Monday, October 24, 2011

Planning Expeditions :: The Dream vs. The Realities :: Photos from HimalayasX2011


12 minutes ago
Brian Perich
  • Hey Lars,
    I can probably afford the time off (60 days in summer) and complete segments of the expedition, like...Northwest2012, riding the Alaska Highway through Alaska, Yukon, NWT, Yukon and B.C. to Vancouver.

    Then look at other sections, as you suggest. I can't afford an entire Panamerican ride, that is certain, and my wife wouldn't endure it well.

    China was a great experiment into expeditions, I think I did my best to explore from a paper map, and although I was stopped from entering Tibet from Xinjiang/Uyghyur Autonomous Region, it was a surreal episode cycling in the northern Himalayas for a few days. I was forced to turn back to Yecheng and Kashgar, where I left my Chinese companion (Bruce Liu) and flew to Urumqi and Chengdu, Sichuan to begin the second leg, the toughest, through Sichuan and down to the borders at Lugu Hu, over to Lijiang, Yunnan and north to Deqin where I finished out.

    It's tough without a social mechanism in place, like Jolandie Rust in South Africa, she has people buying countries she will ride through, a strong community backing. Here in Korea, to be honest, the Expat (Western cyclists) are mostly competitors, I am excluded from their clubs because of what I do, blog and ride hard. So, without community backing here in Korea, I can only cycle so far alone.

    Your thoughts are always welcome, thanks for plugging for me, I seem to have a good international audience on my blog, share all information for free, but no donations come through that medium. I need to find another way. 

    My foundation supported, ETE http://www.etelive.org/ was started by Antony Jinman, now a Polar Explorer, he started with nothing but heart, arctic experiences and finally a strong media campaign in the UK, and his former university took interest too. He kept trekking Baffin Island in Canada for several years, build a reputation in Arctic exploring, and finally received considerable contributions for his expeditions and foundation start-up. I can't imagine that feeling right now. But I support him and his work, it's helped me launch, at least small expeditions and that's something for me, out of nothing to start with. I have loads of equipment all personally invested, enough to travel around the world, financing more travel is the difficult part.

    Warm wishes,

    Brian
    Skype: prof.brian.perich



 Haligul, a nurse in Toksun, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China
 Camping in the Borohoro ranges of the Tian Shan Mountains, China
 Supporting non-profit foundations while adventure bicycle touring
 With the help of local sponsorship - An Dae Gi (Gangneung Bike Mart, Korea) helped to build a recycled expedition bike from 2008 components and frame with 10000km already on it
 Smooth sailing across the Northern Silk Road, China's G315
 Learning to read signs in Chinese simplified pinying
 Sharing the roads with truckers, and a few passenger cars en route to Aksu or Kashgar
 Riding about 50 kilograms of bicycle and touring equipment
 Meeting friendly Uyghur truckers and sitting down on the edge of the desert for some melon
 Riding solo in distant spaces
 Discovering new places
 Camping in desert plains south of the Tian Shan Mountains
 Learning to conserve hydration with double masks
 Riding a mountain bike instead of a traditional touring bike
 Having a taste of luxury after squatting continuously on the road side
 Signing in with my guestbook, recording email, sending out photos of the expedition 
 Riding into dust storms and having locals offer a ride through it
 Being alone on the road, following the mission, the HiamalayasX
 When I met people, we would all gather together because there's a bike traveler
 Choosing the right tires, like the Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour tire, at 1.1kg a piece
 Watching sandstorms brew out over the Taklamakan Desert in infrared
 Experiencing the simple joys of surviving and exploring new places
 Taking calls from my wife and children who were visiting my family in Canada
 Waking up each new day, with another road ahead of me and the desire to travel on it
 Reaching the highs in northern Yunnan Province, after 45 days on the road
 Joining teams of Chinese cyclists on their mission to Lhasa, Tibet




 The urban and the rural, the mountains and the valleys...I saw it all

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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.

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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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