The AMAZING People I Meet Traveling Korea (Bike Touring Korea #23)
hey hey Cafe K and they got bingsu I think that might be my place oh here it comes and it says on the side of it too you can see bullet holes from the Korean War I'm probably eating this wrong I always eat the food wrong so they're watching us too so you can see a North Korean watchtower over there and you can see the the North Korean flag all oh good good morning from the Alice In Wonderland theme park here in uh where am I somewhere in Northern South Korea kind of close to the DMZ uh yeah I stayed over there in the corner last night and uh yeah there's this really uh odd and strange and kind of creepy Alice In Wonderland Park right here there's like a big maze like right in the middle of the park too that I kind of got lost in this morning and so you know I went for a little stroll this morning and kind of checked out this whole area and it's really nice but you can just tell it's just not used very much anymore and so anyways uh we're going to get out of here I'm going to go up to the convenience store look at the map and uh figure out where we're going today so let's head that way all right so we have an OH Tasty uh kimbap here I like these because they're heavy and rice I like like eating some rice get some energy in the morning not too bad so today's version is the jalapeno pepper one so got a little spice to it that's pretty good been drinking a lot of these coffees too so there's a very similar-looking coffee in Japan that I always drank like the same color can same style I don't know if it's the same brand but they sell it here too and once I saw these uh I had to try it and I liked it and tastes pretty much the same so been enjoying these that is so awesome that is something you will never find in America you will never see people who are in the retired age spending their free time in the morning walking around picking up trash that would never happen in the states never I don't think I've stopped at too many of these e-mart 24s but I was just throwing away the trash and I saw their liquor and uh wine selection and it's pretty impressive it's pretty good for a convenience store I mean I was surprised to see this they have Fireball Knox Creek Maker's Mark of course Jack Daniels Grey Goose you got your Absolute vodkas up there lot of different wines to choose from for a convenience store that is pretty damn impressive all right guys let me just show you real quick where I'm at. there's Paju I'm kind of in between I guess Gunnam, Nisan here is the DMZ line and today I'm heading up to Cheorwon uh it's only 32k away going up 250 uh meters doesn't look too bad I mean it's just a slight incline all the way up I think I got it this place kind of cracks me up a little bit says chicken. beer. plate can't forget about the plate now the most important thing I look ridiculous riding around with this thing sticking out like six feet snaky snaky think they're uh venomous? I mean I've seen a few of them out here but they've all been really small and again you see signs like this warning you if you see anything that looks like a an explosive obviously don't pick it up but you would think that the dam here would catch a lot of that right? all right I have found myself in a medium-sized little town here it's about the size of Ganghwa City on Ganghwa island I'd say a little bit bigger than Yeonpung for sure but you don't see any of those high-rise apartments and so a nice midsize little city here let's get off the main street and see if there's anything on these side streets since main Street's kind of boring not much going on over here either check that out a public uh play ground right there public water park is it free I think it's free ah don't mind if I do woo oh yeah ah nobody out here besides a few old ladies oh here it comes oh man this is awesome I mean I love it too it's just a regular playground but they just put a bunch of water hoses and like fountains everywhere there's nothing nothing different from a regular playground right got soft flooring good job Korea another win for you hey hey Cafe K and they got bingsu I think that might be my place all right there's something up here I want to check out real quick though wow those are beautiful Yeonchoen, you're warming up to me oh they got hot dogs here too? hot dogs and bingsu at this place two in one here's the Yoencheon station looks brand new looks nice that's the only way I can get a shot from in there because the door's closed wow well that's pretty cool so uh this is an old Japanese Colonial water tank used for the steam locomotives and so this is left over from the Japanese Colonial period right here and it says on the side of it too you can see bullet holes from the Korean War that's pretty crazy and so I was reading the sign over here and it said that this Railway line went all the way to Seoul or started in Seoul and went all all the way to Wonsan which is now in North Korea I think this is part of it too and I think trains would roll in here and this is before diesel locomotives uh but wow yeah it's kind of a glimpse into the past right here and so it's just one of those things that uh this is an example of what a lot of colonial apologists will use when it comes to you know excusing what the colonizers did whether that's here in Korea with the Japanese or the British in India or the Dutch in Indonesia you know they'll always say like well because of the colonizers the countries were able to modernize very quickly and industries were able to uh to thrive and railways were built and things like that and so yeah but it's also one of those things like India Indonesia and here in Korea they would have figured those things out without the help of the colonizers you know and so people always forget that Korea was an independent country for a millennia for a long long time before Japan colonized it in 1910 and so yeah pretty cool old historical site right here I'd say and over here just pretty nice I think the train station is new all this looks brand new as well so Yeoncheon, not a bad city so I guess this is the uh this is the old station right here and then the new and big one right over there that's pretty cool and it just just hit me I forgot to say something like the main point uh yeah sure all those countries all the colonizers, they modernized the country in a way but everything that they built here in Korea for example was to benefit the colonizer was to benefit Japan and so all the resources and everything uh only went on to to build Japan's war effort and everything went back to Tokyo same in India with the British you know everything that they did there uh they just stole and plundered from the people of India and so uh sure they built railways and they built hospitals and maybe they improved the educational system and like those are really really small things but overall everything they built was to benefit the colonizer and that was the main point and I forgot to say it just now all right let's check out Cafe K and look at that bingsu that looks uh delicious look at all those toppings fruit almond red bean paste that has my name written all over it literally okay cycling cycling think she's trying to tell me it's a big one so I haven't eaten much yet so uh should be able to finish it pretty reasonable,13,000 milk milk oh sugar sugar syrup sugar that's why it's so sweet why it taste so good probably the powder sweet red bean paste oh yeah load it up that's a lot oh all right one of the most important things right here the almonds almonds, yeah need some crunch yeah this is going to be a good one I can already tell condensed milk okay yeah that's a good one yeah visually this might be the best looking one I've ever seen it has everything I like uh has the fruit the red bean paste the rice cake the almonds and I like that it's uh it's made with just regular crushed ice it does have the milk and the sweet and stuff at the bottom but uh I guess some of the milk based bingsus are a little I don't know little too sweet I like the ice Yep this one delivers (it's amazing) this one delivers (it's amazing) 10 out of 10 right here 10 out 10 trying my best here it's a lot I ended up giving a little bit of it to the guy behind me because it started to melt and uh started to overflow you know so I was like oh shit so I started to put a little bit of it in the cup and then I just gave it to the guy behind me and uh he's eating it I think he he appreciated it but now I need to go get some food food this can't be my lunch don't judge me every once in a while I got to have me some uh good old-fashioned junk food American food so let's see how it tastes I went with the uh the chili cheese dog Yeoncheon, not a bad little town okay back in there they have a few high-rise Apartment, kind of over there and off in the distance but for the most part it's just kind of a small quaint little town has a nice little mixture of new and old good stop good stop Yeonchoen I guess it's maybe the "Yeon" like Yeonpung Yeonchoen it's a sign of a good town I think if you have uh the name Yeon in it a beautiful stretch right here look at this isn't that something smell like money out here too up little man or girl I'm sorry hey what's up what's up man hey how you doing you're a little cutie hey what's up cooking up something good just right on the side of the road wow smells good what is it like a kind like a pancake or something vegetable pancake it smells smells good okay okay let me get out the translator the cooking smells very very good oh good what is the name of the food that you're cooking? drink? I'll take a drink okay if you don't mind I'll take a short break with you? wow okay let me park the bike pear okay pear wow thank you yeah wow just cooking right out here the river right there and then you sleep here? oh nice you [Laughter] thank you o look at that okay you oh Tomatoes no no no oh those look great [Laughter] wow I think this is kind of what I had the other day at the festival a vegetable pancake M fresh those are fresh vegetables too M good very good thank you so much for sharing your delicious food with me thank you yeah thank you so much it was a pleasure to meet you all right thank you so much all right thank you so much you too okay all right did I finish oh yeah let me finish okay no thank you no thank you thank you I'll take a couple for the road I'll take a couple [Applause] but wow what an awesome couple so nice I wonder what their story is where they met how long they've been together that's a hill okay concentrate here we got some gravel so this is pretty cool I had to stop off and check this out so uh what caught my eye was the picture online you look at it and it looks like there's like these huge stalagtites growing I guess off the ground but you can only see those during the winter time because they're ice and so I thought maybe they'd be rock but no they're ice stalactites that I guess are formed during the winter time and still really cool though like the cool air is coming out but I did the translation over there on the sign and uh it's another old Japanese Colonial relic um it was built during the end of the Japanese Colonial period and it was supposed to connect Yeongson and Wonsan uh it was also used by the North Korean army as an ammunition storage and then the US bombed or something like that but that's pretty cool yeah I guess water just drips down all the time and in the winter time they just freeze over and not too uh too much further down the road looks like I can get the water right here looks like there's an area right here that I could take a dip and uh been looking for a signpost or something that maybe tells me about this bridge right here cause it looks pretty old too from here? yeah I guess I guess this is the only way down all right nice everything out of the pocket phone yes okay I'm going in that ain't too bad that ain't too bad at all it's like the perfect depth let's see here from here we can go straight on we can take a left on we can take a right and go to also the history and cultural park is that way just in case you're wondering it's time to chill at a cafe though and uh relax and I didn't really eat anything substantial today now that I think about it I had bingsu I had a hot dog and I had that stuff that uh that little vegetable pancake let's try to find some food food tell you what though this town is dead there's not much going on here the map says there's a chicken restaurant back here let's see if there is this is this a restaurant? no no oh no oh I'm so sorry private place no restaurant? ah I'm so sorry on the map it says chicken restaurant okay before it was a restaurant oh before I see I see where are you from? I'm from the US US yes and uh cycling around uh Korea yes so from Busan I see okay sorry I am in a very very country place I think but that's where I want to go there's a monument up there huge South Korean flag got some more corn I wonder if this is the uh the chewy corn the rubbery corn it's the only kind I've had here but up here there looks like there's a huge monument and I see a bunch of South Korean Flags let's go check it out this is pretty crazy I just stumbled upon one of the most significant Korean War battlefields and so this right here is the site of the bloodiest battlefield in all of the Korean War so I just got educated a little bit and read a bunch of signs went through the uh the gallery but this right here is a site of uh yeah the bloodiest battlefield in all of the Korean War 10,000 Chinese soldiers died and it said like 3500 ROK, Korean South Korean soldiers died and so pretty uh historical significant place right here and it was all fought to uh to capture this hill that I'm standing on right here and took place over 10 days I'm guessing off in the distance can you see North Korea from here? can you see North Korea from here? yeah those mountains, here that that mountain right there? yeah is North Korea North Korea what is that building up there? this? yeah this is Korean guardpost a South Korean guard post? yes it's six division is five division uhhuh but those mountains on the other side is North Korea? yes I see this between uh White Horse is blood mountain so where is White Horse? this that is white horse? this this head uhhuh this tail okay I see and so I guess whenever the battle was over that mountain over there was just so blown away by all the uh the shellings and whatnot and it looked like a white horse and so that's where this place gets its name watching here how many visitors how many foreigners how many soldiers so they're they're watching us too so you can see a North Korean watchtower over there and you can see the North Korean flag that's kind of crazy how old is this camera? how old is it? how many years? ah lets see sorry let me how old is this camera? you ah okay uh 80 yeah 80 years old? yeah this camera is 80 years old? okay oh my God can I see can I see incredible. this guy is out here taking photos with an 80 year old camera amazing so that was pretty cool and uh it looks like there's an observatory like less than a kilometer away and it closes at 4:30 it's only 4 right now so I should be able to make it let's head that way like I am right next to the border it's kind of crazy how close I am uh okay so there's a checkpoint up here off the main road that I drove by when I came into this small town and that's the road that goes up to the Observatory I won't be able to film me talking to the soldiers but I'm going to try all righty so that's what you got to do you got to go into town a little ways and you have to sign up and register there and they'll take you out so you can't just roll up by yourself in a car even I'm sure and just go up there so you have to go do all your registration and sign up and probably show them your passport and everything and then they'll take you up so uh here's my dilemma now do I want to do that because it's already 4:09 it closes at 4:30 so I wouldn't have time today so I'd have to just kind of hang out around here maybe I'll go into town and see what it's like and just kind of call it a day I'm in no hurry um and then just kind of relax and chill and then find a place to camp uh hopefully find a good place to have have dinner and then do that first thing in the morning so that's kind of what I'm thinking I'm here on this road going into town and uh there's barb wire on both sides of the of the street there's this guard rail right here but there's also a strip of barb wire and then there's tons of signs that say "land mine" on it and so not going back in there or that side I bet they're just left over from the war and they just never properly cleaned out all this area and so they just closed it all off I imagine oh wow Coca-Cola thank you thank you camera...
oh the old camera. oh okay okay okay okay I see I see see thank you thank you thank you thank you this car was creeping up on me and I was like what is going on okay are they going to pass me, are they going to pass me and then I finally I stopped and uh they gave me a nice cold Coca-Cola and uh I finally figured out that was the guy who was taking the photos all right I guess maybe he saw the sign on my bicycle and looked me up that's probably what happened so thank you for the uh the ice-cold Coca-Cola ah hopefully that's the only thing that's exploding around here well well well what do we have here? crazy okay so this was used in 1946 as the North Korean Labor Party's headquarters and so I guess that goes to show you like the border between North and South changed so many times between 1945 when they drew it up in 1953 at the end of the Korean War and so you know 1946 this was used by the North Koreans and so uh looks like they just put this huge picture up to show what it looks like behind it maybe they're remodeling it they're kind of you know reforming it or whatever but that's what it looks like jeez there is just so much to do and see it out here here we have the Cherwoen history and culture park looks brand new interesting it's like a brand new park out here I guess these are all supposed to be built in like the old traditional Korean style uh architecture that is a coffee shop and I do want to get out of the sun let's see what they got wow looks delicious so she says their uh most popular dish is the tofu soup so I can do that I like tofu it's a good uh source of protein and once again look at all the sides beautiful and so this is kind of what I'm thinking um the place to go that I need to register at for the observation is in a place called Yangri and that direction there's really not much else out there it doesn't look like there's no restaurants there's like really not much out there but I might be able to find some place to camp I think and so I want to go out there and just check it out and uh or I could go right at this you know there's a kind of a fork in the road I can take a right and like kind of go into this City but it's also like 5 km down there and so I'd have to go 5 km there 5 km back and so what I want to do is uh just kind of load up and eat a lot of food right now go down there camp and then do the uh tour in the morning is that a good idea? I don't know yum yum yum wow okay okay put this in here some just white tofu soup is what it looks like put it in here? eat it let's see how many times I burn myself yep that is just straight up chunks of tofu soup that's all it is I think look at that let's see here so she said to put it in here let it cool off I guess a little bit before I eat it got some rice always an adventure here in Korea never know what I'm going to get I can do tofu I don't mind tofu I like it so for me to me it's not that bad it's pretty good I don't think a lot of people especially back home back in the States would uh would like this but you know I lived in Japan for a long time I ate a lot of tofu so I can do this it's like do I eat from here do I eat from here am I supposed to put this in here? and mix it with the veggies I'm probably eating this wrong I always eat the food wrong okay um okay here? here? no? put a lot of these in here with the veggies M and the rice kind of like bibimba so I got the red sauce here too a little bit of the sauce okay okay there you go kind of like a soup and bibimba and then little bit of the sauce thick a some okay make it easier to stir I'm guessing I'm not doing a very good job am I? love it like really fresh ingredients nice and crunchy nice and hot the best meal I've had all day that was good that was good straight to Yangri Street or right to Cherweon town so Yangri is where I need to go tomorrow to go to the observatory but everything uh is down this way and so I'm going to go down here maybe find a convenience store get some drinks get some snacks and then find a place to sleep tonight that is the tentative plan right now feels nice and cool outside got a nice sunset ah feels good in the evenings like really good looks like another fun little small town like there's the arcade street some markets a lot of people out and about walking around a lot of soldiers which as you can imagine being so close to the DMZ but again just another tasteful nice town like this is kind of the main street that cuts through the town all the parking spots on the side are are full tons of people out and about Benz, I don't think they're selling cars in there looks like I found the shady street yep uh a lot of like music bars uh a lot of karaoke places I think they're kind of shady though Which I'm curious, because there's so many uh military personnel here, is that why there's so many shady places what's up... all right I'm looking for the spa I see the onsen sign right there but that looks pretty shady I don't think that's I don't think that's where it is Yeongson Spa and Sauna. has 4.13 stars I don't think that's it hello oh finished? finished? they're closed all righty so this is what I'm going to do uh I'm going to sleep in a church parking lot because it should be safe I mean churches and shrines and temples those are pretty welcoming places and so uh I did this a few times in Taiwan I think I even did it in Indonesia and so okay there's a service tonight? really? oh yes 9:30 at 9:30 that's why, I was like oh many cars are coming wow they're having a service tonight it's uh Friday from 9:30 to 11:00 wow that's why the cars are showing up I was like what are they doing here so late like it's 9:30 on a Friday they shouldn't be here but anyways okay uh I got the green light and I'm going to go set up there all right and so they're having service until 11: it's around 10:00 right now and they said I could use the the bathroom and take a shower so that is awesome just looking at my route today went 62 km a lot of uphill all right that's going to do it for tonight's video today's video thank you Hank for the fan it's keeping me cool uh I'll see you guys tomorrow
2024-08-30 18:45
