South Korea: Solo Cycling Through The Countryside (Bike Touring Korea #25)
this is why I like the small towns they're all nice and neat they got the flower pots in the middle of the median and the roundabouts they're just well put together you know that Paju Bookstore area and all those nice buildings and all that cool architecture but the sidewalks were just overgrown with bushes if it looked like this it'd be perfect you know with the potted plants and the nice little uh park over here you got the mountains in the background small towns in Korea, doing all right I think doing all right all righty finally getting out of Dongsong after the DMZ yesterday I just rode back into town went to Frank's burger and I had a couple good good hamburgers chicken burger finally getting on the road it's 12:30 just uh heading east not really sure what I'll come across uh I know I have a pretty good climb today and then I just want to get over the mountain and then go from there so beautiful there's like 20 cranes out there so I was just thinking you know being so close to the DMZ can't you know it's hard not to think like man this used to be the battlefield right here 70 years ago soldiers and tanks and artillery and you know all this military stuff and the war was happening right here and then now it's just super peaceful and calm and I mean look at those mountains over there and then I started to thinking like man I'm so lucky that I'm able to live in this time period or be in this location and freely do what I do I mean there's there is war going on in the world and I'm just so lucky that I'm not in it you know and uh there's war in Ukraine there's war in Israel and Palestine and uh there's a lot of a lot of horrible things going on in the world right now and I'm just so lucky just to be able to ride a bike through the countryside even though I am next to the most militarized border in the world you would never know it and so 70 years ago would have been a different story a 100 years ago and so just grateful guys it's just really nice and you know we don't know what this situation is going to be like in 10 years 5 years I mean [ __ ] things could things could take off tomorrow you know you never know I guess in this area but for now feeling lucky I don't know if I'm going to share this part of the uh my thoughts with you guys but we'll see this don't look too good all right not too bad not too bad I don't have uh mud flaps on my tires either and so when I go through water like that and I'm going if I'm going too fast I just spray everything on my bike and gets a little dirty all right so got some information on this guy sounds like he was basically the uh the Korean Robin Hood of his time it says although he was a thief he was a righteous Thief who resisted the tyranny injustice and corruption of the corrupt officials the statue symbolizes the corrupt power and class society with only two pillars and vividly expresses the will to break down them and achieve freedom wish there was more to talk about it just really not much going on out here ooh there's a topless mannequin that's pretty exciting but yeah it's just been real quiet going through a few small little towns I got some mountains over off in the distance lot of rice fields uh I'm heading that way and I should be climbing over one of those mountains right there and so I got a pretty good climb coming up so hopefully there's a convenience store and I can get a few snacks and some drinks before I do it but if not I'll be fine but it's nice out here just not a whole lot to talk about all righty so from here we can go left to right to we're going left hey looks like there's people over here it's pretty nice down by the river up there there's a pool tons of kids swimming a lot of families out today uh they got signs everywhere saying you can't swim in the river unfortunately but they have this area right here and I guess the kids can look for rocks or something but it's really freaking cold I just put my feet in so I'm going to take a dip so I think this might be the first time I've had a bento here in Korea do you call them bentos here too? uh this one's made by that sweet old lady yeah I don't think I've had a bento in Korea yet get some meat and egg some rice some sausage maybe some tofu macaroni and kimchi also this is one of my favorite teas in Japan I love this stuff and I've also become addicted to this stuff right here banana milk it's so freaking good man and uh filling a little lethargic today and so I was told to take this by Jiye at uh my favorite sandwich shop and Seoul. Hand and Sand and so I want to give this a go see if it works so I guess it's just like a multivitamin I did a little translation here and you get a there's a couple pills up here and then there's some sort of like kind of white creamy stuff in this bottle that you're supposed to drink and so it's kind of sour I don't know it's not the greatest okay let's see if it gives me a a boost of energy cause I need it there we go that's what today's been missing some really nice views it hadn't been bad but it's just kind of been yeah a lot of lot of just rice fields and old towns which can get old after a while and so from here we're going up we're at 220 meters right now one handed let's do this I'm at 220 going up to 730 so about 500 meters uphill hopefully it's nice and gradual I don't mind uphill I just don't like pushing If and cycle the whole way I'll be happy I'm guessing that multivitamin is kicking in I drank a couple banana milks though, I think it's probably good just to stick to one all right we're going to Sokcho everybody I cannot wait to see what the beach looks like on the East Coast I'm excited I've seen pictures on Instagram from people and it looks really cool and so I can't wait to see what the vibe is like on the beach beach on the coast go to some of those uh beach towns and kind of get away from here and get to a different part of Korea I'm excited damn ever wonder where your apples come from? right there that's a lot of apples this one's kind of cute they made it into a little apple train I guess I'm in Apple Country now Cheorwon there you go there's a place you can get in the river and you can camp nice and this one is really cool look how cute this one is look at that soldier how they looking over here wow I like how' they've turned them into pieces of art that's pretty cool let's go see what's going on down here nice this is much better than the place I was before it is Saturday so it's going to be a little more busy I'm sure than it would be on the weekday not a bad spot and so yeah I was looking at the map and from here it kind of cuts up into the mountains and it looks like it just kind of hugs a river the whole way and so I'm hoping to get beautiful views like this are even more beautiful when I'm kind of way up in the mountains but let's just uh take a dip real quick and then get out on our way are you camping here? like sleeping sleeping 100 meters.. oh it's your home? you live here? yeah beautiful nice ah yeah oh it's it's it's uh deep ah very deep okay that's good yeah it does drop off yeah it does nice little dip let's get back on the road straight to to Cheonchon and which I think if there's 'ri' at the end of the name that just means a street? is that right? or does that mean like a town? but I do need to go left need to go this way some big apartments over here out in the middle of nowhere I think the climb starts right now it's going to get steeper and steeper let's do it any yall want to live out here? up there on the top floor it' be nice and beautiful you'd have a nice view so one thing you see out here just like you do in uh Taiwan out in the countryside there's a bunch of chain-up dogs on pretty short leashes and so I don't know you would like to think that the owners take good care of these dogs and maybe take them on walks and whatnot but you just kind of get the impression that a lot a lot of these dogs are probably left like that for uh for a long time you know like not for the majority of their life and so I'm sure they're used as guard dogs and you do see that sometimes out here in Korea I saw that a lot in Taiwan too unfortunately quite a few bees out there for sure yeah bet they're making some good honey too okay way back there too there's a lot of military uh buildings and uh things like that out here that they remind you over and over and over again that there is no photography or video of the buildings or anything around there and so uh it's kind of cool you see all kinds of different trucks and tanks and uh machinery and all kinds of stuff back there and so it's cool to look at wish I could show you guys but not going to do that woo perfect looks like we have a little monument maybe a tomb place I can take a break ah all right so this is a monument for sergeant what is his name Souyeun Kim so it says in 1964 two North Korean uh two North Korean agents came across the border and Kim spotted them they had a shootout Kim killed one of them on the spot and it said Kim was shot in the abdomen and then later on he died and then the other North Korean escaped and went to a town called which I guess is here in South Korea but uh later on he was found and uh arrested it said but uh Kim he passed away from uh from the shot and and he was buried here rest in peace man rest in peace okay I hear thunder all right not cool got a little bit of ways to go it's 6 o'clock right now don't fall asleep not a problem woo not going to push not going to push I made it this far all right woo not easy all right one last curve here I should be there ready for a break oh man what up Woody is that a woodpecker you got woodpeckers in Korea all right now this one should be the last curve and then from here 100% downhill am I saying goodbye to Cheorwon? oh man dream for Unity Cheorwon please be a bench or something up here and a nice view would be cool any of that make any sense to y'all? not me I am soaked too jumping in the river before I did that probably was not a good idea all right now for the fun part hope that can dry off a little bit too first little town little mountain town it looks like still some young people walking around look at that wonder if they're soldiers probably looks like it's pouring rain up there [ __ ] thought the uh(uphills were over) got one more little nipple to go over and then I'm done and I'm pushing I give up I can't do it and the flies are out now I should have just stayed in that small town where those army dudes were there was a nice to CU convenience store I probably could have just stayed there tonight and [ __ ] okay surely there's something not too far ahead damn I should have just stayed back there my app is telling me this is a 14% incline oh that was a truck picked me up feels good though feels good though got to work for every every meter here every step and knock on wood, hadn't rained on me yet there it is now it's coming down haven't been in this in a long time luckily I came into this little small town and uh found some shelter hopefully it'll pass there's a convenience door right there damn it is coming down I tell you what I am so freaking lucky so turns out this is a gymnasium and so I peaked in there and I saw a water cooler and a bathroom and then uh through those doors right there there's a big uh volleyball court in there and I think over here there's a gym like a workout gym people running on treadmills and the there's a lobby right here and I went and talked to the guy and uh real nice guy I explained my situation through the translator and I was just like yeah it looks like I'm stuck here tonight um I'm cycling from uh you know I kind of gave him the rundown of what I'm doing and uh he was like oh wow okay and uh I was like is it okay I first I asked him if I could set up my tent underneath here and I was like yeah I'll be out early in the morning I was like actually he didn't even say anything because he he knew I do speak Korean he's like he walked right out here and he pointed over here boom and he said you know knock yourself out over here and uh I already set up my tent perfect it's going to be you know this is a nice one too not only does it have a roof but it also has this extra covering on it extra wide it has like extra padding in uh over the wood and so should be nice and dry I might not I might not even have to put on the the rain uh cover I usually don't if it's not going to rain just cause it's cooler but sometimes if it's going to be really windy uh you know I could get wet so hopefully I can keep that off but all right and so after I get nice and dry I'm going to walk over to that convenience store and get some dinner and then I'm actually doing a live tonight and so I just posted the uh the Seoul Meetup video number 20 and I thought oh let's do a live tonight and just uh chitchat with everybody and then I was getting kind of worried there I was like man like it's 7:26 right now and I'm kind of out in the middle of nowhere I might not be able to do this live and so so lucky to find this place find that over there have a convenient store right there for food the rain has stopped and uh yeah I think this is a great time to uh call it a day I don't know if I'm going to end the video here probably will so thanks for watching uh like subscribe comment do all that uh and yeah I'll see you guys in the next video peace
2024-09-02 19:28
