Left slightly later today thanks to wanting to enjoy my wonderful accomodation. One thing really good about the Korean motels was that they never stopped me from carrying up my bicycle to the room. Even at the motel I stayed in at Janggye, I was never stopped despite the flooring being wood. I later learnt that the reason for this was because the motel owners did not want to take responsibility for the bicycles, especially those that were expensive. Some of the elevators were very small though so along the way at some motels, I would just carry them up rather then take the lift.
I had heard from Sally that dogyusan was towards the direction of Muju and this is where I would head. At Janggye I could not find a PC shop however, I just cycled around till my iphone caught onto a free wifi somewhere and would linger there.
Dogusan was a park which had very few signboards and most of the time I was cycling with no sense of where I was heading towards except for general direction.
Eventually made my way to an information booth ( In the rain ) and found out that it was very far from the national park office. This would be the only park where I would not park my bike at the National Park office but rather at the information booth office. After a fair time spent explaining my situation, the park official relented and let me place my bike in the office. Walking down about 10 minutes or so, I found a motel to stay in which charged me 30,000 won. Most of these days I could not tent out thanks to the bad weather that seemed to follow me.
The motel was generally good and spacious and even came with a cooking area, kinda like a mini-apartment. The only problem was that the water wasn't heated. I was really tired after all the riding and came down for a quick bite at the nice restaurant run by the same place. I ordered fried chicken but somehow it was misheard and I got something soupy and with tofu in it. Perfect for the cold weather. The restaurant had a coffee maker and unlimited servings so that was awesome !
It was time to explore my surroundings before nightfall and I took a walk outside the motel and towards the way to the information booth. There was a stream just outside the motel and the way was rather wet and cold.
There was a chicken coop filled with big fat chicken and an equally jealous guard dog barking incessantly as I passed by. The best thing I saw was chilli left for drying that seemed never ending. Otherwise it was a very quiet scene and everyone seemed to be relaxing in the cold weather.
Returning back to the motel, I grabbed another two more papercups of coffee and made my way up. I realised I was close to the Anseong Information booth and it would be a decent hike tomorrow. Somehow I had made a wrong turn somewhere and I realised that it could also be because the boards, while pointing to Dogyusan national park, did not show where the park office was.
Thinking of all this and staring at the map awhile, I laid out my mattress and fell asleep. The day had been mentally tiring...
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