Driving in Korea

While I have some beautiful views driving to and from post, driving is quite interesting here.  This picture was taken on the road to our apartment - we have beautiful views of rice paddies on either side of the road in some places, but we also have some of these views...

This road may not look too bad in these photos, but notice the width of the road...  it is only one car wide with only an occasional widening (as seen above) where cars have to pull over to let another oncoming car pass.  Because in a number of places (above), the road just drops off (don't let those trees fool you).  And you'll notice the blind curve thrown in just for fun.  People like to drive down these roads like NASCAR drivers (well, all roads really). 

And traffic signals and laws - oh they have them, but it seems that expatriates are the only ones who follow them (for fear of being hauled to jail for braking one of them or causing an accident).  In Korea, despite what the drivers manual says (and I know what it says, I've been studying for my test), a red light does not mean stop - it merely means pause, but only if you feel like it.  I've seen cars go around cars who are stopped in front of them and speed on through the intersection.  Today, I saw a bus nearly take the back bumper off of a car who wouldn't get out of it's way so the bus could turn right (legal, but the car in front of him wanted to go straight and was in an appropriate lane to do so).  Here are some other examples of laws that are in no way enforced.  I had intended to say that I had never seen any Korean police other than at the entrance to post, but I saw a Korean police vehicle on the road for the first time today.

Again, the road looks pretty benign here, but less than a half mile down the road this is what you'll find:

While pedestrians do have the right of way, it is in crosswalks, not in the middle of the road with cars speeding by...

And you can clearly see that there are parking spots marked as parallel parking spots on the side of the road.  But here, on heavily travelled roads it is perfectly acceptable to park however you wish, even if that means taking out an entire lane of traffic flow, and you should do so especially under a sign that specifically indicates no parking or standing (that's what that blue sign with the red X marked in it means).

And double parking is strictly prohibited - but they're known to even do it on the freeway taking up not only the emergency lane, but also at least one lane of traffic (all because there's a park there and not enough parking off the freeway).

I am poking fun a bit at the driving habits of Koreans, I remember my mom said that things were crazy here 30 years ago, but I surely thought they would've improved.  After all, they've had 30 years to figure it out.  But, now they just have more cars on the same roads.  So, driving is a bit of a challenge, but I'm just learning to grit my teeth and deal with it, and pray that I don't get hit as other drivers are zooming around me or coming at me at the speed of light, essentially playing chicken with me (I loose every time even though I am bigger than most of them).  Who knows, by the time we leave here I might get just as gutsy... but I highly doubt it.