Friday, May 23, 2008

Update from South Korea


I just haven't been blogging these days, I'm living in the fast-lanes of East Asia. In Korea people say, "Bali Bali!" This expression means, "Hurry Hurry!" Of course, this is how we live. There is no general description of South Korea that could accurately portray life here. It is an up at dawn, shower and shave and jump into the car to commute to work sort of environment. Well, that summation reflects about every developed country in the world, doesn't it. It's also industrialized and so is China to the West, Northwest, and Southwest. Therefore, we must consider the prevailing westerly winds that blow, and with that comes the Great Yellow Dust from Inner Mongolia (The Gobi Desert) mixed with the fine dust and particles of Chinese origin. This cloud of brown sand tints the entire sky and leaves a trail smooth surfaces (painted surfaces/cars) and it's distinguishable during the entire daylight hours. Could this be a serious environmental problem one should consider, I believe the answer lies in living through this season in South Korea. It's inevitable. It comes after every spring and resurrects it's pollutant-punch just after the Cherry Blossoms and Fresh Spring air come to the region. There is usually an intermittent rainfall, and then the dust settles in on warm, dry westerlies. It's a shame it doesn't rain everyday, hence, the air would be void of the silicants, toxins, and other biohazardous materials that can hitch in the dusty breeze. It isn't too bad this year, when compared with the spoofage that blew over the peninsula in the winter of 2001 when I first came to Korea. There were piles of brown dust along the streets, the sky glowed brown in the haze of the afternoon sun. If the apartment window was left slightly ajar, the dust would fill the window sill and eventually accumulate on the floors, tables and chairs. It was a visit to the Gobi Desert via 1000's of Kilometers of distance afar. It's the strong westerlies in the East that take the sand so far from it's point of origin. I will wear a mask and continue to enjoy the bike rides across Kyunggi Province, anything is feasible, you learn this by living in South Korea. Mi Sung and Min Jae and all her extended family are fine, we're all doing well and enjoying our freetimes together. Thank God for Life! ^^++ Blessings and thanks for visiting our blog from asia, not always up-to-date, but better than nothing at all...Peace, Warm Wishes ~^^~ Brian ^^++

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About the Korean-World Author

Brian Perich was an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) lecturer for a decade, father, and adventure cyclist based in South Korea.

Previously, Brian has led Canoe adventures in Quetico Provincial Park, Atikokan, Ontario, Canada (1993/1999); led Grand American camping adventures (2000); lived at Paramahansa Yogananda's SRF Ashram for 5 months (see the film "AWAKE"), formerly worked in titanium welding at Agilent Technologies, formerly worked in Winery industry in Marin County with Kendall Jackson in California; Surfing and Meditation continued for several years in California, British Columbia, South Korea, Yoga training in California 1999-2000.

Between 1994-1998 - Brian completed his own adventures with motorcycles. His motorcycling marathons took him across the United States and central/western Canada, while traveling solo over an astounding 24,000km in 60 days! Brian endured 900 mile/1300km average days in the motorcycle saddle and apparently loved every minute of those adventures.

Today, he has given up motorcycle adventures altogether, but finds an outlet for his enthusiasm in outdoor recreation while bicycle touring and micro-blogging about those experiences on his mountain bikes.

While employed as an English teacher in South Korea, Brian has became an advocate for bicycle touring on his mountain bikes. The Korean-World blog originated from those small adventures in Korea, now expanded to cover his recent trek down the TransMongolian highway to the Gobi Desert, cycling 900km east through the Khentii grasslands and in 2012 crossing Mongolia in 45 days, 2500 kilometers 1553 miles. HimalayasX expedition Brian previously cycled across western China, the Taklamakan Desert, the northern Himalayas of East Turkestan Xinjiang/Uyghur Autonomous Region, the corrugated back roads and mountains of Kham Tibet. Brian successfully completed his 2011 mountain bike expedition with 3200 kilometers / 1988 miles unsupported, on/off road MTB adventure cycling.
Brian has completed his second mountain bike journey, MongoliaX expedition - Crossing Mongolia 2012, an unsupported mountain bike MTB expedition across 2500km of Outer Mongolia from Ulanbaatar to Altai Taven-Bogd National Park bordering China, Russia and Mongolia.


In 2013, as a sequel to a trilogy of cycle tours, Brian enjoyed a more leisure bicycle tour onboard his Koga-Miyata World Traveller seeing the northern tier of the United States and western Canada covering 3400 kilometers / 2000 miles in 30 days. This North American cycle tour was called Totherocktour. Enjoying the adventure of bicycle travel and every great conversation started while traveling on the road - has refueled his inspirations to cycle around the Earth. In 2013, while he cycled solo from the Great Lake State of Michigan, United States to Banff National Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. He weaved through local communities and reconnected with friends, family and community after spending almost a decade in Asia.


Brian is now supporting several non-profit foundations through expeditions: IDEAS Foundation of Canada IDEAS is the acronym for Intestinal Disease Education and Awareness Society which supports the IBD community, those suffering from IBD-inflammatory bowel disease, also known as Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis.


The second non-profit foundation is ETE.ORG - Education Through Expeditions, UK which supports educational outreach programs inside schools around the world. ETE connects explorers with students in the classroom, through an interactive online program in development (Beta).


Brian is researching support for a 18000 kilometer bicycle expedition across the Americas: North, Central and South America - ONE -Arctic to Argentina
Please contact him if you are interested in helping out.

Twitter: Cycleagain
Location: Gangneung, Gangwon-do, South Korea or southern Ontario, Canada.

Thanks for visiting my Journal from Asia

I hope you enjoy the updates!

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Brian's friends have also been...Cycling in Korea!

Brian's friends have also been...Cycling in Korea!

Cycling in Korea, Warning: always wear a helmet! (I gave mine to my friend)

Cycling in Korea, Warning: always wear a helmet! (I gave mine to my friend)

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