Fukuoka has been a great experience. It is the largest city on Kyushu but is very accessible for riding or walking. We feel like we have just scratched the surface of this lovely place …we may stay a few more days when we return from Korea if we can. Today promises to be an exciting day with a ferry trip to Korea and new experiences. What will make this day stand out for us, from morning to night, will be the kindness of strangers that will make a significant difference in our day.
Choosing a hotel in a big city can be challenging, but we really nailed it with our choice of Daiwa Roynet Premier. Its location, comfortable room and best of all, the accommodation for our trikes could not have been better. Like so many hotels in the big cities, there is no typical garage . Rather there is a narrow “tower for cars” where an attendant sends each car up to its spot on a car elevator. Usually this means no space for us. But this fellow had a “can do” attitude and took care of us….”the kindness of strangers”.
We arrived early and that was a good thing. We had underestimated the situation and the ferry staff had never seen trikes like this before. We dealt with a series of managers and the third one made it his mission to make it work. Initially, the primary problem was the width of our trikes which we didn’t understand. We have taken so many ferries in Japan and usually we simply ride on with the motorcycles and cars. A tip: on this ferry, passengers push their bikes on with the foot passengers and the gangplank is too narrow for our trikes. When we offered to cancel our tickets, the third fellow we dealt with, Nam Hun an Asst. Mgr., looked pained that we were so worried. He was truly a problem solver. He smiled warmly and simply said…no problem, I will take care of you. The solution was that our trikes would be loaded on a ferry truck for the trip. He assured us that he would call his colleague in Busan, who would greet us at arrivals and take us to our trikes. But the bigger problem was our e-motors. We had not considered the challenges associated with an international crossing. In hindsight, we are embarrassed at our level of naïveté in not considering the ramifications of bringing an e- bike on a ship to another country. Once again, Nam came up with a solution…he personally carried the batteries on the ship and gave them to a staff member onboard who would release them to us upon arrival. Whew! All of this took much time with Nam and his colleague looking at our trikes, shaking their heads in concern and discussing these challenges. Ultimately, it seemed that Nam’s primary concern was to find a solution and look after us…” the kindness of strangers”.
A lot of consternation and looking at our trikes for long periods of time.
We had some concerns about being refused access to the ferry on the return trip. We offered once again to cancel our tickets. Nam, with his reassuring and kind smile, simply said…”tell me when you will return and I will take care of you”.
Barry with Nam…..he is Asst Mgr of the ferry line for Fukuoka and he does his company proud. We are so grateful for his commitment to our needs and the well being of the ship.
The other way to get to Busan is by a fast ship, the Beetle Queen. They have less room and space for 8 (regular) bikes. no dangerous materials allowed…meaning, no Bartlett’s allowed!
Barry was lucky to secure a cabin for us…2 bunks and a table with chairs. It is a 6 hour journey and it will be good to relax. Our return journey is overnight and takes 11 hours. The ferry is basic and no frills but it gets the job done and we have what we need, including a place to lie down.👍
We hope to have a cabin like this on our return…having a bed on an 11 hour journey will be good…and perhaps some Netflix too! The alternative is being in a tatami mat room on the floor with other travellers or sitting up in a lounge.
The impact of Nam has been huge. The process upon arrival is like arriving by plane to a new country with immigration and customs to clear. But before that as we were approaching immigration, this young man came up to us and asked, are you the travellers with trikes? We were so surprised that he was there….thanks again to Nam for setting this up. This young man assured us that he would be waiting for us and that he would take us to our trikesour trikes .would be waiting for us once we cleared customs. Once again, you guessed it… the kindness of strangers, wow!
The third thing we got wrong in our planning, and it’s a big one, we forget to order a Pocket wifi which would have been waiting for us at the ferry terminal. The importance of this is obvious, but for us, arriving in the dark to this mega city, we will not have access to a route to our hotel on our phones. This is something we have always done….
Coming out of the Busan International ferry terminal is a massive culture shock. We were confronted with a super busy freeway that we need to cross. We saw quickly that riding our trikes with traffic in Busan will be a challenge. Just a note, in Korea, traffic lights are very slow to change. The red light can be several minutes. Despite not having a route on our phone, we thought we understood where the hotel should be….but, welcome to wonderful Busan where the density of buildings is nothing like we have seen before. We quickly realized that we had no idea where to go. This young woman walked with us through the tunnel. She was very kind and said that to reach our hotel, we needed to turn left after the tunnel.
Unfortunately this led to a maze of streets and after riding for a while, there was no sign of our hotel. We asked a man where the Commodore Hotel is and he started to say, just carry on and gestured some turns etc. Then he said, I will take you. It turns out that it was over 3 km away and he walked us through dark streets, at times down the middle of the road when there was no sidewalk. I will never forget the sight of him walking ahead of us, constantly turning his head and waving at cars to go around us. The final approach to our hotel led us a series of steep bits of hill. He wouldn’t let us go until we reached the door of our hotel. Such hospitality and kindness has given us an unforgettable welcome to his country.
The kindness of strangers has been our theme of the day. We can’t begin to express our gratitude enough for the selfless acts of kindness we have experienced. We have decided that all we can do is to repay these acts of kindness with people we meet, locals and travellers (and perhaps be better prepared!). This man has given us an unbelievable introduction to his country. 👏😺
Bill ShaneyfeltBack in the early 90s I spent almost 3 weeks just before Christmas doing safety inspections of contractor facilities... The Koreans were the best hosts! The Korean Airlines safety staff even took me out to dinner the night before we left, and the boss then took me to visit his family! Some great memories. Reply to this comment 5 days ago
Rich FrasierSuch amazing people you are meeting on this trip! So glad you were able to smuggle your batteries into Korea with you. :) Reply to this comment 4 days ago
Barry BartlettI agree Rich. We felt badly as we somehow neglected to understand what we were getting into.
We have had such good fortune in dealing with people who care and truly want to help us. Reply to this comment 4 days ago
Barry BartlettTo Bill ShaneyfeltThanks Bill. Very interesting to hear about your experience. We too have been recipients of genuine and welcoming hospitality from people we have met in Korea. The simple act of smiling and trying to reach out in their language (clumsily I admit on our part) goes such a long way. Reply to this comment 4 days ago
