Brians Adventures in the World of Cycling in South Korea and Global Expeditions!: Memoires to a friend from S. Korea

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Memoires to a friend from S. Korea

Andrew,

Always good to hear from you, since being in asia...it's difficult to keep in touch with other esl teachers (since most quit and move home after a year). I met up with the 4 year Korea veterans (group that are cycling from China to Ireland in April 2009 (http://www.brakingboundaries.org ) or at least two of them (David..Canada, Tom..Ireland) and one's South African girlfriend (Katheryn). Their ride will support KIVA FOUNDATION, enriching business entrepreneurs in developing nations with small capital business loans. They are all really nice, we had a wonderful ski together [@Phoenix Park]. Tough part is the reality they all live in distant parts of greater Seoul, ILSAN and BUNDANG. Those are also the better parts to live in, cleaner air, good pt work and institutes. I can't move now, we did find a bigger Officetel with a bedroom...you can come see/stay this time without being in the same room with all of us (oops!!!). Pollution is depressing, having the quit cycling early at the end of the summer with all my respiratory infections wasn't good. Ansan/Osan/Incheon, etc...are some of the dirtiest parts of Kyunggi-do, of course it's everywhere, but we have it the worst. Mi Sung has her parents here...I have the current jobs, but change will come next year. It's too bad we can't live near the mountains in Kangwon-do (Province) out East...it's virtually pollution-free compared to Seoul. Very nice to ski there!

Keep me posted, Happy End of 2008!

Brian & Family

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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.

Media: Brian Peric

Twitter: Cycleagain

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