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| Stunning scenery |
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| Beautiful beaches and lovely warm sea's |
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| wild camping on the beach |
Well we managed to get the bikes loaded onto a RO/RO ferry bound for Tacoma USA.
It was touch n go though! we (Dazzer and I) had looked over google maps for the port and thought we had it all sussed. It looked like about 30 miles from the hotel in Busan to the port of Masan.
Because the bikes are not allowed on the motorways we allowed ourselves 3 hours to get to the port where we were meeting Mr Kim our custom rep.
All was going so well despite the very heavy traffic at 7 in the morning and the temp rising to 30 ! about 10 miles from the port we took a wrong turn and ended up on a motorway. We got stopped at the toll gate and we were told to turn around. However Dazzer went off and managed to get permission to use the motorway as long as we had an escort.
So an escort was found and instead of following him he insisted that we went in front. This is were it all went down hill !! I think we took the 2nd exit when we should have taken the 1st. After 20 minutes of riding up and down different roads we managed to get split up! With Dazzers phone not working all I could do was try to find the ferry and hope he managed the same.
After another 20 minutes I finally found myself on the road to Masan (though there was no road signs saying "Masan"!).
By this time it was almost 10 and I was starving, so I spotted a Macdonalds and thought, sod it, Im going to grab breakfast and work out where to go next.
Just as I sat down an american lady asked me if I was an English teacher, I quickly explained and in a few minutes she was on her phone and managed to contact Mr Kim. I was instructed to stay at Macdonalds and he would come and get me.
How happy was I to see Dazzer in tow with Mr Kim, he had also found Masan and had stopped at a petrol station were they rang Mr Kim for him.
So 15 minutes later we were at the the port and the bikes were checked over by customs and finally handed over to the freighter's. The bikes are now due to land in the USA around the 24th Aug.
So we got a lift of Mr Kim and took a bus to Busan bus station, from there it was a short tube ride to the hotel. 4 hours on bikes to get there, 1.5 hours to get back by public transport !
The next day we set off to the airport to fly to Thailand for a few weeks (we had been told it was really cheap to live and eat in Thailand).
However our first hurdle was our flight had been cancelled due to bad weather in China (a change over flight). They did say Korean airlines were doing a direct flight to Bangkok, so we quickly headed over and booked and paid for 3 seats.
I must admit, it was the first plane I have been on that hands out complimentary drinks and snacks, YES free beer :-) must make a note of that airline !
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| My first view of Bangkok |
I have however had a right old time trying to get my money back from www.opodo.com ! They wanted me to ring them from Thailand, when I said they could ring my hotel they refused saying they were an incoming call centre only ! so finally after 7 days they have agreed to look into it! I will update my blog when the money has been refunded... however I will never use opodo ever again.
I am now living in a lovely room with balcony, air con, fridge, microwave and big TV all for £9 a night ! and the food is so cheap here :-) however the downside is, the hotel is on the outskirts of the city and Bangkok's public transport is not the best. So its taxi's to most places, however they are quite cheap to!
I have been to a massive shopping mall called Fortune IT shopping mall, 4 floors of computers, cameras and all IT things.... IT heaven for me lol. I did manage to get my laptop repaired in under a hour for £10. I dont think you will ever get that service in the UK.
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| View from the top of the Fortune shopping mall |
I have also visited the Pantip shopping mall, tons of computers and even more dodgy software, which is quite funny because they sell this stuff next to a big poster saying "software piracy is a crime, 10 years in prison etc" quite ironic I think?
I also visited the weekend market, its the biggest market I have ever been to. The downside was it was so hot and humid all I could do was walk around like a leaking sponge. 3 hours later I was off back to my air con hotel :-)
So I am now thinking about a few options, move to another but more expensive hotel in the city and enjoy the night-life or head to Cambodia on the train.... or find a beach somewhere and just totally chill !
I do now one thing, I am really missing riding my old motorbike !
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| I just had to take a ride in a Tuk Tuk, great fun ! |
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