August 19 - First visit to Jeonju

Today would be a ride to Jeonju, as recommended by Lyndon and this would be a decision that would change the agenda of future days to come. Fixed up my bike and took a picture with the kind rangers who helped me before leaving.

Jeonju was a decent distance away, about 70 km though by now this was a comfortable distance for me. Moreover I started the journey early and the road was good. I reached Jeonju around 4 pm and this is where things got exciting.

Before

Firstly I visited a pizza parlor for a quick bite and asked the shop lady on the location of the nearest motel. Though she could not understand english, she was actually kind enough to call her daughter who spoke really good english. On consulting her daughter ( who acted as an interpreter), she guided me to the nearby motel ( which was like 2 mins away) on her scooter and helped me check in. I was to meet Sally ( her daughter) back at the shop in about an hour's time with my laundry and we were to head to a laundry shop nearby. Spent my time at the motel taking a quick shower and then figuring out how to dry all my wet stuff. Having reached a desperate need for this, I started off by pitching my tent in the room and leaving it underneath the fan and aircon. After some reshuffling of the room of course :)

After

I tried to leave the fan and air-con on, as I left the room but was somehow detected and the owner came up lol. ( Think he was watching me through the cam)

Either way I made my way back to the pizza parlor and met Sally, a Korean lady married to an American. We shared many similar views on life and it was interesting chatting with her.

Found a laundry-mart near Sally's village ( as she put it), though the village turned out to be a series of new apartments, and we went for a coffee while the laundry was done. After an hour or so, we collected the laundry ( Felt really good to hold clean clothes) and Sally drove me to an authentic bimbimbop restaurant.

Looking forward to tucking in  

On enquiring with Sally, I found out that most places in Korea do not offer laundry services though shops that do washing and ironing for suits can be found. Moreover these shops air dry their clothes so it's not possible to expect clothes back overnight. The reason for this was due to the fact that almost every korean house has a washing machine. Even at motels, it was very difficult to find laundry services and I had to make do with washing the laundry when I showered. ( Most motels provide plastic basins for this)

This tasted delicious !

Jeonju is where bimbimbop or mixed rice originated and I had the opportunity to visit an authentic shop thanks to Sally. Sally mentioned that the shop we were at was not very well known except to the locals and looking at the food that arrived I could see the difference.

I really like the food culture in Korea especially since they keep topping up the side dishes whenever they finish. The bimbimbop here was very different due to the variety of ingredients in the dish as opposed to other places. It tasted really good and fresh.

After a really good meal and with plans to meet for breakfast the next day, Sally dropped me back at the motel.

Another awesome day :)