The Road Less Travelled

Incredible generosity and super-safe riding in an underrated destination. Welcome to South Korea

- Micheal and Julie Clode

In 2009, my wife Julie and I started planning a ride from Australia to England. We wanted to start in Vladivostok, but when I enquired about shipping the bike to Russia, I found the cost was prohibitive. I asked if there was a more cost-effective location to which we could ship the bike and was told it was easy and cheap to ship to Busan in South Korea.

We had never heard of anyone visiting South Korea, let alone riding a motorbike through the country, so we started doing our homework, in particular on how we would then get the bike and us to Russia.

Our research told us that South Korea was a very friendly country with spectacular forests and countryside. We also discovered there was a ferry that ran from Donghae to Vladivostok on a weekly basis. So in March, 2011, we watched our BMW R1200GSA and a friend’s KTM640, that had been crated, being loaded onto the back of a truck, knowing we wouldn’t see them again until we’d be unpacking them in South Korea some four weeks later.

In April we landed in Busan, where we had arranged to be picked up and taken to Haeundae, a suburb of Busan. We found Haeundae to be a city of contrasts; there appeared to be a large gap between the rich and the poor, with some people eking out a living while others drove around in Audis and BMWs .

That night we walked along the beachfront and then back through the shopping areas, which were as busy at night as they were during the day. We felt very safe walking around at night, even in small alleys, and noticed that some shops that were closed still had their wares outside, not secured.

We didn’t see any motorbikes, only lots of scooters, and when we spoke to the locals we discovered that only real enthusiasts rode big bikes. When we told them we were riding to Ulsan, some 100km to the north, they were amazed that we planned to do it in one day.