Day 2 & 3 – Gwangju, South Korea
On Monday 2 July, when I last wrote, we were just about to get off the train at Gwangju Songjeong station. From there, we caught a 20 minute subway to an area called Daein Market. We had booked ourselves in to a traditional Guest House for the night called Shinsiwa Hanok. When we first arrived at the address, I had a mini heart attack, as the building that seemed to be standing in the place the address from booking.com told us the guest house should be looked more like an abandoned 3 story building. A local man saw us looking very perplexed and slightly worried and asked us in Korean, what we think was “Are you looking for Shinsiwa?”. We nodded and he showed us down a side alleyway to where the guest house stood.
After a quick call to the owner and a short wait for him to arrive, we were settled into the guest house. A quaint little building with a hallway out the front which had doors to three bedrooms, all with futons on the floor and not much else inside, a kitchen and an outdoor bathroom.
At about 3pm we were finally off to go exploring. First stop, Juknokwon Bamboo Forrest! To get there, we took a bus from the main road to Gwangju station where we picked up some Kimbap (a Korean style, vegetable sushi) and dumplings for lunch, and then another 40 minute bus to the Bamboo Forrest. Public transport in Korea is easy enough to use as all the signs are usually written in English as well as Korean.
The Bamboo Forrest was definitely worth a visit. It’s amazing how on a bright sunny day, a few feet into the Forrest the all the light is filtered out. With birds whizzing about through the trees and the wind making loose bamboo leaves fall over the track, it was a very meditative and calming experience. We also got to enjoy some local art work, traditional buildings and a cute little waterfall with Pandas around it. My favourite part of the entire experience though, was the bamboo leaf flavoured ice cream! Deeeeelicious!
That evening, after a refreshing shower, we made our way into downtown Gwangju where we found street after street lined with bright and colourful shops all playing K-pop. We stopped in at noodle house where we were shown how to order and pay for our meal through a large touch screen menu. Ben ordered Chicken Katsu with rice and iced buckwheat noodles and I had Beef Bulgogi Udon. So far, the food in Korea has been to die for and incredibly well priced. All of that for 12500 Korean Won, which is just over $15.
Day 3
The next morning I frightened Ben by rolling around on my thin Futon in severe agony with a fever and nausea for at least an hour. We both thought maybe I had picked up food poisoning, but luckily not. Just the worst menstrual pains I’ve ever had. We wandered out into the street in search for a pharmacy and after a few failed attempts finally found one that could help.
After taking something for the pain and a half hour nap it was 9:30am and I was alive and ready to explore again! I cannot express how grateful I felt.
Down the road we found a market which was fairly subdued but none the less interesting. There we found stalls selling pigs heads, a range of fish and even live octopus. I think maybe this place would be more alive at night as we seemed to be the only customers around.
Next, we went back to Downtown Gwangju in search of turmeric and raspberry leaf tea. After an hour of so of searching, we settled on finding some lunch instead and ate at a lovely place selling Pork ribs in a hot pot. Again, another divine meal.
After lunch, we picked up our bags, and both tired of the heat, we made our way to Gwangju airport to catch a 40 minute flight to Jeju.
Stay tuned (:
