While there, I took a bunch of pics again (with the trusty little G9!)...all of this is the famous Dream Bay around which are build Changwon, Masan and Jinhae...
The big bridge...Jinhae side on the left, Masan side on the right:
Little fishing village on the Jinhae side where I stopped to take photos and have a drink:
Random shots around the village:
Because I'm really liking black and white these days:
And finally...the last pic of my bike while it was still mine:
The ride was absolutely awesome...I loved the twisty seaside road and the scenery and weather were both astoundingly perfect. On the way up, I ran into rush hour traffic through Masan and to my great surprised I handled it like a champ.
After that, I went home, ate dinner, felt restless and got on the bike again, heading toward Tongyeong and Geoje, hoping to see the sea at night.
The ride again was beautiful the highways were more deserted and the farther I got from Changwon the more stars came out to greet me...by the time I got to the farmlands about 50km from home, the sky was filled with gorgeous stars, constellations and the Milky Way, with the setting moon thrown in to make things really perfect. I have been missing the night sky for too long. I love just staring at it or taking pictures of it, it was absolutely perfect...that right there was worth buying the bike for.
However...I quickly realized something...I got to see all these great places, but I couldn't take decent pictures of them (at least at night) because the little G9 was all I could carry around...sure I could grab a backpack and take the big camera and a few lenses with me, but that's too much hassle and trouble and, quite frankly, I didn't feel right about having all that camera equipment with me while riding a motorcycle. So, thanks to that and another big thing, I decided to sell the bike. The other big thing was basically post-traumatic stress disorder.
When I was a reporter I had to go to more than my fair share of deadly things...murders and motor vehicle accidents mostly. During the course of those years, I have seen what happens to motorcyclists when things go wrong (the results are worse than any nightmare I've ever had...it's truly horrendous) and those images are burned in my mind. So, every kilometre of amazing riding was tainted by the images of death and suffering I have seen. I kept getting these stupid flashbacks and mental pictures as I was riding and it made things really uncomfortable. I really loved riding and I hope that with time those images go away and I can buy another bike (perhaps back at home), but for now, it was just too much to handle...I kept thinking "none of those guys ever left home thinking they won't live to see another day...". I realize that the vast majority of bikers lead happy, healthy and long lives, but thanks to my experiences, that was hard to keep in mind.
So, I texted a few friends I know have been interested in buying bikes and just before midnight, the bike became Jesse's. I'm going to miss the freedom and the pure joy of riding a motorbike...in 4 days I put over 500 kms on it, so I guess I was pretty good at it too, considering I had never ridden a motorbike before...but it's just not the right time for me.
So...now I'm up to having owned 16 cars, trucks and motorbikes. Owning the Hyosung for four days handily beat my previous record of 20 days of ownership of my 1990 Chevy Beretta GTZ haha. Sooooo when I come back from the Philippines, I'm going to look for a little car!
Oh yeah...that's the other thing...in about 24 hours I'll be on my way to the airport to catch a plane to Boracay Island, Philippines. Go ahead. Google it. Yeah...it'll be paradise. I'm taking only a backpack...a few clothes, my camera and a copy of Robinson Crusoe...let the relaxing begin!!! I'm not taking my laptop, so it may be some time before I do another blog post (might do a quick update on a rainy afternoon if I can while I'm there), so take care, enjoy your summer and I'll be back in a little under 2 weeks with some awesome pictures and some amazing stories to tell :)
Cheers,
T
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