The Slow Voyage

I took a first trip to Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, with my bike. My destination was ‘Namsan Park’. It’s a small mountain located in the south part of Seoul.

This is the map of Korea and the red dot is where I live, the city of Goyang. Goyang is about 15 miles to the northwest of Seoul.

Now you see how close North Korea is from my place.

And this is my journey’s route. The round trip distance is about 50 kilometers.

The weather was good and my bike ran like a racehorse, a little one.

The last time I visited Namsan Park was about 10 years ago, and it was as beautiful as always.

On my way back home, I took some pictures while I was waiting traffic signals.

Driving a motorcycle in the car-packed busy street was not a pleasant experience at all. I needed some fresh air. So before I went back home, I visited a small village near my house and took some more pictures.

I had been thinking about buying a second-hand bike. But I knew nothing about motorcycles and I didn’t think I could make a good choice.

So I bought a new one. It was Chinese brand ‘Haojue’, TR150. It was cheap and seemed not so powerful to kill me instantly.

And I liked the look of it.

Then I got the plate,

And I rode it around for a few days. Within 10km radius from my house, usually under 50km/h (30mile/h).

I drove a car and a bicycle, so I thought driving a motorcycle was something between them. But I found it was a totally different experience. I never knew 70km/h was that fast on the motorcycle.

Anyway I learned how to ride a motorcycle, and also learned there were some nice and quiet roads in my town.

It reminded me of those days when my father bought me a new bicycle and I rode it futher and futher everyday. Also it reminded me of those days when I learned how to drive a car. I was surprised to find how good other drivers were.

Driving a motorcycle was like riding a bicycle downhill. It’s getting too fast and I start to think it feels so good but I might get hurt.

This is a story about my bike and me.

2018-03-10, that day I found I failed something that I had been doing for last 5 years.

I didn’t know what to do next. I didn’t want to do anything.

Then I felt like driving a motorcycle, even though I had never driven one in my life.

In Korea, we can drive motorcycles if they are small, less than 125cc engine displacement, with ordinary driver’s licesces for cars. But for more than 125cc engine displacement bikes we need to get a new licence. So I started to go to a private driving school for new drivers and practiced.

This was what I drove.

And this was the drive course I took.

There were Z-shape, S-shape, zigzag, and very narrow straight line. One lap took less than two minutes. I drove the motorcycle on those lines hundreds of times and passed the exam.

This is what I bought the next day.