bike failure

I don't know, if you've got a brace around your torso and are in hospital wear, I don't think you should really be riding a scooter around. Maybe there aren't any other options?

This is the weekend of bike failure. The clutch decided to give out on my motorcycle, while I was naturally in the middle of nowhere and now it's in the shop. And yesterday I took my bicycle to the shop to get a flat fixed, which resulted in a new inner tube. Today, from the disgustingly humid heat that has engulfed Chungju, the new inner tube expanded to the point that it stretched and pushed my tire up and out of the rim. So now I need to take it back to the shop for repairs. Or maybe I should just buy a couple more tools and become self sufficient. Either way, it's too hot to be going around without some form of transportation and losing both forms in one day is a pretty horrible way to end an otherwise awesome weekend.

nice places around chungju

Today I managed to find every place I was looking for and more while biking around the city. I've been looking for the biggest stationary store in Chungju, as recommended to me (with maps) by multiple people. I could never find it before, but managed to today, after passing it by a bunch of times in my previous searches.

 성충문구. There are apparently two in Chungju, this one is in northern part at the edge of the city, close to the road that takes you out to Chungju dam. It's about two blocks west, if you turn left instead of going straight out of the city and to the dam. One is close to the market downtown, but I haven't found that one yet. The massive sign is hard to see if you're on the sidewalk, and the windows are mirrored, so it's easy to miss.

Inside. They've got more supplies than I've found anywhere else, and lots of nerdy stuff like mini trees and people so you can make dioramas if you're into that kind of thing. Lots of neat things to sort through. It's now my new go to place for art supplies in the city.

Another awesome find was this brand new world mart! It reminds me of one in Daegu. They were sadly lacking in Indian foods, but they did have a nice selection of dried beans, including chickpeas! Nothing was priced though, which can be pretty annoying to have to ask how much every single thing costs.
Here's an updated post with more details on how to get there: World Mart

I walked away with ladies fingers curry from Sri Lanka (I haven't had okra in forever), seaweed jelly powder (vegetarian!) from the Philippines and Indonesian iced tea that immediately disappeared. I will definitely be making return trips. They're right by the market, along the river beside the tented areas.

Just look for their banner (it's to the right, too much glare from the sun) and turn right at it. It's right there, but easy to miss since it's 10m from the road and there's really nothing else around it.

 It's along the road with the biggest bike store I've seen in the city so far, close to the orange triangle bridge.

 And I finally managed to find the cool train cafe/bar 기차여행 that I was looking for. I managed to pass by it without noticing it a couple of times. I have no idea how that's possible, it's pretty distinctive.

It's made out of an old train and has a cool bike fence. They weren't open, but coffee, tea, pat bingsu, soju and beer were on the menu outside. Now that I finally found it, I'll have to to make a trip back when it's open and check out the interior.

 And for some reason I've been craving and eating a lot of eggplants recently. I've just been pan frying them with some soy sauce, chili oil, peppers, garlic, and sesame oil and serving over rice. I like eggplants, but I usually don't buy them often. I guess my tastes are developing.

bikes are good for _____________

Carrying your bottle of soju (cheap Korean liquor) to the park. Thankfully my friend pointed it out, otherwise I would've missed out on this awesomeness.

Or if you're me, bikes are good for transporting you and your 뽀로로 balloon 10km home from the cherry blossom festival.

It's pretty normal for strangers to say hi while I'm biking by them. But when you add in a balloon, the exchange gets even better. "Aaah... Hi! WAH BALLOON!!"

Besides, who doesn't like balloons?

here in chungju, we appreciate our bikers

The fountain is out, it's officially spring. All the cherry blossom festivals reinforce that as well.

And voting day happened. As a foreigner, I don't get to participate in elections in any way other than watching ajummas dance on street corners, which is sadly no more. They did have polling booths in my apartment building's lobby, it was quite strange to walk through and get bowed at on the way in and out of my building.

Another thing that spring has signaled for me, is that Chungju finally feels like home. I may not have as many cool spots to go to as my old neighbourhood in Daegu, but with things finally turning green, Chungju has really grown on me.

I remember the first day, back in late February, that I biked into the city (I didn't really know where I was going I just wanted to explore). It started to rain/snow and everyone had out an umbrella, except for me, but I refuse to use umbrellas for snow. It just isn't going to happen. I was waiting for the light to change to cross the street, and a suited up ajeosshi stepped up beside me and shared his umbrella. It was my first heart warming moment in Chungju.

My drawing to commemorate that memory.

And recently, while biking the fantastically long trail around Chungju, I was stopped by a man on a scooter and thanked profusely for unknown reasons. Maybe it was just for biking, or enjoying Chungju? Either way it was awesome.

And another time, while waiting to cross at an intersection, a city worker shared his orange with me. Maybe it's just that I ride my bike a lot, but people here seem much kinder to bikers than I experienced in my past two years in Korea. It has definitely helped make me feel at home. To the point that I've finally accepted "good" as being the word to describe Chungju. Sure, it isn't dynamic Busan, colourful Daegu, or hi Seoul, but it is its own special little place. And to that, I have to give a whole lot of thumbs up.

chungju dam

After feeling tired and demotivated, I decided a 20km+ bike ride along the river would be a good idea, for some crazy reason. The weather isn't quite as cold today, the sun's shining and it's the weekend. It's time to start enjoying spring. And from my earlier visit to Tangeumdae park, I noticed there's a pretty lengthy bike path around Chungju that takes you to such wonderful spots as the Chungju dam, waterfalls and a national park. I opted to set my sights on whichever came first. And if you don't have a bike, there's lots of bikes available for rent, including (naturally) couple bikes!

The path, there weren't a lot of people out when I first started around 11, but a few hours later, on my way back, it was packed. And although there are nice red bike paths, you do get spit out onto highways for a few km to bike alongside traffic and pass over the railroad tracks. But there are plenty of signs and bikes spray painted on the road so it's hard to get lost.

 Beware, cars can and will drive anywhere and everywhere, even bike paths along the river.

 Unfortunately for the clever people that decided to drive on the bike path, they were thwarted by these stairs, and had to turn around. It started out as a nice leisurely bike, but then started getting a bit hardcore with the hills. Well, this is Korea, of course mountains everywhere can be expected. I just wasn't as psyched about feeling the burn while going up hills, as I was about leisurely winding around the river.

 Finally, after copious amounts of hills and stairs, I reached my destination, Chungju dam! OK, the pictures don't really do it justice, it's something you need to experience on your own. I seemed to be the only person that biked though, everyone else there looked like they drove, seeing as they had brought a ton of food and supplies with them.

And if you don't mind going up all of these stairs (or if you just drove up the mountain) you could walk out on this observatory over the dam! Taking a picture was more than enough for me though... Maybe some other time.

There's also a pretty nice park where you can use the exercise equipment, kick a ball around, lounge around, pick up food from the store, etc. Great place to bike and stop for a picnic, but the entire bike path was filled with perfect places to stop and rest or have a picnic.

Obligatory cow pic. My university's mascot is a cow, it's pretty fantastic and fitting for this area. I saw this farm on my way back and was actually stopped by some guy on a scooter who repeatedly thanked me for some reason (maybe because I'm a foreigner on a bike??). He had the official Good Chungju logo on his scooter and jacket, so maybe he was a city worker of some kind. Who knows?

People out golfing. The grass was pretty rough, so they were using balls that are much bigger than golf balls. It seemed more like a combination of croquet and golf. It was free to play though, you just needed to bring your own clubs and balls. All in all, a very nice (mostly) car/city free adventure. I'm definitely going to venture past the dam next time.

Biking in Korea

In the two years I've been in Korea, I've had two bikes and biked the entire time. My first school was a 25 minute walk from my apartment and the fastest option was biking. I started with a small, red, folding bike and bought it fairly cheap.

My second year, I decided to upgrade. OK, I didn't really spend much more, my new bike cost around 200,000 won, or less than $200, but I was tired of having a little folding bike. I lived within walking distance of my school, so didn't bike as much. But I prefer biking places rather than relying on buses, subways, or taxis.

Parked at the library near my office, the purple and black cruiser is mine.

Now, I live about a 20+ minute walk away from school, again, so biking to work is back on. Plus Chungju is kinda small and it's easier to just bike places than getting a bus (there aren't any subways here) and I'm not a fan of cabbing it everywhere. And I always come across interesting little places when I just bike around for the fun of it.

It's fairly safe to bike, I find that people are much more lax about where you bike (you can bike everywhere!) in comparison to back home. Sometimes there are bike paths, on roads or on the sidewalk, but people generally accept you biking all over the place. Not that it's safe to do that... As per anywhere, you have to be careful and bike like everyone is trying to run you over, and there are a whole ton of scooters all over the place that blatantly disobey every traffic law.

I've been lucky and haven't had any issues with theft or vandalism, and have found it much more bike friendly here than anywhere I've lived in Canada. Bikes are more of an accepted form of transportation. The only thing is, as a foreigner you're already an attention grabber, but as a foreigner on a bike, you get even more attention! My students, middle and university, always love telling me whenever they see me biking.

Even random people around town like telling me when they see me biking. I've been exploring Chungju a lot, by bike recently, and stopped in at a Korean art store the other day. The shop keep, who also happened to be bleeding from his forehead, immediately mentioned/mimed that he saw me biking the day before. Here's my awkward drawing of the guy:

 He was pretty cool, dropped some comments about Canada, and gave me a free folding fan, after I purchased some paint and a brush. But it's times like these that remind me just how much I stand out sometimes...