Road Trip 2010 … Jeju to Busan to …

I wake up under a pair of blankets with a cool breeze blowing across my face.  It’s not a dream, it’s the air conditioner.  Since I won’t be scuba diving, I’ve decided to head back to the mainland.  I book a ticket for Busan because this way I can still have a full day on the island.  I travel up the western side of Hallasan and marvel at the weather.  It goes from cloudy to misty to I-can’t-see-ten-feet-ahead-of-me foggy as I reach the 1100m high-ground.  Ten minutes later it’s sunny and I can see Jeju City and the ocean beyond it.  Amazing.

On my way down I pass by some horses grazing in a field.  Plenty of photo-ops and K’s camera is up to the task.  A little later I come upon the ‘Mysterious Road’ of Jeju where things roll uphill!  It’s all an optical illusion and it appears to be only slightly uphill but it was still neat to put the bike in neutral and coast along.  It’s kind of fitting that the mysterious road leads to ‘Love Land’.

Love Land is more odd than mysterious.  There’s lots of statues, some of romantic positions, some of shall we say romantic acts.  In one of the buildings there’s a gallery of different devices and toys on the ground floor along with an odd collection of dioramas on the second floor.  If you wanted to see little clay men and women in the throws of passion and involved in various ‘naughty shenanigans’ then you’ve come to the right place.  It’s definitely a surprise to find this in Korea since it’s better known as a conservative culture.  I guess you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover.

Once I arrive in Jeju city I do a little shopping and make another attempt at find a restaurant that serves the elusive Jeju yuk-gye-jang.  Yuk-gye-jang wins so I settle for cheon-bok juk, abalone porridge.  I’ve lost the battle but not the war, next time I’m in Jeju I will eat that blessed soup.  It’d better be good.

With a full belly I head to the port to get my motorbike stored and wait for the ferry to Busan.  It’ll take 11 hours and I’ll arrive around 5 AM.  Once I’m on board I find myself next to some Mexican students.  One of them strikes up a conversation and we end up talking away for a few hours about our trips, our time in Korea and life in general.  He and his friends are all exchange students, and they’re traveling around Korea on vacation.  It was a pleasant chat.  The next morning when the ferry docked we shook hands and wished one-another well on our respective journeys.

Busan’s looking pretty gray.  Originally I was going to take another ferry to Goje Island to explore a Korean war POW camp.  But it’s looking like a rain day now.  I make a decision to head west to Jinju and from there head north to Daejeon.  It’s pretty smooth going early on but the rain caught up to me just after 9 AM.  At first it’s a few fat drops, and I know it’s gonna pour.  And it pours.  I pull the bike over near a bus stop on the highway.

I put on my rain gear and pack up K’s camera.  I kept a water-proof carrying case in my backpack just in case of this, I can’t take any chances with that camera.  It takes me about 15 minutes to work up the courage to get back on the highway.   The cars speed by and my own Little-Worst-Case-Scenario-Demon is telling me:

LWCSD:  You take that bike out and you’ll crash.
LWCSD:  And some Korean drvier will be tail-gating.  Then they’ll run you over.
LWCSD: And you’ll be dead. And that’ll be it. Do you want that?
LWCSD:  Don’t be stupid, just wait it out.

I have absolutely no intention of letting my LWCSD run rough-shot all over me.  Although this was one of the times when it’s advice was tempting.  Still,  I collected my courage and faced my fear and drove into the rain-storm.  Slow and steady, chugged along at 50 kph.  The Korean drivers were actually very accommodating, when a few of them were caught behind me I would pull off to the shoulder and let them pass by.  I want all the good karma I can get.  LWCSD is still whispering in my ear.  After about 1 hour it tells me:

LWCSD:  Ok, you’ll be fine.  Just keep yourself at 50 kph.  I’ll be back later.

I’m comfortable in the rain now.  Another fear conquered.  The rain keeps on coming all the way into Jinju, but stops once I’m out of the city.  It’s a relief.  The traffic has also let up and I’ve got the roads almost entirely to myself again.  I stop at a roadside restaurant for some lunch and to take a break from the bike.  It’s been over seven hours of driving already today.

After a good lunch and a couple of cans of coffee I’m feeling ready to take on the road again.    I’m making much better time now and I seem to be riding into better weather.  Within an hour it’s sunny again and I’m driving alongside a large river.  It’s beautiful scenery, up over mountains and into valleys and out of valleys and back into mountains I drive.  It’s bliss.

The rest of my trip consists of long stretches of riding with the occasional rest to give my butt a break from the bike.   I arrived back in Daejeon around 4:30 PM.  Although I’ve reached the final destination of my trip, I won’t be able to go home until 6 PM when K finishes work.  I wait it out in a nearby PC room.  After K’s off work I head back to the Apart-euh to see my cats. K’s outside waiting for me, she’s happy to have me back, and I’m happy to be back.