Tag Archives: busan

gaya land

i rescue old coronado in gimhae. he looks dusty and melancholic. i push him up the hill to a daelim repair shop. the mechanic is just coming back from his lunch break. he has a tiny paper cup with sugary coffee in one hand. he asks me what the problem is. carburetor. he tells me they don’t make carburetors for my scooter model anymore. he motions with his hand to follow him. we go out to the yard next to his shop. he points to two scooters like mine propped against a wall. they look dusty and sad. the mechanic makes the throat slash sign. is die. he takes a sip of his coffee. i’ll look around for a second opinion.

a few blocks up the hill i find another daelim mechanic. he tells me he doesn’t have a carburetor either but he opens up coronado to investigate. he tells me the problem may be simpler… and more embarrassing. he is very kind and lets me go without charge.

DSC_4439i drive coronado up the hill to explore gaya land, an abandoned amusement park in the outskirts of gimhae.   i park my scooter and scout the area. there are yellow flowers, older women picking vegetables in a community garden, stylized kimchi pots, and a dead animal that’s been blackened by the sun for weeks. in the distance i see gimhae and the floodplain of the nakdonggang. further southeast hundreds of white apartment buildings at the foothills of the mountainous spine of busan.

DSC_4436nestled in the green hills in front of me, sticking out of the thicket like a ceremonial mesoamerican structure built in honor of the sun-god, a bone-colored ferris wheel. i follow a deteriorated road covered by trees. i cross a small bridge and squeeze myself past some barricades.  soon i reach the gates of gaya land. i take a few pictures but i notice i  only have 10 pictures left on my sd card.  i look through the card to delete the photos i don’t need. that’s when i hear the dogs barking. i look up and above the entrance steps i see them. they look pissed off. i turn around and start walking away. i hear a metal pipe falling near by. i assume somebody must have thrown it in my direction, some sort of squatting dokkebi or a cranky old guard. i shall return, gaya land.

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viajes por tierra en bici – corea

daejeon to sejong city

120 km south of seoul near the middle of the country.

daejeon to sejong city  (solar bike path )

goseong-gun to samcheok

unification observatory in goseong-gun county south to gopo village in samcheok by bike (east coast)

busan to seoul

busan > follow the nakdong river north> cross the middle of the country on the saejae bicycle road to where the han river begins > ride the hangang up to seoul

four rivers trails

four rivers trail system (korea joongang daily)

  • hangang (seoul) paldang station > chungju dam ~ 136-224 km
  • geumgang (west, middle of the country) daecheong dam > geum river estuary ~ 146 km
  • yeongsangang (south west tip of the peninsula)  damyang dam downstream > mokpo yeongsan river estuary weir ~ 133 km
  • nakdonggang (busan) ~ 100-378 km (korea herald)
  • saejae bicycle road (hilly link between the nakdong and the han) ~ 100 km

riverside biking trails in korea (pdf)

seoul bicycle website (in korean)

four rivers guide site

coronado sets out to gimhae

we set out west in the early afternoon. drove through mandeok tunnel and over the nakdong gang. arrived  around four in gimhae, ancient capital of the gaya kingdom. my new scooter, coronado, choked up climbing a hill.  it refused to restart. carburetor problems. all scooter shops were closed. we coasted on coronado down until the street leveled off. we pushed it for about a kilometer, passing old scrap metal dealers and sleepy streets. parked it under inje university’s light rail transit station next to two other dead scooters. we shall return for you.

coronado sets out to the north by frederic remington via wikipedia

frederic remington painter, sculptor, writer, illustrator.

harry truman’s rebuilding of the white house article in the new york times.

book to get:

the book of legendary lands by umberto eco

from anpyeong over jangsan to dalmaji

traveled to anpyeong in eastern busan on an automated train.

traveled to anpyeong in northeastern busan on an automated train.

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countryside. greeted by puppies.

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road to jangsan.

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old mound graves of ancient koreans hidden under crusty leaves.

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found a temple and its guardians in the wilderness. 안적사.

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counted the steps. they were not 108.

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found the croissant-shaped egg sacs of the korean salamander

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and the spring batch of other amphibians.

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saw men and women foraging for spring snacks in the short grass. 쑥 mugwort.

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saw the boulder fields of jangsan and the towers of dalmaji.

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march 2014