of metres below the surface. We walked to the end of the low roofed tunnel, stooping all the way, and making good use of the hard hat. Say what you like about the North Koreans, those fuckers can dig!

Third Tunnel - the only shit I could actually photograph.

Finally surfacing, calves burning, we jumped back on the bus and headed for the most interesting part of the tour  - Dora DMZ observatory. Here there's an observation platform where you can see the North Korean side of the DMZ and watch their nefarious plots hatching first hand. It was great to look out at their propaganda village and other structures, but unfortunately I never saw a living North Korean person.

Spying on those dastardly North Koreans.

The final stop on the tour was a supermarket for the South Korean village within the DMZ. Kudos to the poor buggers who live there, but it wasn't that interesting. We bought some rice snacks and left them to their patriotic duty.

By 1pm we were back in Myeongdong and looking for lunch. As we walked back to Insadong, we stopped at Lotte Burger for a Korean bulgogi burger and unfortunately it was pretty crap. We instead settled for coffee at Holly's (yet another coffee chain) but it was also pretty shit. Just not our day for food!

Anyway, after dropping our warmer clothes off at the hotel and kept walking to the Buchon Hanok Village. Our aim was to have tea and rice-pumpkin cake at the same tea house that Stephen from Watcher filmed from just days/weeks (?) before.

Tea Masineum Tteul - Yet another amazing tea house.

Suffice to say both the tea and the cake were awesome, as was the setting. After we'd chilled for an hour or so, it was close to 4:30pm and we were all pretty beat.  A leisurely walk back through Buchon and Insadong saw us back at our hotel for a little rest before dinner.

Views over Buchon Hanok Village

Come 7pm, we were getting hungry again  (like only ravenous tourists eating 4 meals a day can be). Ever since our ginseng chicken experience on day 2, we hadn't stopped talking about it. So the decision was made to revisit - usually a big no no for any trip. We walked the 30mins back to the restaurant and consumed chicken ginseng soup with gusto. 

Gensing chicken soup - take 2.

The chicken was as good as we remembered it, and this time around we ordered makgeolli to go with it. This stuff wasn't filtered like the makgeolli we loved in Jeonju. Instead it was very cloudy and huge on taste. A bit too huge for me unfortunately.

South Korea: Day 13 - Seoul Tower & Myeongdong

We woke late in our soft, soft hotel beds to another beautiful day in Seoul. After a breakfast of pastries and coffee at Paris Baguette (not the best coffee I've had by a long shot), we walked into Myeongdong crossing over the Cheonggyecheon stream as we went.

Cheonggyecheon Stream

After about 30 minutes of walking, we reached the Namsan Cable Car, with plans to ascend the hill to Seoul Tower. We were soon on board, and Seoul dropped away beneath us. The cable car deposited us near the base of Seoul Tower, surrounded by snow covered cliffs. As we walked from the cable car base station to the tower, we were surrounded by thousands of locks of every shape and size - added by lovers as a token of their affection. They were attached to every available hanging location - fences, trees, sign-posts, security cameras. The more amorous young tykes had chosen locations that were either dangerous or prohibited. Ah young love.

Namsan Cable Car - a real leg saver.

Arriving at the tower we ascended in a lift that included a video in the ceiling of us shooting into outer space. Once up on the 5th floor of the tower we had the whole of Seoul laid out before us - it was a fantastic view, although my vertigo didn't enjoy it to begin with!

The views from Seoul Tower are spectacular!

Soon we tired of all the spectacularness of the view and started to think about lunch. What we really wanted to try was the dumplings at Myeongdong Koja, a place recommended by Donncha & Maya, so we walked back into Myeongdong and grabbed a table. This Michelin star restaurant has only 3 dishes on the menu, and we ordered the dumplings and the noodle soup. Both were fucking amazing! We have had so many spectacular meals this trip - this has been the rule rather than the exception, and this meal was no different.

Myeongdong Koja - small menu, big flavour!

After lunch, Katrina and Claudia went shopping in Myeongdong for skincare products. Eben and I just wandered the streets of Myeongdong like vagrants. After a few streets we found 30cm soft-serve and just had to give it a try (despite the single-digit temperature). It was pretty good, but wasn't quite as soft as I expected. Maybe it was the cold temperature? Not sure. Didn't stop me from eating it though 😅.

Walking the afternoon streets of Myeongdong

Totally non-phallic soft serve in Myeongdong.

Soon we tired of the crowds and started back for Insadong. On the outskirts of Myeongdong, we came across a tiny street cafe "Mooney Moon Coffee" run by a chill old dude. I was still laughing at the name when I detected the smell of roasting coffee. Dude had a roaster running out front of his little stall! Of course Eben and I went over and I asked him about his operation. He spoke great english and we talked about his roasting process for a while. Once the batch was done and he'd cooled it down, he made the two of us a drip filter coffee and it wasn't half bad with a splash of milk. 

Mooney Moon Coffee - Roaster and Drip Filter Master.

Back in our hotel we chilled for a couple of hours until it was time to walk back into Myeongdong to see the Cookin' Nanta show. The show's log-line: "A talented troupe of Korean performers treats the Cookin' audience to a taste of Culinary lunacy-sliced and diced to percussive perfection." promises hilarity, and the show delivers - it was a hoot combining musical numbers based around hitting cooking utensils together, with various cooking related gags. It was a bundle of fun and we laughed ourselves stoopid.

Cookin' Nanta Show was a riot.

After the show we sampled a little of Myeongdong's famously overpriced street food, with some gimbap and hottteok going down very nicely indeed. To be honest we were all still full from gorging ourselves at lunch, so with just a few snacks we walked back to Insadong and climbed into bed.

South Korea: Day 12 - Jeonju to Seoul

We woke to a grey overcast day - our first ever for this entire trip! Not to be discouraged, we struggled to our feet and got our seized back muscles moving again. We packed up all our shit in record time and stashed our bags in a little storeroom in the courtyard of the guest house. We'd checked out by 10:30am and we'd still not seen our host - communicating with him via text messaging only. Weird. 

With a day to fill until our train at 3:20pm, we ventured out to find what was now brunch. With coffee at the top of the agenda we decided on "Gyodong Tea Garden" - a beautiful multi-room tea house on the main street. We forwent the tea and went straight for their quite passable, dare I say excellent, coffee. 

Gyodong Tea Garden - more great coffee. 

With half of brunch taken care of, we headed to Daurang Dumplings for something more substantial. There was no way I was going to miss this place, as it seems to be on everyone's "must-do" list for Jeonju eats. We selected a bunch of dumplings from their extensive offerings, stuffed them in the microwave, and sat down to a simple, yet amazingly tasty feast. To be frank, these were some of the best dumplings I'd ever had. Large and stuffed with meat, they were very, very satisfying. I even went back for seconds.

Daurang Dumplings know what a dumpling's about!

With our bellies bursting, we decided to walk it off with a trek up the hill to look at Jaman Mural Village. Like Gamcheon Village in Busan, the residents have prettied up their rather poor neighbourhood with colourful artworks. It's now a really interesting place to explore and we spent quite some time wandering around the place.

Some of the namesake Murals from Jaman Mural Village.

At the top of the village we found a really interesting, quaint cafe filled with vintage toys and pop-art memorabilia. The owner was a cool dude who welcomed us warmly and set about making us yet another coffee (iced this time!). Again we'd found a really cool place to hang out and we took our time before dragging ourselves away and thinking of our impending train journey.

Cool vintage pop-art cafe in Jaman Mural Village.

But soon it was time to leave. In our laziness, we decided to call a taxi rather than fuck around with the bus timetable, and it turned out to be a solid choice. The taxi driver was a really nice dude, and didn't even get pissy when our bags wouldn't all fit in the boot. We just piled in and he was very happy for us to nurse our cases (he even suggested it).

There's not much to say about the train journey itself. We sat, the train zoomed across the countryside, and in no time we were back in Seoul and on the subway back to Insadong and Hotel Sunbee. With eyes only for our soft, soft beds we decided to grab dinner at the same chicken and beer place we'd been to on our first night in Seoul (and Eben and I really wanted to sample their black draft beer!). Suffice to say, the beer was great (even with kids adding soju) and so was the chicken.

More chicken and beer because - why not?

Hunger sated, it was back to our rooms and bed. This time around we've got two rooms, a double and a twin, so everyone was much more comfortable. No more sleeping on the floor for the kids, and mattresses all round. Luxury!

South Korea: Day 11 - Jeonju, Kongnamul Gukbap & Makgeolli!

We woke late today with our backs screaming from the hard floor. Ive slept on a hundred futons during my time in Japan, and they have never been this uncomfortable. It took several minutes for my back muscles to forgive me.

With food on everyone's mind, we headed out for the quintessential Jeonju breakfast - Kongnamul Gukbap (bean sprout soup). Many sources had recommended Hyundaiok as one of the best places to get this dish in the village, and the line up outside attested to this reputation. We joined the line and a not insignificant time later we were inside and ordering. The soup was certainly worth the wait!

Kongnamul Gukbap at Hyundaiok.

With our hunger sated, we wandered the village a little more, checking out Gyeonggijeon Hall and more of the picturesque village streets. Given we hadn't caffeinated yet that morning, we stopped for a coffee at one of the thousand cafes in town.

More village wandering.

Having not eaten for 10 minutes, we stopped by at PnB bakery and picked up one of their famous Chokko Pies to snack on. Not half bad, although I would have preferred without the jam inside.

Chokko Pie from PnB.

Suitably energised with caffeine and sugary goodness, we climbed a nearby hill up to a popular spot to view the hanok village's tiled roofs. It wasn't a bad view, but it wasn't easy to get a good photo of. I tried my best.

The roofs of the hanok village.

Warn out by walking, we retired to our room for a quick rest before thinking about dinner around 5pm. We had long planned to make this night a makgeolli night; makgeolli being a type of rice wine brewed here in Korea and sold by the kettle at certain makgeolli "pubs". Excited by the prospect, we ordered a taxi out to the much lauded "Yetchon Makgeolli" in the oldest makgeolli area in the city - Jeonju's Samchundong district.

The taxi driver got us out there without issue, but the wiley cunt stopped outside a different makgeolli pub and tried to convince us it was Yetchon. In the days before the internet this just might have worked, but not this time. We waited for him to drive off and then walked back down the street to Yelchon - all of 5 or 6 establishments back.

Yetchon Makgeolli - an amazing night was had by all!

We ordered a first kettle of clear-style makgeolli with set menu for 3 people. The food just kept coming and was yummy. And so much variety! As for the makgeolli, it was also delicious - having a faint banana flavour not dissimilar to the taste produced by some german hefeweizen yeasts. Very dangerous stuff! The alcohol percentage isn't that high and it's slightly carbonated, so it goes down really, really easily. 

It wasn't long before we were ordering a new kettle and more food dishes were arriving. Eben and I got very silly by the end of the night, but we did manage to hop a taxi back to the village. What a top night! One of our most enjoyable in Korea so far.