Making my way through Asia (and grad school) one adventurous step at a time.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Adventures in Jeju Nights...

The picture above obviously isn't at night, but it does show our bikes lined up along the road. We're on the other side of the street guzzling water like maniacs. The bike at the back was the one I rode.

Now, as promised, our nights on Jeju:

Night #1: Jen, faster than a speeding bullet made it to our checkpoint long before Annelie and I. She set up a tent, took a shower and read a few chapters before Annelie and I pulled up to the campsite at darkness fell. We pitched my tent, slapping away biting insects all the while. That task completed, Annelie and I took our sweaty, stinky, tired, grimy selves off the the shower building...that was closed!!! We turned on dejected heels and took our
sweaty, stinky, tired, grimy selves back to the tents. After chatting for a while over our Corner Store dinner and congratulating ourselves on completing Day One, we fell exhausted into our tents. Even though the loud children (and their parents) in the tent next to ours were unfamiliar with the word "bedtime", we managed to get a few hours sleep. The showers were still closed at 7:00 the following morning, so Annelie and I got our sweaty, stinky, tired, grimy selves back on our bikes and hit the road for another day.

Night #2: With no campsite to be found for our second night, we pitched out tents on a beach, along with several other groups of biker/campers. Annelie and I finally found a functioning shower room and scrubbed off two days of sweat, and promptly replaced it with beach sand. During the night, rain and thunder woke us from our beachy dreams prompting us to pick up our tents and move them under an awning on the beach. A few minutes later, the wind was so fierce even under the awning, that the sides of my tent were blowing in, reducing my floor space by half. With Jen's help I moved the tent further under the awning and was soon sleeping soundly again.

Night #4: Unable to find a beach or a campsite, Jen went above and beyond and found us a lovely room in a place Korean's call a 'Pension'. It had a bedroom, livingroom/kitchen, and a bathroom. It also had a washing machine - which by this time was a welcome convenience. It's best feature however, was one of those "Rainmaker" showerheads. What a lovely treat. All three of us slept like babies.

Night #5&6: We stayed on Udo Island in a pretty, but HOT Minbak (A minbak is similar to a pension, but cheaper). Again, it was nice to be spared the disadvantages of rain, sand and noisy neighbours. I like camping, and I like bike trips, but I don't know if I like the two of them together.

Stay tuned later for Adventures in Jeju Days.

3 comments:

mel said...

What happened to night #3? Not another drunken stupor that landed you in the slammer, where you languished many days and nights and were forced to eat no-name kraft dinner with mustard, I hope.

Janice said...

Oops! Counting was never my strong suit. night #4 should be night #3, and so forth. We only spent 5 nights there, not 6.

mel said...

Feeble, Janice ... feeble. Don't be ashamed. I love you even with a faint odour of mustard.