By Ramesh Mathew Ohwan Yoon on his bicyle.PICTURE: Hussein Ali
Globe-trotting cyclist from South Korea Okhwan Yoon has said he was amazed at the pace of development of Qatar since his last visit in 2005.
Yoon, who has made into the Guinness Book of Records, moving all alone, literally standing on his seat-less bicycle is on a worldwide campaign since he left Seoul in 2001, has visited 191 countries.
Speaking to Gulf Times yesterday, the record-breaking cyclist said the skyline of Doha’s West Bay had absolutely no comparison with how the area looked in 2005. “I just couldn’t believe that so many high-rises have come up in the area in the last six years,” he said in his broken English.
Yoon said his expedition, which has completed a decade, was “the unity of world through the unity of Koreas”. The urge to unite is enormous among the Koreans regardless of whether they are from South or North, but some other countries are deliberately stalling our efforts to unite as a single Korea,” said Yoon, whose dream is to contest as a candidate of Korean National Party in next year’s elections to the Korean parliament.
“I realised the the importance of being a Korean while on this journey. Only in a very few countries, they asked for visas,” he said.
“My record of having visited these countries would help me win the elections and also may help me bring about some changes in the polity of Korea,” says the cyclist.
“Over the last 10 years, I have visited 191 countries and I have first hand information on their people, their tastes, and dislikes, culture, traditions and politics. I just cannot single out which is the most exciting country and which is the least exciting owing to the preoccupation with my campaign,” he said.
The cyclist felt there was more respect for women in the whole of the Middle East and there was definitely more respect for old people in Turkey than elsewhere in the region, he recalled. “In Iran , there were so many people on the streets to receive me wherever I went and in India many boys followed me for several miles to give me company during my journeys there,” he said.
“While being in India, I could savour such dishes as Masala dosas, Idli and Parottas from wayside cafeterias and people willingly sheltered me at their houses when they understood the purpose of my mission,” he said.
“My urge to understand more cultures after the graduation eventually led to my taking out this expedition, which I feel is certainly different from what others have done,” claimed Yoon.
When asked how he financed the world tour, Yoon said that most of the money came from contributions from generous public of those countries which he visited and also from the money that he earned from delivering lectures at schools and colleges during the journey.
