#146 Beautiful walk from Hamdeok Beach to Jeju City, Korea

Transcript

Just walked by, I walked by them on the way in this photography couple where the guys get the super fancy camera with the mega long lens and the lady is extremely good looking and they're taken photos by the beach where she very distinctly had her butt out and singing like, what a life, what a life where people just want to see pictures of your butt, but I'm no better. I was like, I need to, you know, I was just waiting for them to finish before I walked by before and it's like, I got them like, let me just look at my phone. Let me just do something to not be looking at this girl's butt. The trials and tribulations of being a dude. Anyway, I'm at Hamdeok Beach where I've been for the last couple episodes of them having a hard time making it past this area. But it's a good place to be stuck, man, it's fucking beautiful. Finally though, I'm heading on now because I was watching some YouTube videos by Dan in Korea who used to live in Korea, Canadian guy who just does stuff or whatever. And like two or three years ago, Jeju flew him out here to do a video about the Ola trail. So he did this, this bit that I'm heading to now, but in the other direction because I guess most people do it clockwise. I'm going counterclockwise. So he ended up here. And this is where I found all those caves during like Japanese war occupation.

And he actually went in, he had like a tour guide, but there was a cave you could actually go all the way in and see. But I wasn't really clear how to get there. And you know, ultimately it's just a cave, whatever. I don't need to go in a cave. But I thought since I'm here, since I'm starting from here, I'm right at this area, I should give it a go. Just stop by here one last time, go try to find the cave. And there's like the path that leads up into the mountain, and then there's this other path along the coastline that has like, let me just try that. And it eventually just evolved into rocky shoreline and just kind of a a ramshackle path like the one I was trapped on the other day. No caves. So I don't know where that is. And it's all right. I'm just going to move on. But if you're curious about going in an actual war time cave, apparently there is one or there was one three years ago.

You might have to do some research, but yeah, it's just a cave. So I'm all right moving on from here because I got to I got to finally break the orbit of this place. Though Dan from Korea, he was here on a rainy day even and he was like, man, if I come back to Jeju, I would stay near here. This is awesome. And he's not wrong. This area is fucking real good.

But it's finally time to move on. And I think it's time for me to move on from the coastal buses because after I got stranded halfway home because the the 201 bus stopped so early, I was like, no problem. I'll just make sure I get on the bus by like eight o'clock and it should be fine. But that's what I did the other day. And I still barely made it. I was possibly on the last bus that goes all the way around the loop to Seguapo. If not, it was the second to last bus. But I think it actually was the last one. And yeah, just it's an insanely long ride. It just takes like over two hours at this point. So that's that's why, you know, even if you leave real early, it's just a tricky all around. Whereas my new method, if taking the 182 bus straight north up into Jeju, it seems to run later. It's the 181 on the way back. And I guess we'll see. That's my plan now is to just take that route to get to where I'm going on my circumnavigation. And then head back into Jeju City and just take that bus back home. Still takes forever, you know, it's still a very long ride. But it's a lot less bumpy. And if what I'm reading is accurate, it seems like it goes a lot later. I'm still not going to risk it. But that's the other nice thing. After disaster strikes, or when disaster strikes, there's going to be a whole lot of mother fuckers pulling in. Are you prepared? Now that it's happened once, you know, it seems like it'll be a lot easier to deal with if it happens again. Because now I know I just need to find the busiest road I can find and just stand there till a cap comes by. There's no other option. And then spend 30 bucks and 5:00 get home. Like it shouldn't be such a big to do. So, you know, still going to try to avoid that happening. But I've also upgraded my kit a little where I found a big brimmed hat at Daiso for five bucks. Because not only was my other hat not really great for blocking the sun, but I was getting concerned about my ears. Like I always put sunscreen on my arms. And then my ears in my nose when I think about it. But I actually forget a lot. I forgot today even. But this hat, if nothing else, I'm getting concerned about my ears. So it'll protect those. And I also bought some shirts from fucking Daiso. These three dollar shirts that are like a little bit mesh like just to let a little airflow through, I guess, although they don't feel like they do. But I heard a lot about how Asian sizes are very small. So I usually get medium sized shirts because I'm a very skinny untal, but I'm very skinny. But I didn't want to end up with like a little teeny shirt with my belly poking out like 2001 era Britney Spears. So just to be on the safe side, I got a couple of larges. And it seems that this thing about teeny tiny clothing, it's more of a women's clothing thing because the men's sizes seem exactly the same. This shirt is definitely, I don't know, like the medium shirt would be more stylish. It would fit me better. But this actually is probably better for just, you know, being a little looser against the skin, a little bit billowy, better for walking around atropical island. But it reminds me of the 90s. I never realized in the 90s that all my clothes didn't fit because it was just the style. That's how everybody dressed. But then I'd look back at old pictures of me with my mother gruesome grim tea shirt and it's like, why am I wearing that huge shirt? I'm no one's clothes fit in the 90s. So I feel like I'm in the 90s. And between this diso shirt and this hat that everybody wears, a variation of this hat, I've just instantly become like a Korean old man. I look exactly like every other middle-aged man around here. You know, I've just become one. It reminds me of like when I would go home to visit on the east coast of Canada. And I wouldn't be able to identify my dad in the airport right away because every person was wearing a ball cap that they probably got for free out of a case of beer.

So it just has a random logo on it and windbreakers, like every person. So that's happening here too.

I'm fitting in like crazy. But yeah, one last moment to soak in this sweet beach.

And I don't know how far I'll make it today. It's of course a cool 27 degrees feels like 30. Though I think since I checked that temperature, it feels like it's cool down a little from there. They had to be late in the day already because it just, you know, I got started pretty early today, but it just takes so fucking long to get halfway across Jeju Island. So yeah, that's my only plan for today. It's just not to actually get anywhere, just to get some distance from Hamdeok. Just to continue this journey. But yeah, for a little, a little place to just kind of get caught up in for a bit. Pretty fucking nice, dude. I mean, the number of beaches has increased incredibly from down by Saegwapal where there's fucking no beaches at all. But this is a real good one.

Oh, it is really windy today, but that is not a fucking bad thing. It's definitely cooled down. It's not like the crazy heat that it has been lately. And you've had it even was earlier today. It's pretty good. But yeah, at first I was afraid that was going to be an issue with this. Now that I got a great big brimmed hat, like, oh, who's the mortal combat character with the the big round hat. Not riding. I mean, he obviously has, but that's, that's different. Kung Lao, is that even a guy's name? Anyway, now that I've got this big round hat, once the wind hit it, the wind wants to like blow it off. And I was like, oh, is that going to be a problem? But I should have known. These are island folk. They're ready for the island fucking environment. So yeah, it's got a next strap. You got to tighten it up for extra nerdiness. But it's like, fuck it. It works, man. Again, I don't know why I keep bringing that up. That I'm not the most fashion forward right now. Who the fuck cares? I'm walking around an island where I don't know 10:00 a single person sweating my balls off. Yeah, this is nice. Pretty much as soon as I got away from the main beach, it immediately just becomes kind of, what's the island version of rural? What do you call that? I don't know, but it becomes islandy. It's just like, man, island life is the best, dude. As far as like, you know, say you're just in a fantasy novel. You're in a generic dungeon and dragon scenario. So I don't know, you got like dwarves who live in the mountains and elves who live in the forest and snowy peaks and glittering lakes, bogs and swamps. You know, you got all the biomes. They all have their ups and downs. But what's better than the island, man? The island climate is the best. The visuals are the best. If I didn't live in such a soft world where I can just, you know, go to a convenience store, you have the bounty of the sea as well. It's pretty fucking awesome. And yeah, just continuing the walk, man, it just feels good because because today I had a couple of days off in between. This is one of these cases where I took a day off and then the next day was my having to phone home day. No time to go. So two days off in a row, but that wasn't a bad thing because actually a pollution wave hit. That's been pretty rare while I've been to Jeju in the summer. But there was a day where yet it was inching up near Rish 100 where like I could feel it. It felt bad to breathe the air and you could definitely see it. I actually had to wear a mask. Pretty rare. So I certainly didn't mind missing that day.

But everything's pretty good now again. But yeah, after two days off, I especially didn't want to take three days off. And last night at like three in the morning, I was real tired. It's just like, oh, man, I've been pushing it, but it's all right. Going to go to bed now. This ain't so bad. And I was exhausted and yet despite that, my body was like, yeah, but we're not going to go. We're not going to fall asleep. Fuck you. We're going to stay at till seven in the morning. And I was like, why? Why? And then I woke up a bit afternoon. The classic, you know, five-ish hours of sleep. And it's just like, I don't know what to tell you, buddy. This is your fault. I'm not going to try to go back to sleep. It's not going to work anyway. We would just end up trying to sleep and it wouldn't work. And I'd just be dicking around in the fucking hotel for the day. And then there's no guarantee. I'll follow the sleep tonight anyhow. So it's like, fuck it. Fuck you. You brought this to find yourself. We're going. So I got myself up and dragged myself to the bus. And yeah, even though I pretty much, you know, just hopped in the shower, went straight to the bus stop, waited for the bus, took the bus here. I skipped going to Adiya in Jeju even. And I still only got here to the beach at like three thirty or something. Yeah. Closer to four actually. It's just like man, no time. But yeah, now that I'm here, moving and walking along the shoreline, it's like, yeah, this is fine. Fuck being tired. I don't give a fuck. Don't matter.

Just feels good. Man, one thing too though. Yeah, the heat has been getting pretty intense. The other day at the good old three in the morning time. Just sitting at the computer. And I mean, you know, generally in my hotel room, I'm just sitting there in my tidy whiteies in my weird Korean underpants that don't have a hole in the front. But it's relatively comfortable. You know, the temperature isn't that bad, even though it's really warm. But it hit crazy warm levels where it's just like the humidity suddenly hits and the pressure hits. And it's like your body goes haywire. And it just starts sweating and sweating and sweating and just won't stop. And you just feel the pressure pushing down on you. And it's like three in the morning. And it's like, what is fucking happening? It's the middle of the night. How is it this hot? What the fuck? But then it suddenly occurred to me. Hey, wait a sec. I'm in like a hotel. This is like kind of legit, legit lodgings. Because I never really think about like air conditioning and cooling stuff because I just never really had that as a kid. I grew up in this big ass, 100 year old house that really never got too hot even in the summer. It was always pretty good. I don't remember heat being a big problem.

But I guess I'm just, you know, my natural mindset is just like, well, the temperature is the temperature. You just deal with it. But this is, you know, this is temperature beyond. Canada gets really hot in the summer. But I don't know not like this. Like this is definitely island heat. This is like crazy shit. But then I remembered, hey, wait a second. Isn't there a little remote control on the bedstand? I fished that out, did a little translating. It's like, ah, there's the power button. And then a little vent in the ceiling opens up. It's like, aha, 15:00 impressed the cool button. And it just starts emitting cold air. And it's like, oh man, that's fucking sweet. That's fucking awesome. And I only had to turn it on for a bit. You know, I didn't like leave it running just a bit just to take off the edge once in a while when it would build up. But that sure is nice, man. You know, a very normal, common thing, I guess. Most people probably super take it for granted. I got to assume, especially if you live in like the states and the southern United States, especially just not really optional, right? Like you need to have air conditioning. But it's not something I generally grew up with. So it's a pretty fucking magical. Because yeah, when you need it, you fucking need it. I don't know what the fuck I would have done.

It was like crazy that heat. I wonder when comparing terror.

Was it worse than, I don't know if it was worse than the situation in Seoul where where I just had no control over the temperature because that was like dry heat, you know, like I was being roasted. This is the super humid heat. I don't know, the humid heat feels crazier because yeah, it just makes your body freak out. It feels weirder. But I don't know, the dry heat's probably worse. But who the fuck knows? It's not something I particularly want to experiment with. They're both crazy.

You know, it is kind of a shame that vending machines are not very common in South Korea. They pop up here and there, but this is pretty much fallen back into the good old rhythm of the Olle Trail, which is generally real nice. You know, it's nice that the major road is away from the shoreline. So if you stay on the shoreline, you pretty much mostly can avoid traffic and it's just really pretty and nice.

But that also makes you avoid all the stores and stuff. So since I didn't stop at a convenience store back at Hamdeok Beach, I'm out of luck. That was it. But if this was Japan, man, you can guarantee dollars to donuts. They would be fucking drink vending machines every once in a while along this route.

But yeah, just not a super common thing here. I can remember, you know, like I'm thinking of my first neighborhood in Seoul when I first got to Korea. It's like, oh yeah, there's that vending machine up by the next station. They're all of the subway stations have vending machines, but outside of them, I can think of one in particular that I was like, okay, if I ever do need to just go buy a can of coffee, I can go there.

Off the top of my head. Like I can only think of that one. That's fucking weird. I don't know. I guess it's not weird. Again, it's Japan. It's weird. Japan is fucking bananas with how many vending machines they have. It makes no sense. It's just really goddamn convenient.

Hi, man. Yeah, so back on rocky shorelines.

Just walking along. Now it feels like I could be in fucking Ireland or something. Just greenery.

On a cliff side. There's a fucking lighthouse appearing in front of me. Yeah, this brimmed hat helps like crazy too. With the sun now that I'm walking into the sun. It's like, hi, you can't stop me now. This hat's the shit. Well, the hat even has like little vents on the sides to let wind blow through and let a nice breeze touch your scalp. They thought of everything.

There's some fishermen. There we go. Exit from society complete. We're back in the rural parts.

Who man? I know I've spent a lot of time talking about Mount Halasand, the big volcano that's in the center of Jeju Island. Probably too much time for something I haven't gone up and I'm not going to go up.

But I was pontificating about how I'm like, yeah, 2,000 meters. What's 2,000 meters? You know, I've done seven, eight. If I hit nine, I'm not sure. But you know, I've done that before I could do 2,000, whatever. The problem is more the distance because it's a shield shape. It's a flat volcano. 20:00 So in order to walk up that 2,000 meters, you have to walk across, you know, a giant chunk of the island and that's the part that takes four hours.

But I just turned a corner on this coastal walk and I'm definitely way closer now, way closer than my view from Sagwipo. So yeah, I think being at such a distance was given me the wrong idea of how big this fucking thing is because you know, it's two thirds of a Mount Fuji. It's fucking huge. And yeah, I just turned this corner where there was like a hill in the way. So I got the perfect like reveal as I turn the corner. It's like, boom, there it is. And it is some Mount Doom shit. It is insane. It's so fucking big. Like the idea of walking up that now, like from what I'm looking at now, it doesn't look real because it's a little hazy and a little misty in the distance. But it's not in the deep distance like it used to be. It's like right there and it's so big.

But it's just the way it looks now. It's almost like a video game that uses polygons or something like another world, you know, sort of like conceptual art. Like it looks like a shape, a mountain shape with some vectors placed in the background. Like there's no sense of like, how would you walk up that? Where's the route? What's the method? It just looks like it's like conceptual. It is just like the concept of a fucking mountain. Boom. And it's so fucking big. Like maybe also, I mean, I am feeling my lack of sleep a little in that, you know, every time I got to go upstairs or something, I'm like, oh yeah, you can feel it when you don't have your full eight hours for sure. So maybe that's got me additionally feeling like, like, wow, imagine if I had to walk up that thing. But imagine if I had to walk up that thing. It's so fucking big.

So yeah, I'm definitely re-wiring my idea of this fucking volcano. I mean, it's a fucking volcano. I was really, really not respecting it before, not respecting the size, not understanding the size. Because I mean, I guess these numbers, you know, it is just kind of easy to do that, you know. Like when I go up a little 400 meter mountain, which is legitimately not that big. And then you just think, well, just this times five, whatever. Times five is a big times. That's, that's pretty insane. Two thirds of a Fuji. I mean, Fuji is like, god damn death march that you have to start the night before. Like, yeah, I think it just really brought into focus. And I guess I'll only get closer, I suppose, as I walk. I'm not exactly sure where the center of the volcano is. But I guess it makes sense that it's nearer Juju because, yeah, there is no approach when I have researched this. There is no approach from Seiguipo. The main approach is from Juju City. So obviously, the volcano is not smack in the middle. Yeah, I don't really know how it all works about, you know, what I, what exactly I'm seeing, what angles I'm seeing the volcano from how the sun is changing things. I have no idea. But I mean, I'm clearly closer. I can just see it way, way better from here. I'm just passing, I just passed Gwen Gott, GWANGOT. I'm approaching the Dachmielru coast, D-A-K-M-E-O-R-U coast.

So yeah, definitely when I was at the equivalent part of the island down on the southern part, it wasn't like this.

Being on the northern side makes this volcano of you fucking pop. And it is terrifying. It is so fucking big.

Another Juju thing I learned actually from watching that Dan and Korea guy come to Juju. It's another one of these things that it's like kind of the creepy underbelly. You know, like there's the really severe stuff, like when I'm learning about the beautiful waterfalls and like how they were actually execution points, because it was easier to get rid of bodies. That's disturbing. This is orders of magnitude less disturbing than that, but still just a weird thing. How I was so impressed to see the basically functionally wild horses all around. You know, it's pretty surprising. You know, you'd be walking around Juju and there's just horses. If not wild, I mean, I guess most of the other horses I've seen are more specifically pendant. There's only that one area where they really just seem to be on their own. But definitely just horse activity, a lot of horse stuff going on around here. 25:00 But old Dan from YouTube mentioned by the way, Juju is one of the only places where you can just order horse meat. And I was like, huh. So that's the eerie underbelly of the horses all over the place is also since, you know, it's kind of an isolated place. It's part of South Korea, but it's also kind of its own thing. And you know, it's hard to say exactly how much that autonomy is enforced or how much they make of it.

But I guess that's one way that they use it is they're like, yeah, here we're just going to eat horses, fuck it.

And it's definitely hypocritical of me to care. I mean, I ate a fucking hamburger today. What's one animal versus another animal, you know? What's the difference? But it does just seem weird because it's just not commonly done in North America.

I just walked by an older guy with a hat very similar to mine. I'm one of the locals now, at least as far as hat fashion goes. But yeah, this guy was like, hey, while you're on Juju, try horse, why not? But I'm going to stick with my good old philosophy of don't do stuff. Who cares about doing stuff? Doing stuff sucks. Fun's not fun. You know, when I stumbled upon some kind of Juju sex museum and found out there's apparently a handful of them scattered around. I'm like, yeah, that's cool, but I don't know whatever. And you find out like, hey, could be your only opportunity to eat horse. I'm like, yeah, that's fine. I don't give a shit. I'm not going to eat horse. But, you know, I'll pass that info on. I mean, all of this kind of stuff, I do think traveling with people is just different than traveling by yourself. If I was with a group, it's like, yeah, let's go to the sex museum. Hey, let's go to the restaurant and order horse. Why not? Let's just do all this shit. But it's just not the same when you're by yourself. It's like, who am I trying to impress? I'll just do what I actually want to do, which is just to walk. Just to walk around the outside edge. That's all. That's good enough for me.

I'll walk past some horses. I'll walk past some sex museums. I won't go into the sex museum and eat horse. Although, maybe, maybe if you could do both those things, I don't know. Maybe that would be it. Probably still not, but maybe that would be weird enough.

Anyway, now that I'm talking about sex museum and horses and eating all together, let's put away this recorder because this fucking line of conversation can't go anywhere good.

Tada! It's the next day. I'm back at the exact same spot right at the bus stop that I walked a little bit extra to get to.

And today is kind of overcast. A little bit rainy. I don't know. Should I have my umbrella right now? It's one of those right in the middle. Yeah, I probably should.

This is going to add to my squeaky shoe, too. Let's listen to the squeaky shoe while I get my umbrella out.

There we go. Yeah, one of my boots. I was out on like a big storm day. And one of my boots has never been the same. It just squeaks ever since. But I've trained myself a little to walk a bit flatter, not to go so heel toe and it makes it not squeak. And I'm pretty sure that's better for you anyway. I'm quite sure, you know.

I'm quite sure I read somewhere that heel toe walking is harder on your joints. I don't know, whatever. Today's not raining that bad. And the upside is that it's not hot. I mean, I'm wearing my jacket today. How fucking crazy is that? Not too sunny.

In fact, it's super nice. This is actually great. A little bit of rain, a little smattering, not bad. Yeah, because I guess that day, I mean that day, like my pants were wet and my socks got wet somehow inside my boots. Like that was a whole to do. Today is this sort of reasonable slight, slight rainyness.

Man, it's a bit of a weird feeling, too, because for the first half of this journey, you know, I just kept going farther and farther on the 201 bus farther and farther along the coast.

So I just kept progressing farther and farther, where now that I'm taking the bus directly north to Jeju City, 30:00 and then heading east to get to the point that I stopped at so I can start walking west again, it's a bit of a weird feeling because like, Jeju City, you know, I had only been there really briefly when I first arrived. So now I've been there a few times and it's like, oh yeah, okay, I'm starting to figure out a little bit of where stuff is. Oh, here's a nice, you know, park between the two bus stops where I need to transfer that I can walk through, and it has a public washroom, all important, especially with all this bus traveling I've been doing.

Here's the coffee shop, here's the Daiso. I never did hear back from the one English language dentist that I could find on Google Maps, but today I looked up the other one, who I was avoiding just because he has a couple of not great reviews, but a bunch of good reviews as well, all the recent ones are good, so I don't know. Maybe it's not optimal, but I figured out where he is, and I'm like, okay, if I get off the bus here, I can go swing by there during one of these trips, and it's almost like a bonus that he doesn't have a big fancy website, because yeah, these dentists with the big fancy websites, I tried one in Busan and one here, and they just do not get back to me. So the fact that this guy you have to go in person, and one of the little reviews said that was no problem, it just makes me feel a little better about just wandering into this building, and just like, hello, hello, I'm English guy. Telled to me please, but the point is I'm starting to get to know Jeju City a little bit, and this is a bit of a weird feeling, because this is the first time that I'm doubling back, you know, like I do my little whatever I'm doing in Jeju City, and then I take the bus back to my circumnavigation route, but now instead of just progressing forward, instead of just heading off into the unknown, and now I'm heading to the known, you know, I'm heading back to Jeju City, and it's a weirder feeling, because I still have a ways to go actually, so it's double weird. It's weird because I know where I'm trying to get to, and it's weird that I won't be there for a while, you know. I don't know, it's not bad.

It's just different feeling, it's different from that feeling of just not knowing what's coming up next.

So, I was pontificating that I wondered if taking a bus like this and doubling back if this would hurt the journey because I would see what's coming up. But not really, because I guess I was forgetting that for the most part, the main road that the bus goes on does not actually go by the coast. So like already, I'm completely off the bus trail. I can't even see it from here. Oh, no, I guess I can. It's through some trees, but you know, it's a ways for me.

And yeah, actually now that I'm this stretch that I'm on, this stretch of coastline goes quite a ways away from that road. I got a little bit of a hike ahead of me today that I can't easily bail out of because I'm far enough away from the bus. There's not like an easy way to get back to it. I'll be getting farther and farther away. Till things finally loop around and the road connects up to the coastline again. So yeah, I think taking the bus through an area that you're about to walk through is really no concern at all because you're really not, you're not experiencing it. You're not seeing the stuff you're going to see on foot like right now. I'm on the volcanic rocks and maybe because it's overcast, I don't know, but there seem to be an especially large number of tiny little crabs, little crabs all over the place.

Yeah, like I've only been off the bus while I've been recording in real time. So how long has this been? Less than 10 minutes and I'm in a whole different fucking world. You know, I'm like, this is nothing like what I was looking out the window seeing on the bus. So that's no concern. It is going to be a bit weird though once I get to J.J. City and then I start along the other side of the island because you know, then I can switch over to the 202 bus and take that, but it doesn't actually go all the way to Segwapo. You have to transfer just before Segwapo at the the big stadium. So because the bus is stopped so early at night, that is definitely not a guaranteed method of getting back to Segwapo. There's a very good chance by the time I get to that transfer point the buses will be done for.

So I could just walk from there, but that's at least an hour. So I don't know. I think I might just end up looping back to J.J. and then back through this north south, 1-8-1-1-8-2 bus. Between Segwapo and J.J. 35:00 just seems like it's real good. Real handy bus. It's a long ride, but it doesn't feel that bad. The ride's a lot smoother. Visually, maybe it's not quite as pretty as the coast, but it's not bad at all. It's like, you know, you go through the jungle past the volcano and then past horses and pastures and stuff. And it's just a way smoother ride. It doesn't have all those speed bumps, and it doesn't make me want to. It doesn't make me feel like I'm inside a washing machine when I'm on that bus.

But no matter what, no matter which of these options or various things, they all just take forever. That's just an unfortunate reality. Like today, I got going pretty early. I woke up at like 11. I got going so quick. I actually got on the bus by noon. But then in J.J. I was like, gosh, should I go to India? But I was starving to death. So I just got some food. But then by the time I sat down, I had some food. Transferred came out here. It's three o'clock again. It's like quarter after three. It's like, damn, dog. Yeah, like the day just gets eaten up with the traveling for sure. No way around that though. Or I guess the way around that would have been instead of extending my time in Saegwapau. I could have just got a new Airbnb here in J.J. City. That actually would have solved the issue completely.

But it's alright, especially now because the 1-8-1, 1-8-2 bus doesn't give me the same kind of motion sickness. Usually I just catch a little nap while I'm on there. But at least now I can actually... I can do stuff that's actually kind of useful. I was looking up flights to get to Taiwan. Then I got a set up Airbnb's and stuff. You know, you can just do stuff like that on the bus.

Have a wife out on the bus. Pretty fucking rad. Pretty fucking handy.

But alright, now just continue. Continue the journey along the coastline.

Little teeny bit of rain. Not enough to be a problem, but enough to block the evil devil sun. So good stuff.

Well, the rain is mostly stopped, but man, the sun is trying to fight its way through the clouds. And it's like you son of a bitch. You fucking ass. All fuck you. I'm definitely back to constant humidity sweating. But I mean, you know, again, it's all relative. This is still better than the average sunny day. This is still pretty nice. And on the plus side, I'm not getting rained on. So as I was walking along, there's this thing, the bull tops a temple, B-U-L-T-A-P-S-A temple.

Jesus, something else above it too, called Mungangsa. And they both have little camera symbols on the map. But I was just about to jump in to say like, wow, you don't thought I'd stop at those, but it's really complicated, twisty passages through people's farms. Even with the Ola trail markers, I can't figure out how to get there. But now I'm looking on the map. I think I see it. I think I'm actually coming up. I got a loop around backwards. So I guess I will. I was just going to say like, hey, you know whatever, temples are a lot rarer in South Korea than they are in Japan. But, you know, I have to see in those temples in the Bukansen mountains, like nothing's going to top those. And that's true. But that's no reason not to see these ones, especially if it's right here. But yeah, it appears there's a road. This should be no big issue.

Just got a loop around.

Oh, and there's some pretty significant city in front of me. Still not quite Jeju city. Samyang beach.

Man, I'm getting close though.

I don't think I'm going to make it all the way to Jeju today, but probably the next day that I pop back in. I'm almost there. I'm almost halfway. Man, it was so, it's just so cool to think back to like those first explorations, mostly going, it was the other way really that I was walking along the coast. Where I started to realize how nice the coastline is.

And just that, like, could you do this? Is this really a thing you could do? And then all of my kakami me shit about like, ah, I don't know, it would be so complicated. You'd get to set up all these different air being bees. And how would you carry your luggage until I finally deconstructed in my brain that this is, you know, just a long bus ride. It's not actually a problem. 40:00 But it's so cool that I went from, like, because I really presumed I wouldn't be doing this. You know, I really thought, like, yeah, you know, next time, sometime in the future, down the road in my life when I've set this up more properly. But I'm fucking doing it. I'm almost halfway. That's so cool, man. It's just neat.

But beyond that, let's talk about sea bugs. So when I was saying there was a lot of little crabs today, there's also, like, a lot of those, you know, which I think still, I'm not still not sure what they are. Maybe cockroaches. You know, though, the weird creepy sea bugs down by the ocean. There's a lot more of those today, too. And I noticed something that I noticed this the other day, but it's just reminded of it today, because I saw a bunch of examples of it happening today. Where it's kind of funny watching these things, because they're, like, relatively large. But, you know, they're insects. They're, like, nothing but a nervous system. So obviously, when I come by, they're little nervous system fires and just says, like, get out, get out of here. So their legs are, you know, just fucking trucking them along with no particular thought. They're not really in control of themselves. They're just speeding away. And they go so fast that when they get to the edge of a step or the edge of some rocks, even though they could grip on and easily go around the side and just walk up and down a vertical surface, they don't. They just fly right off. They just go, and just fly through the air. And, you know, it's not that big of a drop from, like, a step down to the ground. I'm sure they're okay, but it's just sort of funny to see it happen over and over and over, where they're just, like, bang, bang, bang, bang. Just flying off, sailing through the air, because it must be even just weird for them. Since, again, I just don't think they're particularly in control of themselves. They're just in fight or flight. So just to be like, oh, no, fuck, I'm in mid air. I'm flying through the air. Holy fuck. Wow.

The life of a bug, man. The life of a sea bug. All right, here's a big sign. This looks like a good sign. It's quite weathered. So yeah, the name is not in English. But again, referring to Google Maps, it's Bulltops that temple. This is the only Buddhist pagoda of its kind in Jeju Island. The pagoda was made of basalt. I never knew how to say that, basalt. And it has a unique feature of pillar stones in the first and fifth floors being very narrow. It also used whole piece of stones for pillars and spires in every floor. God, I start reading these things in my brain just drifts. So it goes on and on a bit about how it's constructed. But I mean, I don't know. It's all relevant. Again, this is everything's relative, right? I don't know how this is. I'd have to know, I guess, what a normal Buddhist pagoda is like to know how this one's different or how the, you know, what the relevance is of these particular attributes. Legend says that the pagoda was constructed by Emperor Sun of Yuan in 1300 in order to have an heir to the throne. I feel like you're missing some information there. The Bulltop temple disappeared after three fires, but the pagoda remains in its original condition. All right, well, there we go. There's something I can wrap my head around. That's cool. Because yeah, you hear about that in Japan all the time, too, that a lot of these buildings burned down because they're made out of wood. So apparently this pagoda is the original from the year 1300. That's pretty goddamn crazy. And yeah, there's a road here and a car just drove up it. And I've seen a couple of people walking along. So this has got to be the way. Oh, and there's the Jeju Trail marker.

Cool. You know, as I'm walking, just saying the word cool made me think of this, but I've been listening to the Lonely Island podcast. They do with Seth Meyers where they go back through their digital shorts and talk about them. So I'm listening to the episode where they talk about hot rod, which had the cool bean sequence. But remember, I saw hot rod when I lived in Vancouver when it first came out. And yeah, they were saying how it was not a very successful movie when it came out. One of those cult favorites that got popular later. But yeah, they weren't kidding. Me and my friend Mark went to see it and there were like two or three other people in the whole theater. I mean, to be fair, it was a matinee. But it was opening day. And it's like, uh-oh. This ain't good. 45:00 Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'll fucking watch hot rod when I get home today. I haven't seen that movie in years.

Well, this has been a nice little divergence. So I went to the temple with the ancient pagoda. And I got to admit, when I got there, I couldn't tell which one was the original building and which was a rebuilt one. They all looked, you know, very much like all of the temples I've looked so far that I found in Korea. They all have a very similar look. And also, just man, I am just the shallowest fucking moron. The thing I couldn't stop thinking there was like, you know, first I'm looking around and I'm like, okay, I don't know which one's the famous one. But technically, I've seen it. The photons have laid upon my eyes. Technically, I've looked at all the things so I've seen it technically. Even though I didn't know which one was which, but it was nice. It's a very nice temple. But I kept thinking like, oh, I wonder if there's a drink machine here. That'd be fucking rad. In Japan, there might be, there was not here, but I actually have some 7-11 coffees tucked away that I bought in Jeju City. You know, the kind that come in their own little cup with a foil top and a straw, poke the straw through the top.