#152 The Dolphin Coast of Jeju Island, Korea

Transcript

Man, this rainy season weather, this is some weird shit, like this is not like what I'm used to, so yesterday I stayed in the neighborhood and it didn't rain at all, but it was so foggy, like all day long, super crazy foggy, I couldn't see anything. Not just out in the water where you couldn't see even the closest of islands, even that island that has its own bridge that's really close to the shore.

The bridge just disappeared into the mist, but it was cool looking, all the hotels around here, you could barely see the top of the bigger ones, it's like, man, this is nuts, but kinda nice in a weird, cool, creepy way, but now today it's way more clear out, almost sunny. I don't know, well it's weird, it's still diffused though, it's like the sky, it's half cloudy, but half blue, like there's a bunch of places where I can see the blueness of the sky, but I can't quite tell where the sun is, it's still hidden behind some clouds, it's like 50-50, but there's still just all this rolling mist, like out in the sea now, I can see these other islands that are farther out, that are the protected ones that you're not allowed to go to, but they're in this mist, in this creepy mist, it looks like an old pirate novel or something, and it's just really cool.

It's just really neat weather, man, it is not at all like Eastern Atlantic Canada. However though, this insane heat, one of my plans for today, since the bus transfer takes me to an E-Mart, and I went to my first E-Mart the other day, and successfully found some razor blades, you know, E-Marts kind of like the Korean equivalent of a Wal-Mart type store.

A K-Mart Azzellers perhaps, but I realized what I really need, I was like, oh, actually yeah, now that I'm at a big store that might have less common items, what I really need is deodorant, so if you haven't been following my whole saga, turns out this is a well-known fact, I guess I'd heard about this a bit in Japan. I did have a friend who brought a bunch of deodorant with him when he went to Japan. I don't remember if I ever had problems finding deodorant in Japan, I think I just didn't run out. So it's only now that I've been in Japan for three months, and Korea for five months, that my deodorant is really at the end, it's like, wow, I really gotta be careful with this thing. And what I've unfortunately learned is this crazy humid weather, this insanely humid weather where you just wake up, sweat, and spend your day sweating, go to sleep, sweat, and I don't smell good, bro. Where yeah, just today, woke up, and I'm just like, I've been doing this sleeping, and I just, I don't like how I smell, but especially yesterday, I'm getting to the point where I gotta do laundry. And I was like, yeah, you know, obviously those days where I go walk in all goddamn day, well, such as today, those clothes they're done for. Realistically, I should probably bring a change of clothes and change halfway through the day, my clothes get so gross, but I mean, I'm just walking around, I'm not, you know, interacting with anybody. So it doesn't really matter. But yesterday, I only put on this one shirt, put on this shirt for like two hours, just to go out somewhere and come back, marvel at the fog.

So I was like, you know, it's not like I was wearing that all day long. If I just need to get to the laundromat, it's right around the corner, it's usually empty. How gross is this shirt? Could I wear this shirt just to do laundry in? And no fucking way. Two hours might as well have been two fucking days.

It's like, ah, this smells like sweat, it sucks, this is awful. Cause you know, in rugged Canada, where instead of sweating all day, it's the opposite. Your teeth are chattering, you're constantly shivering, cause it's so cold.

In that environment, I mean, hey, I still recommend changing your clothes, but if you just couldn't for some reason. I mean, if you wore a shirt for two hours, it would be like you didn't wear it at all. It would be like fine. And you'd never even notice. It would be sweat free.

But not around here. And yeah, my little deodorant is really getting low. And again, I do spend my whole day just walking around the outside of Jeju Island. If I was just the weird smelling foreign guy, wouldn't be the worst thing that ever happens. But I'm gonna have to fly to Taiwan at some point. 5:00 And I need to save that deodorant for travel day. There's no fucking way I'm gonna go to an airport and then a flight and then transfer it at another airport. Where's that transfer it? It's a Shanghai, I think. And then a second flight to Taipei. But I'm gonna be out and about amongst people all that day. There's no fucking way I'm doing that without a lot of deodorant.

So that's my first plan for today. Does E-Mart have deodorant? If anywhere is gonna have it. That's gotta be the place. This big ass box store. So now that I think about it, I guess there is a convenience store where I did find some weird little crappy roll on deodorant. It's one of those little teeny tiny travel sized ones and it was $8.00. And I was like, hell with that. That's insane. But if E-Mart fails me, I'm gonna go buy that. I mean, cross your fingers for me. E-Mart, you're my last best hope before I have to go spend $8 at the convenience store for some crappy little roll on deodorant.

So I should just be glad that that even exists. Cause even that, that was not easy to find. That was a rare find. So whatever, I'll take it if I have to.

Well, this might be a little bit of an exaggeration. But I'm gonna go ahead and classify today as a miracle day. As a fucking miracle. I noticed when I left the house today, it's like, man, it is actually pretty fucking hot today. Like, what the fuck? And I was at the bus stop and I was just like, oh jeez, this is really hot. And I had 20 minutes till the bus arrived. So I was like, I had just to eat up some time. Let's go to a convenience store and buy some liquids. But also, I was doing that because the hotness. I was thinking about that news story that I mentioned a couple episodes back about some older folk who died on vacation because they dehydrated to death. And I knew today I would be heading out, you know, last time I ended off the day walking across this big farmers field, full of big series of farms to get to the bus. So that's where I'm beginning again today. I'm walking across it right now. It's fucking really beautiful. But that I'm heading away from civilization, heading out through these farms to get back to the coast. And it's gonna be a bit of a walk down the coast before the bus route comes anywhere near me again. And it's just like, fuck this heat. So I went and grabbed some drinks and then I found some Wi-Fi and checked temperature and there's like a heat warning advisory.

It was like 27 degrees at that point, but it was gonna go up to 32 and then only very vaguely go down, you know, even by the night time. It's just like yikes. Like I was thinking how maybe the rain of the rainy season was gonna be a problem. It was gonna cause my circumnavigation to fail. But I think heat maybe is even worse. I don't know what's worse. Everything's worse. Anything that is extreme weather. I mean, I guess it doesn't matter what kind it is. It's all bad. And this heat's not supposed to end anytime soon. Like, I mean, the forecast only went ahead a week, but the entire week was the same thing. Very, very similar weather, the whole time.

And it's bad enough that I was thinking like, you know, maybe I should just, this feels like bad decisions about to happen type of thing, you know, like, oh, well, I have to do it. I have to go out and hike around the fucking island because, because why? I made up this plan. No one gives a shit. These podcasts won't even be out for months after I do this in real life. Literally no one cares. Literally in this moment, this does not matter. It is the opposite of mattering.

But I could totally see like, oh, I got to push forward. I got to make sure I make it. But it's so hot out and then just like get heat stroke or something, you know. I don't expect to die on Jeju Island, but I could easily, I've gotten heat stroke before it's awful. You just shouldn't be out walking around in that kind of weather. So even for today, I was like, man, we'll see. We will see, but I'm going to bail out at the first sign of problems. Like I was even thinking maybe I should recalibrate this since it is again just a thing I made up. 10:00 Yeah, if it does become the heat wave nightmare, fuck it. Fuck it, dude. It's so miserable and dangerous at that level of heat. It absolutely doesn't matter if I don't fucking do this. But today, this is like a book out of East Coast Canada, where East Coast Canada really does. I know I've brought it up a couple of times, but it legitimately has one of the most variable weather patterns in the world. You just fucking never know what's going to happen from day to day. And it turns out the rainy season is kind of that way because the same thing. It was real sunny, super hot sun coming out earlier today, but during this bus ride, I noticed that the window like, man, it's getting very foggy out there. It's back to this like, hey, is where I can't really see much in the distance and I can't see any of the mountain tops and stuff. And now that I'm here, it's awesome. It's fully overcast again. Nice sort of semi-dimness to everything. It's only 25 degrees instead of going up to 32. It's actually gone down and it's windy. It feels like so moderate and so cool. Hey, doggie. Sorry, doggie. Sorry. I'm making noise. I'm bothering you.

I'm gonna keep going. You did a good job, doggie. You protected the property.

Yeah, this is fucking wonderful. It feels so nice. Nice and breezy, not too hot. Perfect. No sun in my eyes like this is perfect. This is the perfect weather. And I did not expect that to happen at all. The weather did not expect this to happen. The weather was like, don't even fucking go outside. He'd advise over you're gonna die.

So yeah, this rules. And yeah, I do like, I mean, this farm stuff. I guess it was really just jet-john. Because I don't remember any real farm stuff even on the edges of Seoul. I think Seoul's just too big. And I did see some stuff like this when I was taking the train in Busan, like when you go out beyond the airport and stuff. But never on foot. But it is nice. This farm areas, they just feel cool. It's hardly anybody around. Big open fields. They're just pretty. They're just nice. So yeah, I'm walking back toward the mountain with the observation observatory thing that I finished off last episode at. Can't quite see the top. The top is just a bit covered and missed. But yeah, the shore is over there somewhere, somewhere beyond there. Though it's very cliffy and stuff here. So I don't know how much I'll actually be by the shore.

But yeah, I'll just walk and see how far I can make it. But yeah, this has turned out great. Way better than I expected.

It's also so weird too last episode. I was also saying how even though I got plenty of sleep, I was really feeling bad. Really feeling exhausted in like this way that was very frustrating that I just couldn't get over the hump. Whereas today, I don't know. It's so variable again. Much like the weather. So is my internal landscape. I didn't get nearly as much sleep. I woke up early. It's only like 130 now. You know, sometimes it's like 4pm by the time I get started on these things. This is an early start and I feel fine. It's like why? Why? I slept less. I woke up earlier and now I feel fine. Fuck, whatever. Also makes it hard to be motivated to try to get my life into shape when it's so fucking random. You know, if I treat myself better, I feel worse. If I treat myself worse, I feel better. But not all the time. Just who knows? Flippin' coins. Totally random. Whatever. So why bother giving a shit? Just sally forth.

Man, I do love this just level of dimness. The world shouldn't be too bright. Overly bright. That ain't great. Oh, actually, I was looking at the wrong mountain. I can't quite see the top of. Oh, I see. That was the one.

The one I can't quite see the top of is the one with the cool trail where you can look out at the little mini islands. And then there's the one with the observation tower next to it, which I can see the top of because it is smaller. There's the pagoda. It's just so weird. It's like I was right there. That's where it was a couple days ago.

Yeah, it's a lot less humid than it was, too, because it was pretty overcast that day as well. But today it's not even terribly humid. I'm not excessively sweating even. I can't believe how nice this is. Please stay this way, son. Please don't come out. No one wants to see you. This cloud cover is fucking the best. Cut to a torrential downpour. I'm fucking up my day. But speaking of sweating, so I went to E-Mart.

And I did manage to find deodorant. It was right by the razors I bought the other day. That's like the one little section of that store. That's the one for me. And yeah, they had the little roll-on antiperspirant stuff. And then they had the sticks of proper deodorant, which is what I was looking for. They were just shy of $11. For a little one. It's like weird. It's weird to use milliliters for deodorant type stuff. But it was only 50 milliliters.

This is where I checked the bigger North American old spice one that I had. It's still only, I think, 85. So I guess it's not that much bigger, but it is bigger. And like I'm trying to convince myself that it's okay to spend $11 on a tiny deodorant is that North American deodorant, it's not exactly cheap like those old spice things. I mean, they're like 750. But I would always go to, like, if you go to Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada, which is just drugstore, you know, Dwayne Reed, Albert Heine, that kind of store. There's always one brand that's on sale at any given time generally. Same thing with vitamins. Like how vitamins here was $30 for 30 multivitamins, where in Canada, I mean, vitamins are still like, I don't know, 2250. But it would probably be 60 vitamins. And there's probably one on sale for 15 bucks.

You know, so that actually comes out to way less. In the case of deodorant, you know, I would always just get whatever brand is on sale for five bucks, because I don't care what specific brand I'm using.

So that makes it seem even worse. I'm spending five bucks for a big one instead of $11 for a small one. But I suppose if you forget about the deal part, if you just go with the 750 to 11 and you go from the 50 milliliters to 85 milliliters, you know, I guess roughly speaking, the Korean one is like, I don't know, not quite double. And I suppose if you look at it that way, it's like, yeah, double is pretty bad. But it's double that bad for a product that they don't want to carry and that nobody wants, you know, like they really did only have. It's like, is Navia. It's like a normal brand, but it's just this one instead of like North America. Oh my God, you have all the smells of the rainbow, all the brands, all the different smells. They had the little 50 milliliters Navia thing, some kind of lemon smell. And that's it. That's the only possible one. So I mean, I guess this double that bad for a thing that is only there for smelly foreigners like me, you know, that's the only reason they carry this fucking thing. You know, even the happy to see you convenience store where I did find some antiperspirant roll on for eight bucks, it's still the one by the waterfall, you know, it's still by the tourist trap. It's still there because it's probably where a tourist is going to look for deodorant. They just don't want this product and they just don't need it apparently around here. So I guess. But on the other hand, $11, it really feels like a lot. But then I was only going to buy one because it's so expensive. But then I was thinking like, well, it's not like it's going to be any better when I get to Taiwan, right? This is clearly an Asia thing. If it's a problem in Japan and it's a problem in Korea, the chances that they're just suddenly big into deodorant in Taiwan are very fucking small. So I bought two and it's like, yikes, breaking out the old credit card. $22 for mother fucking deodorant. But hey, whatever dude, I found some. I succeeded and yeah, I mean, I'll forget. I'll forget about the sticker shock, you know, very quickly. Where I'll just be glad to have the stuff because it was getting to the point of, yeah, like when I was trying to ration out my fucking deodorant and it's just, we could not believe how much it didn't work. You know, it's like a dangerous thing to think like, I'm not an especially smelly person because, you know, maybe by North American standards, maybe that's true. But that doesn't mean I'm not smelly. That just means I know some people in my life that are real smelly. I'm definitely smelly and it just became so obvious, so fast. It's like, holy fuck. Me with no deodorant equals disaster. I don't even like to smell myself. I'm like, this is fucking ridiculous how bad I smell. I can't put anybody else through this. So in that sense, $11, I guess. I guess this is a small price to pay.

Hey, now looky here. Just walk in through the farm and there is ribbons, a orange ribbon and a blue ribbon to signify the ole trail. No arrows though.

But yeah, there we go. If I look down the street toward the observation deck observatory mountain, there's another one. But I don't know which way, you know, are they leading me? Am I following the clockwise or the counterclockwise? I don't know. But either way, I guess it doesn't matter because even if this is one of those cases where they're just pulling people away from the coast, that is not what I want to do. I want to try to walk along the coast, whether or not it's possible. But that's nice. There's a little sign of civilization that I'm not just randomly walking through a farm for no reason. The ole trail is also here because there's no other option. Farmland is all there is. Walk and buy some little tractors right now. There's some kind of, I don't know the names of these things. You know, I only know them from Transformers, that guy, Devastator, who was made out of five different construction vehicles.

Yeah, so there's like some kind of like, thresher maybe? I don't know, I don't know what stuff is. But all right, son, please do not come out to play. I'm very happy to have you gone. Let's get it. How fucking walking?

Ah, the sun has not returned. How fucking nice. I even just noticed that these street lights along this coastal road are turned on even though it's only 3 p.m.

Not bad, man, that's what I like to see. You know, in the road famed post-apocalyptic novel slash film The Road, they don't really get into what caused the apocalypse. And it's easy to just kind of presume, you know, I think fallout to my generation at least fallout is the most famous apocalypse scenario. So it's easy to assume that it's something like that in the road. But when you boil it down, it's actually just lack of sun. It's just that dust is blocking the sun. That's all it took to destroy the world.

So yeah, no sun, no sun at all, obviously a problem. But less sun for a while, just for a bit. Fucking delightful.

This has been a pretty nice coastal walk, but this is another nice thing about having the larger goal of just going around the island. There have been a few points. They're called viewpoints on the map. Specific areas where there's always some people parked and you can go farther out into the water. And there's like some cool statues probably and somewhere to sit. And they'll just be people there with their dogs. If people taking pictures, one lady was just standing dramatically on a rock staring out into the sea for the entire few minutes I was there. She didn't move a muscle.

But just like with everything, like I don't know what I would do if I was just going to come to the viewpoint, you know, like to drive specifically out here and just come to that one area. Because after just like, you know, a couple of minutes, it's like, all right. I mean, I saw the cool view down the coast. I saw the big giant statue of a snail that's here. That's pretty cool. Soaked it in a little, but like now what? You know, now what? It's incredible how fast I become disinterested.

But since I'm walking, I just kept walking down the coastline to the next viewpoint. And I got to see that one. Now I'm walking along, not a viewpoint, just a shoreline with some fishermen. And that's it. We're back to the nice rocky shores. The cliffs have abated. So it's just rocky, lack of volcanic rock beaches.

And since it's nice and windy, there's big, crashy waves. And it's just fucking nice. It's just really cool.

Like I suppose the super notable really standout stuff, that only happens once in a while, like last episode that definitely happened. 25:00 But if you're just continuously moving, it's so nice because it's just like, ah, it's all right, that this is just kind of more coastline because that's what I signed up for. Just that it's constantly changing, constantly moving. That is definitely what I like.

Man, it's funny too. I got to this one point where there was a little bit of construction, but it was happening right at a kind of steep turn in the road. So they had a bunch of warning stuff leading up to it. But one of the warnings was a scarecrow of a construction man that I think is like to warn you not only that there's a turn coming up with construction happening, but around that corner were two actual men, you know, guiding traffic if need be. So I think it's to warn you like, hey, there's an actual man coming up slow down. Don't hit him. But seeing that thing, it's funny how I mean scarecrow must really work on birds because they kind of work on me. I saw that guy and my first thought was, oh, there's a construction guy. And then I peered a little and was like, oh, no, I think he's fake. But then just over his shoulder, there was just a little branch blowing in the breeze, but it looked a bit like a hand waving. And I was like, oh, no, he is real. Because he's waving. And then the next moment, I'm like, no, no, that's a branch. And then there was one final blood, is he? And then I'm like, no, no, he's definitely a fucking mannequin. But I flip-flopped five fucking times within the matter of like four seconds. But yeah, I was surprised how well it worked. It's like, wow, that looks like a total person.

And then I propose nothing. I guess just because I'm heading to Taiwan next. And Taiwan has the 90 day visa just like most countries. But I decided to do another Google search while I was on the bus. About this 180 day visa, because I have figured out at this point, it's only Canada. Canada is the only country that has the 180 day visa with Korea. So I decided to search a little deeper. And you know, it is tough these days to make Google do what you want. Back in the day, Google would just actually tell you what you search for. Now you got to do some digging. It was pretty tough to actually get it to look up stuff about specifically Canada. Why Canada? But I did finally find something about that. And this was the explanation that finally made some sense. I'm like, oh yeah, that does kind of, that does make sense. You know, there's general stuff about, you know, relationships between countries and yada yada yada. But I mean, you know, I know Canada has a fairly good reputation on the international stage, but I don't know that there's any particular connection between Canada and Korea that would like make it obvious why us. But the thing that fell into line is the extra information that this goes both ways that hadn't even occurred to me. Canadians can get 180 day visitor visa for South Korea. And South Koreans can also get 180 day visit to Canada. It goes both ways. It's like, hey, if you give us this, we'll give you the same. I don't know who initiated this or any of the background behind, you know, the international diplomacy. But it was also mentioned in this thing that the flow goes much more the other way. There are way more South Koreans going to Canada than there are Canadians coming to South Korea. And that checks out. There's a pretty large Asian population in Canada, especially on the west coast, but all over. And... Yeah, I had some Korean friends in Vancouver. That's why I went to my first Korean restaurant. There's no doubt Korean stuff going on in Canada. So that's pretty cool because yeah, this is like set up mainly to facilitate people from Korea wanting to go visit Canada to go visit family or to check out stuff about schools or who knows what why they're going. So this is pretty cool because this plan that we got set up presumably largely for South Koreans to make it easier for them to head over to Canada. But that it does go the other way. So if you are a Canadian going to South Korea, I mean, I don't know. I've seen a pretty good number of tourists around here. I bet there's an okay number of Canadians heading to South Korea. But maybe not for 180 days. I don't know how often that's going on. Maybe a bunch. What do I know? But I mean, in my case, that's what's going on. And it's just so cool that it's like nice. I get to benefit from this. There's no question that having that extra three months really made a big difference on my visit. The first half was a lot shakier than the second half, you know. The first half was like my learning the lay of the land, learning that Seoul is maybe a bit too big and that winter time is maybe a bit too pollutiony. 30:00 And then the second three months was learning that Busan is delightful. And Jeju is double delightful. And beyond some terrifying spikes, the overall pollution levels a lot better. Yeah, I don't know. I think I would have had a much worse time. If I had only had those first three months, I think I would have left South Korea with, you know, it would have been weird telling people about Korea. I'd be like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know about South Korea. Let me tell you about X, Y, and Z. You know, it may be prepared. You know, it would have been a lot more tepid, whereas now, you know, I'll still lead with the Iraq. Shaky start. There's X, Y, and Z. But, but I mean, oh, fucking Christ, like I just turned a little corner. And now I'm kind of heading down very gently so I can see extra fire down the coast. And there's like a little fishing boat over to my right. It's still all windy and the waves are crashing on this beautiful shoreline. Man, like definitely now I can, I can skirt past, you know. I'm never the type of person who, I mean, I'm always going to bring up the problems. I will always. That's, that's just, that's what I do. Nobody enjoys a liar, but I extra don't enjoy a travel liar. I got no time for that. But I don't feel any need to be a travel liar about South Korea. I can say, yeah, it was, it was not the easiest thing at first. Don't just fling yourself towards South Korea and expect everything to be great. But, if you're just a little bit wise about how you approach this, there's so much great shit here. So much great shit. God damn, this is nice, you know. I mean, it seems weird. I would probably give it a long time. I could see walking around Jeju the opposite direction. Probably still won't do the proper Ola trail. Because again, like right now, I'm not on the Ola trail. It doesn't want me to be on this coastline. But yeah, I could see doing this again for sure, except not in the summer. Not in the summer.

Man, yeah, this coast, it's so fucking pretty. What the fuck, man, it's so nice.

It's nice, too, because this weather, because it's so overcast, it does actually visually look kind of a lot like how the pollution looked in the wintertime. But I checked the AQI this morning, and it was like 36, like really low. Anything below 50 is where you get green color, you know, like not too bad. I think my hometown was like a 14 the other day, which was very high for my hometown, but like that's, you know.

Well within the levels of everything is totally fine.

And yeah, I think this whole time I've been in Jeju, there's definitely been some days that were a little on the border where it might not have killed me to wear a mask. But I think I only wore a mask once. Like I have this little eight pack of masks that I bought from Daiso that I hadn't even went by those.

Some fucking time ago, whereas in Seoul, in the winter, and Jaechun, I mean, it was almost a mask a day. It was a rare day that I didn't wear a mask, and I mean, yeah, that just, just fucks with your head.

So I guess that'll be the thing. If I ever do Jeju round two, that'll be what I'll have to be careful of, is can I find just the right time of year where it's more temperate weather, but it's not just the weather. Just the data winter when pollution hits. But yeah, that I know all this stuff now. Good to know. Bit of a weird thing to stumble into without realizing how it was going to be. But now that I know, I know. I don't know how to end that thought.

But all right, I'm just going to keep walking now, back to walking.

All right. Well, here's something unexpected. Unfortunately, nothing on the map on Google Maps is English, so it's hard to say where I met, but I'm just south of coastal road sunset viewpoint. And just a little north of there is doggoreal, D-O-G-U-R-I-A-L.

But anyway, I was walking down along the coast here, and there were these two statues of dolphins, two dolphins, facing each other. 35:00 But I mean, there's cool statues everywhere. There's always just a random statue of something cool, so I didn't think much of it, and just like, huh, little statue stuff, cool. But I happened to take a seat there, because I don't know why. This still seems pretty rural, but I was like, oh, let me just see if there's any internet. And there was, and I think it was from a hotel, actually, across the street. J and Chloe, hotel. J and Chloe, J-J. Is right across the street from here.

So I was just sitting there and I was like, oh, cool. I actually did get some Wi-Fi. I don't know. Check my fucking email or some shit, I don't know. It's just, it's just compulsive. I'm not checking for any good reason. But then this couple pulled up in a little minivan, opened their window, and the guy pointed out past me. I heard her go like, whoa, and he pointed out, and it's that like, if you ever saw in, especially kind of older kung fu movies, is what I think about this from. It's like overacting, you know. There's just an overacting in older Asian movies that they just sort of take as normal. It feels kind of over the top. Bit of a generalization, but I don't know. Go find an old kung fu movie and tell me that doesn't happen. And that's exactly what this guy looked like. His face, like his mouth was in an, oh, and he's pointing like a YouTube thumbnail. Just like, whoa. But I turned my head, and there were dolphins. You know, just like breaking the surface just a little bit. But they were there, and then they went down the coast a little, and I saw them again one or two times, just things coming out. I was like, oh, fucking shit, I totally would have missed that. All I had to do was turn my head to the right. But why would I presume there would be dolphins there? It's just a part of the coast. I'm still just walking down the coast. It's all just coast. Like what makes that coast different? But it turns out that boat that I thought was a fishing boat. I think that's the key. Because this area does have a point on Google Maps. Again, not in English, so I don't know what its real name is. But here's a review from a year ago. This is the best coastal road to see dolphins in Jeju Island. They're often seen between two and six o'clock, and when the dolphin probe is, it says 100% visible, but I assume that means like when the dolphin probe is there. If the probe moves from Masopo toward Halim, it is chasing dolphins. And if it moves slowly, dolphins are nearby. So that boat must be the dolphin probe. And I don't know, again, I'm just learning new shit. I never heard of a dolphin probe in my life. I don't know how it chases dolphins. And you know, I guess if it moves slow, it is because, okay, no need to chase dolphins. We got some right here. But it was just kind of puttering along. So that's why I guess that if I had known more, I'll know now, I guess if I see it again. If that boat is trolling along, that means there's probably dolphins nearby. Because yeah, now at this point that boat is long gone, and there's no more dolphin sightings. So maybe it's gone to chase up some more dolphins. I don't know, again, I just don't know what that process is. I don't know how that works. I assume they're not really chasing dolphins. I assume they're just looking for them.

But yeah, I saw some dolphins. That was pretty cool. But I never would have if these people didn't literally pull up right next to me. So anyway, I got out of the way a little so they could take pictures and stuff. But that was unexpected.

This coastline was pretty rad already. And little did I know, it's the sweetest area for seeing dang dolphins, man. What the heck?

Well, here's a nice bonus. I'm still just walking along the coast. And yeah, it's still been pretty cool today. Not too bad. It's definitely not just like your body is malfunctioning level of sweating. It's not like that, but it's not like I'm not not sweating, you know. And I did put a teeny tiny little bit of deodorant on this morning. But again, I was trying to ration what I had. So definitely not enough. And yeah, I was just walking along and it was just like, oh, I just caught a smell of myself. I hate that sweat smell. It's fucking gross. But I have a brand spanking new $11 stick of fucking deodorant in my pocket. So I broke that bad boy out and I'll give a credit whatever this lemon scent, it's supposed to be. It just smells like soap, but it is strong.

Boy, it is real strong. It's definitely not. I'd say like even, I don't know, I think the last kind of head it was like, it was old spice, but it was some kind of like tropical old spice. 40:00 And it was like, I don't know, sort of almost subtle. This is not subtle, but that's fine. I don't want subtle. I don't need subtle while I'm in South Korea. I need to not smell gross. So I put it on and it's just like awesome, awesome, because even though I'm just walking along the coast and then I'll eventually get on a bus that will probably have like two other people on it. Even if it's just for me, I don't want to smell myself anymore. I'm fucking sick of it. It's just like, it really is. I was thinking like, what is wrong with my body? What is going on? But it's just that the crisp alpine climate I'm from. Yeah, you just don't sweat like this. I mean, we do have hot summers. I don't know how to explain it. There's just something about this, just like the humid, never-ending super sweat. It don't make a person smell good. But anyway, I broke out the fucking, it's like gold. It's like holy shit, expensive. But yeah, I mean, actually, I just, maybe because it's a windy day, I just caught a little whiff of like, now it smells like I'm doing laundry. It smells like, you know, soap, just like a strong soap smell. It's almost a little ridiculous that I can smell myself either way. I think it's just like weird. I'm not supposed to be able to smell myself. Usually I can't. But if I'm gonna smell something, this is way fucking better. I'll take this soap any day. I'm officially now one of those old people that just way over does it with cologne or perfume. Just in case, because you know, they can't quite tell how they smell maybe. So they overdo it with the fragrances to the point that the fragrance becomes an issue of its own. I'm that dude. And it's fine. I love it. I'll take it. $11, well fucking spent. I say.

No more dolphin boat. I guess it did go back up the shore the other way. So yeah, I think I only became aware of all this dolphin-age right at the end of the dolphin zone. But again, it's not like I was going to sit around and wait. You know, I just wanted the patience for that. So I think I got lucky, even though I just saw a little bit of dolphin. That's more than I should have seen, given my normal behavior. Korean guy, you're mega-enthusiasm, because if he had even just pointed and been like a little bit like, oh whatever, you know, my sort of general vibe is like, hey, you man, you do your thing, I'll do my thing, you know. Just I'm not paying that much attention to what's going on with the other folk around me, especially because they're all just taking Instagram pictures of each other. I just got to make sure I walk around. But that guy was so blown away. That he caused me to turn my head and see some dolphins. Cheers to you, sir. You did it. You did good work. And now there's a nice to-see-you store. How fucking weird. I haven't seen a single convenience store this whole time. And here's a sign for the sunset coast, I guess is what they call this that I'm on. But yeah, I'm going to go in. I haven't seen a plum popsicle in a fucking minute. Those things are pretty rare. But maybe I'll just get whatever. I don't care what kind of popsicle. I'll just get some popsicles. I don't think I mentioned, but you know, the potato chips are not my favorite here. And in Japan also, I just don't think potato chips in Asia. They're just something about them that is not my favorite. But I did find these chips one fucking time at one convenience store where it was again by two get one free. It was here on Jeju. And I bought three bags and it was like these wasabi chips and they were really fucking good. Like they went from 4 out of 10 potato chips to 9 out of 10. I'll give them a 10. They were perfect. They were exactly what you'd want for wasabi potato chips. A lot of nice wasabi bite. Super fucking good. I have never seen them since. Not one fucking time. And it's like, what the hell? What is going on here? Korea feels a bit more like how I had heard Japan was. You know, I'd always heard that Japanese products don't last. And if something is here this time, you might not see it next time. And it's not like in North America where you can just be sure that you can always find a no Henry buyer or whatever. But I don't really find that's the case in Japan. In Japan, there's a lot of staples. You can pretty much be sure you're going to find some cranky. You can pretty much be sure you're going to find some pizza chips. Like it didn't even in the four year break between the two times they visited. Things weren't that different. Convenience store white. Korea on the other hand. Wow, roll the fucking dice. There is never. There's nothing that you can guarantee will be there. It's always a random assortment. You know, there's always the same general sections of the store. But within those sections, who the fuck knows? You want one of those little, you know, those wraps that are kind of like a big sushi wrap. 45:00 But they're full of like a Korean stew type mix. Maybe they'll have some. Maybe they won't. If they do have them, who knows what kind? You want sandwiches? They might have them. They might not. What kind? Who knows? You want wasabi chips? Well, too bad. You're not getting wasabi chips. You want plum popsicles? Too bad. You're not getting plum popsicles. It's like, dude, I kind of wish it was a little more consistent. There's like a million types of things, but you honestly never know what's going to be there. So along those lines, let's go. Let's go in and see what's going to be there. I did get some a cafe last this morning, so that's been delightful because again, they're usually there. Not always. Sometimes they're just not there. But overall, the nice to see you chain. It has grown in my estimation a lot. I think it is technically, if I had to pick a favorite, it's become my favorite. But honestly, it is just because it keeps showing up in weird places where I don't expect to see them. They just seem to be a little more pervasive than the other types. That works for me, brother.

I'm just passing a restaurant rolled in sushi, which similarly to when I saw a Vietnamese restaurant the other day, my first thought was like, oh, I don't see a ton of Japanese sushi restaurants in South Korea. But probably there's a bunch. It's just they don't have English signage, so I don't realize that's what I'm looking at. Even in this case, all the smaller signs on the front of the store are all in Korean. It's just that part that's in English as well as this is what's kind of weird. So it's a Japanese restaurant, but it's called America's roll and sushi. So like, what the heck does that mean? Maybe it means it has like California rolls because I know those are not. They didn't originate in Japan. So I don't know. Maybe it doesn't mean anything. Maybe it's just a weird ass name with no relevance. That's probably more likely.