#133 Visiting the Hill of Storms, Jeju Island, Korea

Transcript

May and being in the shade helps on a hot day in the file that under super obvious shit that everybody already knows, and I'm up into the park where you can look down into the grotto with the waterfall. And it's real breezy, too. And it's like, yeah, I did just have to walk up a shit ton of stairs to get here. Between a little shade and some breeze, I feel so much better, but on the walk here, oh jeez. You know, it was only 15 minutes, but I was like, I got to go outside today. It's too nice out. And then I was reminded that I just learned the other day. Like, oh yeah, it's actually not nice. And the summertime nice is, it's visually nice. It's actually miserable going out in the heat.

So yeah, going through the direct sun without the wind, brutal, but now I can at least hopefully stay a little bit shaded. I got some breeze. There's a bunch of old people up here. I saw them doing this the other day, and I didn't quite clock what they were doing. It does look like it's golf of some kind. But it's like mini golf with no courses. No, they're doing like putting and short term. What is that like pitching? I only know about golf from video games. But anyway, some kind of golf stuff.

So last episode, which was yesterday for me, I was definitely coming down with something, feeling a little sick, but I was just like, yeah, it'll be fine. I'll sally forth. And I've been miraculously avoiding sickness all this time on this trip somehow. I don't know how.

So I was just like, yeah, you know what, I bet by tomorrow, it'll be fine. I'm walking by. It's like three in the afternoon. The Casa Loma hotel that I never noticed in the day because it just kind of blends in, but at night you can't miss it. It's all lit up. But yeah, now that it's day, and I know that it's there. It's like, oh, yeah, okay, there it is. And then behind it is the volcano mountain. Man, I wonder. It, I don't know. I don't know if it's realistic that I will make it up there. Because I think I am, especially with all the hiking I've been doing on this trip, I'm pretty good at it. I'm a pretty good hiker. But just even going up the stairs to get up here, which was like, I don't know, probably maybe a hundred meters, probably less.

And my body like switches to hike mode where I'm just like breathing super heavily, but even just that took it out of me. That little walk up the steps is like, oh, fuck. But the thing is I can do that for a very long time. But 2,000 meters, I just don't know, man. But apparently there's five main routes, and they don't all go to the peak. So that's an idea. I got to figure out where these routes begin, but yeah, again, I don't need to go to the peak. I've rarely been to the peak. I don't like, I basically haven't been to any steep peaks. If I've ever been to the peak of a mountain, it's just because it was, you know, a relatively gentle curve. So I just accidentally get to the peak. I don't give a shit about getting to the peak.

So that seems more realistic. Maybe I'll just try one of these other routes that doesn't necessarily go all the way to the top. You know, save something for next time if I come back to Jeju someday.

Anyway, I was like, yeah, I'll be fine by tomorrow. No problem. And I think you can tell that I've seen, I sound pretty good, right? It's going okay. But I'm definitely not better. I feel like I'm exactly the same as yesterday. So it's not worse. I don't know when I was at home, I would have guessed I was maybe a touch worse. But now that I'm out walking, I'm like, maybe I'm actually a touch better. So I remain confident that by tomorrow, I mean, at this point, it's clear I won't shake it off as easily. But maybe by tomorrow, I'll be 50% better and in two days I'll be fine.

Still feel like I'm getting away with something here. I'm a little sick, but, but no big deal.

But basically, let's get super idiosyncratic. I mean, this podcast is already so idiosyncratic of like, just a guy moseying around, not on any specific timeline. Not traveling the way most people, you don't have to travel on a shorter, tighter schedule. And I'm just going to random places, you know.

I keep hearing more and more about how crazy Kyoto is, like it's at all time high levels of terrible tourism stuff. And I still kind of think like, you know, it does seem like it does seem pretty beautiful, but if I just never make it there, that's okay. I'll just go somewhere else. There's so many places to go that no one else is going to.

But beyond the idiosyncracy of how I'm traveling, I mean, if you're still with me after all this time, I'll be okay with that. But let's get a step further and bring in the idiosyncraticness of my physiology. So last episode I was talking about how when I'm sick, I'll benefit in a curse. You know, it's just a, it's not something that I mind. It's just weird. Is that I really feel disconnected from myself, which actually that could explain why I think I feel good today. I probably just can't feel it. I just don't know what's going on. I'm still disconnected from my body. But yeah, it's hard to tell if I'm tired. It's hard to tell if I'm hungry. It's hard to tell anything. Just like whatever, I don't know, whatever. I'm just like disconnected from my body while I'm sick.

So like yesterday I just didn't eat for like a full, I mean, I think I hit 24 hours before I hit up the McDonald's and then I spent $15 on McDonald's shit, just so much McDonald's, just a pile. And then I ate the whole thing with no trouble because the reverse is also true. I can't feel when I'm getting full. I can't feel anything. It's really weird.

I'm looking down at the waterfall. Actually, you know, it looks like a very small crowd down there today. I saw the big, sweet waterfall that empties into the ocean yesterday. This one is also a $2 entry fee. I went to the one yesterday because it had rained and I wanted to see it at its biggest. Where my plan for this one is to go on a day when the weather's bad. So there will be small crowds. But today the weather's fucking beautiful. It's a Monday though. So I mean, I guess maybe that's it. But yeah, not a lot of people compared to when I was there on the weekend. And it was literally hundreds. It was like ants. It was just a line of people going into coming out that never ended. I do not want to do that. So yeah, I'm still going to stick with bad weather, but it seems like weekday afternoons. Also not that bad. If I get bad weather on a weekday afternoon, there'll be like nobody there. That'd be awesome.

And since I didn't pay for a ticket, no need to hang around. I can just walk by. My favorite way to see any natural wonder. Just take a quick gander and then just keep watching it while you stroll by as it parallaxes this way. Oops, out of view. It's alright. I can see it again on the way back. I can see it anytime I want. It's right here.

Oh, is this another, I just found yesterday a stamp thing. Yeah, this is another little box for a stamp. There's an ink pad, but the stamp it looks like is gone. There's a cord that was supposed to have the stamp attached, but the stamp's gone and the ink pad is, uh, it looks dried out.

So they're not, and this one is not maintained, but at some point there was a tourism stamp here to say that you saw the cool view of the waterfall. Yeah, I didn't see those at all on mainland Korea. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention, but it seems on Jeju. It's somewhat of a thing if you're a stamp person, although I guess so far my hit rate is 50-50 if it's actually there or not.

Yeah, today was almost a write-off because it's just weird how you sort of forget about stuff when it hasn't happened in a while. When I was back in my hometown toward the end of COVID days, probably when like I technically could have been traveling, but I gave it an extra year just to really make sure that with Japan specifically that everything was okay and smooth and that it wouldn't be a big problem to get in.

That last batch of time in my hometown, I made a little routine of every weekend. I would hike all the way across town, big long walk across my hometown, hang out with my mom for the afternoon, and then hang out with my cousin for the evening. Just kind of, they both lived on the other side of the river in the town, you know, just keep in touch with the fam.

But I noticed at the end of those days, you know, I'd come home and walk home up a big hill. There is a big hill in my hometown. But I would get these really bad, like really bad cramps in my calves where I just have to get out of bed and just like stand on them, put pressure on them. And then it would just keep happening over and over all throughout the night. It's like this is crazy. What is happening? And why is it only on this one day? It couldn't be the hike across town because I do big hiking up and down mountains every day that I can. Even back then, there's a park called Odell Park in my hometown. It's not nearly as interesting as all the cool mountains around here in Japan and in South Korea. But, you know, I took what I could get. So, I mean, I hiked every day. So, why was it always on that day that I got these horrible leg cramps? And I did some research and it appeared to be because of dehydration, apparently being dehydrated, make sure muscles spasm and freak out. 10:00 And it was true that on those days, I did tend to only really drink coffee, not really water. And even then, I did sort of keep the liquids down just because, I don't know, my cousin was always trying to ply me with booze and stuff. And if I, you know, get too much liquid in my system, I got a pee anyway. And then caffeine makes me pee. And then liquor makes me pee. So, what I would always drink coffee in the morning and then booze at night and the two together make me pee like crazy. So, I really was dehydrating myself just to not have to go to the bathroom all the time. But then I eventually learned like, oh, I can't do that. That's giving me these horrible cramps. But that hasn't happened at all since I've been traveling. I don't know, maybe one little teeny minor leg cramp at some point. That's it. Essentially zero percent. But last night, it was like terrible. One of the worst leg cramps ever. Man, it hurts so much so that just like getting up and putting pressure on it was not nearly enough. I really had to massage it and work it out. And I realized like, oh, I didn't drink enough water. But once I'm in that position, it's just so awkward because, you know, I've only been asleep for like three and a half hours or four hours or something.

I'm not going to be able to sleep if I wake up with cramps every fucking 45 minutes. But if I drink enough water to try to fight back these cramps and I'm not going to be able to sleep either, I've literally just been like stuck staying up all night before because I have too much liquid in my system. And I just have to pee every 20 minutes for hours. It's awful. But I was like, fuck, well, okay, I know what this is and I know how to fix it. Got to drink water. But I was trying to hit that balance and I just couldn't either. It was just like the liquids were making me wake up to go to the bathroom. But really the problem was the cramps. I had like two more cramps by the third one. I was like, never fucking mind. Never fucking mind. Let's just get up and drink a shit ton of water, a giant amount of water. And I think I realized what must have happened is because I was all disconnected feeling where, you know, I just was like, hey, I'll drink super caffeinated coffee. But I don't really feel it. Oh, I just, whoops, didn't need a meal in the past 24 hours, whatever. Who cares? Like I think along with all that, I just kind of, I just wasn't drinking water either. I must have just gone the whole day without really drinking any water. Or certainly not enough. Whoopsie. Did I mean to do that? So yeah, that's mega specific of like you need to, I don't know, if you're a person who gets cramps in your calves from dehydration, and you have a small bladder, and when you're sick, you tend to not feel connected to the current state of your body. Then maybe this is useful. I don't know. Who could this possibly be useful for?

But the lesson I learned, which you may never be able to apply personally, but it's, if you're sick, and you're just kind of in that weird twilight sickness zone where you're just like, I don't really just don't feel hungry. I don't need to eat whatever. Make sure to drink water. You can't avoid the water. You got to drink water. Man, those cramps hurt so bad. And it is just so strange that like, yeah, literally hiking up giant mountains, dozens of times while I've been out here. That's not a problem. That doesn't give me troubles. I mean, it gives me knee troubles on the way down, but it's just, just water, just dehydration. And I tried looking it up this morning, like, why do muscles cramp? What does, what makes this happen? And it's surprising how hard it is to find a clear answer about things like that. Maybe I should have gone to the, like, explain to me, like, I'm a five-year-old child wiki or whatever.

There's a lot of shit on the internet that really presumes. I think that's why those dummies books became such a big thing. It's such and such a thing for dummies because it's so annoying when people just presume you have a level of knowledge that you don't.

Like, if you're using the term hypertrophy, I'd never heard that in my life until this morning. That's too much, my friend. That's not, I'm never going to understand what you're talking about. Then I go look up the definition of that, and then I'm trying to tie together this thing in that thing. You're just doing such a bad job of explaining to me right now that I've come out not knowing. I've learned nothing. Thanks, thanks so much, nerd. It's fucking a little tiresome.

So I still don't know why. But I guess I don't need to know why. I just need to know that that is what happens. If I get dehydrated, I get the cramps.

But anyway, so I figured, like, yeah, I'm still feeling kind of sick. I got way not enough sleep. I'm not going to be able to go back to bed because I just drank an insane amount of water. So basically I was like, well, today's fucked. Still kind of sick. Underrested. Combination cramps and just pissing my face off. Like the cramps are so bad I can still feel 15:00 it a little in my calf. Like just a twinge. It's like, Jesus, that was nuts. What the fuck. But then it was just so nice out. Looking out the window, I'm just like, it's so nice out. It's so beautiful. I cannot just stay inside all day. That'd be ludicrous. And then of course, once I got out here and like, oh wait, actually, it's hot as shit out here. Maybe this was, maybe I didn't think this through. But yeah, now that I'm out here, I don't feel tired. I don't feel sick. I don't feel, yeah, I feel great. It feels fine. I definitely made the right choice, ultimately. But I didn't want to go in any big epic journeys. Because again, I'm out of touch with myself right now. I don't know how much energy I got. I don't know what the fuck's going on with my stupid body.

So I was just looking at Google Maps. Like, what could I do that's not too far. And I was glancing around and it's like I'm starting to understand the lay of the land a little better. So I'm like, okay, yeah, there's the, there's the park. You got to go up the epic stairs to get to. There's like the gorge line that goes to the waterfall. And I saw this hotel park sunshine that I walk past the other day. Because I was like, what is park sunshine? That sounds delightful. And then I learned, oh, it's not, it's not a park. It's the name of a hotel. But I saw that. And then behind it, there's more stuff. I'm like, all right, I'm looking at the map. And I'm like, what I did is I kind of went north.

Looped up around back into central segwapo. Yeah, I'm looking at this thing more closely. And it's like, hmm, what's this stuff behind here? And there's a bunch of these photo spots, like three of them, four of them.

Along that coast. And one of them is called Hill of Storms. And I was like, holy sweet fuck. That's the coolest name I've ever heard. You know, there's been a few times while I've been out here that it's reminded me something is reminded me of the dark souls games.

The weird horse statues that are made out of driftwood and bark are the most recent ones. It's like, oh, those came to life. That'd be a boss for sure.

Hill of Storms sounds so much like a dark souls area. It's fucking insane. There's even in Demon Souls, the very first of those games. There's an area called the Shrine of Storms. But basically, it's just like, oh, geez, like I totally know more or less how to get there. I know where that park sunshine fucking hotel is. It's not that far of a walk to get to that park. Then it's not that far of a walk to get to that hotel. Then it looks like on the map, it shouldn't be, you know, maybe just that distance again. That it's like halfway. So not that far. And the Hill of fucking Storms, dude. What the fuck is that? That sounds awesome.

And if it's on this like hilly, like super cliffy big rock, this epic coastline. How fucking bad could it be? How bad could it be? It's probably really fucking really cool. And it's not far. And I'm in this weird little middle ground where it's like I feel pretty good. The day's real nice out. But there's also more than enough logical reasons to not push it too far today. So that sound of someone doing landscaping is at the park sunshine, Juju.

But all right, so that's the actual hotel. But I don't want to just cut up through there. There must be a more proper road.

Oh, here we go. Yes, so there's a convenience store in the corner.

Juju Alley Trail. O-L-L-E. Juju Alley Trail Route 7 is right by here. Looks like that's what I'm looking for.

Cool. So assuming this all works out, let's do a little time warp to the Hill of Storms.

I can't think of any Dark Souls boss music right now off the top of my head. How about Dragon Warrior music?

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Man, after that epic music, there was a washroom near there. So I was like, yeah, let me just go stop in the washroom real quick before I head on the road that goes to the the hill of storms Because I did kind of force myself to eat before I left even though I didn't feel hungry And I was like I can just go out. I can just go out right now I can maybe stop at a convenience store on the way whatever. Let's just get going, you know It felt like so much effort to get my Tupperware container full of kimchi out of the fridge Take the Tupperware container in an egg down to the kitchen Put everything all together in a pot with some noodles and cook it up and sit there and eat it and then go all the way back up to my room to Return the Tupperware then finally leave. It's like, I don't want to do all that but Putting my money where my mouth is The idea of going to a convenience store and having to just eat one of the shitty sandwiches or one of the crappy dried out. I don't know fucking Weird like cake things or whatever just like I just don't want to fuck it Fuck these convenience stores, so I did in fact go down and ate and it was a super hearty meal I was at the end of the kimchi, so I wanted to use it all up So it was a little more than usual and with the hard boiled egg and with the noodles It's like this is like quite a hearty meal. This feels good. This feels like definitely what I should be eating While I'm sick not bad, but then putting all that food in my belly. It was like I got to go hit the washroom and Now this is just where it's just weird When I'm sick where I'm just like so out of touch with myself Then now I just something feels wrong Something feels bad, but I don't know what Like it's just the weirdest shit I really don't know if other people are like this. I've never heard anybody talk about it before But I'm totally this way. It's always been like this At least since I'm in a dealt I don't remember as a kid, but Yeah, I just know something is off something in my belly feels weird I just don't want to move too quickly. I want to take it slow. It's like oh, let me Should I even do this? Should I just hang out near this washroom? Should I just go home? I just don't know something feels Just in my belly region Just I can just tell you know the signal being sent is just hey something's not normal No additional information. No additional clue doesn't hurt. It just feels weird It's like hey be aware Something is off. It's like okay Thanks Thank you It's not helpful But yeah, so I mean it applies with this as well. I can't tell if I'm hungry. I can't tell when I'm full And when just anything that's happening with my belly. I don't know actually it could be I Did stop in the shit. I'm talking about convenience stores. I still do love their coffee. I did stop in and buy Uh buy two get one free a cafe la little bottle lattes because they're my favorite So I thought right before I go to the washroom since I got three of these things Let me just guzzle one down. Let me just guzzle the whole thing And that'll make extra sure everything gets moving in the washroom And just to get a little bit of the weight out of my pockets out of my jacket pockets But uh especially on a hot day I think that was probably a mistake. Maybe that's actually the problem I would normally never guzzle down a coffee like that. That's a weird thing to do I would just drink it in a slow responsible manner So maybe that's it. Maybe my belly is just freaking out like what the fuck Because it was also it's the size up one which is only three hundred and fifty milliliters That's what they consider the big size around here But that is quite a bit To just toss at the old stomach at a nowhere jeez though I noticed today two different Of those little machines that sell 50 cent coffees which are in all the uh the metros and the train stations and stuff But since Jeju doesn't have those things I was afraid it wouldn't have 50 cent coffees but I found three totals. No, maybe four. Yeah, because I saw one in uh In the market yesterday So that's cool if I want my little 50 cent coffees and that's what I mean that would have been I should have just come one of those today 50 cent coffee is just right when you're sick Get a little coffee blast but you're not like fucking with the ecosystem of your body 25:00 Guzzle in that coffee was definitely a mistake. So maybe it's that I don't know But jeez started walking down the road Toward now I'm on a little I found a little walkway a little pathway that goes down along the coast You can probably hear some coasty sounds Super fucking beautiful just looking out at the coast Yeah, and this is a little bit less cliffy than where The waterfall is but still pretty pretty rugged and just yeah rock rock coastline But yeah, there's one of these nice like wooden Wooden walkways down here. Yeah as I was walking even though I did put on Sunscreen and I left the house It's so sunny today that it's like I don't feel like this is enough I have this bad feeling like the backs of my hands are like starting to get a little red But I do have my my weather resistant jacket which is a slightly too heavy for this type of Weather but but I just keep it wrapped around my shoulders to cover my neck But now I've got it like wearing it like a cape And even though it is too heavy and it's a little warm to be doing that It's definitely like that desert philosophy Keep covered because yeah, I feel a lot better about this just a lot less worried that I'm going to get get burned Sunscreen is just just not enough man Oh, yeah at the convenience store where I got the acafé l'as They did have deodorant but yeah, it's uh It is as people predicted it costs eight dollars But I would abide it except it's also it's that weird roll on deodorant which I mean do we even still sell that? I equate that with like the 1980s And I really don't go through much deodorant so I still my stick my stick hasn't run out yet. I'm still good I only need a little teeny dab But yeah, I just feel like if I'm gonna buy the roll on deodorant I really honestly feel like just using my aftershave. I think is about the same I don't know. I don't know anything about roll on deodorant But it just it just just weird to me. I just don't I don't know. You're just rolling this weird liquid on your armpits Doesn't feel like it does much But again, I'm in that part of the world where they just they don't really need deodorant like we need deodorant so Anyway, at least they had some It gives a credit for that. They have a little teeny bottle of roll on deodorant Over eight thousand one like shit Car riced But anyway Where I am at now. I saw this stairway just heading down Toward The shore and it does stretch back of it too. There must have been an earlier way down here that I missed It's the Huangguji coast HW-A-N-G-U-J-I And yeah, maybe Ola trail course seven Perhaps this will take me right to the hill of storms It's all working out and now I think as my my belly's settling a little I think I'm feeling okay. I think it'll be all right I hope so, because there is just no good way to have stomach emergencies anywhere in the world. But like, man, I remember one time, this is Christmas in Toronto. And I was hanging out with my friend, Brad. We were both living in Toronto at the time. All of our families on the East Coast, but all our Toronto friends who were local to Ontario, you know, they all were at their respective families for Christmas. So, me and Brad just hanging out. We watched movies and shit. It was great, but then walking back through the frozen, wintery, snowy, Toronto streets. There's a pretty long walk. He lived downtown. I lived by the Duff Mall. And everything was closed, because it was Christmas. And midway there. Probably, I don't know. A little over halfway. I just got hit with like, crazy diarrhea. It's like, I just don't have any choice. And there's just nowhere. There's nowhere to hide, nowhere to go. Around here, I don't know. This is not, especially like there's greenery everywhere, but it's like quite small, you know? It's like, waist high. Yeah, I could probably, I guess I'm looking at it now. If I really, I could, I suppose, get out of people's view if I really had to, but I just don't want it to come to that. I'm just uncomfortable because, because I don't know what's happening with my body right now. But yeah, that day in Toronto, man, it was awful. I just had to sneak into a little alleyway between two random houses that didn't seem to have any activity in them. There was no sign that anybody was home. But I had to sneak in into their little alleyway and just pull them up, 30:00 trow down and fucking take a poop in the snow. It was awful. But nobody saw me, not even close. Like, there was no one on the streets, the weather was really bad. No one walked by or even drove by. It was actually like a pretty, pretty decent crime. And then I covered it up with snow. And I mean, hopefully by the time spring came, it was just, there was no evidence left that anyone had ever had a Christmas emergency between those two buildings. But that's one of those things that sticks with you. Like, I really don't want to ever be in that position again. What the sweet fuck? There's a Christmas story for you while I'm in Jeju in a hot summer day. I'll tell you Toronto Christmas tale, pooping in the streets. That was bad. That was real bad.

Hey, there's a cool. Now that I'm looking back, I could see a teeny little waterfall at one point on the shoreline here. But I don't know how. I don't know if you even can get down to the shoreline, the actual rocky shore from here. But I saw a little teeny waterfall. So that's cool. And there's that the walking bridge to that island that is currently under construction. And ever present out in the bay, I really got to figure out the name of this this island because I see it every day from everywhere that I go. It is the island in the bay around these parts.

What is it called? It must be Siopsyam, S-E-O-P-S-E-O-M. It has to be. But yeah, it's really tough to judge distances on Google Maps. Weird little islands and stuff in the water. But man, as far as these little scenic spots, basically like all along this coastline, it's just endless. The little like photo op icon. It's everywhere. I don't know that I've ever seen this many anywhere that I've ever been since I started paying attention to Google Maps. It's just like because everywhere is amazing. Like this view is fucking crazy. And it's not like one little like, oh, there's the quick little view. It's just as you go. It's just continuous. It's a never-ending fucking rolling panorama of amazing views. This shit is fucking great.

Ah, I'm feeling a lot better. I wonder, you know, it's always weird too. Like it's one thing to know about your body. But it is pretty remarkable. How much your mind also affects how you feel? You know, to a certain degree. You don't want to be one of these like Steve Jobs guys who thinks he can cure his cancer through homeopathic remedies and stuff. But your mind really does have a remarkable impact on this stuff. I just wonder if even just telling that story. Just saying out loud my fears about, oh, you remember that time in Toronto where I pooped on the street? I wonder if that kind of made my brain go. Hey, body. Like, is that even remotely likely to happen? Is there any reason why we're worrying about this? And maybe my body was like, no, no, no, it's not that. It's not that. I'm trying to send you the signals. You're not understanding. But I feel much better. Man, down by the shore, there's like little rocks and inlets and stuff. But there's one of them that is basically just a bridge. It's just like a rock bridge that goes between two little islands really close to the shore. But it doesn't seem man-made. I think it's just by the happenstance of nature. There's like a perfect video game bridge. It really is like tears of the kingdom shit. It looks just like, oh, I don't know how to describe it. But there's this one part of the map where there's a lot of coastal stuff going on. And even the way these little rock mountains, there's like these little rock islands with little bits of greenery on top. They even look. They're about they're bigger, but they're approximately the size and shape of the shrines and breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom. They are bigger. But I mean, man, man, like I felt that quite a bit in in Japan of like, I feel like I understand video game level architecture better, seeing the place, seeing the place that inspired them. And it's almost even more so in some ways in South Korea, because it's so mountainous. It's like mountains times 10. It's just crank the mountains up to full. So I'm sure there's many parts of Japan that are like this too. I just never went there, but this is where I get the taste of the super mountainy parts, because you can't not. You can't get away from the mountains. I think I don't know what the flattest part of South Korea is, but it might be Seoul. And Seoul has a fuck ton of mountains. Oh, yeah, I see. There is a access restriction. There is a little gate and steps. So you can't actually go down there. I mean, 35:00 you can't. It's like caution, fall hazard, yellow tape, slippery, but also just, yeah, all these signs. I'm not even going to bother translating them. It couldn't be more clear. Like, hey, stupid fuck. You're not going here. Do not restricted area police. I understand. Yeah, I'm a big fan of not being obnoxious and fucking with places that are not my homeland, and that I don't fully understand the rules. I'm more than a fan of caution. But this morning when I woke up with the cramp and I was just laying in bed like, oh, fuck me. How did I get on to this? I guess it was just like I was scrolling through YouTube. And it was like a British documentary about North Korea. I only watched a little bit of it because I tried to go back to sleep. But in the comments, someone mentioned this was filmed before the death of, and I forget the guy's name. But now, Korea's even harder to get into. But there was a period where you could visit as a American citizen, even though you're highly encouraged not to. And this one fucking guy, he was like 21. He tried to steal a propaganda poster from the hotel he was in. And he didn't even steal it because it was too big, but they caught him on CCTV. And they arrested him.

And it's so not a big deal, like, you know, defacing some property or just being an asshole. But North Korea, it's like if a country has a personality, you know, if a country has self-esteem, like a kind of like thinking of corporations that way. If you think of a corporation as a person, you can kind of envision the kind of person they are. How confident are they? How honest are they? You know, all these different things. What is their self-esteem level? And it's like that with countries too. So I mean, if you look at it that way, North Korea's self-esteem is in the fucking toilet. They're just insane. They're understandably self-conscious about their insane fucking bullshit system they got going on there. But at the same time, they're convinced that everybody is watching them all the time. And everyone cares about them. The hard truth is no one cares. No one cares about North Korea at all. So so not important. Sorry, sorry, North Korean people. My many North Korean listeners, no one gives a shit. We wish things would be better there. And that's it. That's as far as it goes. No one thinks about it. No one cares. People only care. And so far as man, I hope they don't shoot rockets. And I'm sure here in South Korea, they care more of like it will be nice if we could reunite. But really, we just want to make sure these people don't fucking invade us.

But anyway, due to the nationwide lack of self-esteem, they couldn't even see it as just that this kid was just being an asshole who wanted to steal up what he thought was a cool propaganda poster. They drummed up all this shit about how he was sent as an operative of the CIA to undermine government institutions. And they kept him for some number of years. They were going to put him in prison for like 15 years of hard labor for this for nothing. It's totally insane. But then once he finally got extradited at some point while he was there, he was just brain-dead. He was like in a coma where he was like awake and he could blink but he didn't react to anything.

And it seemed when they tested him and checked him out, it doesn't seem that anything was done to him on the North Korean side. So it could just be super bad luck that he just had an embolism in his brain while he was there. And he wasn't able to get proper care. And then they were stuck. The North Koreans were stuck with this now suddenly much worse situation where it really looks like they essentially killed this guy when they were just all they wanted to do was put him in prison. But then there's also possibilities that there are ways that they no doubt did torture him and force confessions out of him about how that this was what he was doing. Like they wanted him to admit that you're here through the CIA and you're sent by America. All this stuff that again no one cares about you North Korea. No one's sending anyone in to try to steal your propaganda posters. It's so insane to even think that.

So they were definitely fucking with him to extract these confessions and maybe they did something that wasn't physically visible when he was tested that led to this state. 40:00 That seems most likely but no one knows. No one can figure it out but they just had to take this kid off life support because he was a vegetable and that's it. Basically he died because he wanted to steal a fucking poster in North Korea. Rest in peace dude. I mean obviously you didn't deserve that. That's totally totally insane. You do this 1% bad thing and the repercussion is like 10,000%. It's totally nuts. But I mean it's the most severe extreme example of just don't fuck around man. Do not fuck around. That's so it couldn't be especially in North Korea. Don't fuck around but it's a good advice anywhere. I'm in South Korea. It's a way different situation. Everything's fine. I'm not going to fuck around. I'm not going through the barriers when they say don't go through the barriers. Like just don't fuck around. Wherever you are, whoever you are don't fuck around. But that story was so insane and so intense. I spent a little extra time researching it just because I'm like there has to be something I'm missing here. There has to be something I'm not getting. It's just way too crazy but it's just that thing of like like when someone is delusional and as a as a mass as a country there's no question. North Korea is delusional. You know once someone has broken with reality there is no limit.

There is no point at which they're going to realize oh this is too far. There's no point where they're going to realize like oh we think things that couldn't possibly be true. These dots don't connect at all. Like it's just beyond insane. You know it's like there's no way to even explain or describe. It's not even any point. But it's still like as a sane person. You know I feel this way about my brother my brother is schizophrenia and it's like there has to be a point where you realize that the things that you think or the way you think the world works and the stuff you're saying there has to be some point when you realize like there's no possible way this is true. But there is not a point that's just not how his brain works. And that's that's how North Korea is as a place.

But anyway I'm at the Hillestorms now. I got sure while I was talking about North Korea. So this is a it's like quite a bit out into the water and it's like a big flat rock area. And yeah this is pretty cool. You can just walk right out.

And how close to the edge should I get? That's close enough. Yeah pretty steep pretty steep cliffs.

I wonder yeah it's like it's weird I'm not it's not high enough up to to trigger my fear of heights. Hey there's a a stork down there. They're storky boy. And it's not straight down. It's kind of jagged something and like okay if I fell right now I'd smash my fucking shoulder on that rock and then I'd roll down and tumble to those other rocks and I'd probably break my hip and then then it's the water. But I don't feel like I would die. So that's not bad.

Yeah so I guess this is just just a real good view of the coastline. It doesn't quite feel dark soulsy now that I'm here because I like there was the mountain the first mountain I climbed up in Busan. The top of it felt like a dark souls level because it was like this big flat rock. It was a perfect boss battle arena where this one's just not flat enough. It's a little too jagged and rocky.