South Korea-Redux

Total days in Korea: 21

Total distance cycled: 860 km

Sitting in a laundromat waiting area, wearing the last of our clean clothes after sweating through every other stitch of garment in only 3 days of heat and humidity in the Japanese summer, we reconsider our South Korea experience. Being the origin of our jourrney may be both a blessing and a curse for this small peninsula of land, which may as well be an island for all practical purposes.  With Nortth Korea preventing any overland movement of its people South Korea gives one the feeling of a place that must grow both economically and structurally.  The ever present development and rapid pace of life gives the impression that there is no other way to keep its relivence in a rapidly expanding Asian continent and in order to differentiate itself from the military dictatorship that shares a language and land mass but it has been divided from since the creation of the DMZ 60 years ago. Following is a shirt list of pros and cons that we experienced while on our tour of this land that we both agree is worth a second glance.

Some of the the things that we most enjoyed about our time in South Korea are as follows:

-ubiquitous Wifi capabilities on almost every street corner in even the smallest of towns

-clean public parks with fresh water, power and toilets (a must when bike touring)

-Kimchi and the lovely rice, noodle, and of course Korean BBQ

-high population density creates a vibrant atmosphere while leaving plenty of green space to enjoy

-old style street markets/food stalls for quick, cheap eats with an atmosphere that makes one feel like they stepped back half a century

-the friendly locals

-devoted cycling paths criss-crossing the land with more being built as we speak

-loads of friendly cyclists and 'guest houses' scattered liberally around to accomadate when you need a break from camping

 Hello!  Chiara here.  Here are a few things to know when you are cycling in South Korea in a list, as I really like lists.

 1- There is a really good system to find bike routes in South Korea called Naver.  This link helps one find Naver and also explains quite a bit more about cycle touring in South Korea.  https://travellinghajo.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/across-korea-on-a-bicycle-a-howto-for-the-foreigner-riding-seoul-busan-and-coming-back-in-one-piece/

2- Apple maps works very well in South Korea and google maps does not. Really. Even if it looks like is working. Don't trust it. We learned this the hard way.

3- The routes that are specific to cycling such as the Four Rivers trails are very well mapped and maintained.  Any trail by a waterway is very nice generally and will have a place where you can set up your tent, go to the bathroom, and find some water.  If you get off the trail many of the main roads are not super-fit for cycling and can be pretty painful and potentially dangerous to ride in terms of traffic, conditions, etc.  There also seems to be a lit of construction happening on South Korea and those areas are specifically troubling for cyclists.

4- Keep an eye out for drivers in South Korea.  They are generally very courteous on the roads that you share with them but they love to blow through red lights.  Every time.  Seriously.  

Busan to Geoji Island

We stayed in Busan for a 3 days.  Nice, relaxing days; days that we didn't feel compelled to do too much, which is becoming a bit of a theme any time that we aren't cycling.  We hung out on the beach, visited the Korean War Memorial (a must see monument dedicated to all the nations that aided South Korea; a place of serenity and simplicity),  ate delicious food, cooked some more delicious food, rode the subway a fair amount, and planned our ferry escape to Japan in a few days.

  We still had a couple days till some packages were to arrive so we found a Warmshowers host and decided to visit Geoji Island.  After waiting out a horrendously windy, stormy morning, we set out to ride out of Busan in the afternoon.

Busan is a cool place.  If Seoul is a slick, well-mannered college grad of a city, Busan feels like the wild, slightly unpredictable cousin whom might make out with your boyfriend on the sly.  Busan is also in steep hilly territory in the south of the country and the Koreans that live there have managed to cram skyscrapers into any available space no matter how precarious the slope may appear.  Busan is also about 1 mile wide and 20 miles long. Or so it seems as one is trying to ride through the city.  Start. Stop. Huge uphill. Fast downhill.  Avoiding pedestrians, busses, traffic and noise that seems to never end. We rode through a ton of industrial areas, replete with that nice diesel-coated mouth feel that can only get from being out on the road with endless huge trucks.  After hours of this, we were rewarded with a beautiful little campground on a random greeen island right outside of the city. 6 hours to get half way across a city...not exactly a bikers paradise but GREEN?!  Yes, please.

Our second day of riding was not exactly picturesque either, a lot of highway riding, in and out of towns, and we camped on a little sidewalk area  by a soccer field. We're not sure if the grounds keeper who tapped on our tent while we were alseep was really OK with us staying there for the night or eventually decided that the language barrier was insurmountable and just gave up on trying to ask us to leave.  Whichever it was, we both slept super well after the longest day of riding we have had thus far.

 

The third and final day of riding was beautiful by comparison, we hit a little-used road that lined the ocean for much of the actualy trip to Geoji Island.  Though there was a lot of elevation gains and losses, we felt like we could really gather some inertia on this stretch, and we started pretty early in the morning trying ot outrun the stifling late afternoon heat.  It felt good to feel like we are starting to get our "legs" back,  where all the climbing starts to hurt less and every looming uphill feels less like a puch to the gut.  Unfortulately our entrance to Geoji Island was more highway riding with a fairly limited shoulder but we were so excited about a place to stay and a few relaxing days.  Our host, Reily, even came out to meet us on the highway to lead us back to the apatment!

   

Geoji Island and more specifically, Okpo, the micro-city that we stayed in are lovely.  The island is best known for the massive ship-building yards (33% of the island's population works in this industry) and the second highest cost of living in Korea next to the Gangnam district of Seoul (think Williston, ND but beautiful and worth visiting). Geoji also boasts the most multi-cultural population that we have seen thus far in Korea due to the large industrial complexes.  It is weird after all this time spent cycling through a nation and at the end when you least expect it you find all the Westerners.  It is, however a beautiful and really relaxing place, withn wonderful beaches, cool history, and a whole lot of western-style bars and eateries.  I dont know, I never thought of Michael Jackson as a ribs sort of guy (look it up...there is an actually eatery)!

  

Busan at last...

Well everyone, Chiara and I made it to our final destination in Korea...or so we thought.  Turns out we are going to spend a few more days in the south of this very hospitable peninsula. We are heading to Geoje Island as a couple that are teaching there have offered up a free place to stay. You know, for a little rest and relaxation. We kid.  More about that later, for now we will tell you about our adventures since we last wrote.  GYeongju was wonderful and serene and a great place to recharge our energy.  Our hosts at the guest house were gracious and we enjoyed wonderful traditional Korean bar-b-que with our new friends on our last night in town.  We were able to stay inthis  place the first night it was open, and we found out that the gentleman we were staying with built the guesthouse himself.  Nicely done, sir.

     

Leaving for the next destination found us climbing into yet another rain storm that soaked us to our cores but didn't stop us from a small (or so we thought at the outset) hike to see an ancient stone Buddha UNESCO heritage site.  

This serene forest hike, though well worth the time, put us a bit behind schedule and we arrived in our next town near dark, cold, wet and without a place to stay (our warmshowers host failed to give us all the info needed to find her).   This was no ordinary town....it was one of the Sister Cities to our own beloved home of Portland, OR...Ulsan! What we found was a young party ready place with a vibrant night life and a distinct lack of WiFi connections (something that seemed ubiquitous to that point). 

 We once again ran into an overly enthusiastic young Korean willing to help us fiind a place to lay our tired, soaked bodies for the night...and that is how we came to experience our first Love Motel.  Oh, the Korean love motel.  We had seen these behemoths all over the country, some amazingly gaudy, using more than their fair share of neon, some looking like any standard Korean motel, and some looking really sketchy and barren. We had walked into a few love motels in other places only to be rushed out (when Chiara walked in by herself, no single ladies allowed apparently) or we decided that it wasn't the right place for the evening.  We were almost ready to give up and look for a camping spot when we saw the Cosmos Motel.  Unfortunately the pictures do not do it justice, the motel's exterior had neon lights that changed colors, the windows were covered over throughout the whole building, allowing for more privacy but... the room was huge and comfortable, and it had ALL the amenities including soap, lotion, toothbrushes, razors, a desktop computer, a big screen TV and tons of space to put out all our wet clothing.  Score.

      

And though we still haven't figured out the significance of the steaming bowl of soup symbol on the signs we both agree that after our stay we will not hesitate to frequent one of these slightly odd but none-the-less value accommodations again.

Gear Note:  WOOL, WOOL, WOOL, and a poncho!  The best thing that you can do for yourself if you are biike touring through humid, rainy country is throw away all yourr fancy poly-synthetic riding gear and get yourself some merino wool shirts, underwear, and socks.  They keep you warm when you are wet...which you WILL be...they dry quickly and most importantly....they DO NOT stink!  and then get rid of the high tech rain gear and find a nice poncho...which are everywhere in South Korea...it covers your whole body, breaths well, and can be used as a cover for your bike or soemthing to sit on when needed.

We expected a nice scenic ride into Busan along the coast when we left the next morning but instead we found oursealves mired in heavy traffic and surrounded by oil refineries and air choked with diesel. 

  Though never feeling completely unsafe we found this section of coast less than appealing to the senses....until we found THIS...

GO DUCKS!

We discussed ourr journey through what at times resembled the set of a Mad Max movie and both agreed that we wouldn't appreciate all the wonderful places and people as much if we didn't also see that there are costs to living in the societies that we inhabit.  Life as we know does not come free and without costs...costs to us, costs to our land, air, and water, and costs that many of us either choose to be ignorant of, or sometimes of which we ARE truly ignorant.  To "go around" these places and not see them would ultimately lessen our experience of what we came to these places to discover...the everyday lives of people.  We all take from this world but what do we give?  Well in our time so far what Korea has given is an openness and willingness to come and meet us. though it can be difficult for us and Koreans to have a conversation, they truly show an interest in trying to communicate and share in our journey through their land.

We camped that night in another local town park, only this time it was a lovely little beach town.  We met some local "characters" and even were invited to have a drink and share some more Korean BBQ with some local teachers.  The night's sleep left something to be desired due to heat, wetness, and a few local park goers using the nearby bench as a drunken late night therapy couch...but as the interlopers our only recourse is to lie in our tent, hope they resolvetheir problems quickly, and in the interim wish we understood Korean because I bet they were saying some hilarious stuff. 

Finally arriving in the beautiful, hilly, quirky city of Busan was a relief.  All our gear was soaking wet having packed it in the early morning dew and we were ready for some sun and sand.  The ride through the hills was amazing and the little seaside towns leading to Busan were wonderful.   One small place made me change my mind about believing Portland was the coffee capital of the world...this small beach side surfing town had no fewer than 10 coffee roasters right on the main street!  And the one we tried was amazing coffee, as I am sure were all the others.

Side note: Chiara and I have been surprised with the amount and variety of coffee and coffee shops present in all places, big and small, of Korea.  We were expecting coffee to be more of a treat than the norm but it has turned out that finding a good cup of tea is much more difficult than is a decent cup of joe.  I, but not Chiara, was actually looking forward to the opportunity to try various exotic teas but as of yet have not been afforded the opportunity, though I am sure that will change slightly as we make our way to Japan and Taiwan.

Busan is a beautiful and fun town full of young, selfie-crazy teens, families with doting Korean dads, and just a smattering of the slightly mentally unstable talking to themselves (and us) endlessly.  Ringed by large hills it is spread far along the southern coast and would take many days to explore fully.  We are very content with the time we are spending, though limited, as the riding in and out off these places allows us to see so much more than a traditional traveller might and therefore we don't feel guilty lying in our air conditioned, 11th story apartment we rented with the ocean view, while all our clothes are washed and our gear dries.  We kinda earned this one...

   

Riding Seoul through Suhi-Ro

After three very enjoyable days in Seoul, it was time to leave.  We knew the weather forcast was looking pretty grim (100% rain all day), but we decided that we needed to leave early in the morning and try to ride as far as we could even though it would be raining and windy throughout the day.  We actually routed ourselves nicely from our guesthouse through the city and to the Han River. It was so easy!  After our initial ride into Seoul, I wasn't sure that we would be able to actually find our way out, but we did.  Riding through Seoul next to the canal was a lovely experience, it was a Sunday, the streets were very quiet, and it was a nice way to say goodbye to a city by which we were really impressed.

So now we know what they mean by "the rainy season"...to say that it was wet would be an understatement.  It poured all day, and we rode into a headwind most of the day to boot.  The city buildings and atmosphere melted away as we made our way into smaller towns and villages and open outdoor space. Bruce and I had picked up ponchos the evening before and we were so glad that we had, as even with the ponchos we were faiirrly well soaked to the core.

       

We made it about 45 hard-fought miles before we decided that it was getting late, we were starving, and we needed to camp.  At the beginning of the day we had seen so many lovely campgrounds we just assumed that we would come across one soon after we decided that it was time to set up camp.  Ummm... not so much.  We stopped at a small grocery store to pick up provisions, and backtracked to the last place that we had seen with a slightly dry spot for a tent, a bathroom, and a water source.  It was a bizzare place, some type of childrens museum out on the trail with no car access or parking to speak of.  We cooked our ramen under an art piece and staked our tent in the dry area below an underpass.  

    

Between the noise from the cars passing overhead, the trains next to us, and the wind and the rain it was definitely not a night of good sleep.

The next morning the rain had let up a little, so we cooked what we though was going to be breakfast cereal (it ended up tasting a bit like under-cooked cardboard with some chocolate milk mix thrown in, as Bruce had raided the free box at the hostel and taken lots of packets of different one-off things) and ate it with the instant coffee (the staple breakfast drink...to our surprise, not tea).  As we set out we found...wait for it.... a bunch of picturesque campgrounds just miles from where we camped. As it goes...

An aside here.  There are some frustrating things we are finding about touring in  probably any country in which one does not know the language.  1) It makes map reading very difficult.  2) Sometimes you aren't quite sure what you are eating.  3) You often don't know when food will come along, and where you are going to be able to find a place to stay. 

It takes a lot longer to do thngs than in the states, or even in a place where at least letters and words are recognizable. We have been practicing our two words of Korean now to comfort (hello and thank you, and those two took awhile) and I am excited to learn more.  I am trying to really pay attention to the character system so I can recognize some things.  I have guesthouse and bke down, for example.  Anyway, so far it has been fun learning and exploring, but can certainly be a challenge when you are looking for food and lodging.  Aside over.

The next day of riding ended up being a bit more of the same, through really pretty scenery but once agan in showering rain and headwind. We ran across an Aussie guy named Wayne on the route and had our first conversation that didin't need hand gestures and translation.  It was oddly comforting. We found a campground on a little island that was amazing, no one was there, we grabbed a little pagoda and threw our tent up next to it, we even had our own bathrooms. We hadn't ridden far, a little under 40 miles (but a lot foor the conditions) and I really pushed for us to stay as the uncertainty and the previous night made the decision rather easy.  We also needed to spend a little time working on Bruce's bike, it must've gotten thrown around pretty brutally at the airport as his derailleur hanger was bent, as was his rack.  

Day three- What an amazing day! We woke up at our lovely campground with no rain!  Our clothes had pretty much dried up since we had washed and set them out the evening before.  We choked down a weird noodle-concoction from the night before's leftovers and more nstant coffee and set out in the sun.

What a beautiful ride!  We passed through so much farmland, we saw peppers, rice, eggplant, peaches, apples and so much more.  South Korea is fascinating, as according to the Lonely Planet the population density is super-high but as 90% of people live in high-rises there is a ton of open green space, and it is so very green right now being the middle of the rainy season.  

  

Everyone has been so very friendly.  We have seen a lot of cyclists on the path, lots of "hi's" and waves, bells dinging, smiles and bows.  A fellow traveller named Kim bought us some fresh cold water at one of the many stops along the way, and when we went into Cheongju we stopped at a small bike shop.  The owner was beyond helpful and refused to charge us for a quick tune-up.  We recommend looking him up if you ever need in this area and need any bike help...

    

After a few more hours of picturesque riding, when we started looking for a place to staythe night....preferrably with a shower.  After one false start at an idyllic and exorbenantly priced "glamping" site we met Jack who took us to his brand new guesthouse, "Coco's", named for their shaggy black dog in the front yard.  He and his wife Jay filled us full of delicious traditional Korean food and we even got our first taste of Korean wine "Makgeolli" (it taste a little like bubbly sake, and it is often mixed with ginger ale...really nice treat.) 

Side notes:  I think we need to adopt the Korean way of keeping our bodies covered, as we've already got lots of sun and sunscreen is expensive here (or has skin whiteners).  Seriously, it's amazing how dedicated they are to staving off sun damage.  Many cyclist are in spandex head-to-toe, even masks that cover almost their entire faces.  They look like cycling ninjas.  

 So far I cannot recommend this trail enough despite a few blog posts we have read.  It is certainly not the most adventurous, but it is amazing to have a dedicated, well-marked bike-and-walk only trail through the whole country.  And South Korea is only adding to this trail system.  As we write they are creating new paths along the coastlines and all over the country. It feels like the govornment is willing to put it's collective money where it's mouth is in terms of the health of it's citizens.  There are little free excercise equipment areas everywhere along this path. Here's me looking super uncoordinated having a stretch.  And unlike what you might think, they are used a lot by the locals.

Until next time...talk again down the road.

Day 1,2,3- Seoul

We made it!  We had a 14 hour flight made a little more difficult by the United Airlines system outage (none of their systems worked for a few hours, the airport was packed with folks waiting to get on their flights, to United's credit they did a great job of getting folks organized and on their Uway when the system rebooted).  After a fairly sleepless overnight flight in which we caught up on the movies that we never needed to see in the first place (we are talking to you Longest Ride) we were in Korea!

!Bruce putting his bike together in the Seoul airport.

It felt amazing to stretch our legs, and already I am super impressed by the bike trail system in and around Seoul and the sheer number of people cycling here.  We got a little lost, and when we went to consult the map....uh, we accidentally grabbed the Korean language version.  Shoot.  Eventually our 13 mile bike ride turned into a 30 mile bike epic as we attempted to navigate through directions given to us by all the gracious but Korean speaking folks we stopped.  

Fields ringed by skyscrapers on the bike path.

And eventually, as it was getting past the time to check into our guesthouse, we found a subway stop, hauled our bikes and bags on the train, and got to the guest house at midnight.

Ahhhh, air conditioning! Our guesthouse, The Kimchee guesthouse (www.kimcheeguesthouse.com) in the Dongdaemun district feels a bit like paradise right now, air-conditioning, a nice firm bed, lots of food nearby, and our own bathroom.  So much so that we are staying an extra night to get ourselves sorted out for cycling on Sunday the 12th.

Yesterday, after a well-slept night for Bruce and a partially sleepless night for me (as per normal) we set out early for some food and a little sightseeing.  We happened into this cart and with a little help from a lovely passer-by we ordered some  delicious noodles.  Mmmm. After filling our bellies we wandered to visit my first Unesco world heritage site the Gyeongbogunk Palace. 

   

It was absolutely amazing. the architecture, hand-crafted wood pieces and paintings were stunning.  After wandering for awhile there, we walked through the Bukchon Hanok village (full of traditional houses) ended up touring through one of the houses where a historic, important Korean painter lived. Hot, a bit tired and hungry we made our way to the Namdaemun Market for some bimbibap, a traditional Korean dish of noodles, sauce, and egg served cold.  I'm getting a kick out of how every lady at a food stall gives me a fork when they see me trying to use chopsticks.  Not Bruce, he's apparently a master. :)

After lots of great site seeing we went to bed before 7pm...maybe we hadn't avoided the jet lag after all?!  Today we are going to work on sorting out our bikes.  It has been in  the high 90s here with humidity, tomorrow it will drop into the 80s with 100% chance of rain!  I'm actually looking forward to the cooler weather and starting our bike journey in earnest!

This is where it will all begin...Seoul, S.Korea on July 8

We are flying into South Korea on July 8th, and after a few day in Seoul we will be riding from Seoul to Busan.  I found this handy- dandy map of *all the amazing bike specific trails* through the country.  It looks like we are not going to have to barely touch a road with traffic.  Nice work Korea!   We look forward to your amazing paths!

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?gotoPage=1&cid=1898746&out_service=#01