After a fairly uneventful flight and taxi ride, I found my hotel in Busan. This morning was a write off due to jet lag, but I managed to get a long walk in to get my bearings this afternoon.

Aside from the usual consumerist mega malls, the back streets were littered with small shops. They were selling interesting but unidentifiable goods, which unfortunately I was unable to enquire about due to my poor Korean.

One of the highlights was this little beauty! I’m not into bicycles or scooters, but isn’t this just as cute as a button?? From the white wall tyres to the tiny chrome tank, I love it! Other 2 wheeled machines are quite rare for a city this size. Mostly ratty scooters, in fact I haven’t seen a “real” bike yet.

After a short break to see friends and family, all to quickly it seems I’m traveling again. While the bike was at sea I went home for a fantastic few weeks. It was so good to see everyone.

As I sat on the long haul flight with Air China, I finished a book my dad gave me. This came from a friend Pat and it’s now being recycled via Beijing airport. It was the memoirs of a national service pilot in the 1950s.

It was an interesting read for me especially, as all I ever wanted to do was fly for the air force. Of particular note however was the opening passage:

” This is not precisely how it was, but it’s how I like to remember it ”

I started to look for a cheap hotel for my first night in Korea. They seem cheap enough with plenty of choice, so I looked for somewhere close to the airport. I noticed that the airport name in Busan didn’t match the one on my ticket. Maybe it’s like many other cities and has two airports?

I did some further investigation. I have a ticket to BUS (Batumi), which I assumed to be Busan. Unfortunately, the airport code for Busan is PUS. I actually had a ticket to Georgia, which would be a long walk to any hotel in Korea!!! Lucky I checked or I’d really have a problem when I arrived!

I contacted the flight centre where I made the booking. I expected to get told the tickets were non-transferable and I should have checked them carefully etc.. I was pleasantly surprised when they pulled out all the stops to sort it out. I now have a ticket to PUS, and a refund is being arranged for the incorrect ticket I purchased.

The manager has obviously done her customer care course. Thank you Melissa.

I picked up an IDP at the post office today. £5.50 over the counter service, very good indeed! It has my licence details in several languages, photo ID plus a few other official looking stamps. It’ll be a handy addition to my official looking papers, in case I need it.

Thinking about it, I should have got two if that’s possible. A spare would have been handy in case this one gets lost. Hindsight is a handy thing isn’t it? Oh well.

On the application form you have to tick a box next to each country you’re planning to visit. The bloke behind the counter looked a bit bored, but suddenly got very interested when he saw how many countries I’d ticked!

There are lies, damned lies and statistics – or so they say. Well here are my statistics for Australia:

14177 kms
5 States in 5 Weeks
3 Oil Changes
2 Oil Filter Changes
1 Spark Plug Change
1 Chain Change
1 Tyre Change (Front and Rear)
1 New Headlamp Bulb
0 Punctures
0 Breakdowns
0 Accidents
0 Fights
0 Encounters with the police

Here’s hoping that those zeros remain the same for the rest of the trip!

$1.44 / Ltr – Cheapest petrol (Perth)
$1.99 / Ltr – Most expensive petrol (Northern Territory)

Total cost – As if I’d know that, what am I – an accountant?

About to board a plane, I thought I’d say a few words about Australia. The trip around the cost has been awesome, but feels like a holiday as much as anything else. I’ve lived here for a few years, I speak the language, there’s a road infrastructure I understand and a bike shop in most towns. Too easy, as they say around here.

The bike has been faultless and the camping gear excellent. It’s been a good shake down run and I’m happy with my gear. But I’m under no illusions that the rest of the trip will be as simple. Next stop South Korea, where who knows what I’ll find? It’ll be quiet on the blog for a while now the bike is at sea, resuming in July.

A great time all round, but to answer the question. No, we’re not there yet!!

So there she goes, all boxed up and now en route to South Korea. When I get there I hope it’s still in one piece, and the county still in a state of peace!

Actually, as I understand it the two halves of Korea are still at war. No declaration of peace was ever signed and the current status is one of ceasefire. I guess I’ll find out one way or another when I get there.

This young chap resembles an axe murderer in the picture, but is actually a very nice fellow. I must have just pressed the shutter at a bad moment! Keiran at the BMW dealership put the KLR in a crate with me. The winch here is to lower the bike once the front wheel has been removed, so it fits in the crate.

We couldn’t crate it with the front wheel in, which is a bit if a pain. It means I have to find some muscle in Korea to lift the bike while I fit the wheel, but I reckon it’ll be OK.

I managed to fit all my riding gear, camping gear and other stuff in. At the far end I’m hoping to assemble the bike and ride off into the sunset. It’s that easy, right?

After I left Glen I caught up with Mike from the royal Enfield owners club. Mike has an iron barrel bullet like mine, and very nice it is too. We hadn’t met before but we hit it off right away because we’re both WWII aviation fans.

Together we gave the bike a really good clean. I’ve heard that quarantine officers like to charge large “cleaning” fees if they see dirt on your bike. I don’t know if this is true, but either way a really good clean will help.

I didn’t get a picture of Mike, except when he was asleep in the chair. It hardly seems fair to post that one though! Instead here’s a picture of my bike’s private parking spot, in Mike’s back garden!

Cheers Mike.

This is the same tyre when it’s new. The tread pattern hasn’t changed, I’d forgotten what they looked like. Ok, so maybe the old tyre was a bit worn, but it lasted well.

The tyre shop had sold the tyres I ordered, which they had in stock last week and were supposedly putting to one side. Twats. I ended up with a different make. It’s a good brand but it cost more, I hope they last as well.