Ghetto Beach Part One...

It is early Sunday morning as I type - we are in Donghae where we will be boarding the ferry to Russia later today.  We scoped out the ferry dock yesterday afternoon and found a decent hotel close by.  Our final deadline of the trip is about to be met! We need to be at the dock with our bikes at 9:30 am to complete paperwork, pay the fare and load the bikes.  The total cost looks to be about $700 each for economy class passenger ticket and bike.The ferry from Sokcho was going to be a bit cheaper but had gone out of business at the end of last month.

Two days ago we enjoyed some of the best riding of the trip.  Twisty mountain roads going through tunnels, over bridges and past rivers and dams.  The weather was humid and sunny mixed with foggy and rain as we made our way east towards the coast.  We chose the northernmost road, close to the DMZ, which made for some interesting sights.  We encountered military bases and personnel throughout - the roads had a defense tactic every few miles of huge cement blocks stacked to the sides that could be detonated to come crashing down to block the road.  Made sense as it looked from the GPS maps that we came only a few kilometers from the DMZ in many spots.  There are no actual roads into North Korea in this part of the country.  There were lots of cool stopping spots with scenic views and points of interest from the Korean War.  I enjoyed this day a lot.

We arrived at the Sea of Japan late in the afternoon with the plan to find a beach to camp on or near. A few miles south of the DMZ and north of Sokcho we saw a sign for camping and made a left towards the sea.  I'm was pretty sure the camping sign was directing to a u-turn on the divided highway and was actually back a few km back, but we saw a beach with buildings and cabanas on the beach so headed over to check it out.  It was a very strange place with half constructed buildings, general public beach facilities and a boardwalk lined with food tents and beer stands with half or less open.  It looked like we were here on a slow weekday (Friday) and they did their volume business on the weekends.

We found what looked like abandon but intact tented cabanas on the far end of the beach near one of the construction projects.  There was a boneyard of cabana materials and pieces scattered up the beach behind a razor wired fence that stretched north as far as we could see.  We had no idea at the time - and still don't - what that was all about.  I was a little weary of setting up so close to the sea - especially when I discovered my borrowed hammock would not work for sleeping (just an open hammock).  I would be pitching a tent and Ken and Mark would be swinging their hammocks between the cabana poles under the tented roofs.

Since this was "Dutchman" situation (a Dutchman is a camping location on public or private land that is not established and probably prohibited or illegal - I'll give background as to where this term came from at a later time), we would wait until dark to set up camp and decided to walk up the boardwalk to find some dinner and beers.

We walked the length and found a few still open spots - all serving mostly seafood items.  We were right on the sea after all.  We had hoped for something different as we had been eating only fish for several days.  We settled on a spot and then went through the painful process of trying to order off a menu board we couldn't read.  We finally decided to just pick 3 of the 12 or so choices and split everything.  The first item was basically fish jerky heated up on the grille.  It came with a tasty spicy soy type sauce.  Ok, what's next?  Next came some brown jellied cubes tossed with vegetables and a spicy sauce.  We all tried the cubes that were definitely not tofu and but didn't really taste like animal fat.  In fact they had no taste at all except from the sauce.  We could only stomach a few each as the consistency was just too weird.  The last dish was what looked like calamari mixed with vegetables and red sauce.  We all smiled and dug in as this would certainly be something familiar!  I ate the first bite and it seemed a bit firm.  Ok, maybe a bit under-cooked.  I had a second bite and it was definitely very firm and actually crunchy inside.  We were all chewing and looking a each other when Ken picked one of the "calamari" up with the chopsticks for closer inspection.  It was a foot - we were eating chicken feet.  That was the end of that.  I know chick feet are consumed in many cultures, but none of us could handle that crunch of bones while chewing.  We ordered a few more beers, but we're done with eating at that point.

It was now getting dark, so time to set up camp.

To be continued...

Nice view from a rest stop.

Another stop at the top.

Me cruising near the DMZ.

We don't know what this is but it was by a lookout turnoff at the top of a pass.

We went through dozens of tunnels on this mountain road.  They were nice and cool inside.

Another dam being built.

Tank exhibit from the Korean War.

Finally made it to the beach!

Hell ride through the heart of Seoul...

We left Incheon yesterday morning after a later start and our first non-western Korean style breakfast. The late start was due to the self inflicted over serving of tequila shots to ourselves (and strong peer pressure from Seoul Joe) and the Korean style breakfast was the result of a miscommunication between ourselves and the hotel staff.  We were to meet English Mark from Australia for breakfast in the hotel restaurant around 9:30 or 10am.  We went down to the lobby bar/restaurant that we had met up with Mark last evening to find it deserted with a single staff member at the front.  She welcomed us and we sat down and glanced at the table tent beverage menu while she brought us some water. Coffee 8,500 WON, Juice 13,500, sodas 5,500 - no thanks, we didn't even want to see the food prices. On a several month trip you have to have some discipline on spending money.  We knew S. Korea would be one of our more expensive countries, but these were the highest prices we had experienced so far.  We decided to venture out into Incheon to find some cheaper coffee and breakfast.

Incheon is not a tourist area but rather a very industrial port city.  It is southwest of Seoul right on the water.  No westerners around and no English translation on the Korean sign fronts that were frequent in the other areas of Seoul we had visited.  We wandered a bit and found a restaurant open for breakfast.  As we entered the host motioned us towards the steam table buffet of unrecognizable (to us) food items - exception only being the Kimchee and tofu.  There were lots of vegetable salads too. After grabbing some samples off the buffet we were directed to the kitchen window where we were given a small dish with fish in red sauce and meat in brown sauce along with some steamed rice.  The fish I didn't like as it had bones in every bite.  The meat in brown sauce was tasty and the squid salad in red sauce was super spicy and good.  Ken pointed out that the meat probably wasn't beef due to the grain and muscle structure.  I didn't really want to think what it was but he was right that it was probably from a small animal.  Oh well, it was tasty although a bit greasy.  Coffee included and only 6,000 WON each.  Much better than the hotel pricing.  We later connected with Mark who had found the REAL hotel breakfast restaurant on the 15th floor which was a traditional western buffet spread for about 25,000 WON.  Oops, we had missed out on that but saved about $19 USD.  Our budget for the trip for fuel, food, lodging and misc. is $50 per day so probably good we didn't blow half of that on breakfast.

We loaded up the bikes and headed toward our chosen destination of Chuncheon - a resort area with a large lake in the middle of the country about half way between Incheon and the eastern coast.  We had picked the easiest (navigation wise) and most direct route that would take us through the heart of Seoul.  About 20 minutes into the ride it began to rain - hard.  We didn't have time to prep or add any rain gear and we were in fairly heavy traffic so we just rode on.  We had made some loose plans if any of us got separated - plan A was the lead rider(s) would slow down and hope the separated rider(s) could catch up.  Or plan B we would try to meet up in Chuncheon (about 70 miles from Incheon).  I brought up the rear so was mostly the one who had to play catch up which meant running red lights and splitting lanes to keep up with Ken and Mark.  The "direct" route actually involved many re-directions through crisscrossing intersections and disappearing and reappearing lanes.  All through stupid insane heavy stop and go traffic.  I knew this ride through the city was going to require my full attention. Add to this the fun of Korean drivers just forcing you over and taking your lane even if you are right next to them.  Motorcycles and scooters get no respect as the other vehicles use the "I'm bigger than you and want your lane" tactic - which with buses and larger trucks this actually works quite well for them and you just give way.  With the cars the better move is to counter with aggressive offensive tactics such as eye contact and moving back towards them as they move towards you and sticking a boot out to gesture that you will stick your foot through their window if they try to take your lane.  After 4.5 hours of non stop riding through the worst traffic and drivers I had experienced in my life, we made it to the outskirts of Seoul and took a break.  We had covered only 32 miles in 4.5 hours.  We got off the bikes and just looked at each other with a look that said "shit, glad that is over".  Ken said it best - "That was one of the most unique and crazy rides that I never want to do again".  Amen.

After a coffee and quick snack we jumped on the bikes to finish 40 some miles to Chunchen.  We were entering a rural section that skirted the massive river that also runs through Seoul.  We passed many massive dams that obviously were necessary to power a city of 25 million.  Now we were having fun as the traffic was light and scenery beautiful and the sun came out to allow excellent visibility.  We arrived in Chuncheon and decided to look for a hotel.  We were originally going to camp by the lake, but the clouds were building again and we wanted a place to dry out our gear.  We found a small guesthouse for 20,000 WON each, but was Korean style rooms which had no beds or useful furniture.  Just a dresser, pads, blankets and pillows.  So we basically were camping inside - which was fine with us.  We wandered a few doors down and grabbed a traditional Korean dinner - sitting on pads on the ground at low tables.  The food was great and our hosts were very friendly and fun.  Again we could not communicate with speech but got by with gestures and hand signals.  Today we are targeting a twisty mountain road that will take us to Sokcho on the east coast.  No picks from the hell ride portion through Seoul - needed full concentration during that stretch.

Pulling off to the side.

One of many dams.

Riding across S. Korea.

Mark and Ken enjoying some dinner.

The three of us at dinner.

Guesthouse room - we mess them up pretty quick.

Clearing the Bikes...

Today we were back to work after our day off yesterday to head back to the airport to clear the bikes. We decided to take the $9 airport shuttle instead of the subway as we had to lug our bags with us and the subway route would have involved several transfers.  It took about 1.5 hours and we arrived about 10:30am at the passenger terminal.  The process started in the baggage clearance section and we got through in about 1.5 hours. Then, armed with the necessary paperwork, we traveled to the Korean Air cargo warehouse to pick up the bikes.  Our customs agent Wendy had forwarded all the necessary paperwork in advance so we were mainly just signing forms and answering questions and paying the various fees.  Easy breezy!  We then took the shuttle to the warehouse and signed more forms and paid more fees.  Then we were led into the warehouse and the forklift operator brought out our bikes. We broke open the crates, put a few bits back together that had been disassembled during crating, aired up the tires and we were off.  All in all it came out to about $300 USD per bike to pay customs, broker fees and warehouse storage.

It is illegal to drive motorcycles on the expressway and the airport is on an island with two bridge expressways as the only roads to get back to into Seoul.  Our customs agent told us about the car ferry that would get us back to the mainland, but a local (Seoul Joe) who we had made contact through a motorcycle travel website told us to skip the ferry and just blast through the toll booth through the non-gated Hi-Pass lanes and we would be fine. So we decided to go that route as we were having trouble finding the ferry dock and it was getting late (ferry only runs until 6 and it was pushing 5pm). We blasted through the scanner lane and since we had no RIF chip the sirens and lights instantly went off.  A little unsettling, but we made it over the 8km bridge and quickly got off the expressway to gas up.  The most I had paid for a fill up so far - about double what we had paid for the most expensive fuel in North American.  Luckily we probably won't have to gas up again until Russia where gas is cheap.

Now we had to get down to our new hotel in Incheon, a port city southwest of Seoul - only  about 15km, but the hotel address did not pull up on the GPS, so we had to kind of guess on the route.  It was rush hour so the short distance took almost 2 hours.  You definitely have to ride like you are invisible here as the other cars will just change lanes randomly without signaling or looking behind.  It didn't help matters that it was also pouring rain the whole way.  A bit nerve racking for our first riding outside North America.  We got into Incheon and hoped we would recognize the street we were looking for.  We did and found the hotel quickly after turning onto the street.  This is certainly not a tourist or business area.  No more signs in English.  In retrospect, we should have taken the ferry across, which would have put us at a dock about a mile from the hotel.

We checked in, met up with Mark from Australia (British national who had been living in Australia and was riding a similar route to us to move home).  Wendy had connected us with Mark the day before and we has exchanged emails yesterday and planned to meet at the hotel in Incheon.  We had made plans to meet up with Wendy and Seoul Joe back in Downtown Seoul, so tossed our gear into the room and jumped on the train.  It took about 1.5 hours to get to our destination as we missed the transfer for the express train and had to ride the slow train that makes several extra stops.  Three transfers later we popped up to the street and headed to the bar we had all agreed to meet.  This area of Seoul was very international and western (no, not the cowboy kind of western).  Lots of Europeans, Russians and young progressive Koreans who mostly all spoke English.  We enjoyed beers, Tequila shots (way too many, but Joe was a very persistent host).  Joe had traveled extensively through Russia, so was telling stories and giving us pointers on the both Korea and Russia.  We all had a really great time and parted ways about 11:30pm.  We headed back down to the subway station confident that we had mastered and could get back with no problem.  Turns out that that was the Tequila talking.  On our last transfer, we got on the wrong train and didn't discover our mistake until we had gone several km in the wrong direction.  We then hopped off the train to find it was after 1:00am and the station was closed and the trains had stopped running.  After consulting our trusty tourist map we found ourselves about 45km from the hotel.  Oh, well - turned out to be a $50 mistake as that was the cab fare to get back, our first taxi ride since arriving in Seoul.  So basically yesterday turned out to be a navigational disaster between the ride from the airport on the bikes and then the subway fiasco.  Good thing we are heading out to the country today where things should be less congested and routes easier to follow.

So this morning Ken and I decided to forego the hotel breakfast restaurant (coffee $8.50, juice $13 - just stupid), and checked the neighborhood for some coffee and food.  Nothing here was in English and there was nowhere near the plethora of choices we had in the a Times Square area.  We found a little cafeteria place open, grabbed a tray and had a very Korean breakfast of fish (that was super boney) squid, Kimchee, rice and some meat that looked like beef - but actually not too sure.  

We are leaving in an hour with Mark to hit the hills, do some camping and hopefully get to our ferry port by Saturday afternoon.  Might not have internet so this might be the the last post for a few days.

Ken unpacking his bike.

My bike still on the pallet.

With Joe, Mark, Wendy and Ken.

With Mark, Wendy and Ken.

A Day Exploring Seoul...

Yesterday was our free day to explore Seoul.  We started out walking around the area near our hotel and put in about 3 miles exploring street fruit stands (there was many) and the local business.  There were a few larger businesses like an Audi dealership we passed, but most were very small businesses selling goods and services like tires, auto repair, building supplies, electronics, retail shops, barber and beauty shops, etc.  There were multiple examples of each in rather close proximity and all seemed to be very busy with customers and work.  I imagined this duplicated in the thousands of neighborhoods and pockets throughout the city.  It just kind of struck me how a Home Depot, Napa or Walmart - or any US style big box slapped into this particular neighborhood would put most or all out of business.  Kind of like the evolution of capitalism in the US.  I like what I saw here better, but I digress.  After making the loop and returning to the street by our hotel it was time to venture further out.  This is a big city and there was certainly more to see.

We figured that since we mastered the trains so easily in Vancouver we could get around Seoul by public transport and immediately bought our T cards and charged them up with 10,000 WON.  We soon discovered that the Vancouver trains were a kiddie park ride compared to the third largest subway system in the world.  Impressive doesn't even come close to describing the scope of what it took to build this system that has levels at least 100 feet under the streets and trains well over a football field long.  But, we eventually figured it out and seemed to pop up from underground pretty much where we planned.  We rode around all day and still have about 7,000 WON left on our cards to get back to the airport today to clear the bikes through customs.

We decided to go straight to the city center to explore what is the downtown financial district of Seoul. Not sure how far it was, but it took about 35 minutes with one connection on the trains.  We walked around what looked like the area that has all the embassy's then just wandered around looking at the tall buildings, statues, interesting architecture, etc.  There were lots of people everywhere. Mostly Korean worker bees, Chinese, Japanese and Russian tourists - a few Europeans and even fewer Americans.  We had heard about this tower in the area that had a great view to the city - and after walking around a corner, we saw the antenna peaking over a small mountaintop.

Once we got close enough to see how to get to the tower, we realized it was almost 2pm so decided to grab some lunch at a little noodle/soup place just off the street in a little upstairs mall.  There was just one other table dining - which normally makes me hesitant, but there were maybe only 16 seats total in the whole place anyway so we gave it a shot because the pictures of the soups posted on the window looked really good.  We got lucky and it was very tasty and cheap.

After lunch we walked up to the incline elevator that goes up to the tram that takes you to the base of the tower - called the North Seoul Tower.  We got to the base of the tram and paid the $10,000 WON each for tickets.  One we got to the top of the tram we wandered around the wooded area, took in various views of the city from the different platform areas.  We later arrived to the base of the tower, went inside and found it was another $9,500 WON.  We almost blew off the elevator ride to the top, but said what's another 9 bucks - we had come all this way to be almost to the top.  Glad we did because the 360 city views from the top were amazing.  We got a full scope of the size of the Seoul metro area - which was like nothing either of us had ever seen.  We were both instantly turned into gapers just staring out to each view angle in sheer awe.  I think we may try to bypass the city to the north or south as our original plan of running straight across from west to east would take hours and hours.  This city is stupid crazy big!  Pictures cannot capture the scope.

After taking in the views for about an hour we went back down, found a subway station and made our way back to the hotel. The subway ride back was much different as it was evening rush hour and the trains were all wall to wall people - and the streets were bumper to bumper cars.  We were hot and sticky from the 33 Celsius heat (90+ degree) and humidity, so we hit happy hour in our hotel bar enjoying the A/C and $3 Max beers.  

We then hit an interesting little restaurant on the strip that had little coal grills on each table to cook the meats chosen from the menu - Korean BBQ!  A bunch of other stuff came with the grilled meats and we struggled to figure out how everything was supposed to work.  The staff spoke no English and we speak no Korean, but we managed to figure it out with their assistance through gestures and pointing. Turned out to be our best meal so far in Korea.

Lots of these fruit stands.

I think this was a past king of the country.

Where we popped out on the street downtown from the subway.

Cool building with a small mountain that looked like the edge of the city - wrong!

Another cool mountain that we later saw was not at the edge of the city.

Weird looking statue.

City view.

Lunch - Red Beef Bone Soup - spicy and yummy!

Traffic was significant.

View at top of tram.

North Seoul Tower.

Another view from top of tram.

Tower view.

Another tower view.

Long way from home.  They had dozens and dozens of cities of the world and their distance from the tower on the windows in the viewing area.

Dinner - Waygu rib-eye and pork neck grilled table side.  It was delicious!

Arrival in Seoul...

We arrived in Seoul after a 12 hour ride on a 747 from San Francisco.  We took off around 11am Pacific time on Sunday and arrived about 3pm local Seoul time - on Monday.  So basically lost a day flying backwards throughout time zones.  We will slowly get our day back an hour at a time over the next three months as we continue west.

Seoul airport was very efficient and we breezed through immigration with the agent not saying a word, collected our bags and then customs was basically handing your form to an agent while waiting in a 5 second line.  Can we send someone from Miami over here to get some pointers on moving people through customs and immigration?

We opted for the 9,000 WON (about $9) bus ride instead of $75 cab to our hotel in the Times Square area of Seoul.  It took over an hour and was not a direct route, but got to see a bit of this massive city - metro population approximately 25,000,000.  We paid close attention to the traffic and driving habits of the other drivers along the way - we will have to ride the bikes off the island airport and through Seoul on Wednesday afternoon.  We soon realized that we are screwed!  The drivers are as bad as advertised (we had been told S. Korea is world famous for bad drivers).  Apparently drivers are not responsible for vehicles traveling behind them so no look lane changes are the norm.  We will most definitely have to be on our game once we get on the bikes on Wednesday afternoon.  We will also be doing this during the late afternoon/evening rush hour - although from what I've seen, the streets are pretty congested all day long.

We are staying in one of the largest and nicest Courtyards I've seen.  We walked around last night to get familiar with our surroundings.  There are hundreds of restaurants and dozens of street vendors within a block of the hotel.  It was pretty impressive how packed all theses restaurants were considering the density and it was a Monday.  We sampled the "meat on a stick" and pot stickers from a variety of the small tented food shacks we passed on the street.  It was not obvious what exactly we were eating, but it sure was tasty.  Extra bonus was that we didn't wake up sick this morning.  The breakfast buffet at the hotel was one of the most expansive I've seen - and included in our room rate. Thanks Jason for the Marriott friends and family room discount!  

This will be the last posh accommodation for a while so we need to savor it.  After Tuesday night we will be camping for 4 nights in Korea before we get on the ferry on Sunday.  The monsoon season just arrived and the forecast says 100% chance of rain Wednesday though Sunday.  We opted for the cheapest ferry ticket which will put us in a 30 bed bunk room for the 13 hour sailing to Vlad $209 USD each for us and $300 USD for each bike.  Should be an interesting trip sailing through the Sea of Japan.  I hope the typhoons that are forming all over this region stay south of us.

We have the whole day today to kill exploring the city, so plan to buy public transportation passes and hit the train and buses.  We need to be back to the airport around 10am on Wednesday and clearing the bikes will take all day so this is our only time to see a bit of Seoul.

The 747 we rode for 12 hours from SFO to ICN.

The Courtyard reception lobby.

Awesome breakfast buffet.

Max (most popular local beer) on tap for happy hour.

Self serve fire safety in the hallways.

Self serve fire escape in the room.  Window doesn't open so I guess you just chuck the desk chair through the window and rappel down 9 floors.  Glad we aren't on 14.

Walking the area across from the hotel looking for street food.  Lots of vendors selling mostly the same lineup of meats on sticks.