Friday, June 26, 2009

Iksan

Lodging: No
Tourist Office: No
Of Interest: peach jam

Iksan is the point where the Jeolla and Janghang lines meet the Honam Line. The most interesting thing near the Iksan train station is the covered market. I went in the early evening when it radiated the color of sunset.

But what I remember most is peach jam. I have been looking for peach jam everywhere. I used to be able to find all kinds of good jam in the basement of the Galleria department store in Daejeon, but not anymore. The grocery stores have strawberry and grape which I don't like. The snooty bakery downtown has things like mangopassionfruit (alloneword). In Busan I found fig. (Note: the peach jam was gone the last time I was there.)

Iksan is about an hour and forty-five minutes from Yongsan (Seoul) and fifty minutes from Seo-Daejeon by KTX. Those times are three hours + for other trains to Yongsan and an hour+ for Daejeon. Going the other way, it takes an hour to go to Gwangju and an hour and a half to go to Mokpo by KTX. By Saemaeul or Mugungwha, it takes 75-90 minutes to Gwanju with a trip to Mokpo taking about two hours. There is also a line to Yeosu that is Saemaeul/Mugungwha only that takes two hours to get to Suncheon and two and a half to arrive in Yeosu.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful adventure!! Why don't they carry Peach Jam?
Gerardine Baugh

Helen Bushnell said...

I don't know. They grow wonderful fruit, including peaches, in Korea. I would always eat a piece everyday, and I only ate yogurt made with local fruit. Almost all jams are strawberry or grape, however. And I like variety.