Felt like we've been in Busan forever! Time to high-tail it out of here. After spending the weekend getting the spoke fixed on my bike (I broke another one the next day!), cleaned up and laundry done, worshipping the Almighty, it's time to roll. This city was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. Plus with all the high-rises and mountains nearby, you feel small. If you're in Korea it's worth it to come down to this corner of the world.
We're biking through some of the markets.
Here's a dorky YouTube clip instead to give you ultimate access.
Batman glasses ✅
The buildings just loom over everything and they actually look nice unlike many other countries' boring apartment buildings.
Our second Telephone Booth! If you remember from the previous post, we are actively finding them to get all the stamps in our passports for a chance at $100,000!
Talk about an optical illusion. I thought those white roofs for the greenhouses was water from a flooded rice field. About a mile before I took this pic it looked better. Had to be there.
Even though we had a slight headwind, we still enjoyed the view and bike path!
I like to think that the people who drove their car over the cliff and into the water went out in Flames and Glory with their middle fingers out the windows.
A nice spot for lunch! This is a biker's paradise - food trucks, clean bathrooms, benches to sit on, air compressors to easily pump up your tires.
The bike paths have been spoiling us.
Dinner time! I think Joaquim wants the first bite.
A great campsite we snuck in for free. That's what happens when you can't find the office to ask if we can camp there.
See, why would anyone want to work until they're 65 to retire and then do adventures? Do your mini retirements now! I've been preaching it for 10 years.
Everyone is having fun here.
This hill was tough. My calves were burning as I pushed the heavy bike up it.
It was raining this afternoon so we stayed in this tiny cabin. Came with showers, laundry, and a rich outhouse. All good things you would ever want when you're biking. We (cyclists) don't ask for much in life despite being hated by the masses. Fine, all we want is the right to use the entire road and to get in the way of cars. That's it.
Anytime the Bean sees an umbrella like that she says, "Bick Umbrella!"
The kids were asleep otherwise we could have made a Kodak Moment by being in that photo frame behind me. Korea likes to make things kawaii, too (cute in Japanese).
There was a sign that said to not take pictures of the race track so I took one anyway. They got weird-looking Hyundais and Kias here. Too bad we can't import them to the States.
Something you need to know about Korea is that they sweeten everything; meats, chips, garlic bread, etc and it's all the same flavor, too. I'm tired of it.
I can't get over this. Love the diversity of the farmers living amongst the elite.
Found another Telephone Booth!
I love biking through tunnels. Japan has a ton of them. This one was a good one that even curved.
We paid $30 to stay in a motel in Daegu that didn't have beds but instead futon pads on the floor. Campsites cost as much as a motel so why not?
This is the best feeling in the world. I love it when she hugs my leg like this. I used to run up to my dad when I was little and do the same.
So, there are a few kinks to work out when starting every bicycle adventure. Even if it's your thousandth one. The dynamics are always different but that's what makes it fun. Even if you brought your kids. OR I should say, especially if you brought your kids
(Side note: You see, there are loser DINKs (dual income, no kids) today who think they should have all their fun and travels before settling down and having kids. Those people are doing a great disservice to themselves. But I digress.)
That's also what makes you hate life and start regretting everything, ever.
This time, what we regretted was not planning more and planning better. With the whole work contract being in limbo and a few other questions in the air of going back and forth with dates, locations, and gear we didn't manage to cross all our I's nor dot all our T's. Nevertheless, we've already experienced the Hand of the Almighty with Tender Mercies aplenty to help us out.
Let's explore Busan!
We camped at a park near the river. I think camping in Korea has similar, unspoken rules as Japan and Taiwan - you can do it anywhere but hurry up and leave.
He says: "I'm tired!"
(Blogger doesn't let you caption vids, dang it.)
Here's our route from the bottom right to the top left. So if you're curious about other rides to do in Korea, they got you covered. Even up to the DMZ!
They got these really nice trailer toilets everywhere along the trail. This one had the inside of pure chrome.
We're headed to our official starting point. The K Water company that owns or makes the bridges and dams for the rivers are clues we're going to be looking for along our journey.
We got there a tad early and had to wait for them to open up at 9:30AM! We need to purchase our official passport booklet so we can get our stamps along the trail. If we fill it up then we can win $100,000 cash! Hurry up I want to go!
This is the telephone booth we have our eyes peeled for every 30+/- km or so. Each one has a name and stamp for our passport booklet.
Dang, if we were going the other direction and finishing the journey in Busan we could be enjoying this foot bath like this guy. He was clipping his nasty toenials while we were there. And who knows what other unspeakable acts he performed after we left 👀👀
These are middle school kids decked out in biking gear. You can't afford this in the States.
Sweetest things are already asleep.
Oops! Time to stop at the bike shop because I already have a broken spoke! "It's our first day out, how could there already be a problem?!" (Points will be awarded to whoever can correctly guess the movie quote.) If you recall from our Japan and Taiwan trip (not to mention my USA one) we had loads of broken spokes. Someday, I'll fork over hundreds of dollars to get a custom wheel made to withstand even the fiery darts of the devil!
It's raining. Let's get a cheap hotel and cleaned up!
If you've ever lived in the Middle East like I have, you'll see the coolo minarets with their eerie green lights decorating the sky. Here in Korea, they do a similar thing but the crosses on Christian churches are red. Kinda like the green and red light sabers in Star Wars. Makes you think, huh?
Getting things ready in our hotel.
Time for Sabbath Day Worship!
Outside the Church. I love matching gear.
Man, Blogger really cussed the pooch with how they "imbed" videos and forcing us to use YouTube just so they can get revenue with their ads. Google is the worst and a POS, everyone! If you didn't know it before, surely, you do now.
You're probably wondering, "Why do you still use out-of-date Blogger??"
I'm wondering that, too. Oh well. It's a journal and has my history of biking adventures all the way back to 2008 when I went from Maine to Oregon when I was 21 and an eligible bachelor. Since then, Holly and I have done Japan and Iceland together, Taiwan (with 9 month Lily Rose), and now Korea (with 2 year old Lily Rose and 6 month old Joaquim).
As I add to the list, it gives me more motivation to keep discovering new countries by bicycle. Should be exciting as long as Google doesn't pull the plug on every project as they are wont to do. I've been telling you for years that we live in Exciting Times.
Anyways, to overview of what we're doing now: flying from Okinawa to Fukuoka, Japan, then taking a ferry to Busan, Korea and finally biking all the way to Seoul along the infamous Four Rivers Trail.
Some 400 miles.
Let's begin!
This is just a glimpse of all the crap we're bringing. I normally bring more stuff than I need. Now we have children to pack for. 👀👀
Rose Gold is preparing to wear her dorky helmet.
Joaquim is preparing to eat solids so that he doesn't have to rely solely on milk.
And I'm preparing with my new solar watch so I have one less thing to worry about charging from my many hundreds of thousands of devices. Hopefully I get those lux hours up.
We hired a professional driver to take us to Naha airport in his luxury-class minivan.
We managed to pack everything in! Bikes and trailer and panniers!
Airports are stressful enough as it is. But when the flight attendants keep telling you that your bike has to be broken down smaller and smaller and the bubble wrap is getting more and more popped then you start to really stress. Holly does good work, though, at being Stoic.
See, we heard that through Peach airlines you don't have to put your bikes in boxes like normal. We tried it because it's less assembly. But as noted above, we might as well have put the dang things in boxes.
Lily Rose's first time flying with her own seat! We didn't pay much for it because it's Japan and Japan is cheap and good for families.
It's 10PM and the fun begins! Assembly. And hoping above hope that things aren't broken or pieces aren't missing.
She knows what to do without being prodded.
Well, well, well. This is the third biking trip we've done where the first day started off with rain!
Thankfully our hotel was near the airport so we could get there relatively unspoiled and unscathed.
I just wanted to point out these silly stoplights Japan has. I don't understand what the point of the red light is when you have green arrows telling you to do everything else. And before you say U-turns are prohibited, they're not.
Before getting on the ferry, I zipped over to the Bunny Store to get extra diapers and formula for the babies. Did you know a package of 56 diapers in Japan is 10 bucks? That would be over 50 dollars in the States. Top that.
We're on the ferry! We shared a room with a few other families and their kids and everyone went wild.
I love Japan because Japan loves kids. You wouldn't think that with the declining birth rates but it's true.
Joaquim likes to make friends. And pull hair.
Since Lily Rose didn't take a nap from all the playing she passed out here on the floor while waiting for the elevator to disembark the ferry.
I couldn't take a picture at the customs and borders but Joaquim had a huge blowout as we were getting our passports checked and about the board the ferry with only minutes to spare. Poop was everywhere. Like that meme of Bob Saget in Dumb and Dumberer. It was the worst time for him to do this. He's going to pay for that.
