Seoul Critical Mass

 

Critical Mass - Seoul

 The third Sunday of every month is the coming together of the Critical Mass in the city. It's apparently been going for 5 years, but by the attendance numbers, you would never know it. On the night I partook in said event, there was approximately 24 adults, and one awesome kid on a purple banana seat bicycle who rode in the centre of the pack, as if we were animals protecting our young on the african safari lands.

check out a video of it here

Follow the Women

I'm beginning to raise funds for the Follow the Women bike ride that I'm participating in April 2011.

Please help promote, donate, or even join this ride, as this is something I am really excited about! 
You can pay with PayPal, using the below, otherwise please contact me, and other arrangements for donations can also be made.

WHAT IS Follow the Women?
Follow the Women is an international non-political grassroots organization campaigning for peace in the Middle East.  Our signature activity is the Pedal for Peace Bike Rides which take place in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. Click here for FTW’s USA website (opens in new window).

WHO IS Follow the Women?
We are ordinary women, citizens from over 40 countries.   At each bike ride 200-300 females from more than 25 countries converge on the Middle East to bike for peace.  Men participate as medics, mechanics or media.  A U.S. team has been on every ride.  Up to 20 participants are accepted per country team. Riders are expected to agree to FTW's Aims & Objectives (opens in new window)  

WHERE IS Follow the Women?
The international center of the organization is based in England where Follow the Women is a registered charity.  Each participating country has a local resident coordinator who liaisons with the international center. The USA Team, scattered all over the country, has a virtual headquarters by way of this website.

WHEN IS Follow the Women? 
Pedal for Peace Bike Rides occur about every 18 months.

April 16-23, 2004 
September 15-24, 2005
April 6-20, 2007
May 2-15, 2008
October 8-21, 2009
April 16 to May 1, 2011

WHY IS Follow the Women? 
Our main objective is to call attention to the fact that it is women and children who suffer most in areas of conflict, particularly Palestinians who live under a brutal military occupation in Gaza and the West Bank or in stifling refugee camps inside and outside Palestine.  Several hundred women riding on bicycles in the Middle East is extremely unusual.  Our head-turning cycling compels the media to report on the event and interview us and this coverage provides us a platform for our peace messages.  We also have various projects, including building playgrounds for Palestinian children in refugee camps. Our mission is summarized in four simple words:

Go. See. Tell. Act.  

At the feet of Bhudda

 morning prayers

Last night I slept under the stars again, this time part way up a volcano on the south west coast of Jeju; where a bhuddist temple is located. I was passing by after dark, and couldn't resist stopping, thank God. I wandered up where a bunch of people wearing strange yellow hats and organising flowers were; turns out the next morning was some sort of special event; but either way, I wandered up and let curiousity get the best of me, so I headed all the way to the temple at the top. This temple turned out the be a natural cave formation in this lava dome, with a sweeping archway stretching itself toward the heavens, and a likeness of Bhudda was placed atop a set of stairs lined with tallow candles and lotus casts. It was breathtaking; and my camera battery was dead, so I headed down the volcano, grabbed a fresh battery and headed back up again to capture this beatiful place as best I could. I was completely absorbed in the atmosphere; of the majesty that surrounded me, and the peaceful solitute of the night, and watching the fishing trolleys off at sea; I was definitely staying here the night.

So I camped out, and had a realy good sleep, waking only twice - once to do my best to be avoid being chewed on by a hungry mosquito, and again at about 4:15am to the beatin of temple drums and the gonging of ...well a big, loud gong. Thankfully that lasted no longer than about 15mins, and stayed asleep until I awoke for the sunrise just after 6am, when I hoofed it one final time up the volcano. I was so glad I had gone the previous night, there was now a cleaning lady taking away all the offerings that had been left the previous day, as well as the keen bean early bird prayer warriors, but the majesty of the night and stars glimmering off the cave walls was a bit dimmer in the sunlight. I came back down for another breakfast of champions (this time I was out of crackers), and watched the early morning event that was on, and then watched get torn down what I had seen put up the preceeding evening.

inside the temple at night

                                               inside the temple                                  the mops next to where i slept

Sleeping in a playground

Secretly, I've always wanted to sleep in a playground, especially after seeing this Japanese movie a few years ago where a homeless highschool student sleeps most nights in a slide that looks like a poo.

Ha. Ok, small dream, but whatever. So I slept in a slide last night.It wasn't the most comfortable sleep I've ever had, but better than last night with mr.creeper and waking up every hour just to make sure I was still alone. I woke up every few hours, either to adjust or

because the outside elements had changed - I was a little worried it would rain again, since it had poured a lot the previous day, but instead it was just really windy. I much preffered waking up to the AMAZINGLY clear stars, than a strange old man trying to get into bed

with me. The sunrise this morning was a beautiful purple haze (I'm on the west coast of the island), with gradient shades of clear blues painted across the sky in pastel hues, and an orange burnin sun rising over the volcano in the middle of the island. I ate my champion breakfast of canned tuna and crackers by the sea and black lava rocks that trace the outline of the island. This place is a beautiful dream.

Sleeping under a pagoda

Last night, I had three sleeping plans.

#1: Get taken in by someone

#2: Sleep by the beach under a pagoda

#3: Sleep at a plaground I had passed.

It was raining and due to rain more last night, and as I'm traveling sans tent, I wanted to be somewhere with good coverage, and since noone had taken me in yet (I did a bunch of messaging on couch surfing), I found a pagoda by the beach to crash out under, and had my things all set up for the night, and was just waiting for a few people to head off before crawling back under to sleep for the night. I was being a little more cautious than normal since I was literally surrounded at aft and fro with 'no camping' signs, so I was hoping the
last two stragglers staring off to the sea would hurry up and head for their respective homes.Then one holding a large heavy duty flashlight started heading straight for me, and at first. I thought I was totally busted. Turns out I was, but instead of telling me off, he said a girl would die of cold out here alone and to come stay at his house, which was just  across the parking lot behind the pagoda. I happily packed up and headed after him, bike in tow which got parked outside his side window. Meanwhile we we went inside and watched tv in his room and talked a bit; he just tapping my shoulder every minute or two to get my attention to talk again. This was a really small little place - two rooms and a bathroom and that's it (mind you that's still bigger than the average Tokyo apartment), so we're hanging out talking on his bed.
 

Then he tries to tell me to be more comfortable and lay down; even to the point where he pushed me down, but I just sat back up and said I was happy like that. I went in the other room and set my bed up on the floor, and ten came bck into his room to keep watching the movie, but apparently forgot to flick off my light switch, so he got up and turned that off, and his as well. He was laying down sideways on the bed, and when I readjusted my legs, he tried to tell me again to lay down and share a pillow with him. At this point, nothing seemed too sketchy - he's like a 60year old man who seems to just be typically Korean in the way that the older generations are a bit overbearing with kindness and looking after the younger ones, but I still only hung out for about 30mins before saying i was tired and going to bed at 10:30.

A few hours later, I wake up to him in my room in the dark trying to get into my floor bed with me, tryin to get up on my business. HELL NO. I just told him '안대!' a whole bunch in Korean, which translates to 'no permission', or 'do not do'. Ew. I set my alarm and got up just after 6 and gapped out of there without having done anything but hastily pack my bag and saying goodbye. The irony is that this old pervert had been telling me how there are a lot o unsavory characters on Jeju island and to be careful. Little did I know I would have to  exercise this advice in his own house, just 2 hours later.
Good job, buddy.

Today kicked my ass

Today was intense. I had trouble waking up this morning - I had kind of an uneasy sleep since the other older gentleman in the place was in control of the TV remote (men the world around apparently enjoy this small pleasure in life), and I guess he's a little hard of hearing. I lucked out in a big way though; since there was no one really there, all the sauna rooms weren't operating, so I claimed one all to myself, dragged in two bed mats and shut the door in complete bliss. I could still hear him, but for the most part he was drowned out. Same went for this morning when it was s t i l l going at 9am, so I put in my headphones and kind of just laid there lethargically until close to 11am. I had a breakfast of champions (bought a small milk and alternated spoonfulls of dry cereal and swigs of milk, and a not so tasty can of peach slices.

After strapping my bag down to my bike (have I mentioned I dislike this part of my trip the most?), I hit the road with a bit of a dreamers goal to be in Mokpo by days end, and 100kms later, I made it there. Mind you, there was some stopping, climbing, photo taking, and curious motorists stopping to have a chat, or people yelling "Fighting!" out there car windows, or sometimes just a thumbs up and a "Number 1!" yelled as they were passing by. One of my small victories in life yesterday, was that the tractor behind me could not catch me for the few exits he was on the road for. Booyah. You take what you can get. haha.

The last 20kms into Mokpo was so intense. It was through a hilly range to get to the coastline, and it was a struggle after two such big days, but I made it through. I stopped on the last apex  before my final decent to get some water at a resturant, and ended up having a conversation with the older family sitting around the table, and was even fed for free!

I head out just as the sun was setting, and by the time I got down into the valley, the darkness was quickly setting in, and I managed to blow not one, but TWO tires. I haven't ever blown a tire in the whole time I've had this bike (for a few years), and have even hardly had a flat, so this was a bit of a bummer, but a really awesome biker who happened to be passing right then helped me out to make it go faster. Thank God, because I was really worn out by this point. He ended up showing me where I could sleep that night, and since my front tire was ruined , he said he would bring me a spare in the morning since 700c's are hard to come by here in Korea. So true to his word, he came by at 11am the next day and gave me his repair tire, and then even offered to bike me to the ship where I was going to head to Jeju Island. So off we went, and he showed me around Mokpo, which the shoreline of is completely beautiful - slightly milky blue-green water with old sail boats and fishing boats moored and gently lulling back and forth.

After finding the ship, and getting a ticket, this awesome boy had run off to go get some food for us - I realised later how smart that was, since I was about to get on a boat for 4 hours and hadn't even thought about food. So we ate, said a quick goodbye, and off my boat went!