Thursday, April 22, 2010

South Korea Wrap-Up



Total distance: 841km
Nights spent camping: 2
Days spent cycling: 14
Average distance per day: 60km
Longest day: 106km
Shortest day: 23km
Most difficult section: Juwangsan National Park to Cheongha
Steepest climb according to road signs: 12%
Maximum speed: 46kph

Best coffee: ‘Scent of Lamp’ tearooms on road to Woraksan National Park (closely followed by the 100 won vending machine coffee bought for us by council office worker in Jeju whom we mistook for a tourist information officer when wet, cold and hungry)...

Favourite convenience store snack: Diget (chocolate covered wheat biscuit much like a chocolate wheaten, 1200won or $1.20 per packet, they are filing with the illusion of being healthy and somehow beneficial to our gastrointestinal tracts)

Favourite banchan (Korean side dish): The one with the little salty fishies and the potato and seasame seed one Will and Jully made for us

Favourite alcoholic beverage: Hite Red Rock beer from Johnny’s freshly cleaned lines at the HQ Busan Bar

Favourite Korean dish: Andrew – Bulgogi Ali- Bimbimbap

The cycle tourist verdict: Excellent country to start off in. Asphalt all the way around. Bike lanes plentiful around waterways. Decent shoulder for cycling in most places, even major cities, however big city cycling can be a bit risky. Drivers seemed very bike conscious on the whole. Very difficult to camp outside of national parks, but guesthouses (~$25-30/night) readily available. This Spring was colder than usual, but Spring with cherry blossoms or green late Summer would be the time to come. Food was amazing. Scenery was great, but not consistently breathtaking at this time of year. Quite a mountainous peninsula, but we didn’t come across anything over ~600m. Koreans are warm, friendly and very welcoming (more so as it gets warmer according to other Korean cycle tourists). This is an unbelievably safe and trusting country.

1 comments:

AiMeE said...

i love the choco diget for all the same reasons. haha. happy trails! :)

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