We arrived in Oregon on November 1st and made it back to our home sweet Van! Thank you to Roxana and family for looking after our precious van. We were grateful that it was one thing we didn't need to worry about. We stayed one night at Fernando's house, and immediately had nachos and beer! That is one thing Korea and Japan are lacking - really yummy BEER!

Overall we cycled 1,851km, and visited everywhere we wanted to. We climbed both Mt. Fuji, tallest in Japan, and Mt. Hallasan, tallest in Korea. Both of our bodies survived 6 weeks of cycling, sometimes over 100km, and boy did we eat a lot! We only broke: 6 spokes, 1 brake cable, 3 or 4 flat tires and 1 broken pannier. I had to leave my bike seat in Korea, it was totally eaten up by this trip.

A few thoughts about cycling in Korea - I wouldn't recommend it. We read other blogs of others cycling in Korea and dealing with the traffic and the buses and the roads. Korean roads are fine if it weren't for the cars. Some highways had medians, but there were these annoying little reflectors that stuck out from the road, which was dangerous to hit. The highways weren't the issue, it was the cities. Once we got into a city, chaos broke - weaving in and out of cars, dodging buses, that I swear were aiming for us, and avoiding taxi's who just weren't looking. Some cities did have bike lanes, I'll give them credit, but usually there were cars or trucks parked on them, people walking on them, street venders selling fruit, or motorcycles/scooters zooming on the sidewalks. Yes, and they looked at us like we were in the wrong! Everyday we cycled in Korea I wonderded if we'd be hit. By the end of the trip I followed some advice I read on a blog - take charge, and cut in front of the buses, and we survived.

One great thing about Korea is the fact that we never had to worry about where to sleep - just go to a bus station or train stations, where there would be motels everywhere. And the motels were cheap, and for a good reason, they were called "Love Motels" for a reason. They were 30,000 W for one night, and they had cable tv(English CNN!), nice rooms, and some of them were actually really fancy!

A few thoughts about cycling in Japan - I recommend it! Japan is very cycle friendly. We found out the second day, however, to pay attention to the "No Bicycles" sign, we were pulled over by the police on a freeway - they were very kind! Any place that has a No Bicycle Sign always has a route that bikes can take with signs pointing you in the right direction. Japan is clean, very clean, even the big cities. Japan is orderly, Japan vehicles are quiet, even the large trucks. Take note that when biking, the all vehicles are very quiet, so sometimes you can't hear them coming up on you. And Japan is expensive. The food is expensive, the hostels are expensive, everything.

We enjoyed cycling through Japan. We did have problems finding places to sleep, which is why we brought our tent. Guerilla camping is well known in the cycle touring community, and we were glad we did it. No one bothered us and it was free! A few times it felt like we were homeless, but I got over it quickly, as we needed to sleep somewhere and a lot of these little towns didn't have motels like in Korea.

Overall, a great trip, and what a learning experience! A trip I will forever remember for the good, bad and ugly!

Korean Bound

We arrived in Korea on Sunday, October 23, after about 41 hours on the ferry. We went from Tokyo to southern Japan, Kitakyushu, and then cycled about 15 km to Shimoneseki, where we caught another ferry from there to Busan, Korea. The ferry from Shimoneski was very rough, definately the roughest water I've ever been in. It was full of Korean toursits running to the bathroom to get sick. Luckily, thanks to a little dramamine, I didn't get sick.

In Busan we spent a day seeing some sights that we hadn't taken the time to see before. We weren't quite ready to cycle in Korea, and we had a lot of time before our flight out of Seoul, so we decided to stay an extra day. We made a day of sightseeing and hiked to Seok-Si, and temple that is hard to find, tough to get to, but well worth the visit. After climbing a peak, and walking around the mountain, passing many Koreans dressed to climb Everest, some little resturants on the other side of the mountain, we finally arrived at the Seok-Si Temple. A quiet temple outside of the second largest city in Korea, nestled in the mountains. It was breathtaking. The temple had large Buddha carving and the temple itself was set inside the rocks. Totally worth the visit.

We cycled out of Busan and decided to stop in Gyeongju, a tourist city, before taking a bus to Seoul. We had a lot of time, and have already over spent out budget, so we decided to do a night at Golgulsa, a temple which is also the headquarters of Sunmudo, a zen martial art. The templestay proved to be one of the highlights of our entire trip.

We arrived at Golgulsa at around 2:00 p.m., enough time to change into our monk wear, put our stuff in our separated rooms and head to our first session - archery. Archery is used as a form of meditation at the temple, and they were kind enough to give us a little lesson. Martin proved to be the star, and hit the bullseye a couple of times, I think he lost his calling. After archery we were to do "Community Work" however, the Head Monk was out of town, so we were let off easily. Dinner time was at 6:00 p.m. and the meal was fantastic! Monks are vegan, but, in Korea, they do like their pepper paste, which is very spicy. We then were off to Sunmundo training where we learned some kicks, stretches and a few yoga-like poses. We were in bed early since we had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. for our morning chants.

Day 2- Woke up with no issues, partly because if you were late, you had to do 1,000 bows, which is Not easy. The chants lasted 1/2 hour, and I tried to keep up, but giving that it is in a different language, I quickly gave up and just listened and bowed when i needed to. We then did a 1/2 hour of meditation. I thought this would be hard, but it was agonizing for me, partly because we had to sit in lotus position, which is crossing your legs and having one foot on top, ouch! Then we went into walking meditation. Both Martin and I agreed that we do much better at walking meditation. Martin is convinced that his climbing is a form of meditation, and talked about opening a temple of his own. ;) 6:30 a.m. was breakfast, again, delicious! After breakfast we had a bit of a rest before going into 108 bows. My knees really started getting raw after the first 50!

Overall, the templestay was a wonderful experience and I recommend it to anyone going to that part of the world. Yes, it was a tourist attraction, but we were able to get an idea of what life is like in a temple. I'm happy I'm not a  monk. ;)

Back to Korea, in Photos

off the boat in Kitekyushu, Japan. About to cycle under the water to Shimoneski and get on yet another ferry to Korea.

Martin had his Fugu, or pufferfish in Shimonoseki. Everyone said it was soooo good, we were disappointed.

Seok-Si temple. These sculptures were all over, and impressive. I was exhausted from the hike, obviously.

Martin in his "Monk wear" at Golgulsa temple, posing as a Sunmundo Master.



At Gulgulsa Temple, rubbing the Buddha for good luck. Do I look enlightened yet?