Wonderful to hear of your ambitious walk. Same, I had heard there was a trail around the Korean coastline, however was unable to find much info. I'm from Melbourne Australia and lived in Busan for 14 months in 2003 / 04 ( you guessed it I was a conversational English teacher) and back then was planning to walk the Camino de Santiago for the first time, which eventually gave me the inspiration to be a life long pilgrim! Since then I have walked and bicycled the Camino, including a pilgrimage from Singapore to Finisterre in 2008 / 09 - 10,000km of cycling with the use of flights ferries etc. I actually will be returning to Korea on Monday 16th October 2023 and like you two will take the KTX to Busan where I'm walking back to Seoul. However my journey will be taking me through the interior of the Korean peninsular - via Daegu, Haeinsa, Mujugun, Daejeon, Cheongju, Suwon and eventually to Seoul. Its planned to be a cultural / spiritual journey of a sort. Looking so forward to that Korean food and returning to Busan. Happy journey and hope that you are both able to complete this epic walking tour.
That's amazing @April2058! I've met a few people that walk through the Korean interior like you plan to, and definitely heard some good things about it! Hope you have an amazing trip, and enjoy all of the food and sights you have been thinking about!
Wow, i would love to try and complete the passport trials. I was just wondering, in Journey to hike around korea, are you looking to do it in a year or 6months? My father in law runs a small hiking tour, and every 3 weeks for a year, I did so many mountains around korea and some islands. I would love to join you in one of your episode journeys I'll be in korea from January but will be there from tomorrow for a holiday. I've dm you on Instagram. Hope to talk to you soon
That's awesome your father in law does that, and it sounds like you have explored a lot of Korea yourself! We don't have a set plan in stone yet, but I'm not sure if it'll be possible for us to do the entire journey in one go for financial reasons, and just because we plan on doing a lot of stops along the way checking out the cities, staying with people, and potentially doing things like farming, fishing, fruit picking, etc. It's our goal to make this journey half about walking, and half about learning about Korea and its culture. I think we might have to split it up to make it happen. As far as joining us for a course or something, it's definitely a possibility if we are in the same area! I'm not exactly sure when we will end up starting, but it should be sometime in November, and we'll be doing it a lot over the next year I think!
I think you ended up signing up for our Patreon. Thanks so much Lisa! That's really generous of you! Also I think instead of setting up something like a Go Fund Me page, we would prefer to contact companies here that can potentially benefit from working together with us, as we really need to learn the business side of things to make this a potential career some day. Still have no idea what we are doing though to be honest! Haha
This is amazing! I've been wanting to learn more about this walk for a while. It's on my bucket list - can't wait to follow along with your journey. I've walked a few caminos and you may enjoy watching the vlogs on my channel.
@toughgirlchallenges thanks so much for watching! You should definitely check it out someday, as Korea is dense enough (but also beautiful) to mean you are never walking for that long without amenities nearby. Would love to try the Camino someday as well!
We don't know the exact costs at the moment, but if you think about it like this: 20km per day at 4500km total = 225 days of walking, and we will have to spend a lot of money on lodging and transportation along the way. It adds up to be a very expensive trip. We are going to send emails to the tourism, train, and bus companies here just to see if they are willing to help at all. If not then it'll be a project that we have to do over the long term I think, which is totally fine!
Heyy! Great vid. About the app you mentioned at the beginning.. is it only for the trekking trail or can you also use it to prove you cycled the biking routes?
Thanks a lot @rodrigorecalde5234! The app for the cycling stamps is called 자전거 행복나눔 (I'm not sure the English name) and can be seen here: Google: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jbt.android.bicyclehappysharing&hl=ko&gl=US Apple: apps.apple.com/kr/app/%EC%9E%90%EC%A0%84%EA%B1%B0-%ED%96%89%EB%B3%B5%EB%82%98%EB%88%94/id596262700
I hiked around the Jeju Olle trail and really enjoyed it, so it's cool to know there's more trails like that you can do across Korea! Hopefully they do add some more English resources so it's more accessible to tourists like you said!
Oh that's great! Can't wait to hike around Jeju Olle Trail as well! I know the plan was to increase tourism when they made these trails, so I imagine they will slowly add English and other languages over time!
This is an awesome new adventure. I hope to see a lot more of your adventure. My wife and I have spent 10 days in Korea and loved it. We went to Seorak Mountain National Park. The trip was through a tour and it was good. But, we could have stayed for a day or more hiking around because it was so nice. I was worried about traveling on our own. Maybe next time I will feel more confident to go on multi day adventures. I look forward to seeing your adventures on the trail. My name is Clinton. one of these days I will figure out and update my profile.
Thanks so much Clinton! Are you Flash 001? Glad you guys had a great trip to Korea! It's definitely a lot at first to try traveling around on your own, but give it a try next time if you can! In general Koreans are really helpful, so if you are lost and show them where you are going, some will go so far out of their way to help get you on track (but sometimes they do way too much 🤣).
Amazing new adventure! ❤🇰🇷 Most Korean tourist and locals here on Guam didnt know about the beautiful amazing bicycle and walking infrastructure in Korea. Seoul is the most popular destination for locals here. Everytime I share my Korea adventures and beautiful nature everyone usually ask about K-drama places, Kpop, BTS.. seems that's what most think Korea is all about. It is great to have folks like both of you who works so hard to create your amazing informative contents to share the true culture, beauty and nature of Korea. Thank you Matt and Yujin. Enjoy your amazing new journey together
Thanks so much for this really nice comment @1uniqueislander968! Korea definitely has so much to see, and it doesn't get the love it deserves a lot of the time too! Hopefully by sharing some information some more people will come to Korea and check out some other parts of the country as well!
It's so awesome eh Alex! The Haeparang Trail was the first one to open up in 2016, and the other trails have slowly been opening up since then. The DMZ Peace Trail is the last one to be completed, and requires reservations in advance with limited groups allowed to go at once (we might not be able to film it, but we will at least share the experience online).
You should try it out too! There is the Seohaerang Trail on the west coast that looks really fun! You probably have a section of it close to you if you live somewhere on the west coast. Go check it out if you can!
I really almost never leave any comments on youtube videos but this will be an exception. Thank you so much for all the amazing adventures you take us on and thank you so much for your hardwork. You and your wife have become my inspiration to explore South Korea the next time I go there! Cheers!
@haaaachooo thanks so much for watching and for the kind words! Really glad to hear that you want to check out some more of Korea next time! It's not a big country, but there is a surprising amount of diversity to be seen. All the best and take care eh!
My partner and I walked from Oryukdo to Haeundae on the Haeparang trail just last week. I can confirm the path on the coast is very narrow in a lot of places! A cool route though. We met a group of Korean hikers at a lookout point and they very generously gave us makgeolli, dried squid and laver to eat.
Wow you guys did a lot @jhjbarnes that's great to hear! Haha you're right that it gets very narrow. I think it'd be better without a backpack. That must have been a really fun experience drinking makgeolli and eating the squid and laver with them!
Thanks for the video. I have been reasearching the trail and struggling for information. I am doing Namparang and Haeparang Trails starting in mid March. I wanted to do the full circuit plus Baekdu Daegan Trail and Jeju Olle but my request for 9 month tourist visa was denied as it doesn't exist so I am limited to 90 days. I look forward to seeing more of your videos.
Hey @RestlessKiwiHiker I'm glad it was helpful! Sorry to hear that your tourist visa extension was denied. If I were you, I'd make sure your return plane ticket is flexible, and then try to apply again for an extension once you get into Korea in March (phone the number 1345 inside the country for up to date info on how to do this). I'm not 100% sure, but there could be a possibility that immigration inside the country will be more lenient, especially if you explain that you want to do the trekking trails. All the best, and we will probably be doing some more of the Haeparang Trail at the time you are here, so hopefully we bump into each other! All the best with your preparations!
It's so beautiful on the East Sea eh! Will be fun to check it out on foot too so we don't have to keep shouting "WHAT?" to each other like on our bikes! 🤣 So excited to see it again!
@n.murat.ozturk some streets here are clean and others are a bit dirty if I'm being honest, but it's not too bad overall and it's worth a visit if you're interested! Really like living here!
Wow @MagicGreenSquid thank you so much for your support! That was out of the blue, and incredibly generous of you to do! That's a night in a motel for us on our journey, so we will use it wisely. Hope you have a wonderful week, and thank you so much for helping us out! 😊 -Yujin and Matt
@@lostthenfound Youse are welcome. Have a safe and very memorable journey. (I meant to write this above, except I messed up and missed the opportunity, so it just put the default message.)
Thank you so much for your support @RedBeardKorea! That's incredibly generous and thoughtful of you! We will use the money towards are journey! Hope you are doing well and exploring the outdoors when possible! Take care! - Yujin and Matt
I am from Korea but I migrated to USA years ago. I lived in LA longer than Seoul. I have not been to Korea for so long but I want to try out some of the routes you introduced one day when I visit Korea.
Great video and theme. Look forward to following your adventure. Thanks for providing a unique perspective for someone like me - Korean but raised and living in the U.S. Amazing work!
The dmz trail(s) appear to be (south) Korean citizens only, by reservation only and due to military presence, photography is prohibited. So, I guess no stealth camping 😢and you won't need to worry so much about over packing 😊.
I've searched online but couldn't find any information about it being for South Koreans only. The www.durunubi.kr website has a whole English section with a guide on how to apply for the DMZ Peace Trail as well, so that would be surprising. That's the section of the trail that we are most unsure about to be honest though. We might just have to walk the trails and talk about them afterwards or something if it's possible for us to walk those sections.
@@lostthenfound some of what I read may be out of date, there was a joint article by aljazeera and the NY Times and a few others by the Korea Herald and another SK paper and I believe YonYap (?). Can't find the English language for the link you posted.
@@lostthenfound on that durinbi site, there is a visit procedure for applying and at the bottom of the first procedure it says " only those with Korea nationality who are 7 years of age or older can apply"
Nice to see foreigners living here who aren't K-Pop // K-Beauty // K-Drama folks. I feel pretty alienated from most foreigner content in Korea. Definitely appreciate this channel, and your wife's Korean is good practice for me too :)
Thanks a lot @SmartYouTubification! Haha the entertainment industry in Korea has definitely attracted a lot of interest worldwide, but living in Korea really couldn't be farther from what you see in entertainment (besides what starts beauty/fashion trends). Hoping to be able to learn about and show a lot of the country, as it's a unique place that I've really grown attached to for a lot of different reasons than when I first came.
