Winter Daydreams To Bike Trip Plan

Anna 0:01

In the middle of a rainy, cool winter, of course, we start to dream about our summer vacation and what sort of adventure we wanted to plan. That's when we start to bounce around ideas of what kind of adventure we would take on this summer and where. But this was only the beginning of the planning process and the first steps to getting us and our bikes to Asia.

Speaker 0:59

The real fun will actually begin in another couple days, but already we're getting excited and I've learned a lot about planning a bike trip on another continent.

Anna 1:09

After doing some amazing long motorcycle trips for the past few summers and some great pilgrimages, I was missing doing a cycle trip. So I suggested to Edo that maybe for 2026 we could do a bike trip. Edo was definitely up for it and immediately started researching and looking around at posts we had seen for interesting bike tours and trips that were on relatively flat cycle paths. Neither of us have a mountain bike or are particularly interested in rough terrain. And we really enjoyed cycling along the Danube bike path. So we started to look for something similar, but at the same time in a region of Italy or even another country that we had never been to before.

Edo 1:54

I discovered this route uh years ago originally, uh, and I'm going a little off script here. Um, when I was first getting into uh cycle tourism and long-distance cycling. I think it was through one of the YouTube channels that I followed at the time. Uh interestingly, it was a couple that cycled together and they've since divorced. So I don't know where we're going with this, but um I knew that there was this uh path called the Four Rivers uh in South Korea. And I started digging around a little more. And apparently Korea has an extensive bike path network that covers most of the country, actually. And the infrastructure is just amazing. And so again, after doing some research, I found out that the uh Four Rivers path was one of the denominations that they have for the uh the networks that are there. So the four rivers, each one of those rivers has its own dedicated bike path. Um but what we'll be doing is the cross country that is somewhat different from the four rivers. I'm not sure exactly how specifically, but there's a lot of confusion about the uh about the two, the uh four rivers and the cross country. Just to be certain, we are going on the cross country. Uh there's so much that I've learned about these paths and this whole network. So yeah, I found out about it mostly on, I think, Reddit and YouTube. But we're talking at least seven years ago or something. And it's always been at the back of my mind, but we've always decided to do uh shorter and easier trips. But one of the reasons why I decided to go was obviously the amazing infrastructure, because as I said, I've planned out the route that actually was already there. And apparently 98% of it is on dedicated bike paths, which is amazing. And so I thought, okay, the infrastructure is great. The bike trip we did on the Danube taught us how to dismantle and fly with our bikes, even though we've only done it once, and we still haven't talked about that trip, even though, again, that was like seven years ago. So, I mean, we're not the ones flying the plane. So I thought whether we cycle in France or South Korea, it doesn't really make much

Why South Korea’s Bike Network

Edo 4:25

of a difference apart from the 12 hours of flying there. So that's pretty much what the decision process has been.

Anna 4:35

I haven't been to Asia in many years, and I love visiting countries that are new to me. So I immediately agreed that it was a great idea. And after seeing some pictures of the path and reading some information about it and beginning to look at the Korea Buybike website, I started to get really excited. Edo was enthusiastic about how the logistics seemed quite simple and easy, as he was saying, because it's the path is there, it's supposedly very well organized. So despite it being such a far destination, so right away it seemed like a really good fit for us.

Edo 5:18

Our first step was to choose the time of year and the exact month. We thought that September would be a good month as it's close enough to the summer months when everyone needs a break from work and the heat of Rome, and also we've had something like six consecutive heat waves this summer. But it should still hopefully be a little cooler and fit in with some personal commitments that we have at the end of September, namely, my cousin is getting married. Congratulations. So we read that spring and fall are the best times to go to South Korea in terms of the weather. It will be hot and humid, but we've already experienced cycling in Western Europe during the summer months. So we felt that we could deal with the heat and hopefully not have too much rain to deal with, because later on in the in in the fall, you will be getting more rain. And if you go earlier, it won't be as rainy, but it will be way hotter. So we're hoping to hit just the sweet spot there.

Anna 6:20

The second step was to buy flights before the prices went up too much. We actually bought the flights back in April, relatively soon after the after wars had started and conflicts were continuing. So disrupting flights to Asia and changing flight routes. But we decided to hope for the best and have an option of changing the flights if the situation changed greatly and didn't permit us to leave. So thankfully everything has has been fine. The situation is good, and we're we're good to go in um in terms of the the flights. We are taking a discount Korean air airline. We're using a discount airline.

Edo 7:05

Low cost. Low cost carrier is the politically correct term, I think.

Anna 7:11

Low cost carrier, which um we just learned. Edo just um by chance was looking looking into some of the specifics of the plane, and we just found out that they do not have in-flight entertainment. The flight is 13 hours.

Edo 7:30

Wait, 11 hours going there and like 11 or 12 going there and like 14 coming back. It's huge.

Anna 7:37

Okay, so average 13 hours, 12, 13 hours. And um, so this has influenced our packing. We're going to now bring a tablet, um, because we had originally thought, well, we're not going to bring lots of books and entertainment because we're we want to be traveling relatively light. We have to have all of our all of our things in um with us at all times. But um, this has slightly changed the um the packing. But um anyway, so with the flights bought, um, this allowed us several months to to plan also our our work schedules around um around the dates. And it's sort of the perfect, the perfect time. We are desperate in need desperately in need of a break and so ready to get out of the heat and crowds of Rome in August.

Edo 8:32

Powell Yeah, we've both been working pretty much nonstop throughout the summer. And Anna and I are both uh independent workers. We could call like you could call us that basically uh we're freelance

Picking September And Buying Flights

Edo 8:45

workers. So we get to choose our schedules. And so we decided to uh, well, originally it felt like a good idea to work through the summer and leave uh just as people are coming back in. So we experienced a more calm Rome because everybody was out on vacation, and then we will be gone as everybody else is coming back. And you know, September tends to be cheaper in a way because at least here in Europe, everybody tends to take August off. You know, firms close and shops are closed, blah, blah, blah. So that was the reasoning. The real aspect of it, though, is that we're both so, so tired and so exhausted. Um, so we're very ready to start this vacation. And as Anna said, having booked the flights back in April allowed us more time to get everything else ready. But to be honest, we haven't really done much until like the past couple weeks, maybe. Um we could have booked uh hotels and and everything, but we haven't done that uh in advance. I felt like we had a lot of time. Also, it's uh worth pointing out that in a lot of the websites that I've read, um it was actually explained that you don't really need to book places for the night. You can just choose on the day. But we've talked about this before in other episodes, both when we were cycling or walking, we like to have like an endpoint for every single night. And so obviously, this adds a layer of complexity to the planning of the trip, because you need to know exactly where you're stopping and you can't just wing it. But I'd rather have that complexity than not being sure whether or not I'm gonna find a place to sleep in that night, especially because we don't bring camping equipment. So um yeah, we uh had to start thinking about the logistics of packing our bikes. Uh in terms of clothing and gear, it's pretty simple and straightforward. Pretty much the essentials we've used on our other warm weather multi-day hikes and cycle trips, in which you basically just wear one set of cycling clothes and you carry an extra set of cycling clothes, and uh we wash the clothes every evening and have a few extra layering pieces to wear out at night, or in case the weather is cooler or rainy. Um the big element that would be different about this trip is packing and bringing the bikes. Um this is a low-cost carrier, but what set it apart from the others was the uh allowance for the luggage that we could bring. The reasoning for this apparently is because South Korea is trying to incentivize cycle tourism so we could bring our bikes on board free of charge. Well, it was included in the price of the ticket, which was still kind of expensive in in total, but again, 12-hour flight to a whole other continent, it's it's fine. Um So basically, we have an allowance of 23 kilos each, which is uh more than 50 pounds. Like I don't know exactly, maybe like 60, 60-ish pounds or something. Um yeah, a little under 60 pounds. Um but the interesting thing is that not only we have 23 kilos each, it's actually combined. So the two of us have like 46 kilos, which means I could bring 10 and I could bring 36, it's fine. Um so we have that already, and then we have 10 kilos each as um uh carry-on. So in total, we have uh what is it? What did I say? Like 66 kilos, which is well over 100 pounds. Like I don't even know how much that is. Um the problem with that, though, is that apparently they're very strict with uh you know, it being a low-cost carrier, they give you some things, but as soon as you go beyond that, they're gonna charge you a lot of money. So there's some very specific dimensions on the bike boxes that we were boxing today, uh weight restrictions and everything. So we need to be very careful um with what we're bringing. For example, uh today I dismantled our bikes, and I noticed that I very simply did that with one um with one uh what's it called? Uh like a wrench. Uh yeah. And another little tool that I bought years ago, um, which is a hex key, like a triple hex key. So I'm just gonna bring those two. And we've

Packing Rules And Bike Gear Choices

Speaker 13:25

decided that we're probably gonna buy like a bike chain and uh tire like spare tubes once we're there. Uh but yeah, I I've learned to shed a lot of weight. And even our our clothes were going with minimal amounts of clothes because we also decided that on the way back, but this is for something else, uh, we're gonna buy another piece of luggage to bring lots of souvenirs and gifts to our friends. But for the way there, we're gonna try to shed as much as we can. We also made some changes. We bought vests for our water bladders so we can easily take small sips of water while we're riding, which is similar to what we do when we hike. Um because, you know, then you would have to stop to open the bottle and it's a whole thing, and then you tend to be dehydrated because you don't really want to break the rhythm just to stop and get the water bottle out. So hopefully this will help uh with being hydrated. We're just hoping it won't be, they won't be too hot or heavy as we ride. I personally don't really like having something on my back when I'm cycling. Like I don't I don't want to have backpacks or anything. These vests are very, very light. I'm just hoping with like if the humidity is too strong, then maybe we'll be sweating a little more. Uh, but we'll see. Obviously, when you have like a hiking backpack, if you have a good one, like the one that Anna got me for my birthday, which is an Osprey backpack, uh, the way that the back is structured, you you have some air between the backpack and your bag, and your back, sorry. So some air goes through. This won't be the case, obviously, with those cheap hydration vests, but we'll see what the deal is. We also bought new helmets. Um, again, inspired by our motorcycle trips where we have intercoms in our helmets, which allows us to speak. We bought Senna helmets that have a built-in microphone and headphones. Um it actually helps if we want to uh talk more while we're on the trail, because I don't know if you guys have been cycling with somebody. Like, obviously, it's nice if you're like next to each other, but more often than not, one person will be ahead and the other one is maybe one or two meters behind, and you're always craning your neck. And Anna and I have having some have been having like some neck issues because we're both getting old. And so to avoid that, we have these uh these helmets with intercoms. Um and we'll be relying more on actual physical coverings. We bought fishing shirts that have like long sleeves and buffs incorporated and a little hood, uh, and also just elastic sleeves for sun protection rather than only on sunblock. Also, I'm Mediterranean. I always avoid wearing sunblock, but then inevitably I get burnt. It's a whole conversation we have every single time. But this time we'll be wearing uh will actually be covered uh from the sun. So usually, yeah, as I said, as we've said in other episodes as well, I tend to take care of the more technical aspects, so like planning the route and um the gear, the bikes, and everything else. Whereas Anna is the person who always books our accommodation, which I'm glad to leave to her because as I've said before, it it adds this layer of complexity because basically we will be staying in eight, di ten different places, I think, ten different hotels or BNBs or whatever. And I don't like that. So Anna did all of that. I'd rather deal with technical stuff than with that.

Speaker 1 17:16

And I have to say that booking places to stay has already been an incredibly humbling experience. So as Edo mentioned before, we um we need we wanted to have a destination every every evening. And also because we don't know exactly what we're going to find there. Um based on what we've been reading, I think there's there's a lot of small guest houses. There probably are places that you can find along the route with um available beds. But um, but just to be sure to have a destination every

Booking Stays Without Google Maps

Speaker 1 17:55

evening, we decide to book all of the places um before leaving.

Speaker 17:59

Also, another fun thing about South Korea, there's a lot of I read love motels, which I'm assuming are hotels that you can even book uh by the hour. So there was also that option of finding many different places, but as we said, yeah, regardless of the uh uh how many love motels were around, we still decided to book things ahead.

Speaker 1 18:24

So armed with several maps and descriptions of our routes, I started looking for names of hotels on Google Maps and then consulting booking.com or ideally the websites of the hotels themselves. But first of all, South Korea does not use Google Maps. So I'm already loving um being pulled off my privileged western pedestal. So even during this planning stage of the trip, I had to consult and compare between the local South Korean cacao maps that will be that we will be using there to follow. We'll be following along our route on the cacao maps. But these maps don't really work, however, um, on my local laptop. So after managing to find the names of hotels available for our specific date that we needed to stay there, I tried to consult the local hotel website translated into Italian by my server, or a few of the local hotel websites actually had English versions. But I've noticed that these either automatically translated or even the English version of the site.

Speaker 20:41

So uh one of the things that uh I don't really like, and as I've said, we're we're both tired from working, but we've been planning this for so long that we're just so anxious to get on the plane and just start pedaling because you fall into that uh whirlwind of reading reviews and this and that. I made the mistake of reading about our airline uh just a couple hours ago, and it's thrown me for a loop already, but there's nothing we can do about it at this point. And uh so, you know, we're I'm just ready to go. Like the bikes are packed. Uh, we went today to a place that to have them boxed up. Um the flight might be uncomfortable. Who cares? We can take it. Uh we don't like easy things anyway. And uh just as a little correction for what Anna said, so I also bought um a little new cycling computer that I've uh loaded with the uh GPX map from the Korea by bike website. I think it was that one or another similar one, that has all of the waypoints. Um so because apparently it's very important, we're gonna get a bike passport, and then it's important, it's imperative that you never skip a single waypoint that you need to stamp. Otherwise, they will not be giving you the certification at the end. So um we have that, and then we will be using cacao maps once we get. To the place where we're supposed to stay that night just to navigate for the few last kilometers until we find the hotel. I will not be navigating everything from my smartphone because once we cycled the Via Francigena, which was the first bike tour that we did, I made that mistake of using my phone as my main device for everything. The bike fell, the phone shattered. So the phone will be in my pouch most of the time, and I will be relying on the dedicated bike computer that I bought. And then for the last one or two kilometers, just to find the directions to the hotel, that's where I'll be where I'll be using the phone. So uh yeah. Talking about uh if we're ready to do this trip, even though we're very anxious to go, in terms

Navigation, Training, And The Full Route

Speaker 22:45

of training, um, Anna and I train a lot uh with weights and body weight routines, and we have a personal trainer, and we try to walk at least five kilometers a day. We have not cycled that much or at all. I think my last long ride, and by long ride I mean 40 kilometers, was back in March, but the heat and humidity has been really oppressive here. Um it's gotten to the point where just being outside hurts. So it it wasn't really conducive to a training schedule for the bike. But you know, we're hoping that we're both in good enough shape. And we are. We can say that uh we are. Um and we've we've always noticed that with the with the long trips that you do, with all the long trips that we've done, the first two or three days you adapt to a daily routine of, in this case, an average of cycling 80 kilometers a day. And uh again, as Anna mentioned, it's basically flat uh the whole thing. There will be one big day of climbing, but even that, looking at the stats, then again, you won't know until you're there, is absolutely nothing compared to what we've done cycling from Tuscany to Rome. Even that climb, which is a big climb, would have been considered an easy day, like the easiest day on the Via Francigena years ago. So, I mean, we'll see when we're there. Uh yeah.

Speaker 1 24:21

So we we have been trying to get a feel as much as possible as to what the route will be like. As Edo said, we've been reading blogs, reviews, and have hopefully come to the conclusion that there is a lot of infrastructure for cyclists. Plenty of convenience stores and simple restaurants to buy cheap and nutritious food with a card rather than cash. Lots of bike shops along the way in case we have emergencies. And for me personally, the things that I'm the most nervous, or I should say maybe anxious about are the practical logistics of leaving for two weeks, leave leaving my house, my cat, my plants, making sure everything's perfect for the house sitters, things like that. So personally, I'm not really scared or daunted by the trip. I just can't wait to get there. And as we've said before, slow travel by bike or by foot is a really great way to see and experience a place. And I'm so, so, so excited to experience a place that's really different for me, as different as South Korea in that in that way of slow travel.

Speaker 25:43

Also, um, obviously, we will be giving a lot more information once we're there because we're bringing our microphone, but we forgot to give uh even any uh any tip as to what this trip will be like. We will be cycling from Seoul to the north, uh, all the way down to Busan in the south. It will be around 640 kilometers, which should be around 400 miles. Um we will be uh basically leaving Rome on Monday the 31st. We will be uh arriving in South Korea on the afternoon of uh September 1st. Uh, then we will have uh the September 1st and 2nd just to get everything ready. We'll start cycling on the third. We will cycle four days for an average of 80 kilometers per day, and then we will be taking a day off in the middle, and then we will be cycling four more days, and we will be getting to Busan, which is a huge city, so there's gonna be some more uh logistics issues there, trying to then board a bus and get back to Seoul, where we will be staying for two more, two or three more nights, and then we will be flying back to Rome. So it will be super interesting to uh compare this episode that we just recorded with uh our actual experiences while we're there. So here we are. Uh I think we've said all we could say at this point. Uh anything else you want to add? No? Okay, we're great. Uh so yes, thank you for listening to this episode. We will probably be updating you in I don't know, a month at this point, hopefully. Uh, depending on how long it will take me to edit all of the audio on the field. And uh yeah, thank you for listening, and as always, go far.