Fueld with breakfast, I am peddling away, gusts of strong wind making it harder while I am getting closer to Busan and therefore the sea. I noticed them the day before and before that, but they keep getting stronger. It looks as if the water is being pushed inland.
I am peddling through a village and wondering about the irrigation ditches. They are filled to the brim despite that there hasn’t been rain in weeks – but I quickly forget about that as I am leaving the fields to go through smaller lanes and alleys. The houses are painted colourful, with different themes and motives, even though most is bicycle-themed.
Back on the path, along the river, the wind and water lets me think about the storm floods my city back home get’s once in a while, during autumn, when it’s rainy and cold. And not sunny and hot like it’s here. Wind picks up when you get towards the sea. Getting to Busan would be an eighty k ride, which isn’t much but I feel lazy and decide to camp just outside the city, which saves a night at a hostel as well.
So I keep pedalling away, kind of bored, even by my audio book.
Apart from my breakfast hunt, nothing happens. Not even other cyclists seem to be out – since school started and it’s the middle of the week it’s not really a surprise. I sigh and just keep going, listening to my audio-book, when…
.. another cyclist approaches me in Korean. Face and hair are hidden underneath my scarf and helmet, blue eyes behind my sunglasses. “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Korean.” normally solves this issue, the other person gets stressed out at having to talk English and cycles off. Not this keen university student who plans to travel the world.
We converse – the usual “Where are you from?”, “Where do you go?”, “How many days…” – when he says:
“I was going to Busan tomorrow. But because of the taifun, I want to go there today!”
It clicks. Finally, it clicks. The constant headwind, getting stronger. The gusts of wind. The filled irrigation ditches. My memories of storm floods. There IS a storm coming. Tonight! This night, which I planned to camp at the river close to the sea. Oups.
“Did you just say Taifun?!” I reply buffled. I stopped following the weather report as it was just “hot, hot, hot”, “sunny, sunny, sunny” anyways.
Needless to say, I skip my last night at the river, my new friend helps me order lunch and shows me the bus station to Seoul before heading to a friends place – his university is on an island – not the best place to stay during a taifun.