Riding my Motorcycle through Seoul to the East Coast
Update 43 (October 2023)
Seoul to Busan, South Korea
The Chuseok holiday period came to an end and everyone went back to work on the Wednesday. However, one of my front forks was leaking oil since arriving in Seoul. The repair job done in Vernon, Canada had turned out to be a failure.
So, I still wasn’t ready to leave Seoul. I had to find someone to repair the oil leak. With not speaking the local language, I find the best approach is get on the bike, translator app in hand and start hunting for a repairer, in person. I followed a trail of suggestions and by my fourth visit, found a mechanic that would have it completed that afternoon. It seems the Canada repairer should have replaced a worn metal sleeve at the same time.
The mechanic was a good bloke and good to his word and at 6pm I had the bike.
Getting an oil leak from one of my front forks repaired at J Motorcycle in Seoul.
The next day I let the rush hour settle and then made my way to Sokcho on the east coast. Getting out of Seoul took about 2.5 hours of city driving. It is a city of almost 10 million people and not being allowed on the expressways with a motorcycle was a pain. At times I would glimpse cars on an expressway above me as they zoomed away from the congestion of the city streets.
Google Maps is next to useless in Korea. I don’t think they even try. The local mapping app called Naver is excellent and has a reasonable English version. It takes a little care to select the right destination but once I set the navigation it works very well with some great features. I have set my vehicle type to Two Wheeler and combined with Avoid Tolls I have had not mix ups with illegally entering motorways or expressways etc.
This is a fairly typical scene in Korea. Most of the surrounding mountains are covered in trees, with the valleys and rivers being surrounded by towns or agriculture.
I arrived in Sokcho just as the sun was setting. Sokcho faces the East Sea. The country is shielded from the Pacific Ocean by Japan but there were still some nice little 2 foot waves at times.
Long boards are the go. The daily temperature is around a low of 12 degrees Celsius and a high in the low 20’s.
This is actually the beach car park, that had a tent pitched on any available grass patch. I realised later that there was another Korean national holiday on the Monday. This time it was for Hangeul Day, to celebrate the proclamation of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. So I would say many of these people had been there since the start of the Chuseok holiday up to ten days previous.
I stayed two nights in Sokcho and then moved south down the coast. My next destination was inland, although mainly chosen because I had trouble finding reasonably priced accommodation anywhere else. But I should say that apart from national holidays and weekends, Korean accommodation is clean, modern and great value, especially in regional cities.
The coastline condition is pretty good considering the population.
After a while I decided to ride inland through the mountains for a while. At one point I came across this secondhand store that was part of an abandoned petrol station by the side of the road.
I think the man in the red was the owner. He and his friend seemed to just be happy listening to music. They invited me to join them and we sat and listened to The Wall on vinyl at what seemed like 11. They were playing through an old Marantz amp and those large square speakers (Klipsch)? They probably had something like a 15 inch woofer and certainly filled the large room.
Lots of cool stuff. No space on a motorcycle. Sometimes I will buy the occasional small souvenir and post it home, not today though.
As I arrived at the hotel in Jeongseon, a couple were arriving on their BMW 1200. Choe and Nam were from Seoul and spending the weekend in the area. They invited me to dinner and took me under their wing for the next couple of days.
The next morning we rode out to Mindungsan Mountain to complete the famous hike to the peak. I don’t know how Choe knew it, but we were allowed to ride our motorcycles up the closed road and ended halfway there compared to the other hikers. In the afternoon we took another ride through the nearby countryside and visited High 1 Ski Resort. At times we were above 1400 metres with the trees starting to take on a lot of Autumn colour.
It was a great couple of days with them. My start in Korea had been a little rocky but the fun and friendship of Choe and Nam really cheered me up and got me back on track.
Nam and Choe heading up the mountain. The Mindungsan Mountain Silver Grass in the foreground is famous. I believe the Silver Grass Festival was on while we visited.
Quite a line up to get a photo in front of the monument at the peak. You could tell everyone was pretty happy with themselves with doing the climb.
The famous Silver Grass
Ma and Pa at the halfway point, doing a good trade. We shared a bottle of Korean Rice Wine for lunch. Vegetable pancakes, potato pancakes (fritters), fish soup and another vegetable dish on the stick that was cooked in fish stock, whose name and ingredients I can’t recall.
On the Monday it was time for Choe and Nam to return to Seoul. I headed back to the coast and towards the south. I wanted to get to Busan port and make sure I had my exit to Japan under control. Getting into Japan with the motorcycle needed a little forethought. As it turned out, the part about getting the motorcycle on to a ferry out of Korea was going to be the hard part.
I followed the coast down to Pohang for my next stop.
I ended staying up in a very non touristy area of Busan. It was a newer residential area full of high rise apartments and young families. It’s relaxed and real. Sushi for lunch.
No Brand Burger for another lunch. I had to try it, given the name. It was okay. The best fast food burger I have had in Korea was from a Frank Burger franchise in Gwangju. The Korean burger chains are pretty good at serving food with reusable utensils e.g. cup.
Airfreight motorcycle Vancouver to Seoul
Update 42 (September 2023)
Busan to Jeonju, South Korea
Update 44 (October 2023)