Last Saturday, I found myself leaving for my first Korean jaunt with four lads from the Village who also felt they needed to escape the Bubble for a bit. We were up at the crack of dawn to catch the early bus to Seoul. Once in the city we had to cross it by subway to the Express Bus Terminal, and from there, we could catch an express bus to Jeonju, a town in the southwest of the country in a province called Jeollabuk-do. We bought tickets for the soonest available bus and were duly standing in the queue at the appropriate gate 10 minutes before time. It was quickly apparent, however, that the queue was not boarding, and more than that, a man had just walked past the queue and gotten on the bus. Uneasy mumblings began. Then the driver jumped down from the bus and started calling something out in Korean. He worked his way down the queue checking tickets until he reached mine, when he grabbed the ticket, started waving it about and packed out laughing, talking to onlookers in Korean until they were all finding it very funny too. It turned out the queue was for the next bus; our bus was ready to leave and had been only waiting for the last five passengers to board... Well, at least we boarded amid the pleasant sounds of laughter. The bus turned out to be a luxury one, with only three seats in each row, and each seat a wide, leather-covered, reclining heaven. The 3 hours to Jeonju sped by.
Once in Jeonju, we split into two taxis for the drive to the Hanok Maeul - Hanok Village - a small village in the heart of the town with immaculately preserved traditional Korean houses, and the biggest reason to visit Jeonju. I'm not sure why, but I sat in the front of the taxi, with Shawn, who speaks some Korean, in the back. Our driver for some reason got quite animated and interspersed his mumblings and (I guess) speeches (entirely in Korean) with sudden whacks on my thigh, presumably to stress his point... The moment I saw the grey sign of the Tourist Information booth in the village I shouted "Yogiyo! Here!" and out we jumped. There was still a bit of a walk to where the others were meeting us, but it was a lovely walk through the centre of the maeul. The hanok village here is the best preserved in Korea, and other cities are only now starting to imitate them in their policy of preserve or restore. There were a number of new hanoks being built too, all with traditional methods and materials. It's a shame most of these beautiful homes were destroyed in Korea's manic rush for American-style modern prosperity. Once our group was together again, we decided the most important thing was lunch, and so we found a little restaurant, tucked our legs under the table and ordered Jeonju Bibimbap. Bibimbap is a popular food all over Korea, but Jeonju is famous for its specialisation. Normally a pile of vegetables on a bed of rice with red pepper sauce and an egg cracked over the top, in Jeonju they take pride in adding extra unique ingredients, such as pine kernels or bluebell roots :) It was delicious! We were also served about 15 extra side dishes, one of which I loved - a small, long, thin fish, curried. It was quite a job pulling the meat off the thousand spindly bones with chopsticks, I tell you.
We also went to a traditional tearoom - Jeonju is famous for teas as well as bibimbap. Our first tearoom was a pea-sized establishment squished in between a leather workshop and a ginseng shop, and when I say squished, I mean for you to have a picture in your mind of a room wide enough for a 2-person square table, and long enough for just four such tables. It had a name bigger than the premises - "Moonbirds think only of the Moon" - a rather lovely name! Squeezing our way in past a group of 4 Koreans we were greeted enthusiastically by the hostess who showed us to the back table, putting out an extra chair for me which effectively blocked the way to the kitchen entirely. We sat with our bags stuffed under chairs and had a look at the menu - beautifully written on a piece of wood. In Korean. Shawn - he of the little-bit-o'-Korean - managed to find each of us something we thought we might like and ordered. The tea came in gorgeous local ceramic mugs, green-glazed, with tiny leaves in place of handles - a good idea, considering the thinness of Jeonju ceramics, to wait for the tea to cool down a little. When I finally got to drink mine, it was delicious - a "5 tastes" tea - Shawn had the same, and we managed between us to identify sweet, sour and bitter. Later we found a shop crammed full of Jeonju ceramics, beautiful, unique, imaginative ceramics - long bowls and little pots, fruit baskets, oil lamps, and tea sets - and the tea sets came in different types too: standard teapots, teapots with panhandles on the side, teapots big enough for an espresso and no more, teapots with animals crawling up the sides. 
With my teeth gritted, I was just able to resist the temptation, and restricted myself to one small birthday present for my Robyn - now, if I can just avoid sending it to her until October....
The next day, after a restful night on the floor, in traditional Korean style (much like a futon), we went for a walk up a little hill on the edge of the village to Omokdae, Provincial Monument No. 16 (yes, Korea numbers its "tangible cultural assets" - as well as some intangible (usually human) ones). Removing our shoes on the steps, we climbed up to the shrine, raised to the memory of a 14th century king who slept there after defeating Japanese invaders. It was decorated in the reds, greens and blues of other temples and shrines I've seen here, with dragons stretching between the walls and the eaves, and writing (not Korean - Japanese I assume, from the timescale) up pillars. With our little feet shivering on the wooden floors, we could look out over the whole town - quite a view, with the ubiquitous high rise apartment buildings in the distance and a medieval village at our feet!
Our final act of the morning, on our way to the bus station, was to stop at a street stall to buy a bagful of these yummy breads:
A naan-like bread, filled with a sweet syrup, lovely and warm, and the perfect thing to fill up a cold belly in Korea! :)
I must apologise for how long this took me to write, but on the return bus to Seoul, I took my camera out of my bag and put it on my seat next to me. Most of you will know what happens next. Yep, I left it there, only realising when we were on the bus to Paju... I mentioned it to a Korean co-teacher who immediately pulled out her phone and called the bus company, and this is where my voice starts to squeak in South African disbelief: it had been handed in! I went this morning to Seoul to collect it :) Hooray for the honest Koreans!
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