Jeonju-The city of "love"

We fancied another weekend away (one a month just isn't enough) and decided on the town of Jeonju, which was nearly our home at one point. It's only a one and a half hour coach trip from Gwangju (which is merciful, considering my recent tendency for nausea and vomiting!). We'd read about an intriguing motel in the lonely planet with big jacuzzis, so we decided to try and stay in our first Korean "Love Motel", the Mint Motel. We found it pretty easily. It looked fairly harmless from the outside, although not exactly classy. More like something you would find in the cheap bit of Las Vegas, with it's pink paint and palm tree pictures, but we ventured inside nevertheless. The lobby was extremely dark, it had UV lighting and a reception desk with a little opening which I called through. A woman stuck her head round and motioned a sleep sign with her head and hands, to which I nodded. This was quite a relief as we had been wondering how we would explain that we wanted the room for a full night and not just for the hour. Key in hand, we took the lift to the 3rd floor. Our first surprise came when we noticed the book shelf of pornographic videos (and Robocop) available for customers to take into their rooms. A little further on, we found a vending machine full of sex toys. Clearly a place designed for true "love". Our room was actually pretty amazing and didn't feel too seedy once we got past the condom vending machine in the corner, the blue light above the bed, the huge portrait window from the bedroom into the bathroom (complete with naked woman glazing) and the enormous flat-screen TV, which seemed only to show four channels with a choice of porn, cooking, home shopping, or more porn. As promised in the lonely planet it was very clean and there was a huge jacuzzi in the bathroom, so we were happy.

Hotel sorted, we went to explore Jeonju and managed to get a little bit lost in the process. First impressions were not wonderful as we were wandering through the outskirts and the streets were definitely somewhat more pungent than in Gwangju. We passed a couple of huge and gaudy wedding halls on the way, and stopped to watch as some of the couples came out in their hanbok (traditional Korean dress). When we eventually found the downtown area, it was nice, although very similar to Gwangju, except for the bizarre light canopy running above the main shopping street. We passed through, following signs to the hanok (traditional Korean building) village. The hanok village was beautiful, made up of genuinely old buildings and beautifully built imitations. In the centre there was an area where some of the buildings were shown as a museum, but for streets and streets around, there were others in use as shops (some with lovely craft gifts), restaurants and tea shops. In amongst these buildings was a beautiful, red brick, Catholic church, which was built by Italian missionaries on a spot where Korean catholics were executed. 

One of the greatest discoveries of the weekend was down a little side street in the hanok village, where we found a small restaurant selling curry. There was no menu and just two options; hot curry, or mild curry. We decided it was best to go for the mild in a country where they have kimchi for breakfast. It was a wonderfully  quirky little place, the food was delicious and we even got handmade banana lassi for pudding. All for about £2.50. Lovely. After dinner we found a funny little bar where we had a beer before heading back to our love motel.

The next morning we left the hotel (without ever having seen another guest) and did a bit more exploring in Jeonju, a little bit of Christmas shopping, eating a semi Italian lunch (we realised last night that we have only eaten one meal out since getting here, that wasn't served with kimchi. Sometimes I really enjoy it) before heading back to Gwangju. 

Almost forgot. We witnessed what we assume is another korean tradition this weekend. We saw two separate wedding cars, where the bride was sitting in the open boot, leading the groom along with ribbon behind the car. Very funny