INCREDIBLE! I Found A Secret Spot In Korea! (Bike Touring Korea #30)
all righty it's time to get out of this lovely little town of Hwacheon and uh yep we're going to continue East we're going towards Sokcho or Goseong and so I'm going to miss Chuncheon this time but I plan on hitting it when I'm when I'm back in Seoul at the end of my trip and so I just want to show you guys the post office here it's a Christmas-themed building here with Santa and reindeer and yeah it's uh pretty interesting looking my mom would love it she loves Christmas she loves Santas and this is kind of what I'm looking at like I said we're eventually going all the way to Sokcho and then up here to the uh start of the East Coast route and so it's going to be very mountainous got a lot of up and downs and so let's hit it let's do it thank you Hwacheon had a wonderful time here thanks to all the people I met here uh met so many nice people in this town and uh thank you for welcoming me and I had a good time so I'll always remember Hwacheon all right we can go straight on to the Peace Dam in, or right to Yanggu we are going right and I think today I'm hoping will be one of the most beautiful scenic days that I've been on here in Korea because I'm kind of going through the mountains and going over rivers like this I mean it's going to be gorgeous but I think it's going to be one of the most challenging days cause it's going to be a lot of up down up down so just going to focus on the views look at that yep and this is where the incline starts awesome hopefully it's not too bad getting in my low gear 8.6 Damn that's pretty good got some good tomatoes though to munch on throughout the day nice and juicy damn okay so this is the Freedom Guard Tower said it was built during the Korean War by the sixth division of the ROK army the last words left by an unknown student soldier who died in battle to his comrades Travelers tell the free people we obeyed the order of the people and lay down here if that makes any sense that's that's what the translation says let me just take a quick shot of that so if you're Korean you can read the the direct message I knew it this would be one of the most beautiful stretches I've been on so far here in Korea look at this wow what a view what a view that is gorgeous man And yep this is one of the beauties one of the good things about traveling by bike is that you can just stop whenever you want park the bike on the side of the road and just help yourself to a beautiful view if you're in the car you're just zipping by and oh oh that's nice and then that's it you can't stop and appreciate it oh man but this is kind of what I'm looking at up down up down up down up down big up there then up down up down up down going to be a tough one it's going to be a tough one but views like this make it so much better you got a nice view beautiful beautiful view beautiful view up there do you live here fulltime? no no where do you live okay okay are you here for work? okay all right well thank you for the coffee have a nice day yeah by yeah there's a lot of places like this in Taiwan where you just stop and you just admire how beautiful it is in Japan it was in Shikoku Shikoku is one of the most beautiful places in Japan uh just beautiful mountains and valleys and rivers and yeah this is one of those places here in Korea where you just got to stop and enjoy the show all right you can go straight to, or right to Chuncheon or Yanggu we're going to Yanggu we're going right tell you what I am ready to see the ocean the coast the beach I love it out here it's beautiful the rivers the mountains and everything but I'm ready for a change of scenery that's for sure sometimes you see the workout equipment overgrown by bushes and weeds every once in a while not often but uh sometimes yeah they're just out in the middle of nowhere and uh there's probably a reason why they're uh in that kind of condition but most of the time I think they're used and in proper places but I'm on the climb right now this is a uh the worst one today those look like plums maybe O Okay some wild plums even way out here in the middle of nowhere you got the CCTV up there oh man okay thighs are burning think I got to go up to that main road up there the highway oh man okay I think I should pull out the translator and see what this flashing LED sign says on one of the on one of the screens it says no yes and so I should probably I should probably see what it says okay nothing nothing about you can't ride your bike or anything like that it just says no drunk driving wear your seat belt watch out for falling rocks and uh what was the other one oh yeah turn on your lights when entering the tunnel so check on all those man that tunnel sucked that was no fun kind of rode on the the edge of the street there too at the end hopefully I didn't mess my tire yeah not much of a shoulder there I don't even know if bicycles are supposed to be on this road but this is the only way I could go so I said welcome to Chuncheon so I guess I am going to Chuncheon but just not the main city I guess and it looks like I have a downhill woohoo man we are deep in the middle of the mountains that is for sure look at that view and uh not really any signs of civilization up there either you don't see any houses no cabins or anything up in the mountains it's pretty cool the road I'm on is super windy just kind of hugs this river all the way down but right here not going to have much of a view but it should clear up soon I hope that ain't too bad that ain't too bad one thing's for sure though nobody takes this road it is very very quiet which is nice I can swerve out in the middle kind of hog the road so to speak I think there's been one car that's driven by they all take the tunnel obviously but you'd miss out on some of the nice views over here and the flies are back out check it out we got a blueberry farm too I'm just going to try one guys don't freak out I'm just going to have a little taste I'm sure it's okay one blueberry is not going to kill nobody very bitter uh all I want is one actually that is not very good really bitter oh okay let's carry on there's tons of them look at them ah check it out signs of fall right here those trees are definitely changing colors look at that uhhuh today is August 23rd so still got a ways to go but that was actually kind of surprising seeing those trees uh changing colors like that all right let me just paraphrase for you what that sign says over there it's says this is the Soyong River Dam which was created in 1973 creating the Soyong Lake it says it is the largest rock powered dam in Asia it is the largest in Korea in terms of area and water storage volume and is nicknamed the Inland Sea serving as a key water resource for the metropolitan area located in the lower reaches of the Han River so maybe down by Seoul what is going on over here let's just uh pop in and uh see what's going on looks like there's a parked boat over here A seadoo that's pretty sweet you can tell there's signs of life here but I don't see nobody I don't know nobody around maybe they're down by the water or something I don't know and that boat doesn't look like it's been running for a while they did have some water ski ropes over there and so whoever lives out here I'm guessing can get on the water and have a little fun you really don't see anybody down there all right so I think uh we should be just about done with this road that goes all the way around the lake here hopefully we'll be getting into a small town soon and I can get some food and we can see something else besides this windy road hey what is this cause there's really not much else to show you guys occasionally there's something like this on the side of the road some sort of mosaic right here it's kind of nice got a public bathroom a gazebo all for me aint no one else out here I mean for a road that hardly anyone ever uses it's not a bad little park right here got a nice bathroom this gazebo is in really good condition just now I walked over here to check out this huge pile of rocks thinking maybe it was some sort of hut or stove or something but from what I can tell it's just a nicely placed pile of rocks and they put little white stones around the trees it looks kind of creepy and so I was thinking all right well let's go down and check it out okay spiderweb and let's just go for a little walk and see if this does go down to the lake wow okay this would be a nice place to camp not a bad spot check it out it does go all the way down to the water it's pretty nice too they even have a rope tied here so you can kind of walk down and hold on to it cause I think it's pretty slippery right here but it's not too bad and uh just like that we're at the lake look at that woo boy am I glad I found this place oh yeah that feels good put you right there oh yeah woo it is warm very very warm oh man that felt so good all right now nice and clean when I roll up into the city and the flies are back I mean there is hardly any traffic on this road but every single rest area looks well maintained and uh super nice I got to point that out there is some activity down there you see these uh these like house boats out there just yeah they look like houses just floating in the middle of the lake um I'm not sure what's going on there but there is some activity on the lake for sure okay okay I feel like I'm finally getting there to Yanggu I mean look at all that squigglyness right there all that red is where I where I just came from that's why I came this direction though I wanted to cycle on a road like this I knew it'd be a challenge but I knew I would have some pretty dang beautiful views to look at very random I guess this is uh where satellite dishes come to die huh I mean do people even use satellite dishes anymore I don't think so somebody is a collector though that's for sure nice and steady nice and steady hey a memorial all right so it looks like this is a monument to commemorate the people from this county who fought off the Japanese aggressors in 1896 and so let's go check it out wow it's pretty epic looking got the dragons up there what is that a huge like it's a huge turtle yeah pretty fierce looking that's all written in kanji what is that yeah it just says Japan military Memorial I think I started in Busan Seoul Ganghwa Paju and you? uh from Chuncheon to ? you're doing some bike packing bike packing yeah so you went around Soyong Lake I see yeah this is uh let me show you what I did just now oh wow look at this he's got he's got a little uh paddle there cold, I have water it's okay it's okay what's your name? my name is Kim Nam Song my name is Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick how old? I'm 39 39 uhhuh uh maybe a little older 45 thank you thank you thank you 50 thank you no 63 63 no way wow you look very young best of luck to you about how long do you think you'll be out riding? one week uh about one two week two weeks two weeks nice about two week what a view what a view I guess those clusters of buildings over there is where I'm heading and you do not see one highrise apartment over in this direction not one okay maybe I spoke too soon kid just getting done with this Taekwondo or Karate it looks like looks like another nice little town definitely bigger than the town I was just in, Hwacheon but let's see if it's as nice who is this guy doesn't say much says this is Park Sugeoun a national painter that's what it says but it doesn't really give you much information about the guy to be honest definitely has a small town feel though maybe this is the downtown area just to get a better idea of where I'm at and you know maybe what's here I looked up Yanggu and that's what it looks like on the map way up North uh population 24,000 not huge but also not you know not extremely small either so um and also it say Yanggu County office is right there so yeah 24,000 that ain't bad um let's go find some food not a bad little place I have to say a lot of military personnel well I'm still pretty close to the northern border so that's uh you're going to see a lot of that but a lot of shops I mean it looks like a small city you would never think that only 24,000 people live here this could be some little district in Seoul maybe you know if you didn't look outside too far and you didn't realize you were in the middle of the mountains but it's a nice busy little neighborhood with a lot of restaurants and you know cafes and whatnot damn check it out this small town has a Guinness World Record record it has the most valuable sundial in the world worth $667,000 are you kidding me damn I mean look at this got a little waterfall in the middle of town got some art installations right here in the roundabout this is a statue that I saw up in the mountains actually I didn't get a chance to go up there but it's the same statue way up on the top of a mountain though I forgot where I was but but I mean look at this town it's busy all right so I found this place online had a lot of good reviews uh looks like it's been here for a while for sure uh there's two two white people on the uh the picture outside on the building so let's go see if they serve just one person I'm kind of hoping they uh they do obviously so one okay yeah okay okay all right nope I can't do it that sucks so uh you got to have two people she looked at me she was like nope so maybe we can go find somebody dang it smells so good in there too let's see if I can do this some barbecue sounds freaking awesome and I really didn't eat that well today I had a kimbap earlier that I didn't show you um this morning I had some what did I have? some bread, peanut butter ate five or six tomatoes so I'm pretty hungry we're in and uh I just don't know what to order because there aren't any pictures is there a menu with pictures by chance okay that one that one okay that looks good yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I'll try this one yeah okay that looks amazing that's what I want the other stuff kind of looks kind of fatty and thin I want big [Music] chunks that's what I'm looking at that looks freaking delicious so it's one of those places where it's kind of self serve on the sides I ordered some rice the salad is freaking good I don't know what dressing is on it but it's kind of spicy but so good good I like my steak medium rare, medium, so should be good jalapeno, garlic so good I got three more to go just in case you're wondering that was 26,800 so one of my more expensive meals for sure but every once in a while ain't nothing wrong with it it was freaking good oh man yeah today I just ate like a kimbap at a convenience store on the way here I didn't show you guys that and tomatoes and uh I was not eating very well today so I had to make up for it just another beautiful little town I have to say not too bad Yanggu wow look at this I'm out in the middle of nowhere and they have these projector screen like shining lights onto the uh the bike path right here and this isn't the only one there's one way down there look at that how cool is that all right so yeah this is what we're going to do um can you see me uh I'm going to camp out in the middle of the lake all righty this is what we're going to do I'm going to pass on the jjimjilbang because well I was cycling out there and I found this bridge that goes out to the middle of the lake and so I just came out here just check it out and there's this huge platform right in the middle of the lake and I'm thinking hm this would be a pretty cool place to camp for the night wake up in the morning probably to a beautiful sunrise it'd probably look pretty damn nice and so I uh yeah I set up my tent right here and kind of just got ready for bed I took a didn't take a shower obviously but I wiped my body down took a little sponge bath uh brushed my teeth found me a good place to so camp and so, I'll see you in the morning
2024-09-22 23:38
