Vacation

So I finally have some pictures up of the 1500 km (maybe, I didn't keep track like I should have) motocycle tour we took of Jeolla province last week. After my test on Saturday we made a valient effort to get to the Byeonsan Bando on the west coast by nightfall. We ended up in Jinan a little ways away. It was good we stopped, because the roads the next morning were terrible and would have sucked late at night. Byeonsan beach lacked some qualities but we got on well there. Ate chicken that was freshly killed. Saw the next round's throats cut in the parking lot on the way back to the room after dinner.

We rode around the peninsula (bando in Korean)and took in the sights. One of which was Cheiseokgang.

This is not it. We took a wrong turn. Only one of many.


But we eventually found it. And this prehistoric looking bug.


This family found them just as fascinating as I did.


Ajeossi in the background there was more concerned with fanning himself than with the bugs.


And here are; we fit the 'biker' image rather well I'd say.


After our brief stopover at Cheiseokgang--which we didn't have to pay for, the buy just waved us in--we continued on the little road until we saw a sign for an open air sculpture park. We found sculptures, but more importantly we found GRASS!

Traci demonstates a very rare luxury in Korea.

Then she demonstates what a pervert she is.


AHHHH! where'd he wee wee go? She pointed this out to me too.


Drying fish near the salt flats on the southern shore of the peninsula.



Coming hopefully soon is the mudflat experience video. We stopped at this place where you could actually experience a mudflat. It was something photos insufficiently represent.

We gave our friend Billy a call, and asked him to send an email to our phoneless friends living just south of where we were. Then drove until the urge to eat ice cream overtook us. It was there that we consulted our map and shit! we'll be there in twenty minutes. Another call to Billy and we were off.

Hong Nong is a small small town. Rob and Joan are the only foreigners. Our arrival doubled the population.

We knew they worked at a hogwan and were finished with work at 230. It was about that time. Our plan: drive around and at each English hogwan we spotted drop in and inquire about our friends. After 5 minutes and 23 seconds we found our first academy. We walked in, asked and were misunderstood. The director seated us down, gave us each a tomato juice and offered us jobs. We explained that we didn't want or need jobs, but were looking for our friends, who had only been in town for two weeks. "Oh no he said, I need you to work for 4 weeks." We had to get up and leave. Fortunately the bombshell that worked reception at the place upstairs knew what we were talking about and gave us directions. We arrived at their school, but they were already on their walk home. A man, whom we later found out was named Superman, gave us directions and we found them.

They live by a bar that uses this as advertisement:


We shot the shit, and drank a few beers. He is Joan posing in front of her place of employment just before showing us where they might have lived.


Traci trying out the shower, where they might have lived.


The 7-11, supplier of the beer we used to take the town by storm that night. It was strange to be in a town small enough to let its streets completely die at night. We saw next to no one, save a few hootchies scanty-clad coming out of a norae bang. But we did see the place were toilets go to die. And quite a nice moon.


The next day we said goodbye at the school. Rob teacher even had the time to teach me a little English.


We rode far the next day. Down to Jindo to see what all the fuss was about. Nice island, not enough time. We looked for raw fish on the beach where the parting of the sea happens, but wouldn't shell out the 85 bucks for what we found.

Then over towards Wando. On the way I made a friend


And had a freak dinosaur encounter


We found a field of sunflowers and I figured out how to take cheesy photos with my camera. Finally--gawd!


We got a real cheap room at a beach near a place called Land's End. Land's End was overblown crap but the room was interesting, rustic you could call it. While most places were going for 40 or 50, this was 25. I tried to placate Traci by telling people pay more for places like this in traditional folk villages. Plus the 70 year old lady actually ran, trying to secure our stay.


She wasn't so impressed when she saw that the shower area looked more like a garage or tool shed than a place you go to get clean.


And there's the happy camper, going to clean off the grime of a long day's ride


After showering we had some fish--only 40--in a place that had ambiance, and watched people shoot off fireworks irresponsibly. Two guys were actually shooting them at each other with remarkable accuracy.


The next day we met Jason for a chicken brunch in the port of Wando, then crossed a bridge and got ourselves to another beach. Here we loafed and read. Later we got hungry, but there was next to nothing besides (most likely expensive) fish head soup. On a little sign, nailed to a tree was our savior. Fried chicken delivery. Yum. Traci checks the sky to see if it's time for dinner:

"It's blue." That means it's chicken time.
After a little bit of explaining--we're the only foreigners here, standing next to the no parking sign by the campground--he said OK that he would call back when he was looking for us. We stood out enough to obviate any further phone calls.


It grew dark. We walked out a jetti where some guys were fishing and drank some beer:


Then went back to the 50$ 8' X 8' room with no bed or TV and went to sleep.


We rode through the green tea plantations of Boseong and I at least was less than impressed. It was a nice ride, but I'm real happy we didn't try to make a weekend of Boseong alone. We drank some tea that tasted like clam broth, didn't get charged for it. We checked our map and we had enough time to make it to an island where an active leper colony remains.


Traci did some posing.


After a good bit of riding, we got to Nokdong, or Doyang depending on what sign yr looking at. Got us a hotel on the harborfront and went for a walk to find something to eat. We went through the fish center, because fish are cool, and I saw a sign that said one fish was a gwangeo. It looked like a flounder. So I asked the woman about it. Instead of answering or even acknowledging my question, she comes on real strong with the sales schpiel. We didn't want it, which made her come down even lower. As luck would have it, it was part of system. She sells us the fish, fillets it, and gives us it and the carcass in the bag. We walk upstairs and they staff upstairs, for a nominal price, cooks the carcass into fish head soup and provides tasty beverages. We got twice was much as two nights before for a little less than what we paid.

Stuffed we walked up to the top of a hill where a shrine to two War hero naval commanders from the 1590 Japanese invasions was and watched the sunset.


This guy showed up with a naked little boy in tow



Then Traci became enraged over the amount of insects biting her and it was time to go back to the room.


Squeezed the bike on the ferry the next morning. Again, waved through, maybe because they didn't want to deal with us. This vehicle's driver was visibly angry. But was he going to do? If he opened the door it would have ding ding danged up his car.


Traci points to the island of the lepers--Sorok-do. A lot of other people were also going there. "What is it, hug a leper day?" Traci said heartlessly.


We disembarked and figured we would go towards the leper colony to satisfy our curiosity then go find the beach.

Find the lepers we did. We were waved through the checkpoint for some reason (this is a loud loud bike, would you wave us through?) and found ourselves amidst many people in wheelchairs, some with bandages and others missing appendages. What seemed to be students with name tags on a field trip were calling out to us the ubiquitous "Where are you from?" that echos throughout this country. We take a turn towards a church and man in wheelchair is moaning, standing with his arm reaching out towards us as we pass. It was like we were in a zombie movie. We turned around quickly, at a safe distance and left, didn't go back.

We found the beach. It was the best we'd been to all week. Pine tree lined with a steep drop off and nice blue water. And best of all, there were very few people--probably due to the close proximity of the leper colony. We stayed for only half a day because Traci wanted to go to a space center, which didn't turn out to be a space center at all, but a lame festival. Upside: we did see some scorpions in a glass cage.

After the space center bust, we decided to make some time north. The week was drawing to a close and we wanted to avoid a 12 hour journey home. We thought we'd stop in Gwangyang, but that turned out to be an industrial hell, so we continued on to Hadong which was pleasant surprise. We fled a mosquito poison fog



and watched the sunset from a promontory overlooking a river. Then it was tank time. So we walked down the hill, stopped by a mart, ate some hog flesh and enjoyed what we could of the town.