August 16 - A ride down to Daejeon city

Check out timing at a korean motel is usually 11 am but I got up early so as to move to my next destination. It would be a short walk to the park office and I realised that I could have just shifted everything to my motel room the day before.

I was out of the motel by 7 am and at the office by 8 am. Park offices are usually open from 8 am to 6 pm and I spent my time packing up to road mode.After some time looking at the horses, having a quick breakfast at the kitchen and saying goodbyes and thanks to the staff, I was off.

This was to be my first visit to a metropolitan city in korea besides Seoul and the ride was fairly decent as well. With the exception of the first day, most of my rides were in the 50 km to 60 km range daily, something I liked and decided to maintain. Once again it wasn't about numbers but rather about experiencing the country. The weather had become good to me once again and it was a nice ride on the country road.


Midway on a slope, I was amazed when a motorbike pulled up beside me and the rider started chatting with me.

Lyndon is from New Zealand and has been an English teacher in Korea for several years now and he recommended me to visit a place called Jeonju.

This had never been a part of my plan but was to change everything that was to happen. Having a friend who was into cycling as well, I gladly posed for a picture for him and after exchanging contacts, we went our own ways. ( He was heading to Danyang for paragliding)

 Enjoying the beautiful weather, I made my way into Daejeon city and was completely lost. Compared to all the serenity and silence that I had experienced the past few days, this was a vast difference.

Heavy traffic and noisy roads predominated the scene and I had to not only focus but also ride rather aggressively. Only at the metropolitan cities would I be honked at. This was the place where experience riding on crowded roads helped.





Stopped midway amidst all the heat for a quick bite and also to determine my location. My priority here would be to find a motel to stay in, if possible close to a major landmark. The major landmark was a factor as if I ever got lost, it would be way easier to ask for directions.

Entering a congested city area also meant that the road systems were way more complicated, underpasses, overhead roads and all. I entered a bicycle path and found it so confusing that I got out within 10 minutes. Eventually managed to find a motel to stay in at a decent price. After wandering about for a good 2 hours :)

Since I had a bit of time, I decided to try changing some Singapore currency I had and here is where I would be in for a shock. Hotels, even major ones only exchanged American dollars or Euros and even banks I visited said the same. Basically I could not change my dollars at any other bank besides the KEB or Korean Exchange Bank. It occurred to me then that I should have changed my money to USD or Euros.

Since I had a long night, I visited a massage parlor just around my motel. There were a number of massage parlors around and they were decent parlors, with nice interiors and pleasant masseuses.

The Korean style of massaging definitely varies greatly from the thai style, being more of a stretching session. It was very helpful to me though since I was stiff after all that cycling. Massages however are not cheap, costing anything from 80,000 to 100,000 won for 1.5 hrs to 2 hrs.

After wandering around the countryside for so many days, staying in a city seemed in a way unnatural but I got to see the city aspect of korea. Having a quick dinner of ramen at the convenient store, I proceeded back to my room. Along my way back, on the ground, were strewn pictures of scantily clad picture cards of Korean women with numbers to dial.

 The night had just begun at Daejeon city.