Now or never!

S2B: Seoul to Busan

It is not a race. Ep #1

Meet the P-stars. Ep #2
Fighting the demons! Ep #3

Bare necessities that we need! Ep #4

The day is here! Ep #5

The time is now! Ep #6

Episode 7: Day 2 S2B (7.10.2019)

Going Korean? ©FG

With a good night rest after the ever-smiling hostess’ simple Korean dinner that she dished out in a jiffy when we arrived at her doorstep all sweaty and hungry, we started grinding for the day. 

Here in the northern part of South Korea, our observation was that Korean food comprises the main dish which could be pork or beef accompanied with little carbohydrate in the form of a small bowl of rice or noodle with their standard accompaniments - kimchi, cabbage pickled with spice, radish in vinegar and leafy vegetable which tastes like water hyacinth (kangkung) sauteed with spiced chilled and pickled little chilly. In Busan, being a coastal city, seafood is favoured.

We had another ambitious plan to cover at least 100km today. 

The day greeted us with cold showers with the temperature hovering at around 19 ºC. In fact, it accompanied us all through the way to our next destination, North Chungcheong, the hot springs town. 

The mountains, trees and rivers must be screaming with stories to tell ©FG

The rivers and mountains which accompanied our journey must have witnessed empires and kingdoms rise and fall. It must be sneering to Seven Samurais (@jokers) who hail from to thrash her boys in football and how her sons have risen. The ride took us through the picturesque, still standing Korean countryside. The hills are still green with no signs of being flattened. The only sign of industrialisation seems to be the numerous massive bridges that span over the wide rivers. 

A typical certification centre ©FG

We had to make detours here and there to get our ‘passports’ stamped.  Completion of the stamping would entitle us for a completion medal. The trails were purposely paved in such as to showcase all the different landscapes of the Korean countryside. At the same time, there were many areas with scanty directions for non-Korean natives. On top of Google map does not work well, and their Naver map is wanting of a thorough overhaul. Perhaps, it was done on purpose. On a different note, when we read about the evolution of GPS technology, we are told that there was a concerted effort to make it inaccurate to prevent abuse. With North Korea's Rocket Man hot on their trail, are we surprised? 

As true mature Malaysians who had spent time in the pre-Iranian revolution inspired new-Malaysia, we could help but compare our country to Korea. The Koreans are very industrious people. Everyone seems to be engaged in some kind of economic activity. They do not rely on foreign labour. They do not sit around like a lump of protoplasm, feeling grandiose like a special selected God-chosen breed barking orders down on their slaves. They work.

Many Greenhouses are seen in the interior. No Bangladeshis, Indonesians or Myanmarese were needed in the plantation sector. ©FG

Thanks to our Chief Navigator and input from members of the FB group Seoul to Busan and Beyond (SBB), the directions made more sense. ©Bob

Another sight for sore eyes. Signboards announcing the arrival of a certification centre usually shows up about 2km before the booth. After cycling for kilometres on end, the centres are our resting points, albeit for a quick drink, stamping and leg stretch. ©FG

Another familiar icon that sustained our caloric needs.

It was indeed nice to see 'Nice to CU'-CVS (Convenience Stores).

Spread sporadically in bigger townships, it carries many essential basic items, instant noodles, beverages and bread. 

The Hotspring Town - Chungju-si

It took us almost 7 hours to complete the treacherous journey.  Riding in the rain, against the wind, and sometimes perpendicular to the direction of the blow just bogs one down. Suddenly, out of nowhere, emerged a town, known for its hot springs.

The Chosun Tourist Hotel was our chosen place to unwind. They were willing to use a conference room to park our vehicles!

Ad pix - Chosun Tourist Hotel in Chungji-us.

Comfortable, cosy with breakfast and a free spa. Gave the spa a miss as it was customary to bathe in the nude from a shared bathing pool. The Koreans, like the Japanese, treated cleansing a divine duty to the body.

End of Day 2.

Completed about 105km. (Total ~ 276.3km)

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The time is now!

S2B: Seoul to Busan

It is not a race. Ep #1
Meet the P-stars. Ep #2
Fighting the demons! Ep #3

Bare necessities that we need! Ep #4

The day is here! Ep #5

Episode 6: Day 1 S2B (6.10.2019)

In fact, the actual journey from Seoul to Busan (or Pusan as it is referred to locally) started unceremoniously on Sunday 6th with the team pushing off at around 7.50 am after packing up. We took the 6th as the first day of our ride as we were still in Seoul.

Our accommodation for the night was enjoyable. It was named Sopoong House situated in Seodaemun-go, in the heart of town. It housed all 7 of us in bunk beds and complete with basic amenities, heater, three showers and a kitchen. Worth the price.

First, we needed to get out of town. Getting out was much easier than coming in the night before. GPS was in tip-top form and riding was easy. Getting back on the trail was much less complicated than the night before. In just about 15 minutes, we were back on the road to Busan.

Surprisingly, all the trash of the previous night were nowhere to be seen. The council workers must be so efficient or the citizens were so civil minded that they cleaned up themselves. And people were already out in droves to do their morning workout.

It is amazing that exercise is a big thing in Korea. Everybody seems to be either cycling or walking in the middle of nowhere. Again it could be a biased observation as we were on a bicycling path, for heaven’s sake. One rarely see Koreans moving in big families. It looks people usually move in small groups; even the old go unaccompanied and independent.

The traffic became thinner and thinner on the track as we got further away from Seoul. To grace our arrival were eye-soothing views of rows after rows of mountains, greenery and rivers.

Skyscrapers lined riverbanks, a common sight along our journey along Seoul and Busan.©Bob

Many humungous bridges traversed rivers along the Korean peninsula. Each bridge it seems is characteristically different looking. Their expertise back home must have enticed Malaysia to build the Penang Bridge. ©FG

The fluffy clouds in various shades of grey, the shades of azure of the sky and the peeking sun form a good backdrop for a perfect picture. © FG

The cool breeze and the soft rustling of leaves © FG.

The temperature was getting hotter hovering around 22C. Along the way, we came in touch with a Korean American lone rider, Ju-On, who was also heading to Busan. After a little sparring, chasing and teasing, we parted ways. He had planned to go further.

The convenience shops, GS25 and Nice to CU, were our go-to places for quick stops for replenishment. © RS.

Ju-On, the American cyclist who sparred with us for a while. He completed the 630km journey solo in 5 days. 

All along our ride, we cannot help it but think how Korea had developed so much. From a country which had been the punching bag for ages, she has bloomed. When Russia fought Japan, the winner would take over Korea. When China went to war with Japan, Korea was the booty. In the 1950s, they were ravaged by civil war and were relegated to basket-case status. Even when Malaya gained independence, the Korean GDP was a fraction of the Malayan. But look at them now, rivalling and perhaps overtaking some of their conquistas. We, sadly, seem to be running the race in reverse fashion; messing up and destroying every institution that our colonial masters had left for us to manage. In place of merit and strive for excellence, we seem to be complacent with mediocrity. 

Yet another fancy bridge.

The route was kind of flat but the hot weather was taking a toll on us. Nevertheless, we managed to cover a good 100 over kilometres for the day.

Our eyes grew heavy as the lights grew dim, we had to stop for the night.  We settled for a guest house at Yeoju-gun. The owner was initially reluctant to take us in initially as she was tied up with prior commitments. A cyclist, maybe her friend or business partner practically twisted her hand to put us up for the night. The sweet smiling hotel owner even went as far as to whip up a quick Korean dinner to douse our hunger pangs.

Our stay for Night 2

End of Day 1.

Completed about 120km. (Total ~ 170km)

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The day is here!

S2B: Seoul to Busan

It is not a race. Ep #1
Meet the P-stars. Ep #2
Fighting the demons! Ep #3

Bare necessities that we need! Ep #4

Episode 5: Day 0 S2B (5.10.2019)

At KLIA2 © EsKay

The flight that touched down that Saturday morning was filled up with dreary eyed cyclist who shuddered at the thoughts of what laid ahead. The journey was torturous to say the least, with hardly any body movement space even for a puny sized person like me what more my fellow cyclists who were six-footers. My heartfelt condolences went to them every time I knock my head to the seat in front as I bent down to take another scoop of Pak Naseer’s nasi lemak. 

Landing in Incheon International Airport, getting our extra-large luggage was quite a breeze. All we had to do was to load it on our trolleys - somebody has already taken it out. Clearing customs was a walk in the park. 

We did not attract any curious onlookers at the sight of seven jokers manoeuvring through corners and escalators with the load on the way to the train. I guess they must be used to this. 

At Cheong International Railway Station, we stopped for our first meal in Korea. Maybe it was the hunger, perhaps the pastry was good, we gobbled like starving third-world children. 

Time to reassemble © EsKay

Next, it was time to hit the assembly line. Monkey see monkey do. With trial and error, the machines were all up in about two hours. We were saddled up and ready to go. 

With our chief navigator glued to the navigation map, we reached the starting point, Ara West Checkpoint. 

The Four River Trail is mostly along the four major rivers in Korea and mainly along the old disused railway track. That is why we had to go through multiple tunnels. The Korean Water Authority is given the task of caring for the river and the surrounding areas. 

Our first impression was that everyone that we saw was slim and petite. Maybe it was because all we saw were cyclists. 

Ara West Starting Point © HS

Everything was going on fine until we were nearing our hotel for the night. It was the weekend of Korean Foundation Day, the day the first state of Korea of Gojosean was established in 2333BC. The whole cycling path was all filled citizens waiting for revelry. Fireworks were planned, and stalls were set up along our pathway. The navigations all went into disarray. After round and round, we finally reached our accommodation for the night, in Sopoong Guest House in Mapo-gu. By the end of Day 1, we had done 50km in our endeavour to reach Busan. 

Next came time to scavenge for authentic Korean food. 

Wandering around the town, one thing apparent was that young Koreans really dress up to go out on their dates. A typical girl would appear in monochromatic dull colour Western clothes, the porcelain hued face complete with the same vermilion coloured painted lipstick. The guys are dressed in their nines. 

Accommodation on first day © EsKay
Sopoong the Urban, Seoul.

Ordering at a restaurant is an art. The language barrier is the only thing that prevents Koreans from serving their customers. They go through great length to ensure client satisfaction- photos and google translate are apparently God-sent!

Korean food can be described as Chinese food but a spicier version. We enjoyed it. And the accommodation was decent. 

One new thing that we learnt is that, in Korea, when you are informed that the remote works by touch screen, it means you have to touch the control pad with your whole hand! Lesson learnt. 

End of Day 0.

Completed about 50km. 

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To laugh is to think!

The webpage screamed of the event being the biggest congregation of Malaysian stand-up comedy acts. It promised a night to remember as most of the national biggest bigwigs of the business were to share the same stage. They even brought in a Singapore artiste to add to the razzmatazz of the night. 

We were suckered in to part with our hard-earned moolah with their pledge of a stomach aching, rolling-on-the-floor type and eye-tearing kind of laughter. With the lure of ease of booking online, within a jiffy before the level headed neocortex could knock sense into our action, the transition was finalised. 

Even though getting to the venue was alright, parking arrangements were not really a breeze. The auxiliary officers did an excellent job though, to avert haphazard parking by patrons. The importance of this was appreciated later when the dissatisfied audience found it easy to take their vehicles out. (That is for later.) Malaysians are notoriously creative at parking their cars in the most precarious and mind-boggling way. Parking tickets do not mean anything as the local council have no punitive powers. 

Keeping to their Malaysian way of doing things, nothing happened at the time the show was to begin. People kept loitering in, out and around. The sponsors were busy promoting their merchandise and house pouring beer. No announcements. No tension in the air. 

A good half an hour later, the compère descended, literally, on a trapeze-like contraption from the ceiling of the stage. He was actually a guest comedian cum Masters of Ceremony. There were no apologies on the delay still.

He went on a rant about the weather, about Kuala Lumpur and his hotel. His stage persona was one that celebrated cross-dressing. The local rules, however, forbad male performers to appear effeminate. He made it a point to highlight his sexuality. 

From then on, it was downhill. Working on the same jokes, YouTube and social media must be a bane to their artistic work. We felt we had heard the punch line so many times before.

Next sauntered in a prima donna who is known for her raunchy lines. Her jokes were not just filled with sexual innuendos but were overtly pornographic. With no qualms, she utters profanity and describes private parts without batting her mascara filled false eyelashes. 

It was followed with more artistes; an American Pinoy with racial jokes, a Caucasian with lame rambling for laughs and an ‘Aunt Agony’ type of call-in show with a panel of 'experts'. 

Maybe it catered for a different crowd as the roar of waves of laughter were heard throughout the show. Or was it canned laughter? I am sure laughter must have been accentuated with the help of acoustics. The musical extravaganza that they promised was nowhere to be seen. After one long hour of performance, there was a break. 

Don’t know what happened afterwards as we joined the chorus of unhappy audiences who took a long walk to their parked cars to call it a day. 

Comedy is actually serious business. Look at all the doyens who stay eternally in my minds. Many comedians on the silver screen started of standup acts. Much of their humour came from human behaviours, with political or social messages or even laughing at our own follies. Many comedians are actually intellectuals well versed with the goings of the world. One can also create a comedy of errors through language.

Talking dirty and infusing four-lettered profanities does not constitute comic. And I do not when uttering vulgarity induced laughter. It is lazy creativity at best. 

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We do it for love...

Crossroads: One Two Jaga (2018)
Direction: Nam Ron

It is easy to form an opinion on people just based on a cursory look at them. The problem with this is that our judgement is clouded by our prejudice and our ignorance. We are all guilty of hating people that we have not seen what more interacted. Walk a mile in their shoes, and we will realise the things they do. We may even understand that the 'other' whom we hate so much are no different from us.

This excellent Malaysian movie illustrates just that. It tries to point out that people do the things they do because of circumstances, which may appear wrong from the eye of the human-made law or divine decree. For them, it is a matter of survival or to do what is best for the betterment of loved ones.

It tells the story of a veteran police officer, Hussein, with an idealistic newbie officer, Hassan, as they go on their rounds. Hassan thinks that law must be enforced as it is their job. Hussein, however, thinks their job is futile, as it is the big fishes at the top of the food chain are the real culprits who allow lawlessness. During the course of his work, Hassan realises the monetary difficulties that he faces as a lowly paid policeman as a father and his justification of making some money on the sly.

On the other end, there is an Indonesian migrant labourer, Sugiman, with a young son, and his sister, Sumiati, who is a runaway domestic helper. As Sugiman tries hard to send her sister back home and keep her in hiding, things get complicated. Sumiati is arrested by Hassan and Hussein whilst Sugiman's employer's son, a hot-headed fellow, comes to the scene and things get pretty ugly.

What most of us really want is to provide a better life for our downlines. We want them all to enjoy a better standard of living. We do not want them to be deprived of the same things that we yearned to have but never got. Just as much as Hussein is concerned that his son is frequently getting into fights, Sugiman is worried that his son is not in school but is mixing with the wrong company.

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Off to Korea!!!

S2B: Seoul to Busan

Nippon Antisemitism?

The Russian Protocols of Zion in Japan (2009)
Author: Jacob Kovalio

One assumes that Japan, being a homogenous country practising Shintoism and Buddhism, would not have issues with Judaism. Surprisingly, Jewish Peril (Yudayaka) has had its roots in Japan's late 19th and 20th-century history.

Only when the Japanese aristocrats landed their eyes on Commander Perry's navy fleet in 1858 did they awake from their slumber. At first, the Japanese thought that the American ships were the mythical celestial dragon that they had heard so much in their legends. This became their wake-up call as they realised that the world had passed them by. Emperor Meiji opened the floodgates for modernisation. For a start, his army was no longer hostile to damaged American whaling boats. Business flourished. Cultural exchanges took place. Loans from American banks (owned by Jews) started trickling in.

The Japanese noblemen and intellectual's first exposure to the Jews must have been Shylock in Shakespeare's play 'The Merchant of Venice'. He is portrayed as the miserly, greedy and vengeful moneylender who would charge exorbitant interest and stop at nothing to collect his dues.

The Japanese and the Russians had been perennial enemies fighting at their borders for aeons. In 1918, however, the Japanese Imperial Army was sent to support the Russian White Army to fight the Bolshevik Reds. It is said that here, the elusive Protocols of the Elderly of Zions was distributed to the Japanese soldiers. The Protocol is a notorious document that purportedly outlines the Jewish plan of world domination. Some quarters argue that such a book never existed in the first place. At the closest, there was just a figment of imagination from a fictional novel about cemetery, spirits and Satan. It was a ploy by Europeans who had been persecuting Jews since AD 73 when Emperor Titus ransacked Jerusalem and expelled them.


The ember of suspicion and Yudayaka (Jewish Peril) grew stronger as echoes of their ill-intent were fanned by the academia and media after 1919. The Red movement, the Communists, were mostly run by Jews. Karl Marx was a Jew. So was Leo Trotsky. The Jews alleged run their work by proxy, through the work of the banks, the Masons and the Illuminati.

The alleged modus operandi was by breaking family values, increasing individualism, early sexual activity, spiritual rupture of the parental-children bond, non-arranged marriages, replacement of monarchies and domination of media. These social changes were already apparent in Japanese society as the ruling class (emperor and samurais) lost their grip on society and the people became more assertive.

Commodore Matthew C Perry
(not of 'Friends' fame)

Around that time too, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison started distributing pamphlets about the Jew takeover of the world. Their conniving pursuits go back as early as the French Revolution, it seems. We all know about the 1869 gathering in Lviv, which eventually led to the Balfour Declaration in 1929 and the birth of Israel in 1948.

The bashing goes on even in the 21st century in the likes of Tun Dr Mahathir who still preaches about this grand scheme. He gets a mention in this book.

In the Jews' defence, throughout history, they have always been marginalised by the mainstream. It could be because of the peculiar practices or their conviction that they are the Chosen One. In the fringes, for survival, they had to resort to trades that were shunned by the mainstream. They indulged in moneylending, for usury was prohibited by other religions in their vicinity. They prospered in craftsmanship like diamond trade, photography and publishing. Their exile state of existence not only made them resilient. It became a fertile ground for conspiracy theories.

Antisemitism was debated in the 1930s. Some looked at the Jews favourably as they were of 'Asiatic' stock. During the industrialisation era of Japan in the 20th century, bankers, predominantly Jews, were there to finance them. The military, however, clang upon this Yudayaka. They entered an allegiance with Hitler on his anti-Jews stance. In the South-East Asian countries that they overran in WW2, they perpetuated their idea of the Allied forces (through their association with the Jews) a sure proof of world hegemony, to garner support from their subjects.

The Japanese, in wanting to protect their country, society, economy and way of life, immersed themselves studying and debating the contents of the Protocol. In contemporary times, they are doing the same to ward themselves off the 'side effects' of an unabashed open invitation to foreigners who could possibly derail the progress they have made after being flattened out in 1945. 

The debate on the Protocol amongst the members of academia, civil societies and the elite generated keener awareness that hostile, predatory ideologies from abroad were out there to sway the Japanese culture and to derail their national aspirations. 

Thanks to AqSS for input.

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