Chances are, had James not wanted to visit his old school friend Mike and his wife Hayon, its unlikely we would have gone as far north as South Korea, but only because cycling in foot deep snow and below freezing temperatures is for hardcore crazed types who equate falling off, trudging through slush and not being able to have a drink because their water has been frozen solid with a good time. But as we were in the neighbourhood (well Japan's quite close) we thought, let's go anyway! Especially as Mike and Hayon kindly took us into their lovely flat in Seoul for a month whilst we rested, healed ourselves, washed our clothes in a machine, tended to our trusty steads, defrosted on their underfloor heating, developed a taste for magoli and generally took the festive period as a much needed break from cycling.
Our boat from Japan docked in the busy port city of Busan, where international ferries come in and our cargo boat would later depart. We decided to take the bikes on the train directly to Seoul to get to Mike and Hayon's for a much needed rest with the idea of riding back south. Although unbagged bikes are technically not allowed on the trains, the guys behind the counter ran around in a typically helpful Korean fashion and sorted it out so we could take them on.
As for cycling back down, it was a nice thought. If we thought that it was cold in Japan, it was nothing compared to what faced us in South Korea. Like the rest of the Northern hemisphere South Korea was facing an exceptionally cold winter and since we have just spent the past year in tropical conditions (with tropical clothing to match) it came as a bit of a shock. Temperatures rarely got above freezing, were averaging -7 in the heat of the day, dipping much lower at night. Its not that I didn´t think Korea would be cold, its pretty close to Siberia, but on the ferry people were laughing at my anticipation of a white Christmas whilst declaring 'No no no, not in Seoul...it never snows in Seoul'. Mmmm, right then. Within days of arriving the snow fell, and fell, and fell. Whilst it made everything intensley beautiful it also meant that we could only be out in it for an hour or so before hypothermia began to set in and we had to dash for the nearest doughnut shop to thaw.
You'd be surprised how many doughnut shops there are. The Korean's aren't big on sweet desserts (they're mostly made of rice in various guises) but there are doughnut shops everywhere. As it was had I not been otherwise subsiting on a diet of Bibimbap* (steamed rice, veg and chilli sauce) accompanied by the phrase 'Goggi NO!' and side orders of kimchii (pickled/fermented cabbage) at every meal the doughnuts may have led to me snapping my bike when I got back on.
*I say I mostly ate bibimbap except for an accidental order of fish offal soup, possibly the worst thing I have ever attempted to eat, I couldn't, if we want to save the world's fish stocks we should feed this to people until they´re cured of the desire to consume sea life, 3 bowls each should sort it out.
Food update over, Seoul is a thriving modern city and makes an excellent base with its beautiful old temples and palace complexes sitting happily alongside modern art galleries and excellent museums as well as its proximity to the DMZ. They were also really going for it in the festive lights department (Korea is, surprisingly, predominantly Christian). The main thing I was surprised by was the huge American military presence there. The north-south war is officially ongoing, they're just having a long cease fire and the bases are overflowing with American soldiers, to the point where they have their own part of town, their own bars, shops and everything else a westerner may need to feel at home, its pretty bizarre in an otherwise very Asian country.
We took a trip to the DMZ where we wandered down huge tunnels running deep underneath the 4km exclusion zone, which the North Koreans dug to try to infiltrate Seoul. Fortuntely they were discovered just shy of their mark, apparently the North Koreans tried to pass them off as coal mines by rubbing coal dust on the walls, hmmm.
Korea´s traditional temple and palace buildings, whilst similar in style to those found in Japan and China (timber built with beautiful curved roof gables and yin yang tiling) also have unique paintwork on the undersides of the roofs, ceilings and supporting beams, making them bright, beautiful and very distinctly Korean.
After resting, repairing, eating, drinking, visiting beautiful temples & museums, banging drums and setting my panniers on fire on a ventilation pipe (now euphemistically referred to as the great fire, all hail gaffa tape), and generally vegging out we were ready to get riding again. However the weather had other ideas. By mid January the snow was still a foot deep on the sides of the roads, which had you seen the average Korean drive you'd know this was where you'd want to be. So we had to bundle our bikes on a bus (after a mad 8km dash, skidding through the snow, to the other side of Seoul) and head south to Andong in the hope of a thaw.
After spending a night in Andong sampling the local speciality of salted mackerel we biked along clearer roads to the historic village of Hahoe. Hahoe village has remained untouched since the Joseon dynasty and houses are preserved and lived in as they always have been. These are beautiful adobe buildings with gabled or thatched roofs (depending on how rich you were) and the village itself was serenely tranquil (possibly because we were the only tourists mad enough to go there in the snow). After spending a day wandering the quiet lanes and poking around in courtyards, we spent the night curled up in a tiny room in a homestay praising the ingenuity of the ondol and our thermals...it was bloody freezing.
From Andong we biked through the freezing temperatures (where by lunchtime we couldn't get a drink as our water had frozen in our bottles) heading south to Gyeongju, centre of the Shilla Kingdom and a beautiful city too, teeming with ancient Royal tombs, palaces and temples and one of the loveliest hostels we've stayed in yet.
From there we made a slightly less chilly route south along the industrial hell that was the coastline complete with nuclear power stations to Busan where we continued to check out temples, eat bibimbap and kimchii, get James innoculated for yellow fever (which no one beyond the Captain of the boat checked), and were thoroughly cared for by couchsurfers and climbers Alan, Nikki and their ex-street dog the lovely Mitzy, as well as meeting their many varied friends for burritos, to get us in the mood and remind them of home.
By the end of our time in Korea, although I was glad I had been and had met with amazing hospitality from the biking community and well beyond, I was ready to move back into the warmth, in fact it was the cold that made us alter our plans from cycling across the states to heading further south to Mexico in the first place, its all good but I just couldn't take the cold anymore!
Catching a cargo boat across the Pacific is not something I would normally choose to do, it just happened to be the cheapest (though still scarily expensive, you´re looking at approx 90 euro's per day) way to cross to the New World without flying.
However I have to admit that it was just great, seriously, I loved it. I've worked on boats in a few previous trial careers so I wasn't expecting to be thrilled by a trip on a container ship, its not exactly what you'd call glamorous. But actually it was a top quality experience. A cruise it wasn't, there were no bouncy hostess types around to try to make my day great, you are left to yourself to make your own entertainment. However the crew were really lovely, genuine people, up for sharing a beer and a chat in the evening when they weren't working just because it was good for them to have new people to talk to and swap travel tales with.
Once we left dock we were basically allowed access to wherever we wanted to go, from the bridge where we discovered that the earth is not round and hence we would be sailing not in a straight line via Hawaii but more in a giant circle close to the arctic, gone were our romantic notions of lazing around on deck, too much snow; James was often to be found loitering around at the very tip of the ship, in front of the containers (aka the titanic bit) for top quality dolphin spotting away from the noise of the propellor at full speed, I joined him when I could finally brave the cold and my sea sickness/sleeping pills wore off; we were even free to go down to the engine room if that's what did it for us but to be honest, enthusiastic though the apprentices where, engineering is not much of a spectator sport.
Whilst on the boat we saw pilot whales, lots of dolphins frolicking around, the odd turtle and sealion sleeping on the surface, curiously they sleep on their sides...to keep one eye out for the great white scary ones below we reckon, and numerous sea birds when we were closer to shore.
Our cabin was possibly the nicest room we'd stayed in for a very long time and as my sea sickness pills seemed to turn on my inner doormouse I made full use of the bed sleeping around 12 hours a day until I gained my sea legs (10 days in). We were well fed and James was beside himself with the range of cheeses available and bacon for breakfast, I was happiest to welcome the return of toast, muesli, salad and chip butties. There was only one other passenger on board and just to blast my preconceptions of the average cargo boat cruiser Emiko was not over 70 and a boat nerd, she was 25, from the States, very lovely, had been travelling around and was on her way to meet her mum in Ecuador and just fancied the idea of not flying and having a good look at the pacific along the way, so perhaps WE are the average cargo boat cruisers after all.
We also had a party/BBQ on board a couple of days out from Mexico (complete with a whole roast pig). Having not danced for a while I took full advantage, drank a few beers, danced til dawn (had most of the crew up at one point or another). James also took full advantage of the moment and at the front of the boat and under a beautiful moonlit sky lighting up the ocean he asked me to marry him.
So there you have it, we arrived in Mexico, we did not sink, did not get eaten by sharks, did not get hi-jacked by pirates, we both enjoyed it loads more than we would have imagined, the crew were lovely, we ate well, slept well, wildlife watched, talked, danced, got engaged and drew a little closer to home. All in all twas more than I ever would have expected from a trip with a heap of cargo. I highly recommended it, you never know what might happen.
tx
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