Kensington Stars Hotel

It's unusual for me to stay so close to a national park. The isolation is limiting for meal options as I'm an hour's bus ride from town.

The Kensington Stars hotel is not the place to stay if you hate The Beatles. In fact, there is a total indulgence in English memorabilia that starts with the 2 double-decker buses that are placed (?) just outside the hotel. The faded Old World charm extends throughout the hotel. Room photos are attached.

Once I've checked in I go to the bar restaurant on the top (9th) floor. It takes some doing to obtain a glass of house red wine, the barman is intent on selling me wine by the bottle. Most of these are over 100 AUD, probably wasted on me.

I take my wine and sit outside to enjoy the late afternoon ... for a while. It cools down as evening approaches so I move back inside. Two glasses and it's time for dinner. Unfortunately this restaurant only provides pasta and pizza so it's off limits to me. I head down to the main restaurant on the 2nd floor.

This restaurant provides both Western and Korean dishes. I bite the bullet and opt for the snow crab bibimbap. This is a regional speciality of Jeonju but I chickened out then (and it was Chuseok as well). See photo of the bibimbap, the idea is to use the chopsticks to mix up the egg with the rest of the dish.

The banchan (side dishes) are the usual kimchi plus soup that contains snow crab as well. The soup is my favourite, the bibimbap ... less so. As it's a quiet night in the restaurant I'm not concerned about my usual chopsticks atrocities ...Read more