Doing easy things- final days in Busan

A saying often repeated this year has been “you can do hard things.”  

“Mom, I miss my friends” - “I bet you do, but you can do hard things, we will be home soon.”  

“Boiled Octopus for dinner?”  - “It is our only choice, you can do hard things”

But then Traverse read a book “Atomic Habits” about how small changes can make a big difference over time.  He twisted the line around and started to push back saying, “you can do easy things” referring to the importance of the small habits that make real change.

This focus on the small habits shaped our final days in South Korea.  After doing a “hard thing” and biking across South Korea we took eight days in Busan, the bustling beach hub of South Korea, to do “easy things.”  

For each of us these “easy things” were different.  The girls explored the city on their own, played volleyball, spent days at the art museum and connected with friends.

Traverse had a daily ritual of joining the throngs of other Koreans at the local gym to work out and bath, providing both a place to be in shape but also a source of endless cultural encounters.

I loved the time to write and read in a way that I probably won’t get again for years.

As Traverse described it to the girls,  this is “sparkly magic unicorn time” to be together and  do “easy things” with the hope that these habits we can carry some of this years magic fairy dust home.

We stayed in the beach district of Haeundae which was having a huge sand castle competition.

the king alive in South Korea

My view on conference calls

The girls practicing for this falls try outs

Everyone was doing their own daily “small things”

On a run one early morning all of these swimmers, maybe 200 in all were headed out for a morning swim.

Doing her best South Korean selfie face

wearing through volleyballs

you never knew what you would find in the woods

the small dog craze is Asia is a never ending source of joy for the girls, but this women’s pack of dogs took the cake for Busan.

On the road

There is this Japanese word, Ikigai, meaning the purpose for which one lives and is associated with longevity and happiness.   It has been astonishing to all four of us backing away from everything this year how much having a “purpose” makes in ones overall sense of well being even if that purpose is biking from one place to the next.   

Biking was a gift that we slowly treasured.  Usually we were pushing the girls, pushing the miles, seeing what we could do in a day, but this trip was different.  We had a large cushion of time on the end so when the choice was bike only 20 miles but enjoy another hot springs, why not, we were not in a hurry  to the end, no one seemed in a hurry to get “the biking over with.” At one point after going over 50 miles, the longest Lily had ever biked she looked at me and said how much she loved this trail and biking and wanted to take a few pictures.  My heart swelled not at just what she could do, but her enjoyment of it and love for the adventure.

Part of the joy of being on the road was the trail itself.   At times there were two lanes of bike trail in one direction, two in the other direction and a fully separate walking path.   The infrastructure behind these bike trails left us all in awe and talking about what it would take to do something similar at home.  Nearly all 400+ miles were on dedicated bike trails and the sections that were on the road were well marked, protected and very few cars.  The commitment to health, movement and wellness was a noticeable difference throughout the country. Instead of endless parking lots and suburban sprawl the whole country was made up of densely packed cities or towns with expansive green hills, trails, rivers and parks immediately accessible.  The paths were impressive easy to bike, occasionally having bike only tunnels or an extended pathway that took you out on a boardwalk above the river. Occasionally a section would be under construction and you would read that you could go the way of “the busy road” or the “tiresome walk” but these were part of the adventure.  Almost the entire path has some blooming tree or flower and we would spend hours surrounded by poppies or daisies . And then there was the added fun of passport stamps, bike art, and bike museums.

Part of the joy came from the people.  Large groups of fast road bikers would race by on their multiple thousand dollar bikes, all to come to a screeching halt to get a passport stamp.  Old men doing splits on the walking section of the town, so many thumbs up as bikers passed us in all directions. A group of over a 100 women, all in yellow, all biking in a line together.  A surprising number of people who looked to be learning to bike ride with unbucked helmets on backwards.

We talked, called family and friends, had work meetings, listened to audio books, day dreamed as  we pedaled from one town to the next. We biked every day but one when after 7 days, the sky opened up and rained for the first time and a bee sting Isabelle had got above her eye the day before resulted in such severe swelling  she could barely see out of one eye, the other being completely shut, essentially eliminating her depth perception. We figured between the two events we would take a day off. Each day structured and led by the girls growing their own leadership skills, each day growing stronger mentally and physically.   

We found purpose in movement and loved every bit of it.

Everywhere we went there were these large stones, this one at the top of a pass.

These paths are amazing. It was incredible the amount of infrastructure they put in to create this path.

And it was well used by bikes, walkers and go carts…

I have never seen so many people with helmets on backwards. I think it must be the boom in biking people rent them with the required helmets who don’t normally bike.

Just another sight at a passport stamping booth. This supported group was doing the same ride in 5 days, with a group message part way through.

Another stamp!

Making her way through the miles

Always following a river - the path continues.

dedicated bike trails everywhere

we have hundreds of pictures of back of the girls.

I didn’t realize we were being biking though such a peak flower time. It meant is was also peak bee season, but made the trip beautiful.

More beautiful rocks.

A temple overlooking the river.

As the road labeled “tiresome walk” proved to be just that, but beautiful.

The details of this buddhist temple were beautiful and reminded us of Bhutan.

Poppies everywhere

practicing her “paper boy” technique to make it up this 13% grade.

It was facinating to see how these cities were so dense with surrounding open space.

These wild roses were gorgeous.

on the road

happy camper

We really didn’t get many pictures of these birds, but fields of migratory birds the whole length of the trip with astonishing.

Quick stop in the shade

Making it up the hill

Morning rice fields

This bridge in what felt like in the middle of nowhere had these great bike sculptures

amazing bike infrastructure

I am not totally sure what is going on here, but we were having a great day, even those back road had mirrors as we biked to our hotel for the night.

Details of the ride

Somehow I thought this would be longer and harder than it was.  Many other people shared their stories and adventures with us which made the trip possible. I used their blogs and stories to help not only visualize our trip but plan as we went, so in return I wanted to share what we learned in case it helps or inspires anyone else.

Planning:  The facebook group Seoul to Busan and Beyond (SBB) is amazing.  A wealth of information, real time support from those who have been there and and a sense of community.   On this facebook group one can find links to strava data, maps and more.

Bike Rental:  I can not say enough good things about Bike Nara in Seoul.  This large bike store rented us bikes for the trip, had them picked up for us in Busan so we could continue on our adventure, shipped our remaining gear to our hotel.  The bikes were perfectly complete with panniers and a small bag for my youngest. He had nicer, faster bikes, spoke great english and was incredibly kind. They sold us passport books and gave us details & tips on the map.  I had told him we didn’t have a plan of how long it would take and they were flexible with the time schedule and even checked in to make sure we were having fun when we were on the trail. We could have not done this trip this year without Bike Nara!

Route finding:  As many people will mention, the Naver app is far superior in Korea.  We would put in the next certification center and off we would go. The girls did all the route finding  and as long as they were paying attention we were good.

Food and water:  It was hot much of the time we were biking and food and water could be spread out, so we just got used to carrying extra.  I would usually have a 2 L water in my bag plus some snacks. Many of our calories come from convenience stores and there is more in the “Korean eating blog”  but it was not a problem.

Lodging: The towns become a little more spread out as you get toward the last third of the trip, so we had to plan each day.  One day we thought we had to go 45 miles between towns, and found that there really was lodging between the two. For light bikes and the cultural experience we were grateful we didn’t plan ahead and there were plenty of places.  With small kids or for more flexibility in stopping I could see the advantage of a tent.

The breakdown:  Here is a breakdown of how we did our days as the list of other people’s “days” helped us figure out where we might get lodging next.  

Day 1: Ara locks to Gangam-Gu.  38.9 miles

After a morning of picking up our bikes and navigating the subway to the start, the first day was an amazing urban bike ride into the heart  of Seoul. Many people skip this section and just start at their hotel in Seoul but we loved his day and were glad we did the whole thing, but maybe it was the impressive tail-wind  for the first twenty miles and the joy of being on a bike. It was also fun to spend our first night in the famous district of Gangnam and have an amazing dinner and great bed.

Day 2: Gangnam - Yeoju: 54.8 miles

A longer day for the girls, they were anxious to push it a little further.  This was the most developed section of the whole trail, coffee shops, restaurants, biking and bikers everywhere.  This area had amazing bike tunnels. My Strava had 61 segments on this day and it must be where all of Seoul goes to bike. Not knowing what to expect we passed through this area quickly, but could have easily spent more time.  We found ourselves in the first love motel that night and spicy octopus for dinner.
Day 3: Youju - Ang Seong Hot Springs: 26.4 miles

A shorter day after two longs days of breaking in the saddle we learned this day all the cafes don’t continue and we need to start caring a little more food and water with us.  We ended in a beautiful small hot springs town that we loved so much we even thought about staying for a second day.

Day 4: Angseoung Hot Springs - Sunabo Hot Springs: 35.1 miles

Many people stay in the town of Sunabo as it is before 2 larger climbs of the trail.  Clearly a tourist town, packed with pheasant restaurants and a nice hot springs, everything was a bit pricey but we had a nice night, staying at a hotel with a bunny farm and clearly very used to  bike tourist.

Day 5: Sunabo - Mungyeong.  33.61 miles

This day was up and over the two larger hills.  They were beautiful and nice climbs, but the day got hot quickly and we were grateful the climbs were in the morning.  By mid afternoon it was so hot we hung out in a coffee shop for a few hours, letting it cool down before we went looking for a hotel room.  Mungyeong was the most run down town we stayed where we bypassed a few hotels because of the uncomfortable groups of men hanging outside of hotel  and if we were to do again, we would have skipped this town, or looked around for other places further from the train station.

Day 6: Mungyeong -  Gumi. 52.5 miles

This section starts to get a bit more spread out.  There was one section right after the bike museum where we all started and went different directions, Traverse and the kids following signs that looked like the trail, but turns out to be a connector trail.   They did about an extra 10 miles to the distance above, when they had to bike back to find me and we all continued on together. Getting into Gumi was a bit more of a challenging ride then I expected, one time taking an elevator to a bridge over a busy street.  More amazing flowers along this section.

Day 7: Gumi  - Daegu (Nakdonggang) 30 miles

Today was slow given the heat and length of the day before and Isabelle started to get sick and got stung by a bee on the forehead resulting in increasing swelling throughout the day.  Daegu is a huge city, and the area of Nakdonggang was the closest we could find to the trail. The area was fine, lots of outlet stores and office buildings, but not our favorite stop.

Day 8: Rest day

We woke up to pouring rain, blowing winds, Isabelle’s left eye was swollen closed, and her right was almost closed resulting in no depth perception and a hard time seeing.  Given that we had no huge time pressure, it seemed like a rest day was in order and we all enjoyed the break.

Day 9: Daegu  - Namji 56.2 miles

After a day of rest and cooler temperatures, today, despite being longer and more elevation climbing (many short hill that required pushing our loaded bikes) felt like a breeze and probably our favorite day.  Temples, short ascents and descents, poppies everywhere, and smaller villages. We all enjoyed the town of Namji which was small enough to navigate through, but large enough for hotel and food options. Everyone felt like they could keep going and we were all a bit sad the trip was coming to an end.

Day 10: Namji - Yangsan 39.7 miles

Closing in on the end, 40 miles seems like nothing to the girls now.  Easy beautiful day through poppies. Not a lot of towns, but we have our system down by now and enjoyed picnics and took our time. Yangsan is just outside of Busan, but a fun community with a ton of bike shops, the best Sushi I have ever had at Mr. Sushi and a clean, modern hotel not far off the trail.

Day 11: Yangsan - Busan. 22.8 miles

By 9:30 in the morning we had made it to the finish. The whole ride was accompanied by walkers, bikers and joggers enjoying this stretch of trail.  The end was more built up than the start, and at 10 am the girls were able to get their passports certified and certificates, a fun official feeling to completing the ride.   We enjoyed the parks foot baths and hung around before braving into the city to our hotel that night, which took a bit of dirty city biking to get to. In hindsight we might have braved the subways with bikes and headed straight for Haeundae beach given the hotel options near the end, but all is well that ends well.

At the end of the day we all agreed this was one of our favorite bike trips ever given the supportive set up.  The girls were seriously contemplating skipping the beach and continuing to bike and are hoping to return some day to complete the rest of the trails in South Korea.  Thank you to all of you who inspired us to do this trip and happy to help others who may be interested. It was amazing.

This sweet dog biking with the girls near the end, clearly this was not his first escort.

Riding to the end across another cool 3D painting.

The girls filling out their official paperwork at the end

enjoying our foot baths t the end with the pressure air dryers to go with them. Full service biking support!

Wishes written on paper boats at the end, these small pieces of art adding to every part of our experience

Taking a bath

Traveling with one teenager and one preteen girl across a broad swath of cultures and customs that view and treat the human body and sexuality differently has been an eye opening and usually entertaining experience.  From the stoicism of the Norwegians, to the practically naked Croatians and the muslim water parks of Malaysia we usually are finding ourselves googling and guessing on the culturally appropriate amount of body to expose when it comes to swimming, playing and bathing.  Our time in rural Korea was one more fun step along that adventure.

The center of Koreas is full of hot springs, and we decided to bike though this section slowly to get the most out of them.   In the first small town listed on our map as the “carbonated hot springs” we biked around looking for any motel, and finally found the  “On You” which also housed a “pubic bath” or hot springs.

After an lovely dinner, we decide to explore the baths.  Divided by sex, Traverse headed one way, we headed the other, first through the shoe room then the dressing room. I could not tell if it was a nude or swimsuit bath so I continued with my cultural guessing and while google provided guidance for Japan, I had found nothing for Korea and decided I would play it safe and head in with my suit on.  Wrong decision. I was quickly rempranded in Korean and nearly stripped of my swimsuit which started the next 15 min of Korean naked women describing in detail all the things I should and should not do, me smiling having no idea what was being said. I laughed, at this point used to the cultural fopas despite my best intentions, warning the girls that if they wanted to swim, they best be naked.  Which meant leaving your cloths in the lockers, no towels but a small face towel to navigate between different locker, entrance and bathing rooms.

Now fully naked we headed into what looked like a mirrored sitting shower room with women very aggressively scrubbing every part of themselves.  We joined in “showering” before entering the tubs with more friendly tips on hot vs cold water and I am sure many other pieces of advice we missed given the language barrier.   Hot baths, cold bath, sauna, and a very murky mineral bath made up the public baths, and despite being in there 2 hours total, every other woman was there when we got there, and still there when we left.  The girls laughed, talked and braved the cold water, teasing me with the line I use on them “you can do hard things” as I shrank away from the cold pool where they sat completely dunked and meditative telling me it was all about needing to build my “mental strength,” turning my words against me.

After a year of a different view and expressions of the human body, walking around without clothes in this public bath felt like one more step along this journey and I reflected how far we have come.   As I watched in amazement at these two girls becoming women, and wondered how seeing their own rapidly changing bodies in these different cultural connect would influence the way they see themselves in the years to come.  

Posing by the hearts before heading into the first set of baths. Sorry no pictures of the actual baths ;-)

Love motels

The landscape of possible lodging options in Korea went well beyond our familiar world of  Airbnb, VRBO, Agoda.com, Hotel.com and Bookings.com. Fortunately a few websites and facebook groups gave us an overview before we headed out.  

Most families doing this trip seem  to camp given the abundance of free camping options, including covered gazebos and flexibility in distance that camping provides.  However, we were doing this trip with what we had which meant no bike shorts, no bike computer and no camping gear.

There are many different types of lodging, one blog post talked about the twelve different types of  accommodations, from minibanks, to pensions, and jimjibangs.  It is a whole language itself learning the ins and out of Korean lodging options.  Through the center of Korea and off the beaten track however our options were limited by distance between towns, distance from the bike path and  not wanting to add too many additional miles through cities. We also wanted to stay together as a family, eliminating many of the cheaper dorm style options and usually found lodging the day we got  into the city and occasionally the day before and so began our love affair with the love motel.

Most of the motels found off the beaten track are near train stations and bus stations.  They take no reservations, can be rented by the hour or day and are reportley used by couples looking for some alone time.   We had heard that you and identify a love motel by the large strings covering the opening to obscure the cars parked inside and our adventures through them were continually entertaining and they were our cleanest most reliable source of lodging through most of our biking adventure.

Mirrored ceilings, partially frosted bathroom windows with naked women etched in the glass, bed heater and bed vibrators, multicolored LED lights in every room, whole arrays of body lotion and hair spray, men and womens condoms come in every room as regularly as soap and conditioner.   Inspiring love poems on walls where it often felt like something got lost in translation and curtin reception areas where not seeing the desk clerk made our lack of Korean even more challenging. It was our biking, Korean version of sex ed class for this final stage of homeschooling and a source of endless laughs.

Lily making her way thought he “curtains” that block the visibility of who comes in and out of the love motels.

The door near our love motel one day

Waking up to our color LED lights

so many options

Ahh the quotes, always love the quotes.

Korean Eating

The thing about biking through the center of South Korea is we got off the beaten track and the need for food, water and a place to sleep pushed all of us out of comfort zone just a bit more.

At the start of this year, the girls did not love mushrooms, but by now they don’t hesitate to eat every one of them, as it is a food they can identify, which at times can be a rarity.   This growth curve rapidly progressed in South Korea between the hunger produced by biking and the unique nature of much of the Korean food we encountered and our lack of Korean language skills and the limitations with translation.

Spicy long leg occupus soup, with the live octopus swimming nearby, “anchovy living in a leaf” dinner, small brown things that prompted a long discussion if the item was a fungus, a vegetable or an intestine of some type with no clear answer.   

We got to the point at the end of the day, that if we could find a restaurant we would manage by asking for, “food for us” with google translate and  see what happened, often times we were more successful with the universal body language coupled with large smiles and that got us further than attempts at actual words.  

Usually what followed was bowl after bowl of goodness and an occasional ability to identify what we were eating.  We got good at the massive scissors that accompany most meals to cut apart the protein, that everything is served bubbly hot and the tricks of cooking our own BBQ on the electric table, and balancing the bowl of garlic with the onions and meat.

Convenience stores also become a mainstay of many of our meals.   After a bit of total indulgence in junk food, we slowly learned how to make a “meal” that was more sustaining  for a long day in the heat with what we could find. Seaweed rice and tuna triangles were the best, cans of tuna in seaweed, frozen yogurt shakes and nuts became favorite finds.  After eating instant ramen with “chopsticks” we made from torn cups we also learned that you must always have a pair of chopsticks in your bike bag!

But the thing I will remember most is the lovely women, who spoke no english but by part way through the meal would be sitting  with us on the floor, laughing, showing us how to wrap the meat in lettuce and holding Lily’s braids or running back to bring the girls more seaweed,  milk or some other food suddenly deemed critical for their survival and the generosity in which they shared their culture and the joy of sharing a meal.  An experience that happened repeatedly on the road and as a moment of shared joy around a table of bubbling hot goodness.

Hot pot eggs and and long legged spicy octupus for dinner

more amazing Korean BBQ

Live octopus for dinner

Octopus head attached

another on the road picnic from connivence station food.

Seoul to Busan, starting our adventure across South Korea

Our minimal bags shrunk further to fit on our bikes and we handed the reins over to the girls on an unstructured 400+ mile biking adventure across South Korea.  

As parents we have converted to “app mode” with only safety notifications being turned on in order to give the girls a chance be the main operating system.  By allowing them to “do” instead of “follow” we hope they know they are so much more than a blue dot making their way to the red dot on the map. They are instead a person, along a river, next to a sign and another human who they can ask for help.  We all struggle to figure out how our new augmented realities are shaping our every interaction. We both embrace the technology that enables us to do this trip, supported by FaceBook biking groups, Booking.Com and google translate not to mention work conference on the bike path and long talks with friends.  But also struggle how that takes us away from the now and the “happy accidents” that make up so many great adventures.
So here is to the adventure; to the unknown, to patience to follow and the strength to lead.  Here is the open road and the purpose found in movement where we have continued to find a well of joy.

Here they are at the start, hoping the smiles are just as big at the end of our adventure.

The girls making their way on the subway to start the adventure.

Trying to be as small as we can on the subway but still feeling awfully big.

Fitting in

Making our way to the start

Along the whole route are these great stamp booth, each with their own unique stamp you place in a biking passport. After we finally found the start, we got to mark off the first passport stamp.

Showing off her book with the trails of South Korea in the background.

Just follow the blue line for 633 KM to Busan, no problem.

And off they go!

Bike only paths.

One could do a whole book of the bike art in South Korea. It made the ridding so much more fun.

Snack time.

It is hard to describe how crazy awesome the path is, especially around Seoul. Between the mountain, the river and the road, they have left space for the person on a bike.

Getting getting ready for stamp 2.

Making her mark as we progress.

Seoul

After Taipei, we thought we were feeling a little burnt out of large Asian cities.  There are only so many times a night market is exciting, a temple is beautiful or subway line impressive, so when we landed in Seoul South Korea it was without much fanfare.

But like anything, when the expectations are low, the reward is often that much better, and that was very true with Seoul.  This beautiful city won our hearts through its neighborhoods. Instead of the massive maze of Ho Chi Minh, Taipei or even the nicely dressed maze of Singapore, the little we saw of Seoul was full of charm, beautiful neighborhoods, trails, parks, fantastic food, all connected by bike paths and subways.

We stayed in a charming Airbnb, made personalized perfumes in a real-world chemistry class at the heart of an ancient part of the city and enjoyed lovely walks and runs in the park, watched a Korean traditional dance, visited museums, ate at michelin star dumpling restaurant, learned how to eat Korean Barbeque, and enjoyed perfect coffees.   

We came to South Korea; however, not for Seoul, we came here for the Four Rivers bike path - a 400-mile long trail that connects Seoul to Busan.  The day we were planning to start was raining hard, so we postponed the trip a day, again grateful for the flexibility for this year.

The beauty of the perfume class.

I have leaned to love the feeling you get in each city when you first arrive. The vast open modern feeling of Seoul greeted us as we excited the MRT.

With a little funk added in.

Having fun.

Our final product.

I loved the fact many Koreans dress in traditional cloths (often rented for the day) to go to the museum, or out to dinner.

This kiddo was not as excited.

Art everywhere. This was clearly related to some children’s game as kids kept jumping on.

I would have come to Seoul for this book store alone. I loved this eight story display.

and so did this kiddo.