WOW! French Bike Tourist Said THIS About Korea! (Bike Touring Korea #31)
good morning from Peroho Lake had a nice sleep last night it was freaking awesome I mean actually had to get the sleeping bag out cuz at one point I was like dang it's kind of chilly and so it was very comfortable very nice very quiet I mean look at this place ain't nobody out here there was one cyclist that rode down here this morning did some push-ups did some things but he just you know he minded his own business and got on his way I didn't exactly get the sunrise I was hoping for as you can see it's pretty cloudy but it feels so good outside feels really good it's about 7 o' right now and I'm going to pack up everything and get on the road I want to see the ocean today I want to go to the coast I want to see the beach and so that's my goal today is to make it all the way to the coast let's do it hear that you can hear the fishies and the ducks not surprising but Yanggu is a beautiful little town I have to say sorry I am only going to spend about 12 hours here if that but very impressed with Yanggu all righty quick stop at the convenience store uh had to get me some breakfast because well it's always good to eat breakfast but today I'm going to need some energy and some fuel because it's going to be a hard day I've got a maybe around 100K to do today and that's kind of what I'm looking at I'm going to go up a couple hills and so looks like I got a steep one to start off the day and I get to go downhill and then from there it should be a nice gradual incline I'm hoping and so looks like it's going to be pretty countryside so not sure what I'll be able to find so I got this big heavy tuna kimbap and some more meat on a stick every time I see a car drive by me and then pull over on the side of the road and put their hazards on I feel like they're trying to stop and say hi to me but not not that time they were legitimately just stopping for whatever reason all right this is the start of steep hill number one let's do it not too bad that climb was worth it even though I'm only halfway there hopefully not too much further I am freaking dripping sweat right now oh my gosh I am just drop drop drop drop drop think I'm almost to the top though hey hey nice to you nice to meet you guys I'm a little wet it's it's freaking hot you're coming all the way from Busan right? uh started Busan Inje 20 km Sokcho and Yangyang I made it to the top and I am soaked look at this I'm drenched right now. it's pretty disgusting wow I have not been this wet from sweat I don't think on the entire trip but from here it is downhill through that tunnel which looks pretty narrow that's not cool but hopefully yeah it's all downhill from here until I start to go until I have to start to go up again which the next hill doesn't look to be as steep so uh quick thanks to the uh soldier guys that stopped and said hello you guys gave me some snacks I appreciate it I want to enjoy those in a little bit they said uh please don't show them cause three of three of the five were in military uniform and they're like yeah we can't be shown on social media in the uniform I could literally wring out my clothes right now okay let's dry off let's go downhill woo that's what I'm talking about woo ah that feels so good what's up how are you man you are French? no no I'm from the US okay you yeah how are you? good man nice to meet you nice to meet you, Nicolas I'm Nick Nick? yeah where did you start from? uh so uh I begin in Seoul did you start from the South or Seoul or? Seoul, okay so you started in Seoul yeah how long have you been touring? uh for one month for Korea one month? yeah Korea one month oh cool yeah oh wow it is the end of my travels so you started and went South yeah and then looped around, did Busan, Daegu shot out to the coast exactly wow after I go to Japan Hokkaido yeah you're going to Hokkaido first? to the north this trip you don't have a channel? I did, I did, I've done YouTube for about three years I've done, I didn't cycle but I traveled throughout Indonesia Malaysia um I went to India, Philippines uh last year with my ex-girlfriend I cycled Taiwan, Indonesia, parts of Malaysia uh this year I cycled Japan and Korea okay planned on doing Thailand but then I came back here and why did Korea go up like this... man uh sometimes you just never know I think they enjoy watching somebody travel Korea like we do yeah and uh I like to interact with the locals and try the food yeah and I'm sure you do too maybe and so I just record all that and document that and share it and I think there is not too many videos about Korea that's that's true too not many tourist when I arrive a small village They think, where are you from? France okay I I don't pay the restaurants(they pay for him) ha really? yeah every time I have a many gifts and when I travel in Thailand in Japan and Laos I don't see as many people smiling and happy yeah but uh not as generous they're very generous here very generous and very surprised there is a traveler with a bicycle yeah always right we are alone mhm and when we are alone the people I don't know because when I travel with friends people hesitate to speak with us, with me and now every time uh when I uh I take a break uh people says the hello yeah right right I think the bike draws a lot of attention yes and the way we travel and all our gear, they're like like, wow, what are you doing they're very intrigued and uh a lot of times they find out oh you're just traveling here have a drink have some snacks have some food you know exactly it's nice yeah it's nice do you have Instagram? yeah i do let me get a quick photo for 10 years I've lived in Canada, in Quebec have you heard of uh the saunas and spas here in Korea? what? like a sauna and spa no? it's called "jjimjilbang", it's a weird name but uh you can stay there for maybe 12,000 14,000 and uh you get to have a shower uh sometimes a bath the sauna they have food there a restaurant it's it's a unique experience okay and so so, well, Nicholas best of luck to you nice to meet you nice to meet you too man you're the first one I've seen traveling like this yeah you are the first one too after one month no way that's amazing man that's cool so yeah I had to stop and say hello funny you had the same name too all right well good luck man and uh I'll message you on Instagram about spas and stuff and if you travel in Canada and go to Quebec uh you can go to my home oh awesome man it was a pleasure and if you happen to be in Texas you can come to mine all right man take care take care wow how awesome is that what's your name? Nicholas I'm like wait a second, no but uh a French guy been in Korea for a month you know like I said there's other people that do this too not a lot but they are out there and one thing that is very different from gas stations here and gas stations in America is that here gas stations are pretty much used just to get gas and so in the states the convenience stores and gas stations are usually combined into one so here they might have a few snacks in there but it's pretty limited just just looking uh I'm hungry that way okay just an office no Snickers in there thank you hey hey hey look what it is i must say, this is a nice emart24 convenience store I love it all the picnic tables the fake grass it's nice and I'm going to have to pass on the bingsu the shaved ice right now because it's 11:30 and it's probably a better idea to get food food in me cause if I ate a huge shaved ice uh I wouldn't I wouldn't have room for food for some substantial food and so I'm going to pass I'm coming up on a town up here here and there's a lot of restaurants and so get some food and then maybe later find some shaved ice find some dessert for you I asked her if she could do a half order and she was like sorry can't do a half order damn it oh well bam got the whole sorry at least two people traditional market quiet right now I'm sure they're busy in the mornings I want some goat meat, goat meat soup tongue? okay that's all that matters okay I don't care what it is I'm sure it's good okay let's do it let's do it damn that was quick I think it has the uh the bean broth you know base to it you can smell the the bean fermented smell to it like the uh the the other soup I forgot the name oh really now so you used to sell it was common in Korea wow okay wow okay so interesting learn something new every day wow all right so she kind of helped me out as you uh just saw she kind of put the seasoning in there the uh I guess this is some of the green onion maybe onion she mix the sauce up for me so interesting so o there's a big rib in there nice wow okay so put the meat in the sauce here right right all right kind of tough kind of chewy exactly what I needed eating the big old thing of bingsu I wouldn't have been able to eat I wouldn't have been able to eat this that's for sure I didn't have the camera on and I just missed it but a guy just came by and I think he saw my bike outside and dropped off a couple Monsters and uh think some donuts heck yeah so sweet awesome thank you so much it's freaking good got to love a town that sits at the bottom of a mountain right? or that you can see the mountains from the main streets pretty cool and uh we got about 53 kilometers left until the coast so still have a ways to go and it looks like a nice gradual incline the entire way damn what an epic view right here look at that just a huge valley right there that's pretty sweet that's not too bad either this is not a bad bike course right here yeah this guy knows what's up he's taking his pictures damn what a beautiful place did you guys know this was here? look at that valley that's amazing those look nice all perfectly laid out in rows damn it's kind of random nothing else out here this looks like a great spot to get in it's not a bad spot to have a house is it? walk outside your back door and boom what a view so good so good clean my dirty sweaty shirt too [Music] I think that's what they came down here for to catch all those little tiny fishies hiking? hiking hiking all right okay over there looks like a parking lot some cars come out here and uh get your walk on world keep turning our way and our way on the road again yeah wow there's some really nice stuff tucked away back here too no idea what that is but I love the trees the building looks cool the museum okay some museums back in here over there I have noticed there's some uh paid camping sites it looks like come out here and camp by the river some motor homes some tents and I haven't really mentioned it but it so much cooler now after the typhoon passed I think it finally broke the heat still warm but not near as hot as it was and so that's why I'm able to cycle during you know during this time right now it's 2:40 I did kind of take a a short nap back back there they let me charge my devices for a little bit and so I was laying down on the bench and uh I dozed off for a brief second I can't sleep too long I got to get on the road and let's go I want to see the ocean it's a very active little area honestly a lot of people out by the river are camping they have these little guest houses set up here and there o there's some uh life jackets maybe they get out there and do some white waterer rafting I mean look at that one pretty nice this is very random I had to uh stop real quick and change the battery out on the GoPro and I saw these old phone booths here yep not working but uh there's a picture of Donnie in here that is very random but actually why I stopped is because uh what is this Matagascar one of the uh Disney movies I think but uh that made me laugh just a couple of uh statues out there the The Lion and the zebra just chilling that'll give you an idea of where we are right now a couple dragons with uh I don't know if those are apples or what in their mouth but we're getting there from here we can go right to Sokcho or left to Gosoeng we are going to go left we're going left guys and then we'll eventually go to Sokcho busy little area right here lot of restaurants a lot of locally produced veggies it looks like and look at this wow that's pretty cool now that's a waterfall damn I uh thought about getting underneath it but it looks pretty vicious I don't know if I want to do it looks like it would hurt I don't think I want to get underneath that one that might knock me out what do you think [Applause] the nice lady here just confirmed that it is a uh it's an artificial waterfall I mean it almost looks like it's coming out of a big hose or something up there what does sound really good now though is some bingsu that sounds amazing actually maybe this cafe right here will have some fingers crossed and would you look at that snowflake bingsu hell yeah I don't care how much it costs I'm getting it wow nice place wow look at that hi hi can you make bingsu? yeah yeah this is the best? corn? yeah corn ber berries look amazing the traditional yeah traditional M oh yeah yeah yeah okay I'll try one one so I think it's a regional thing this uh corn style cause there ton of people out there selling corn and so you know what let's try it I think it's a regional thing okay hey what's up [Music] kitties you guys look healthy okay so oh there's a pool over there and everything it's a pretty active area so I'm getting this guy right here and uh it's by far the most expensive bingsu I've ever gotten it's 17,000 it's either extremely good or it's huge that's uh 17,000 what is that? like 12 13 US dollars that's crazy to me that's just crazy to me but thanks to you guys for all the donations and all the buy me a bingsus I can do this otherwise I'd be like nope um let's go get a ice cream bar at 7-Eleven wow look at that napkins okay yeah I get some napkins too it's probably a good idea mhm wow damn that looks really freaking good and it doesn't look too big hopefully I should be able to knock it out let's sit over here in the uh in the carriage and the corn I was kind of worried it looks like uh sweet corn not the chewy corn that I've been eating the whole time let's try yeah it's more sweet more sweet what's this ah okay some uh like some ice cream sandwich pieces of corn here yep ice cream okay so it has the red bean paste uh it has some corn flakes the uh the ice cream sandwiches here oh it still has the uh the ttoek the not the mochi the it has the rice cake man damn I was kind of skeptical about the corn to be honest but it it works it works wow he got the crunch from the Corn Flakes obviously right but the corn itself kind of has a different kind of textured crunch to it that a that ain't bad that ain't bad these are definitely meant for two or three people I don't know if I can do it I don't know if I can do it it's a lot I have a lot to go on this uh on this course today sorry thank you it's big it's very big it's okay interesting little area looks like you can come here and stay for a night got another Cafe over here but I think that one might be closed okay so I don't have much further to go as far as going uphill I have a little bit further to go uphill and then uh it looks like it's just downhill all the way to the coast hell yeah woo welcome to Goseong it's a good thing I don't have to go too much further today either or I don't have to go too much further uphill because I am feeling very lethargic and uh lazy right now after that bingsu feeling heavy and this road right here does not have a bike route kind of sucks but it's pretty well I think I made it to the top and there's a small little town up here but doesn't look like it was doing too well I passed by tons of places that are closed up and uh they've been closed up a while weeds and bushes all over the place yay I think this is it the beginning of the descent woohoo glad I uh stopped and came to get a closer look and didn't just zip down the mountain because you get a nice view from up here kind of you kind of see the road that I'm about to be on but it's pretty cool way the way up here and no I didn't stop to come over here and take a pee, gosh why would you think? and this has been one of the most satisfying downhills I think I've ever had uh sometimes when you go downhill there's the occasional, okay you got to go back uphill a little bit then go back down not this time it was just all downhill uh from the top it was a little steep and you could definitely pick up some speed and get going but it wasn't too steep to where you had to like ride your brakes the whole time and so yeah sometimes if it's too steep and you're just riding your brakes it sucks and it's kind of dangerous so this was this was nice had a nice wide road not too much traffic and yeah, it was very very very pleasant and then this right here uh it's a little flat right here but for the most part it's still slightly downhill which is nice and I have a beautiful view still great way to end the day absolute great way to end the day again every time somebody passes me like that and then right after puts on their hazards and parks on the shoulder I always think oh they're going to get out of the car and say hello once again nah, he was just checking his phone maybe checking directions or something it's not always about you Nick looks like we got a memorial definitely that's a soldier carrying babies I think this is a first all right so we got a lot to unpack here there are basically just two monuments here these two right here are for the veterans who fought in the Vietnam war that one over there is a monument to the Korean War and uh the the veterans from this area that fought in the Korean War and there's uh all the flags from all the different nations that helped Korea during the Korean War as well and there's a plaque that kind of describes what went on during the Korean War and whatnot and so here let me just kind of explain this real quick and so apparently there were eight different units from South Korea that fought in Vietnam uh it says over there that Vietnam was the first war that the Republic of Korea fought in overseas and so uh I believe here might be the names of the veterans down here you have the plaques from each unit and so it's really interesting how it described the dragons and the turtle let me just pull up that translation real quick and read it to you okay so it says the eight dragon heads on the memorial monument represent the eight brave units that participated in the Vietnam War and the turtle a symbol of longevity symbolized the intention to forever honor the contributions of Vietnam War veterans to the nation okay and there's another one over there but first i'm going to come talk about this one real quick and so this is the monument for the Korean War you have all the flags from all the different nations down here uh it even goes into detail you know for example in the United States there were 1.789 million people who participated in the War here
that is crazy 36,940 people lost their lives uh and so each country it kind of breaks down um it talks about how on 6.25 on June 25th 1950 and began the Korean War and so it's an interesting time I read a lot about it um what led Kim Il Sung, the first dictator and leader of the North Korean regime you know what brought him to you know invade the south I mean obviously he wanted to reunify and take over the South and bring the entire Peninsula under one government under one regime his regime but you know what led him to do that was kind of interesting uh at that time he got not the permission but he kind of got the okay from China and the Soviet Union to go ahead and pursue uh you know his ambitions and to go ahead and invade and so at that time the ROK South Korea ROK uh just means Republic of Korea um they were extremely vulnerable and I think they felt vulnerable because you know you have North Korea a communist freshly new communist country and then you have China right there and you have the Soviet Union sure you have the backing of the United States but I was reading they weren't in South Korea at the time of the war(when it started) they were busy in in uh they were busy in Japan with that occupation and so Kim Il Sung felt that he had a perfect opportunity to go ahead and invade the South and try to take it over and he almost did like I said I've said this a few times he made his way all the way his army all the way down to Busan and luckily later on I think it was in September of 1950 MacArthur the same guy that had Hirohito uh the emperor of Japan surrender unconditionally uh he's the one that led the attack during World War II against Japan he invades or he does invade he attacks Seoul and reclaimed Seoul and that kind of turned the tides on the Korean War and uh the South Koreans and the Americans and all these other countries were able to push back the North Koreans and eventually turn the tide they were able to go up into North Korea and almost uh almost reunify and almost completely capture the North and so in the end what the Korean War did it just permanently placed the 38th parallel as the border between north and south and both the North and the South didn't want that obviously and uh from 1945 onward they all thought that the the division would just be temporary and well the Korean War made it permanent unfortunately okay there's one more over here that I want to go check out there's another soldier with this uh hand high up in the sky with his gun I don't think I can get over here here this way let's go around all righty so the sign right here just says in this area there are around 16 different battles that took place from 1951 to 1953 uh I think it was like three or four different divisions from the ROK the Republic of Korea and a few from the US and this Monument just commemorates those people who fought and died here in Korea and reclaimed this area during the Korean War okay is that it? anymore? there is one there's one more over in that direction but it didn't have a plaque or anything and so we can just act like we didn't see it and keep going I made it I made it check it out it's the beach and the East Sea wow from uh Gangwha, Seongmodo, and the west side all the way here how bout it awesome and it looks like it gets a little busier and uh a little more action going on down in that direction like everything up until now has uh felt pretty country and kind of like run down in rural and so looks like there's uh a lot to see and do down there which is nice every single person is barbecuing and it smells so good I'm going to have to go find some of that okay please help me please help me so I found a place that was open some uh pork belly barbecue so all the servings up there on the menu says it's for two people but I will have no problem eating that I'm pretty hungry the kind lady is helping me out I would have never have known to put the kimchi on there and the bean sprouts those are ttoek, the rice cakes we have potatoes we got some sauce kind of looks like green chili sauce but I don't think it is then you can cook the rice cake and the potato in the fat of the pork the fat just dripped down right here this probably isn't the best seat to sit in but I didn't know but looks just about done little bit of grilled kimchi some of the pork some of the salad that was freaking delicious I am stuffed I am very satisfied ended up being 26,000 which was pretty much the yeah exact same price as the beef barbecue last night so I don't care it was freaking good and yeah if you want to get some delicious pork barbecue come to this place right here next to a seedy-looking place right here what is that? oh yeah now find somewhere to post up the tent and call it a night
2024-09-26 17:04
