Hey look, that cab is getting closer to us....my god...AWWWWW.... OH MY GOD .....I'M ON FIRE

Greetings

The next time someone cuts you off in traffic and you're tempted to drop the F' Bomb and throw up your middle finger, simply give them a wave and say a quick thanks to the big cheese in the sky. Why should you be thankful when some jerk-*&f cuts you off? Well, how about this, because back home getting cut off still stands out and isn't considered a normal part of driving.

Things are a wee bit different here.

Someone once described driving in Korea like playing Mario Cart on Super Nintendo and I think that's a fair assessment. To start with, they don't use stop signs here. Sure, the major roads all employ traffic lights but if you go off them you're screwed. There really are no stop signs, anywhere. In theory the bigger road at the intersection has the right of away. But if all the roads are of equal size and importance then it's anyone's guess about who has the right of away. It seems that the trick is to drive through with your horn blaring and hope for the best.

There's also a zillion scooters whizzing all around. Every delivery service uses scooters and they follow less traffic laws than the cars do. They drive on sidewalks, go through red lights, and well, basically anything else you can think of that's illegal back home.

There doesn't seem to be any traffic cops either, or any kind of punishment for disobeying what traffic laws do exist. Everyone we know regularly goes through red lights, forgets to use indicators, and certainly doesn't mind a little tailgating now and then. All of this probably explains the following:

Since June 29th:

• We have been involved in two car accidents
• Our co-worker had her front-end destroyed
  
• Our Boss had her minivan destroyed
• Our coworker's mother got in a terrible accident
• Several students have been hit by cars
• We have almost been killed about 5 times (literally), usually by a scooter rounding a corner at 60 km per hour.
  

With all of this in mind we thought that it was time we joined the circus and rented a car. We have to go to Deagu for shopping every month and usually we take a bus. However, we've gotten sick of the 6 hours it takes to get to Costco and all of the work involved in hauling massive suitcases across Korea. We figured, to hell with the buses, it was time to hit Costco in style.

On Sunday we picked up our friends Katie and Robyn and off we went.


Here's a photo of our trusty Steed. I named him (yes, it was a boy Hyundai) 'White Lightning', which is English for White Lightning, in case you were wondering. I've never driven a Sonata before but found the car itself pretty easy to drive.

I have to admit that for the first hour or so I was white knuckling the steering wheel and praying to Kurdt Cobain and Shannon Hoon to get me home alive. I almost got run over a few times by the buses but other than that it was a pretty fun drive.

Here's an action shot of your lovely writer enjoying the Korean countryside. This image brings to mind "Born to be Wild" or some other great road trip tune but in reality we were listening to Korean pop tunes about turtles and Kimchi.

The only reason I've included this photo is because it looks like I'm asleep at the wheel. Well, that and I like looking at myself.

Another action shot of the Korean country side. The weather looks beautiful but it's actually pretty cold. But I'm used to the darkness of Kelowna winters so I'm loving life in beautiful, sunny, Ulsan.

Here's a shot of Robyn loading the trunk. Costco is basically the only place to stock up on most western products so we really try and load up when we are there. As you can see one can never have enough diced tomatoes or Lipton tea in their trunk.


Haha, here's a shot of the trunk after we finished stuffing it. Our trunk was symbolic of Korea itself, far too stuffed and ready to explode. Oddly enough the food in the North of the trunk started a fight with the food on the bottom and eventually food from a more powerful trunk had to come over and whup some ass. Things worked out though as the two food groups agreed on a new border to keep them divided in peace.

Here's poor Katie and Robyn in the back seat. Yes, those are 8 pound bags of pretzels. I was the only one who wasn't covered in boxes and bags. Thankfully, all I had to deal with was the fear of dying at any second as I navigated my way home on the Korean roads.

Well, I wish I could say that it all ended well. But unfortunately Joanna lost a leg when a bus veered over and smashed into us. But what can you do, right? It's a small price to pay for driving again. Besides the doctor says that she will be able to run again by next summer.

Overall driving here was one of the most exciting things I have ever done in my life. We loved it so much were now looking into possibly buying a car.

Anyway, until next time.

Cheers

Shayne

P.S - I wasn't joking about how bad the driving can be here. In fact, Korea placed second for car accidents in the OECD, with 147 car accidents per 1 million people in 2004, falling one notch from the No. 1 spot the previous year. And that's just what was reported. Most accidents are settled with cash so who knows what the numbers are really like.