Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cdninkorea]

Lately I've been reading and hearing about adventure trips: I've recently finished the book, "Cycling Home from Siberia" about a guy who cycled from Siberia through many countries and back to England over three years. Also, a new acquaintance traveled from the North Pole to the South Pole by bicycle and sailboat. Finally, a friend of mine met a guy walking across Canada, east to west, raising money for cancer research.

These stories has made me want to do an adventure trip too, and as my interest is North Korean human rights, I'd love to raise money for a North Korean human rights charity as part of the trip, such as Justice for North Korea.

I have 10 weeks of vacation in the summer and am thinking of doing it then, but as this something I just thought of a few days ago, I still have a lot of research to do. So, if anyone can answer any of my questions, I'd be most grateful:

1) Where should I walk from and to? North west corner of the country to the south east? Down the middle? Around the perimeter? I want something inspirational...
2) Who would be most likely to sponsor me? Obviously I'd hope for equipment sponsorship, like a good quality backpack and backpacker equipment from an outdoor company, but the priority would be raising money for charity. Does anyone have experience soliciting donations from businesses?
3) To help with raising money, media attention would help. My Korean is okay and I can brush up on interview vocabulary before any interviews, but what are the best ways to do this?
4) From my understanding, many (most?) people who take adventure trips find places to stay through networking: a friend of a friend lives in another city they're passing through and they stay there. I'm thinking that's what I'd try to do (and camp or stay in a jjimjilbang otherwise), but if anyone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it.
5) Any helpful ideas, comments, suggestions, etc? I've never done anything like this, but I want to.

[cdninkorea]

Hmm... seems it's already been done:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/26/world/la-fg-south-korea-walk-20110926
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea,_A_Walk_Through_the_Land_of_Miracles

I'll try to contact these people, especially the person who did it recently written about in the LA Times article, but still appreciative of any help from Dave's posters...

[northway]

The Simon Winchester book is really good. He's a heavyweight, however, so I wouldn't expect to get any response from contacting him.

[Hotpants]

Why not contact Justice for North Korea themselves? Or you could get in with another NGO. As for doing a solo walk across the North, it's pretty hard to get permission to get in as an individual for that kind of purpose unless you can bribe someone to get in and accompany you for security purposes.

As for fundraising, if you want to do it the proper way, you can go about registering yourself as a charity in your home country, then people can make tax free donations, you have more credibility in approaching people, and you don't have to worry about tax yourself, either, among other advantages.

I'm not sure how many jimjilbangs you will find in the North, though

Good luck and let us know when your book comes out!

[cdninkorea]

Haha I'm most certainly not walking into or across North Korea. No, I'm talking about walking across South Korea.

I'm going to contact a charity when I get some idea of feasibility and some semblance of a plan together. To that end, I'm trying to contact people who have done similar things; a friend of a friend spent a few months walking across an island in Japan, and another friend of a friend spent a year walking across China, for example.

[northway]

Just FYI, Winchester walked from Jeju to Panmunjom (obviously taking a ferry from Jeju to somewhere in the southeast, Mokpo, I believe). He stayed at tourist hotels sometimes, but was able to find monasteries and priests to stay with as well. Doing it now, Couchsurfing would likely be a huge help. I'd recommend picking up the book if you're serious about this; it's a quick read, and offers great insight into Korea of the '80s.