Wow Korea 2nd Trip [Day 3]

So the next morning, we all woke up, washed up and got ready to leave. We were all hungry and sleepy, having woken up so early. Got up and went out extra earl to be able to walk around and take photos since it was really late the night before and it was too dark to take photos. The place looked amazing, surrounded by flowers and all. It looked so serene and quiet. It was a pretty great place to have stayed at, except that wifi was not really available at every room.

Walked around to take some photos of the place and the surroundings. Not to mention everyone was walking around and camwhoring all over the place. The morning was beautiful, the sun was warm, the air was fresh and we all got ready to head on to our next location for breakfast.

One thing that I will never be able to comprehend is having rice for breakfast. Isn't it such a heavy meal for the start of the day? Take a look at Koreans, not many of them are fat either. It's probably because they eat a lot of vegetables and walk as well I guess. The breakfast was delicious. We had a beef rice soup, hangover soup and spicy beef soup at Rose Garden. 

The address is as follows:

59-2 Yongchi-ri, Yong-myeon Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do

Tel: 061-381-2006

Next up, we headed on to the Seomjingang Train Village nearby where we had another rail bike experience. As compared to the railbike here, this one did not have an automatic button, which meant we had to pedal all the way. Thank God for 4-man bikes because it was simply just tiring pedaling all the way to the end. I remember halfway through we were like.... oh my gosh this is so tough, where's the end? It was a great experience though, because we were pedaling through nature on an abandoned railroad track. (Funny how Korea has so many abandoned train tracks though -_-)

Finally!! Destination!!

We started our rail biking at 9am, and arrived at the destination around 9:45? Which meant we had 45 minutes of hard-core fat burning on our legs. Well not really, because it was 4 people and I slacked off a lot hahaha. Anyway, we had time to take photos, walk around and look around because we were to take the steam locomotive (train) back to where we started scheduled at 10:25am. Which called for... camwhoring!!!

The managers bought us ice-cream and we hurried to gobble them up, all sweaty and sticky from all that pedaling under the sweltering morning heat. Then we got on the train, and began to wait for it to move. Everyone was pretty chatty during the trip, but after 10 minutes or so... it got really quiet and as I looked up from my camera (was looking through my photos) I saw many asleep, or nodding off. It was pretty serene, riding in a train that was so quiet, watching the trees and the rivers pass you by from the windows outside.

One of the photos our manager took and edited -_-

We got off at our destination and took some group photos before we started moving off again. This time, we had to walk back to our main location, which was where we stayed at the night before! In fact, since it was night time and everyone was tired, nobody decided to explore around. Next to our seemingly-abandoned-neighborhood train village rail pension was this beautiful rose garden...

We spent some time walking around the garden, taking photos, group photos, selcas and all and we rested in the shade till it was finally time for us to set off for lunch. The garden was simply beautiful. The flowers were all blooming in all its full glory and the colors were eye-catching. I could stay there for hours just breathing in the scents if it wasn't so damn hot. 

The girl who wore her pajamas out or

"Sleeping beauty"

We headed from Gokseong towards Jeonju (1 hour ride) to Jeonju where we would have lunch and thereafter a tour of the famous Jeonju Hanok Village before we had to head back to Seoul :( Though it was tiring, I really enjoyed being out of the campus for a while because it meant meeting friends, having fun and enjoying myself rather than being alone in a ghost campus where everyone who lived there probably took summer classes. 

Anyway, gathered at this restaurant called the Bajjak where we had grilled short rib patties made of duck instead of the usual pork. (오리떡갈비). It was simply delicious and it had a different flavor and texture from the usual pork ones that people eat. Put it together with some grilled garlic and you've got yourself a mama-mia food bomb in the mouth. 

  

Just look at it...

After lunch, we headed back on the bus for a quick ride toward the Hanok Village. Anyway, a little information about this place. The Jeonju Hanok Village is really well known for having good food, beautiful surroundings (especially for a date) and a beautiful church at the end of the street. You can also rent hanboks for a flat fee of 5,000~8,000 (depending on type) for 2 hours and walk around the place taking photos. It's pretty interesting because you will never find a place in Singapore where people would be like, "Hey let's go dress up for the day and walk around taking photos".

We had a couple of missions here we have to do, such as create a video with the food that we hadbought to try, to introduce to them, and to create a "foodporn" post. The place was swarming with people, and surprisingly, locals. We had a group member who had alread been here so she knew what was good and what to buy first. We went and queued for their famous 'chocopie' first. It was pretty delicious and was huge, compared to the ones that you can find in supermarkets.

The queues for all the food stalls were long and we had to wait really long. We deployed 1 person to queue for the meat while the rest of us went to buy chocolate churros! To be frank, the food was pretty okay, but the fact that all the food was placed together in one area made it easy for us to try different food together. Though the queue was long and the weather was hot, nothing made time fly faster than having people along with you. 

Got another photo of another random couple

After finishing the video and the food, we continued walking to snap shots, and to reach the end because Vanessa wanted to see the church (apparently it's one of her dreams). The place was really beautiful. Lovely flowers everywhere, hustling and bustling Koreans walking around, couples hand in hand, people in hanboks posing for photographs everywhere. It was a really simple yet heartwarming sight.

Hahaha

Everytime is selca time

This really cute ajumma was doing some guiding for traffic

Another random couple shot!

Since we had time on our hands, and some extra money, the 2 girls decided to get hanboks for the last 30 minutes we had remaining before we had to go back to the bus for a little photoshoot. So we quickly went back to the shop and got hanboks. Thereafter we walked towards the back where there were all the old traditional Korean houses (hanok) to take photos. The places were renovated and are now used as guesthouses and staycations for people who wished to visit Jeonju. 

Ended off the day by taking a short rest before heading back to the bus where we had a 3 hour bus journey back to COEX. Arrived in Seoul close to 7:30pm, helped them move some stuff back into the office and then took a longgggg train ride back to Sinchon where I took another bus all the way back to Songdo. And that.. concluded my really long 4 day weekend, from PyeongChang to Gwangju to Jeonju and finally home. What a great week!

Till next time~