Aomori to Tokyo, via the east coast

23rd July 2018
Narita Airport, Tokyo, Japan
A very pleasant 22c inside T3
Outside a sweltering 39.6c

Yes, we are in Tokyo in the midst of the worst heatwave for 40 years.  However, we are on our way to The Gold Coast where Mr Weatherman tells me it's 23c and sunny.  We can live with that.  My last post was from Hokkaido where we were still wearing 3 layers of clothing and trying to shelter from a freezing wind coming from Siberia.  But that all changed very quickly indeed.

Dave, and the misting sunflowers

The ride from Chitose to Hakodate took us around 2 lakes and along some not very memorable roads, towards the ferry to Aomori.  The most memorable part of the trip were the bear warnings, several of them that included words like 'infestation' and 'dangerous'.  We didn't see any, thank goodness, but it's all very real if you listen to the number of bear bells people wear and the signs in local shops.  The other thing about those last few days on Hokkaido was the light was so poor I barely took any photographs, which is a shame.

Yep, bears, and they are dangerous

The ferry journey over to Aomori was smooth and uneventful, with us being the only foreigners on the boat yet again.  At Aomori the weather turned rather wet again so we stayed put for a couple of nights and we're very glad we did, we really liked the city.  The Nebuta Festival happens every August between 2nd and 7th, where enormous lantern floats, drummers, musicians and dancers all parade through the city.  We were fortunate to be able to see the floats for this year's festival being constructed, and, at the museum saw several of the floats and masks from last year's festival displayed beautifully.  They were truly magnificent.

From Aomori we set out towards the east coast and intended to go to Towada but we were thwarted by a 'Car Only' road which Maps.me doesn't seem to know about.  We were to find several of these roads on Honshu and while the cars got to travel along flatish roads, through brand new tunnels and landscapes, the cyclists and trucks got to climb several hundred metres at a time in order to go around.  Thanks guys!  This meant we ended up on the 123, which started off OK but turned into a beautiful forest track.  Fifteen kilometres later we were STILL on a forest track, in the middle of the forest, with absolutely no way of seeing where we were headed.  Needless to say, forest tracks are much more time consuming than good old asphalt so several hours later we were still nowhere near our destination.  Finally, track turned to asphalt, we changed direction slightly and ended up near Misawa.  Oh well that's what adventures are made of.

Beautiful countryside, planted up

We had decided to take the east coast knowing we would be witnessing the aftermath of the 2011 Tsunami.  Seven years on and, after all, this is Japan we thought, they'll have sorted most of it out by now.  How wrong we were.  I remember seeing the terrifying footage when it happened, all that water forcing its way into towns and cities, but really we had no idea of the extent of the damage or the distances involved.  I also remember the reports coming out of the Fukushima Nuclear plant, those words 'there is steam coming from the cooling towers' were etched on everyone's brain because many of us remember Chernobyl and the devastation THAT caused, and is still causing, we knew what those words meant.

Huge sea wall

Look out tower and tsunami sign

From Misawa we began our route south towards Hachinohe and onto Kuji where we would witness the first of the tsunami damage.  Kuji is 335 miles north of Sendai, where the  earthquake measuring 9.1, hit.  It was 10kms deep and it took an hour for the tsunami to start its journey.  As we made our way further south along the east coast each area hit by the tsunami seemed to be worse than the previous.  The water seemed to come in a bit further, or take out more of a town or village, or more people died or were missing.  As you can imagine, the coastline is very different in all those areas, and as such the reparations and defences they are putting in place are different for each area.  Some have giant, 30 metre plus, concrete sea walls, others have pyramid structures which will divert the water in and around, presumably to cause less damage.  Others have the water diverted upwards in order to slow the flow down, we also saw channels where water would be forced to flow down and across land.

Another type of defence

The signs all along the coastline constantly tell us how many metres above sea level we are, even if that is just 1.5 metres.  We saw two kinds of signs the 'past' tsunami indundation area signs as well as 'estimated', presumably the computer modelled estimation of what might happen if there was another in the future.  It hit home to me one particular day, cycling up the first of many hills, when at 39 metres above sea level I passed a 'past tsunami inundation end' sign.  I thought 'shit, I'm cycling up a hill, miles from the sea and the water came up this far'.  It was then I began to think about how terrifying it must have been to have been involved in such a terrible distaster.  In Sendai, the water penetrated the land by 10 kms!

The only sign we saw referring to 'Tidal Wave' all the others referred to 'Tsunami'

The going was hilly for the first week, climbing 500-600 metres each day, one day it was over 1200 metres, and the weather was still a bit iffy, albeit much warmer than Hokkaido.  In fact, the moment we arrived in Aomori we noticed the change in temperature immediately, at least a 10c gain, so the rain we experienced was not freezing as in Hokkaido, we were grateful for that, as well as the lack of bear signs, phew!  At this time the west coast was seeing terrible floods as a result of a typhoon coming up from the south, we just got the tail end of that which resulted in a day of rain and some dense fog.

By the time we reached Kamaishi and Kesennuma the devastation was pretty horrific.  There was either nothing, everything had been flattened, or, it was new.  Some larger buildings survived in Kesennuma but many were flushed away with the flood.  There's a video on YouTube which will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, watch it if you can.

Michi-no-eki, showing flood level after the tsunami

We made our way to Sendai, a lovely city, seemingly recovered from the 10km inundation they experienced, where we spent a couple of nights before setting off on our final leg towards Tokyo.  It was at Minamisoma that we discovered it wasn't possible to carry on cycling on the 6 because of the exclusion zones which were still in place around Fukushima.  It took a very concerned 7/11 employee to alert us to the fact that it was 'dangerous'.  I suppose we envisaged signs, or barriers, of some kind informing us we couldn't go any further, especially when we know that the Japanese are SO safety conscious, but there was nothing.  We now know that we would only have been turned back at the outer edge of the exclusion zone, but that was another 10 kms, so we would have had another 20kms added to the 10kms we were already going to have to backtrack to go around the zone.

Having ascertained we couldn't go on we sat down to work out a route around, at which point a Japanese man, in his 50s I guess, came to talk to us.  We think the 7/11 employee, knowing he spoke some English, had told him about us.  He too was very concerned that we understand we couldn't cycle through the exclusion zones.  He said the only road we could take was the 12, that meant we had to backtrack and go into the mountains, it would add at least 2 days to our journey, but we had allowed plenty of time so we weren't too concerned.  He told us that more than 100 people had died since the disaster, 'blood cancer, but nobody wants to talk about it'.

We chatted to him for sometime.  He had been to England in the past, he mentioned Trinity College Cambridge although whether he studied there or just visited we don't know.  He spoke at least 3 languages (Japanese, Spanish and English) and was clearly an educated man, however, he worked as a security guard.  This came out during a conversation about unemployment levels in the UK and Japan, I'm guessing he would rather not be a security guard.  After a good 15 minutes or so, just before he left us, 4 police officers turned up and went into the 7/11, shortly after they came out and spoke to us, all had mobile phones in hand with translation and map apps at the ready.  After some toing and froing we reassured them that we knew what the situation was and we would definitely be going to ride up the 12 and into the mountains. 

One of the officers still seemed agitated so I fired up the mic on Google Translate (luckily we had wifi at the 7/11) and gave it to him to speak into.  I still have it on my phone, he said 'the store clerk thought you would be here forever', at which point Dave and I burst out laughing thinking it was his idea of a joke.  Stony faces all round, we were the only ones who thought this was funny.  Then the penny dropped, the 7/11 clerk had CALLED the Police, rather than it being some kind of coincidence.  Jeez, this was turning into one hell of a day.

So we backtracked towards the 12, it was midday by this time and already in the mid 30s (the temperatures were starting to soar at this point) but we decided to start tackling the hills anyway.  A lovely young man stopped us to give us 2 bottles of cold, green tea on the longest stretch, so that was nice.  It was along this stretch that we noticed the toxic waste piles, all covered over with plastic.  At first we didn't know what it was but then it dawned on us, they are piling it up in the mountains because they don't know what to do with it.  Subsequent research confirms this to be the case.  What on earth is going to happen?

Storing toxic waster from Fukushima at Iidate

The road around Fukushima

The detour turned out to be a rather lovely, but hilly, affair.  Some of the villages we rode through had the most beautiful old houses, some of them lovingly restored others falling into complete disrepair. The hills were covered in trees, I had no idea there was SO much forest in Japan, so many hues of green.  The rice paddies and the flowers, the allotments and rivers and streams, it was all so picturesque.

Rustic shrine

The easiest route would have been to join Highway 4 straight south but we had touched on it further north and because it was a main trunk road it was busy, and dirty, so we headed back to the coast to join the 6 again.  There was less devastation after this point, still some reminders of the tsunami but not as much as further north.  At Hitachi we headed inland towards Tokyo.  It became clear at this point that Japan was in the midst of an unprecedented heatwave.  More than 30 people have died from heatstroke or heat-related illnesses as for the 10th day in a row temperatures have exceeded 38c, higher in some places. 

While we were in the north Osaka experienced an earthquake, measuring 5.5, killing 4 people and injuring almost 500.  Not long after the earthquake there were devastating floods on the west coast as a result of a typhoon.  Japan really does get it's fair share of terrible weather.  Our friend we met outside the 7/11 pointed out that perhaps Japan is NOT the place for a nuclear power plant, given its tendencies towards such weather, especially not in Fukushima, what with the mountains and the rain that helped the disaster along immensely.  We experienced at least 3 aftershocks, measuring only 2.2 - 2.7 (they were listed on the Japan Meteorological website) where the buildings shook and there was quite a lot of whooness going on, but those around us didn't seem to notice.

Cycling into Tokyo was incredibly easy.  Right up until the last 5kms it felt like we were riding through a lot of joined up villages until BOOM, suddenly you arrive.  But even then, the BOOM is nothing compared to other cities, drivers are still driving nice and calmly, slowly even, and incredibly courteous, it's all very harmonious.  The first bike shop we stopped at had 2 bike boxes, thankfully, so we folded them up and attached them to the bikes making them look a little like flying machines.  We enlisted the assistance of one of the receptionists who spoke good English to help us sort out the bikes getting to the airport, we used Sagawa, a transportation company, the total cost was yen 10,000, worth it when you consider the alternative - carrying 2 boxed bikes (how?) plus panniers to the station, on the train, into the airport in almost 40c.  Nah.

Flying!

We were in Ueno, a lovely district in Tokyo with a fantastic park (the coolest place to be) sporting an Australian - Japanese Friendship festival, they must have known where we were headed :)  We spent a wonderful evening with Markus (Luisa's partner, Luisa is Dave's cousin, living in Canada) wem metat the Tokyo American Club (where they do a mean gin and tonic by the way) and then hopped in a taxi to Andy's izakaya, a small 'under the railway arches' eatery, run by Andy from Leicester, although he's been in Japan forever.  It was while we were filling our boots from the liquor vending machines (also under the arches) that we met Graham, who joined us to eat.  Markus ordered the food, which was amazing, and the drinks, which were strong, and a fantastic time was had by all.  Markus missed his train back to Chiba, we managed to find our way back to Ueno, we waved goodbye to Graham not knowing what was going to happen to him.  Hopefully, he made it home.  We were a little fuzzy around the edges the following day, but we had such a great time, thanks Markus a fitting farewell to Tokyo and Japan.

Markus, our host for the evening

Andy, he's done this before hasn't he?

Talking of farewells, we were in Japan for over 2 months, the longest we've been anywhere on this trip so to try and talk about EVERYTHING is nigh on impossible, but here are some highlights:

Pachinko slot machines - these institutions are EVERYWHERE, even in the wilds of Hokkaido, many of them with pictures of scantily clad women beckoning you in.

Eateries - So many of them, from the tiniest hole in the wall to the absolutely huge.  There are chains like Hotto Motto, Big Boy (yes, that's right), Sukaya, CoCo Curry and many, many more where you can have a set meal for a reasonable price, about 5 quid.  There are a couple of cheap sushi chains (name escapes me, but it will always have sushi in the name :) where you get a plate of sushi for yen100/150 (2 pieces).  Convenience stores are great places to eat and drink cheaply, meals you microwave or noodles (all shops have hot water) coffee for less than a quid, a many of them have seats, wifi and USB points to charge up.  Expect to eat a lot of noodles, we ate our own body weight while there.

Seasons - it's possible to return to Japan, year on year, at different times of the year, and still not see everything.  You can ski in the winter, follow the Sakura in spring, see any number of festivals all year round, lavender in Hokkaido in the summer and the list goes on.  Seriously, there is SO much to see, we were here for over 2 months and saw very little.

Accommodation - if you want to stay in hotels in Japan the cheapest way is either dorm or capsule.  A room will set you back 45-75 quid, for an average, but always spotlessly clean, room.  The downside of Japanese hotels being scrupulously clean is that to do all that cleaning they need time, so they tend to have late check ins (3-4pm) and early checkouts (10-11am) and don't try and check in early, you will be charged yen 1000 per hour!  There are plenty of free camping sites and of course the Michi-no-ekis mentioned previously, I suggest joining the Free Camping and Hot Springs group on FB for more information.  Parks are a favourite of touring cyclists, there's always a 24 hr toilet block (clean, with toilet paper and drinking water) although don't expect a lie-in, cleaning usually starts around 6am, so there'll be people milling around, walking the dog, exercising, practicing their saxophone etc.  The Japanese are early risers.

Rubbish - there are no bins, you are expected to take your rubbish 'home' with you, but what if you have no home to go to?  Convenience stores have recycle bins, and on Honshu we found most of them would take the 'combustible' rubbish, but in Hokkaido only plastics and definitely no glass - our empty wine bottles were usually bagged up and left in one of the rubbish cages (bear-proof) on the edge of the road.


Countryside and Gardens - I had no idea Japan had so much forest and it's all ridiculously green.  It's also very mountainous, so beware going off piste into the hills, some of them are long and steep.  The Japanese love their gardens and they are all incredibly orderly.  Often the front garden is a little allotment, growing vegetables and flowers alongside rice paddies.

Hot Springs - I discovered that I actually like my own company when it comes to bathing and Dave really wasn't bothered especially when he discovered he would have to cover up his tattoo to enter an Onsen (Yakuza not allowed) so we didn't bother with them most of the time, although I understand the attraction of sitting in some of the natural springs, with a fab view and nobody else around, I get that!

People - We have loved the Japanese people.  They are so respectful, kind, considerate, unassuming and very incurious.  While you may feel like a right Gringo and not understand anything that's going on around you nobody will stare at you, but they will help you out if you need it.  Like the lovely man who took our bag of rubbish from us on the beach saying 'to my home', with a very deep, respectful bow.  How kind is that?  He would have had to dig around in our rubbish to recycle it, that's what I call doing someone a favour.  There are so many examples of kindness I can't list them here.  The other thing to note is that Japan is one of the safest countries we've every visited.  We left our money belt on top of the bike one day, went shopping for an hour, when we finally realised we didn't have it and went back to the bike a little apprehensive, there it was, exactly where we left it.

Wifi - download the Japan Free Wifi app and sign up to it, you can search and login to any free wifi (most convenience stores have it).  We managed without personal wifi most of the time we were in Japan.

Wildlife - The bears, of course, but the butterflies - they are SO plentiful and beautiful, caterpillars, frogs, toads, birds (some incredibly noise and others just huge) and spiders.

Culture - Temples and shrines, you don't have to go far to see these.  Some are more famous than others but I found myself drawn to the smaller, more rustic examples, usually in the backend of nowhere, and with not a soul to disturb my wanderings.  Festivals, music, art - OMG everywhere you go the country is oozing all this stuff, don't expect to do too much on your first visit.

Wrapping up - Japan has been absolutely amazing, the best place we've visited this trip, can't recommend it enough to both cyclists and general tourists.  It was a bit of a slow burn for me, I don't know why, maybe the initial culture shock took time to wear off, but wear off it did.  Neither of us can believe we've actually left, but here we are, 8.5 hours later on the big silver bird and we're in Australia.  G'day mate!

Laters

Northern South Korea and Northern Japan

9th June 2018
Dormy Inn Wakannai, Hokkaido, Japan
Cool and overcast but the sun is peeking through

The reason we're staying in the lovely Dormy Inn is because the forecast was for extreme cold and rain.  The extreme cold came with a vengeance, overnight when we weren't looking, in the guise of 3c with a wind chill factor making it feel like -5c.  It was then we realised just how far north and close to Russia we are, in fact Vladivostok is to the south of us there are ferries to Russia and all the street signs are in both Russian and Japanese.  The rain, thankfully, did not materialise.  But the clouds are clearing and we're hopeful that tomorrow will be a lovely day.  Fingers crossed.

Five layers of clothing

My last post was from a spa/ski resort in South Korea call Sunbeo, it was raining then too.  From Sunbeo we wound our way up north towards Seoul and eventually Incheon, where we would eventually fly to Sapporo in Hokkaido.  One of the most interesting areas of the 4Rivers cycle path is the Mungyeong area where it feels as though the mountains are getting squished together, closer to the river than at any other time.  Maybe it's where tectonic plates meet, I don't know.  In any case, the river is forced to take many twists and turns and it's all in all very beautiful.

Local camping spot on the river

I've got to hand it to Korean Water (publicly owned body that looks after the dams, bridges and water structures and supply in South Korea) they know how to keep cyclists interested in their bridges.  Many of them very grand and often with lovely artworks, or buildings, often a bit 'other wordly'.

Bridge at night

Another bridge

We were entertained along the way by wild animals and the Korean version of the Red Arrows were training for an event so we got to see them doing their formations on two occasions.  Generally though we just enjoyed the peaceful nature of the path.  Weekends can be a bit hectic, specially if you're near a city, but the rest of the time we had the path to ourselves.  We were able to camp in beautiful, sunny meadows, or, close to the river, only once did we feel exposed to several noisy roads, literally we were between 3 motorways and a couple of minor roads, however, the next day we discovered if we had just gone on a few more kms we would have been in a lovely little spot by the river.

Eventually we made our way to Seoul and the busiest part of the path.  Many old railway tunnels take you into the city and like most cities, just when you think you're there, you notice it's another 10kms to get you to your destination.  Unlike most cities though, the cycle path goes right into the centre of Seoul, making it rather easy and if it hadn't been for the rain we would have been happy peddlars all the way in.

We found ourselves near Hongik University, a very trendy but cheap area of the city, where you can drink, eat and shop to your heart's content.  We did some sightseeing and went to the fabulous Dongdaemum building, designed by the British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid. While we were there we spotted some ole Bristol friends, Wallace and Gromit.  Someone didn't do the proofreading!

We didn't make it to the DMZ because there is a strict dress code in place and sandals are prohibited.  Apparently, the North Koreans take photographs of scruffy sandal-clad westerners and use them as propaganda, presumably in a 'look at them, the filthy Johnny Foreigners' kind of way, so we didn't go but we weren't that bothered.  We'd had plenty of American air activity in the week leading up to our visit to Seoul, Chinooks, F16s (or whatever their jets are called) and they all looked like they were on a bit of a mission.  We learned later that Trump had just cancelled talks with the North Koreans.

The Korean Red Arrows

We made our way from Seoul to Incheon to catch our flight to Sapporo.  Incheon airport is on an island, Yeongjongdo, so after getting our final stamp in our cycle passports we headed for the ferry terminal.  As we rounded the corner we found ourselves in a theme park, we thought we'd been transported to Barry Island.  Not our cup of tea.  Once on the island it was the most weird experience.  We had spotted a very large green area close to the ferry terminal, and thought we'd head there to pitch for the night.  It was all rather ghostly.  The 'Beach Park' was obviously new, had all the parking, toilet facilities, playgrounds and water fountains installed, and had been for sometime, but there was nobody there.  The streets were all new but there were no cars and the very tall apartment blocks (lots of them) were all empty. 

Another bridge

As we cycled closer to the airport the theme continued.  Lots of building work, brand new 4-6 lane highways but no people and no cars.  Most odd.  Getting into the airport on a bicycle proved even more tricky because of all the building work and when we were stopped by men in uniform at the gates to what seemed to be the entrance to the airport, much time was spent trying to explain to us it was not possible to cycle to the airport.  We made all the right noises about getting the train but then just carried on cycling, eventually arriving at Departures.

We were flying the next day but wanted to make sure we had everything covered as far as the bikes were concerned, after all, Eastar Jet are a budget airline.  We had purchased 15kg each for the panniers and the t&cs informed us that bicycles could be transported for W10,000, that's only just over 6 quid.  The conversation went something like this:

Me:  We are flying to Sapporo tomorrow and we have bicycles (points to fully loaded bicycle) and we just want to find out what we need to do.

Ground staff:  Just turn up here, and I will check them in and you wheel them round to the oversize baggage (she spoke good English)

Me:  Are you sure we don't need to bag them, or box them?

Ground staff:  No, just turn up here, and I will check them in and you wheel them round to the oversize baggage

Me:  Oh, so we know we need to pay to transport them, where do we do that?

Ground staff:  Here, at this desk (points to check in desk)

Me:  Oh, so we definitely don't need to wrap them in anything?

Ground staff:  No

We'd had this experience 30 years ago.  Nobody used to box or bag a bike back then, they were just wheeled onto the aircraft and we'd heard that in Indonesia the budget airlines are a bit carefree when it comes to bicycles.  Too good to be true?  Of course it was.  The next day, at 0530 this is what actually happened.

Me:  We need to check in these bicycles and our baggage, on the flight to Sapporo

Ground staff:  (Looking rather perplexed, takes our passports) Wait here.  A few minutes later.  You have to go to Packaging Area, Gate A.

Me:  We were told yesterday we just had to bring the bikes here, no packaging, no boxes

Ground staff:  (Smiling at me as though I'm the cutest puppy dog she's ever seen) No, you have to go to Packaging Area, Gate A.

Me:  (looking at the time, we have exactly 1.5 hrs till the flight closes) you mean get them boxed?

Ground staff:  Yes

So off we go, find two likely lads working in the packaging area who do a fine job and charge us W80,000 that's the equivalent of 53 quid.  Just as they're finishing up Ground Staff Lady comes to tell us we're running out of time, yes, it's 3 mins till check in closes.

However, that's when the fun really begins because Check-in Lady is now asking us to weigh the bikes.  At this point we know this is going to cost us an arm and a leg.  

Me:  Why do you want to weigh them?  They cost W10,000 per bicycle (takes out computer with t&cs, shows Check in Lady who is now frowning).

Check in Lady:  No, only domestic

Me:  You show me where it says only domestic

Check in Lady:  Only domestic

Sports Equipment
Passenger will be charged 10,000won for bicycles(including foldable), Surfboards and Wind surfing equipment regardless of the free baggage allowance in domestic flights.


Me:  OK, so show me your international policy for carrying bicycles

Silence

Ground Staff Lady:  Still smiling, with head cocked to one side, You have to pay

Long story short, after much tooing and froing about policies and weight, the Excess Baggage charges were negotiated down from 37 kilos to 25, but at W10,000 per kilo it doubled the price of our flight.  We made it to the flight with about 5 minutes to spare.  Ah well, tis only money but we could have done without the stress.

Laters

South Korea, Busan to Suanbo

15th May 2018
Suanbo Saipan Hot Spring Hotel
20c, raining
WON 1500 = £1

The overnight ferry from Shimonoseki to Busan was interesting to say the least.  We had spent a couple of weeks in Japan where the people are incredibly polite and reserved.  We didn't hear a raised voice (apart from some children) the whole time we were there.  Lots of South Koreans were returning after a shopping trip (judging by the number of bags they all had) and seemed determined to enjoy the last night of their holiday.  The noise levels increased in line with the number of bottles of Soju (local hooch) they drank and that was before we left the ferry terminal.  On board we found our 2nd class 'cabin', to be shared with three others.  We introduced ourselves, rolled out our mats and set off to explore the ferry.

After a couple of beers (from several vending machines on the ship) I decided to visit The Grand Bath while Dave decided to forgo the experience.  I was rescued by a Korean woman who, noticing I was barefoot, furnished me with slippers and showed me where to put my clothes before going into the bathing area.  The baths are for soaking NOT washing, so having showered first I got into the hotter of the two baths.  There's no room for shyness in these places, everyone just gets naked and does their thing.  While soaking I realised that I hadn't washed very well at all.  What I should have done was brought a number of scrubs and a selection of beauty products with me, and washed myself until my skin almost fell off.  Next time I'll know.

Later that night we found out just how unreserved the Koreans can be specially when they imbibe alcohol.  We were woken by a commotion in the next 'cabin' where someone was clearly drunk and causing a nuisance.  I'm glad he wasn't in ours.

In our experience the Korean people are curious, outgoing, generous and very sociable. Not many people speak English but that doesn't stop them chatting and trying to help us out.  Everywhere we go people give us food, pay for our coffee, ask where we are from (at least we think that's what they are asking) and want to take a photograph to mark the occasion.  They have definitely made us feel at home.

We are heading north towards Seoul on the 4Rivers Cycle Route, we have a passport and are collecting stamps at Certification Stations along the way.  Most of the route is flat cycleway, along the river but every now and again the steep, sugar-loaf mountains, come right to the river and we have to go over them.  Oh boy, some of them are STEEP, so much so there's no option but to push.  Even going DOWN is pretty scary on a loaded bike.  But all in all it is a lovely route and very easy. 

We are meandering really, wild camping most of the time waking up early, starting late and finishing early afternoon.  The longest day was 90kms but most days it's been 50 or so kms.  We're enjoying the wildlife, Deer wandering into our camp most days, Otters gambling in the river, Snakes (yikes) sunbathing on the path, Voles and Mice scampering around in the undergrowth and sometimes the fish are a jumpin'.  We have camped in the wooden pagodas along the way if it looked like rain and today it's rained all day so we decided to take a day off the bikes and stay put.

The cycle touring community is a tight knit one and with social media the world seems even smaller.  This week we 'bumped' into Ross and Alessia (Rolling East) who are heading south, so our paths literally crossed.  Only to discover that they had 'bumped' into Daniel and Antonia from Germany (we met them at Tree in Lodge in Singapore) in the Pamirs last year.  It turns out that Ross's family live in Melbourne, which is where we will end up after the wedding in August.  Apart from our friends being in Melbourne there's also Therese and Nick, cyclists we met in Greece last year, and, Diane (who wouldn't get on a bike if you paid her) who we met in Singapore.

We haven't been eating much Korean food as we are catering for ourselves much of the time.  The Ramen noodles we had in Busan were lovely but at W18000 for a bowl of noodles and a beer (the beer was 9000) it was expensive.  The best meal we've had so far was in Busan, near the station, a set meal for 5000.  There were only 3 choices, there was a photo of each and a price beside the photo, easy.  Not so easy in places where everything is in Korean and there are no photos.  Yesterday we ended up eating a shed load of chicken because it was the only place in town with 'proper' tables and chairs, the kind you pull a chair up to and sit at.  Everywhere else would involve two people with very creaky knees, trying to wriggle themselves under a table less than 12 inches off the floor and sit cross-legged.  I would have felt the need to show them the scar on my knee to explain why I was wriggling around like a 3 year old having a sugar rush.

Confession time, I'm missing Europe and I'm missing friends.  While we've been travelling life goes on for friends and family.  One of my besties has been diagnosed with cancer, another has lost her mother, another has lost his brother and while most of the time I'm happy to be doing what we're doing, every now and again I want to be 'home' and be able to give someone a hug, or go out for dinner, or just 'be'.  This isn't the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last, and I'm sure it will pass.  We've got a wedding and a whole load of catching up to do in Australia, and we have to visit Luisa, Dave's cousin, in Japan.  I'm so looking forward to all that.

Tomorrow we hit the path again and if the past is anything to go by you won't be hearing from me again until we go back to Japan!

Laters

Gringos and being green - Sumatra

11^th March 2018

Starli Hotel, Bukittinggi, West Sumatra
A very pleasant 26c

Imagine walking into your local Tesco when, overnight, you have grown to 8 ft tall.  Oh, and you now have a green complexion and are wearing a Zebra outfit.  That’s how we have felt most of the time we have been in Sumatra.  As well as the shouts of “hello mister” and “where are you from?” there is a look, a gawp, that’s at first, quite entertaining, but after a while becomes rather tedious.  When you have heard the same statement or request 150 times in one day, and that isn’t an exaggeration there are a lot of people in Sumatra, it’s as much as I could do not to shout expletives back at the unsuspecting locals.  Even more annoyingly, sometimes they get the words totally wrong so we hear “who are you”, “why are you going” or “why is your name?”.  To add insult to injury, they’re not even listening to the answer, they are just saying the only words they know.  They are driving a motorbike at 30 mph, or a car, or a truck and they have pulled up right alongside you, very close, wound down the window and with their 30^th cigarette of the day balanced between their nicotine-stained talons they gawp, or say something in Bahasa that the other 14 people in the vehicle all find hilarious.  By the way, I’m talking about men, not ALL men, but a lot.  I made a decision fairly early on in our stay that I wouldn’t respond to men over the age of 13, unless they had engaged in a proper manner and were genuinely interested in a conversation.  In any case, most of the time it’s Dave they really want to talk to, so it was easy to ignore them.  Rant over!

Don't look so odd do we?

Then there are the women, who are funny, engaging, hard-working, often a little shy at first but give them a smile and they are there with me, on the bike.  They shout and wave encouragement, “hello”, “kopi”, “panas” (hot) a thumbs up or a nod, they know I’m no spring chicken and so we identify as females.  Their chances of leaving the village they were born in is virtually non-existent, unless their parents have money, in which case they could go to High School, then onto University.  Otherwise, when they are of an age they will get married and have children.  The same goes for the men.  The children too are a delight.  Whenever we responded to their “bye bye” or “hi” we would hear squeals of delight, as if there was some kind of competition going on as to who could get the ‘Orangs’ to respond.  The good outweighs the bad in my opinion.

Schoolgirls who chased us down to 'interview' us

On the way to school

We have experienced some pretty horrendous pollution on some of the roads.  I doubt there is anything called an emissions test here in Sumatra.  The pollution coupled with the potholes/landslides, or, sagging where an earthquake has caused the road to drop a metre or so, all conspire to make some of the riding here quite treacherous.  Oh and let’s not forget the eleventy billion sleeping policeman in every village in the country.  Thirty six centigrade, plus humidity of almost 100% and you don’t stay dry for long on a bicycle resulting in all kinds of personal problems;  itching, athletes foot, chafing and general tiredness.

The result of an earthquake, still not fixed

That tree is perched to come down

On the other hand some of the roads have been an absolute delight.  The 434 kms from Lake Toba to Bukittinggi went through some of the most beautiful scenery we’ve had the pleasure to cycle in South East Asia.  We wound our way up and over 3390 metres of pristine jungle and rice paddies, through villages specialising in bells or cloth woven on old wooden hand looms, or Durian fruit.  Blacksmiths making machetes and other tools of varying sizes, or fish farms.  One large village was dedicated to the education of young Musliim boys from outlying villages; Imams of the future. 

Durian detritus

Cocoa, cinnamon and other fruits drying in the sun

In and around Lake Toba live the Batak people, mostly Christian, hence the plethora of churches, sometimes every 500 metres. As we have came further south into West Sumatra (crossing the equator on the way) we left the churches behind and are now firmly in mosque territory (Minangkabau tribe).  Here in Bukittinggi we have 3 mosques within 1 km so the call to prayer appears to be a rather competitive event.  In any case, I have heard some of the most wonderfully haunting calls to prayer, and generally beautiful singing in the churches, since being in Sumatra.  Except for the young man in one hotel who insisted on trying to outrange some of his pop idols, the singing has been outstanding.  Xfactor has a lot to answer for.

One of many churches, Lake Toba

Looking down on Lake Toba after the climb

Accommodation and food have been a rather hit and miss affair.  Outside of the tourist areas the standards of accommodation have been disappointing.  I find these days my tolerance for ‘grottiness’ is quite low.  I don’t care how basic somewhere is as long as it’s clean, so I don’t consider myself fussy.  Often, in small towns or villages, we have a limited choice, if there is a choice at all, and that can be a bit depressing.  The road and scenery in between the places we stay might be beautiful but the towns and accommodation themselves are not; It’s not always possible to find a camping spot either there’s no flat ground, or there are just too many people around.  I occasionally find myself asking the question ‘why are we doing this?’.  But then we hit the road again and it’s all clear, till the next grotty hotel.

A particularly horrible bathroom

At least it was clean!  

As far as food goes, I don’t consider myself a picky eater, but I have definitely become one in the past month.  We have both been ill, not food poisoning just a low level feeling of nausea that simply puts you off your food, which is a problem when you have to cycle.  My go-to meals have been nasi or mie goring (fried rice or noodles), or, to simply have noodle soup that we do ourselves.  Now we’re in Bukittinggi we’re pigging out on fruit, Mangosteen, Melon, Watermelon, Pineapple and Rambutan – my teeth are jangling with the sugar already!  We’ve found a lovely little café that does fab guacamole and potato wedges, oh, and very cold beer.  We will be going back there again tonight.  I’m hoping ‘normal service’ in the appetite stakes will resume soon.

Mangosteen

Lake Toba – such a beautiful place, so relaxed, great climate it’s possible to spend a couple of weeks there, bird-watching, walking and generally sightseeing.  Accommodation is plentiful, there’s something for everyone’s budget and the quality is high.  The only busy months are June, July and August, the rest of the time there are very few people around.  Most of the tourists at the weekends are Medanese, looking for a bit of coolness out of the city.

Tuk Tuk, Samosir

Bukit Lawang – we didn’t trek here but it’s still a lovely place to visit and we saw a Thomas Leaf Monkey by the river.  We met others who had gone to Ketambe to trek and had really enjoyed the experience, but it’s a hell of a place to get to.

Thomas Leaf Monkey

Despite everything I’ve said previously, the people have been amazing.  Tourism has slumped in Indonesia (Sumatra particularly) over the past 15 years (I’m still trying to find out why, the Bali bombing and the general economic climate perhaps, also Indonesia’s neighbours are possibly perceived as better value) and so I do understand the novelty value of seeing tourists, particularly older tourists on bicycles, but it’s difficult to shake off my knee-jerk reaction. 

We’ve met some inspiring teachers who are so keen their students learn English (because they recognise the importance to raise themselves out of village life) they stop tourists on the side of the road and beseech them to tell them how they can make teaching their 8 year olds English more interesting and to make them see the importance of such a life skill.  Another, who brings his students once a month, on an 8 hour round trip, to find tourists so that his students can practice their English, having only done theory in the classroom.  Such dedication.

A teacher trying to find ways of inspiring his young students

Seventeen year olds practicing their English

Sumatra is not for the feint-hearted, it’s certainly not a destination for new tourers.  We didn’t cover much of Sumatra as we wanted to spend time in the places we visited, however, the places we went to we loved.  Sumatra is HUGE and unlike a lot of SEA the going is difficult overland so people tend to fly everywhere, a bit like South America in that respect.  The overland routes are difficult because most of the roads are through mountainous jungle.  If the route is busy (Medan to Lake Toba) the pollution is terrible plus, the roads can be narrow and therefore dangerous for cyclists.  I fell off on the road to Berastagi, straight into the middle of the road, luckily the traffic stopped to allow me to get up but they used their klaxon horns to good effect while I was doing it.  I’ve heard people say they think Asia is ‘boring’ and ‘samey’, and to a certain extent I understand those comments having spent the last 4 months cycling here.  But Sumatra changes that perception completely.  We’ve heard from others that the north (Aceh) is interesting culturally and if you are looking for great surf the west coast is supposed to be superb.

On the road to Bukittinggi

Indonesia needs lots of rice

In the spirit of trying to keep it ‘real’ I’ve tried to be as honest as possible.  I’m not a man-hater, honestly, but these are my observations based on my own personal experiences.  Would I recommend Sumatra?  Yes, in a heart beat.  What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, as they say.

Laters