Trails, Rails, Gales and Tales from a Bicycle in Korea

This post is intended to show the geographical terrain of South Korea's Gangwon-do Province and the points crossed in these photos display areas between Gangneung-si and Uljin County on the northeast coast. The route is my favorite for cycling/training in Korea, Hwy 7 -dubbed the "Asian Highway" links Goseong to the northern limits of South Korea bordering the DMZ/North Korea's militarized armaments. Other places to visit en route include Sokcho, Yang Yang, Gangneung, Donghae, Samcheok, Uljin, Pyeonghae, Pohang, Gyeongju, Ulsan and finally Busan. It was the first training of April 2010, I spent the month of March recovering from the 'yellow dust' blown over China/Korea/Japan/Taiwan and much of far East Asia. Feeling better now, I completed a short training route with a great deal of vertical variation: 7 hours 30 mins (RT=Ride time) 16.7km/h (AS=Average Speed) 60.5km/h (MS=Maximum Speed) 125.95km traveled. It's really a short distance, but after being on medical furlow for a month, I was happy with just be back on the saddle. Work to accomplish now in my academics, back to the bike when the way clears. ^^.

WT: Battling the Yellow Dust, Supported by Friends

Hey Mau-Netherlands & Ger-Malaysia

Perfect timing for a wake-up call. I've been wondering the same thing (one...when does the next course begin, this week??? two...what have you guys been up to???) I passed all three stages of the Tour Du Work and learning (:

It's been so long since I rode my bike but my lungs are caked with the yellow dust and infections persist. This year has been especially hard on me, although making babies was an easy part (:

The idea of being purely alone (while on expedition) is my recurring daydream. But, in my face is the battle of everyday work and learning which is the toughest part of the routine in Korea.

The environmental pollution (or my allergic reaction exposed while training in it?) is especially difficult this year is unreal, I've probably shaved a few years off my healthy life with exposure to something I can't even see, the invisible dust that is killing me...

Feeling lonely? I know this too. I was in that place during the final of three years in the sunshine state...along that road, through a 6-month stage at an Ashram, I changed my focus from being an 'acrobat of the road' when I transitioned to becoming an English teacher in Korea/China. It was the deeper concentration while living with the monks (meditation and yoga everyday) which provided a new vision and purpose of settling down (teaching became a career occupation, my wife became my guide). There are always exceptions in life, one is my ambitions of riding the bike 32,000km in one journey.

My friend/blogger/writer Juan is the Acrobat of the Road (read that blog!) He's designing an eco-friendly lifestyle selling a book to support his journey, I would recommend the read to anyone considering taking the wanderlust life professionally (:

Juan crafts his daily life with observations of the daily lives of the people he encounters off the beaten paths. Providing insightful presentations about his nomadic experiences; he's living free and his current philanthropic journey rediscovers South America's cultures, economy and everyday lives of different communities living across the hinterland of an enormous continent in the southern hemisphere.

When you finally put out that 'lonely fire' you'll be surrounded by life's priorities. It's at this stage, when you'll start to think about how good it is to be alone (on the range/road in my case).

I've been blog-tweaking and have attempted to learn 'Dreamweaver CS4' to design a professional site for the expedition in 2012, however, alone on the project I am struggling to put it together. I think staying indoors to protect my health is really a mental struggle...the tiny dust I can't see outside is slowly killing me...it's been one hell of a fight this spring!

Regular blog has it's new updates: Korean-World

My wish is feeling better...but I am still in 'recovery mode' from a dust I cannot see coming from Mongolia, across China (adding heaps of toxins and bio-hazardous pollutants), getting finer and less visible the further it travels on airmass from it's origin until, finally, getting trapped in my lungs, my throat, and this is where the battle is being neither won nor lost, I am just trapped until this toxic plume works its way out, leaving a wake of residual infection to battle until I get back out on the road training again. I miss the feeling of waking up smelling a bicycle journey hot on the stove!!!

Peace to my fellows in this 'journey' called life and be not alone, send me a message ^_^...!!!

Brian Perich

Yellow Dust Attacks South Korea, A Serious Warning!

Cycling in Korea, Arctic to Argentina 2012, TBS 101.3 eFM Seoul, Korea from Brian Perich on Vimeo.

Dave B. April 8 at 9:44am

Dang!!!!! What is the "yellow dust"? Sounds like Korea is taking

its toll on you! Rest up! I will try to get some shots of your bike

in the next week or so. You sure you want it taken out of the

nice packaged box????

Sent via Facebook Mobile

Brian 브라이안 Perich April 8 at 10:35am

Take a ride!!! And get photos!!! That bike is designed for

60,000km+ (40,000 mile+) rides, service it, and keep riding!!!

If you take detailed pictures of the kit (tools, extras included),

closeups of the components, etc

.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Dust Follow the link,

you'll see the HELL I've been going through for the past

1.5 months...

Brian in Gangneung

Asian Dust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org

Asian Dust (also yellow dust, yellow sand, yellow wind

or China dust storms) is a seasonal meteorological

phenomenon which affects much of East Asia sporadically

during the springtime months....

Brian 브라이안 Perich April 8 at 11:02am

Effects

Dust deposition in Beijing during the 2006 season.
Areas affected by the dust experience decreased visibility

and the dust is known to cause a variety of health problems,

not limited to sore throat and asthma in otherwise healthy

people. Often, people are advised to avoid or minimize

outdoor activities, depending on severity of storms. For those

already with asthma or respiratory infections, it can be fatal.

The dust has been shown to increase the daily mortality rate

in one affected region by 1.7%. Although sand itself is not

necessarily harmful to soil, due to sulphur emissions and the

resulting acid rain, the storms also destroy farmland by

degrading the soil, and deposits of ash and soot and heavy

metals as well as potentially dangerous biomatter blanket

the ground with contaminants including croplands, aquifers,

etc. The dust storms also affect wildlife particularly hard,

destroying crops, habitat, and toxic metals interfering with

reproduction. Coral are hit particularly hard. Toxic metals

progagate up the food chain, from fish to higher mammals.

Air visibility is reduced, including canceled flights, ground

travel, outdoor activities, and can be correlated to significant

loss of economic activity. Japan has reported washed clothes

stained yellow. Korea Times has reported it costing 3 million

won (US $3,000), 6000 gallons of water, and 6 hours to simply

clean one jumbo jet.

Dave B. April 9 at 12:47am

Wow!!!! You would think they (Korea/china) would care

about their emissions? But hey all they care about is

cheap labor and trying to make a buck off it!

Sent via Facebook Mobile

Brian 브라이안 Perich April 9 at 4:20am

Yeah, I don't think the Chinese were/are thinking,

this dust is coming from the growing wasteland in

the Gobi Desert. Since the Chinese long-ago deforested

many bordering regions, the Gobi Desert actually grew

larger and uncontrollable desertification is the direct

result. With massive storms (wind and sand storms)

every spring that sand and dust sweeps across all of

East and Southeast Asia (Northwesterly winds). My lungs

are still jacked 5 weeks later, 4 different broad-spectrum

antibiotics, allergy pills, respiratory therapy, and about

7 doctor visits (ENT-Ear Nose and Throat Specialist).

The doctor's office has a regular cue of about 20 people

continuously throughout the day, and he's making a back

off each and every customer (subsidized by the government...

the visit is about $2.50 and medication can run about $5.00

which is reasonable to walk-in and see a specialist without

an appointment and the pharmaceudicals are cheap in Korea).

But who the hell wants to be sick all the time, dependent

on drugs to fight the infections deep down in the lungs,

and have exposure to cancer-inducing toxic materials and

biohazard materials (picked up across China's vast industrial

wasteland)??? Not me, and I'm fighting for my life, drain of

my energy that should be spent in spring training, not to

mention the 5 weeks of diarrhea as a bonus, as the antibiotics

destroy all the healthy bacteria in the digestive system,

you deal with that outcome on top of everything else.

In short, it's a total f&^%ing nightmare out there in the air,

it's the dust you can't see that will kill you if your pushing

hard on the lungs doing continuous aerobic activity.

I'm staying indoors so I won't have to cough up a

lung or start chemo-therapy for cancer in the

near-future, however, if I keep training outdoors

here in this season, I might as well start digging my

early grave!

This serious seasonally occurring health and environmental

problem lays destruction in it's wake. Dave, I could go on

and on, it's like being kicked in the chest by a horse, choked

by a boa constrictor, and food poisoned all packed into one.

I'm definitely planning an escape route for the expedition in

2012-2013, this is a powerful experience to live through to

try to recover on the other side (North, Central, and South

America) while riding my bicycle for healthy renewal/charity

funding/non-profit two-wheeling. Well, I'm about prepped

for mid-term examinations now, still thinking about

riding this weekend, but wondering what it will cost

me to do it, a few more days of my life shaved off???

Thanks China! We are watching that nation destroy the Earth

piece by plastic/manufactured/toxic producing piece, and it's

not getting better over here in Korea either, we lay our own

waste into the sky through filthy industrial practices, fossil fuels,

and 50 million people moving about in a very small landmass.

The whole world is producing and consuming waste, we will

reap what we continue to sow, and it tastes like an industrial

farm that's killing us slowly.

It's time to THINK GREEN, REDUCE, REUSE (I mean it),

and WALK or CYCLE, start using HPV's

(Human Powered Vehicles) or alternative fuels

(Hydrogen, Solar Power) as a way to reduce,

recycle, and reuse the limited "clean-burn" resources

we have left on this Earth....

A living planet that is being trashed by humans.

The Korean Peninsula extends for about 1,000 kilometers

southward from the northeast Asian continental landmass.

Roughly 300 kilometers in width, climate variations are more

pronounced along the south-north axis. Due to these variations,

marked differences in plant vegetation can be seen along this axis.

Generally speaking, the southern half of the peninsula is warmer

than the northern half.

The total area of the peninsula, including the islands, is 22,154

square kilometers of which about 45 percent (99,313 square kilometers), excluding the area in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), constitutes

the territory of South Korea.

News Updates on the Yellow Dust in South Korea

(US Military Monitoring system) which tends to be

"shutdown" or blocked by Korean/US authorities when

levels are at danger levels...we've seen the index well

over 500 this year alone, not a place for humans living

green, a place for machines and refuse.
http://www.korea.amedd.army.mil/webapp/yellowSand/Default.asp

Peace Dave, this is a great blog update, I will post there later!

Brian Perich "Dust can kill you, LOL!"

www.korea.amedd.army.mil

www.korea.amedd.army.mil

Yellow Dust Attacks South Korea, A Serious Warning!

Logo [Arctic 1: 2012-2013, a 32,000km Charity Cycle]

Deposits after the rain. Imagine the concentration that is airborne?

Hwang-sa, Yellow Dust in South Korea, March 21, 2010

Attack of the Yellow Dust, 2010-3-21, Korean Times Update [link]

Korean Peninsula Blanketed by Worst Yellow Dust

By Bae Ji-sook Staff Reporter The Korean Peninsula experienced its worst case of yellow dust ever recorded Saturday and Sunday, leading the weather administration to advise people to take extra care as more is expected this month. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) posted a special yellow dust warning for most parts of the country Saturday. [excerpt from The Korea Times]

Hello (Bae) Ji-Suk, Korean Times Correspondent.

Thank you for writing an article on the 'yellow dust' situation in Korea. I was interviewed by the Korean Times reporter Bryan Kay several times last summer on a charity expedition I am planning cycling from the Canadian Arctic to Argentina in 2012. I have lived in Korea permanently since 2006 and continually cycle year-round preparing for the future 32,000km bicycle adventure.

Last Saturday, I was cycling along the East Sea north of Gangneung, Gangwon-do when I experienced the first exposure this year to the 'yellow dust.' I rode approximately 3.5 hours around the city of Gangneung and along the new 'green path' designated for cyclists linking Sokcho City to the north. I returned home with the chills and the symptoms worsened over the next 24 hours. I began experiencing a dry headache and intense feeling of dehydration on Sunday. I consumed 6L of orange juice, water and gatorade over the next 12 hours without quenching my thirst. By Tuesday, the conditions worsened as I began losing my voice while teaching at Kwandong University here in Gangneung City, Gangwon-do. By Wednesday, I lost my voice completely and began to experience restricted breathing as swelling had by now encompassed my tonsils, vocal chords, esophagus and finally my lungs began to became affected turning into bronchitis by Thursday. The yellow dust contains numerous materials (including biological effluence) that become active once in contact with human tissues upon inhalation, and in my case, serious exposure (outdoors aerobic activity) requires weeks (3 month recovery in 2008) of treatments to maintain only a limited recovery over a period of a month or more.

My medical treatments include: double injection of antibiotics and a week's supply of antibiotics (assorted prescription pills in one packet), respiratory therapy twice (going back tomorrow morning for the third session). I began coughing up green after 6 days as this mutant dust went through my system. It's like no illness I have ever seen outside of the peninsula...but my second experience here (training on the bicycle in 2008). It's critical to warn cycling enthusiasts to stay indoors and protect their health.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Dust

Kind Regards,

Brian Perich, Adventure Cyclist
http://korean-world.blogspot.com - Blogging in Korea
http://arctic2argentina.com - Preparing for future expeditions & sharing explorer links
http://arctictoargentina2012.tumblr.com

An update for 2012: Recent weeks there has been elevated yellow dust levels carried in on the northwesterly winds originating in the Gobi Desert carrying in the toxins (see Wikipedia) from the industrialized northeastern China to Korea, and further Japan to the vast Pacific Ocean. In 2008, 2010, and now 2012 I've been cycling in Korea, with exposures to the dust. I have developed antigens to the dust particles contaminants, and have developed asthma and severe respiratory reactions in these recent years in South Korea. It's serious for some (my two children are vulnerable to illness with exposure too, my wife seems immune to it, she's native to South Korea). This morning, after two weeks of respiratory infections and treatments with antibiotics, I rid myself of the mucous build up in my sinuses. But, I ended up popping a cork on a dark yellow fluid, it ran like a nose bleed and filled the palm of my hand. Very strange event and I wonder about long-term effects if the material is actually toxic to the human body. I stay indoors all weekend, during the week I am teaching and have mild exposures outdoors between buildings. Spring is terrible in Korea, for this reason alone. Protect your health, wear a mask and avoid repeated exposures (too late for me).