#157 Circling Jeju nearly complete!

Transcript

A beautiful shoreline sounds. So, last episode, I hiked up to the top of Gunsan Oreum, which I thought Oreum was just, I assume, just one of these many words I just kind of don't know, just random things that I assume I'm supposed to be aware of and just I'm not. But it turns out that all the little volcanic mountains here on Jeju, it seems that they're specifically referred to as Oreum. It's actually from the Jeju language and it's such a good word. I mean, especially around here, just the way these mountains look, where they're like a cap. You know, they're fairly wide, fairly easy to walk up. They tend to have a bit of a crater at the top and there's like 300 of them on this island. I believe even, I don't think Halasan the volcano is considered an Oreum, but it's the same kind of shape. It's just like an enormous one in the middle. But yeah, the Gunsan Oreum is the best one I had ever been to the top of. The view is literally 360 degrees completely unobstructed and luckily the misty weather passed just as I got to the top. Super lucky. And it was so good that I decided now is the time to flip-flop. Instead of walking in a direct counterclockwise pass all the way around the island as I've done so far for the first seven or eight tents, however far I am, now it's time to flip-flop. The Gunsan Oreum is so perfect that that's where, you know, I want to go back up there anyway. And it's the most epic view I saw the whole time. So it's the perfect place to end this circumnavigation. So now I'm going the other way. I'm going clockwise, which I did a little bit at first. In fact, when I initially had this thought, this idea of like could I possibly walk all the way around the island? It was because of this stretch. Walking west from Seguapo, the shoreline was so gorgeous that I was like I just want to keep going. I don't want to stop. But how could this be possible? And then I eventually came up with the radical idea of just taking the bus. Sometimes the the answer is so obvious that it alludes you for a bit. And that's what I've been doing. So this is nice because where I happened to stop last time was the road that went up to the stadium where Seguapo bus terminal is, where I've been transferring lately on my adventures. So now I can just get off there, walk down to the shore, and keep on keeping on from where I was way back when I started. So unsurprisingly, this is very familiar, even just going east from Seguapo. You know, obviously it's the same shoreline. So it has that feeling very much of the volcanic rock, but still in a kind of pretty beachy way where as you get further on, the volcanic rock becomes really harsh. And there's no one there but fishermen and stuff. Here, I mean, it's not like there's a lot of people, but it did say at least one hiker. And there's more greenery and there's like islands out in the water. It's still like I'm literally having to carefully walk over big rocks right now. It's a very tricky path and I am following the Ola trail. The marker is here, but it's also really pretty. Really fucking pretty. And weather-wise, the day after the Aureum, when I took a day off, rained all day. So it was a good day to take a day off. Today, the sky is clear. And I mean, it could be worse. It's only in the, I think the weather said it's in the mid to high 20s, like 26 degrees or something, but it feels kind of worse than that. It feels pretty hot. It feels pretty rough. But the trade-off is it's beautiful out. I kind of love on the way to the bus. Like when I first leave my hotel in the morning, I just go one block over and buy the shore. Buy the long park that leads to one of the pay waterfalls. And it's just such a great way to gauge exactly what kind of weather we got of what can I see off the coast. Sometimes the islands out in the coast are semi-obscured by mist. On the Gunsan Aureum day, they were so obscured. I couldn't even 5:00 see them. Today, not obscured at all. I can just see out into the water, into the infinite ocean till it just disappears on the horizon. So this is still the best version of a clear sunny day. It's as cool as I think it can possibly get in mid-July.

But I am still, you know, if I could pick, I would still pick overcast. Heat is the killer. Heat is brutal. But on the other hand, it is fucking pretty.

Oh, there's like a teeny tiny little restaurant out here. It's just like a little like a little container box that's painted pink. And there's music coming from it. They have a menu outside. Oh, and washrooms next to it. Delightful. Because yes, speaking of washrooms, I passed a surfing school and I saw the surfers out by the shore preparing. I wonder if it's new people. Like maybe they're learning how this all works. This is a good-ass fucking day for that. Super, super beautiful out. And, you know, as you can hear, there's some waves. There's some okay waves.

They have the surfing school had a wet room with some bathroom stalls tucked away in the back. And I was like, oh, nice. Well, nobody's using this. They're all out by the coast. I'm just going to sneak in and use their washroom. And I already feel a lot better about today's adventures. Because this is just just an annoying thing about my annoying body. Try to use the washroom in the hotel. My body's like, no, I'm not ready yet. So then I go catch the bus. Drive to the Segalpo bus terminal. Try to use the washroom there. My body's like, no, I'm not ready yet. So then I walk down from there. And it's actually a nice walk. Walking down towards the coast, it felt a lot like when I was in Yokohama. And then I went to the coast. I can't remember any of the names of those neighborhoods anymore. But walking down toward that coastline with those surfers, this walk felt like that walk. It's just like, ah, man, walking toward a coast. What's better than that? Oh jeez, there's a person coming behind me and a person coming in front of me. I'm going to let both these people pass.

There we go. Everyone has passed.

But yeah, I got down here to the shore and started walking along the coast. And then my body was like, okay, I'm ready now. I'm all set for you to use the washroom. And it's like son of a fuck.

But luckily, there was a washroom and then that second washroom by the restaurant. So that bodes well for now at least. I'm not just in nowhere's land yet. This is all still pretty again with people passing me and stuff and surfing schools and whatever. I guess I'm just not far enough out yet for anything to be rarerally. This is still pretty touristy. Which is good for me.

Yeah, and I guess this guys in to the washroom is just what I ate yesterday. So since it was a rainy day, I had bought the other day some fancy noodle cups. And one was like a like a beef stew with rice, but it came in a noodle cup stout thing. And then a fancy noodle cup that was like grandads, authentic rice noodles. You know, these things were both like pretty expensive, like four bucks, four fifty. But I wanted to try them because I always just eat the noodles that just come with every Airbnb. All my uh, share houses here in Korea and this hotel. They all have different levels of stuff that they offer, but it's always at least noodles. Even the little place in Jechon. I didn't use any of their noodles, but they had some set it in the kitchen just in case. Just in case you need emergency food. So these were good. Definitely comparable to if not maybe even a little more elaborate than when you buy fancy Japanese noodles from a convenience store. I guess what I like about the Japanese convenience stores though is that it's a lot easier to buy extra stuff to add in. The convenience stores in Japan have a really nice array of little like, you know, side dish type stuff. Where Korea, despite being the land of the side dish, sometimes they have stuff, sometimes they don't. The difference is just that with Korean convenience stores, it's completely random. You just never know what's going to be there. I mean, just today actually I stopped at a convenience store up by the bus station to get some coffee. And they had a little cheesecake thing that didn't 10:00 hold the candle to the Japanese little cheesecake things, but it was okay, but I've never seen it. I've been here over five months. Never saw that once in my life. You just never know what's going to be at a Korean convenience store. So yeah, these noodle things I stayed in because it was raining. So I ate on both my meals yesterday where these fancy convenience store cup noodle things. And they were both really good, but I think I guess what is more notable is that while they were good, they weren't exceptionally better than just the quote-unquote cheap noodles that are always just offered for free. Because I think it just comes down to like, they just don't have cheap noodles in Asia the way we do in North America. Like in North America, Mr. Noodles, you know, it's just considered the lowest of the low. Like I could have my numbers wrong, but as an example, like say you go to the grocery store and Mr. Noodle brand noodles are like 36 cents. But then you could get the no name brand and those are 24 cents each, you know, and it's literally just a package of freeze-dried noodles and a packet of powder and that's it.

Where I think stuff like that just doesn't exist here. You know, in my mind, I'm thinking of the low-level noodles as the base. But those low-level noodles are good here because I saw the same low-level brands that are at this hotel and were at my Airbnb's in Seoul and Busan. I saw those at the convenience store and they were still a couple of dollars, maybe a little under two dollars each. But you know, not 36 cents. None of that crazy shit. And they always have like a couple of packets of stuff inside. They have vegetable little, like a little vegetable packet with little dried vegetables and then a powder packet and they're just good. They're just real good. I have never had any issue with them at all. I never felt like, oh, this isn't a very good meal. Like especially if you buy some kimchi or something or in Japan, I would buy hard-boiled eggs and chicken breasts and bean sprouts and whatever.

But just, you know, especially when you add a little something to them, but even by themselves, they're just pretty goddamn good. Like the idea of a basic packet of noodles in Asia would be fancy for us. You know, it's hard to find good noodles like good freeze-dried noodles in North America. Even if you want to spend money on them, we just only have shit. We just want it to be cheap and shit. But here, it's the opposite. You can't get cheap and shit. The cheap one is a couple of dollars and it's good.

But that also makes sense why, like in this hotel in particular, like they had to move the shelf with the noodles over by the front counter. So it would be by the cameras because somebody was coming in and nabbing noodles. And I guess, yeah, like if every packet of those noodles is like a box 75 and there's a big shelf with like 50 packs of noodles on it, that could get very fucking annoying if people are consistently stealing new noodles.

They're not stealing the 24 cent pack of no-name noodles. So yeah, it was a neat thing to try out. But if you're Airbnb or wherever you're staying has free noodles in Asia, they're gonna be pretty good. Just buy a little side to go with them and you're all set.

Man, that place in Busan, the more I think about it, I mean the place was annoying. Well, it was annoying and good because it was a great location. The actual place I loved, like it was great. And it had like incredible food on offer. It had the noodles, it had rice, it had homemade kimchi, it had coffee, it had cereal. Man, that place was good, but it just had no air flow, no windows.

And constant mustiness and it's like, man, I'm really like not sure if those things balance out. Even that many great things and it was cheap. But even that many pluses with just, I mean, I had to like wear a COVID mask indoors while I was sleeping because the musty smell is just whether or not it's dangerous. It's just annoying. It just smells bad. And I just don't know that that's worth it. It's amazing how much that fucks shit up.

But I do miss the homemade kimchi. I've still been buying a, I kind of graduated to buying smaller packets of kimchi from the Korean convenience stores. 15:00 The first I bought bigger packs that I put in a Tupperware. But it was a little annoying because no matter how much you try to seal your Tupperware, kimchi is so, it's such a powerful odor that it could never contain it. And then, you know, I got to eat it within a certain amount of time.

Instead, I found little individual packs. Again, the classic bite to get one free. They're like a buck 50 each. And it's just a little individual package you open up. It's got kimchi in it. You put that in your noodles. Bob's your uncle.

Yeah, that homemade kimchi. That shit was fucking good. So I met some arrows. And yeah, this is where I wonder if the heat is already boiling my brain. I've just been following little holy trail ribbons. But the first set of arrows I got to, I literally stopped and stared at them for a minute because I was like, not a minute, 10 seconds. And I was like, wait a minute, is this wrong?

The orange arrow is pointing toward me. And the blue arrow is pointing where I need to go. Did somebody mess this up? And then, my very slow brain was like idiot. You're walking the other way now. You're walking clockwise. Now you're a blue arrow guy. Just after all this time of always looking for the orange arrow. Now I'm a blue arrow guy. Now I got to follow the blue.

I'm heading up, away from the coast, through a farm. I've got to get so hot, so fast as soon as you're not by the coast. The coast and it's nice breeze makes all the difference in the world.

Although I did notice there's an alternate bus. There's a bus stop here. I'm not sure what bus line this is, but I think I might have to start learning it because I think for the rest of this journey, I'm actually going to be nowhere near the 202 bus. The bus that goes along the coast, because for this part, it just doesn't. It does not go along the coast. It goes pretty far inland. Oh, here comes the bus. 6.45 is going by.

Here comes the bus going the other way. A different color bus. What's this one? The 600.

That's one of the airport limousines. I think I took the 800.

That was a bunch. 696.951.520. A whole bunch of buses on this route.

Man, the little LCD screen at the bus stop says it's only 24 degrees. Is that true? Maybe. I mean, it has definitely been hotter. I guess I have no reason to think that the bus station doesn't know the temperature. That's very terrifying if anything. Maybe I've just gotten too used to the overcast weather, but this feels quite brutal.

When 24 degrees, this is actually nice. This is, again, like I was saying before, this is as nice as you could hope to have in mid-July. It can only get worse from here. Holy fuck. That's terrifying.

I'm just walking over a nice river right now.

Yeah, when I was in the washroom at the surfing place, just being out of the breeze, just a little bit I was in there. I looked down at my forearms and they're just like, wow, it's like, where's the breeze? Where's the air to wick away the heat? More sweat, emergency. Body, more sweat, and I'm just sweat, sweat, sweat, sweat, sweat. Then I got outside into the breeze again and it's like, oh, okay, okay, we'll be all right.

It's weird when places just remind you of other places. Just walking along up a slight incline, there's a 7-11 across the street. Maybe I should stop and get some popsicles, actually. I think I will, but this suddenly reminded me of when I lived in East Toronto in Atobico. This just looks like that. Weird.

Yeah, I'm going to stop in and get some fucking popsicles.

Well dang it. Yeah, there's a sign on the front door and I was like, okay, I can't read that sign, but I don't see anybody behind the counter. There's limited numbers of things that that sign could say. Does it say temporarily closed? Yes, it does.

Not the thing that never happens in Japan because there was up to employees. Here if an employee's got to go do something, I guess she just got to close up. Anyway, I don't know what the hell that noise is or where it's coming from, but that's a good reason to stop reporting.

Oh, my brain. My brain is definitely boiling today. I keep thinking about, you know, temperatures in Celsius obviously small gradations mean a lot more. But yeah, when I thought it was like 26 or 27 degrees today, then I found out it's only 24. I mean, it probably doesn't sound that bad, especially if you're raised on Fahrenheit.

What's the difference between 24 and 27? But yeah, there's a difference. It just feels like, oh jeez, this is 24. Oh no, oh no. It feels so much worse. I guess, though, humidity plays a big part. I mean, when I think of like what I think of 24 degrees as back in my homeland of Canada, you know, it's a dry heat. It's a different, different kind of beast. Better or worse, I don't know. Humidity, there's a niceness to it, but it does. I guess it is more suffocating and more oppressive. But yeah, I was just walking along. My brain was just rolling along and it was like, hey, did you say a Tobaco was in East Toronto? It's in West Toronto. You dumb idiot.

But yeah, jeez, walking by that 7-11 and getting that idea in my head that I could be eating popsicles right now. Oh, I think that fucked with me too. I wasn't even thinking about it until there was a 7-11 right there. And again, you know, Japan is just different if it was Japan. And I'd be like, well, who cares? I'll just go to the other 7-11. That's two blocks over or across the street or whatever. Here, I have not seen another convenience store. And I mean, I could at any moment, but also I could not. You never know. It's a lot more random. A lot more random in Korea, and especially on the shoreline of Jeju. Oh, here we go, though. Turning back toward the coast. I can see the coast ahead of me. Immediately feel the breeze. Fuck that helps.

But I walked by a second river where there's a bunch of people hanging out by the shoreline, doing rivery stuff, having fun. This is definitely, I mean, it's a Friday afternoon. And this weather is beautiful. I see people all over the place doing stuff, doing water-based stuff.

And I went by a big poster of like a big billboard of 10 things you can see, somewhat around here, you know, views. And there's some that I'll go by, just by accident, by being by the shore, but a bunch you'd have to go inland for. But it's like, yeah, man. I've seen an awful lot walking around the outside of this island, but it's cool that if you lived here. There's so much more you could do to see all the different potential landmarks and views and things around here. Take a lot fucking longer. I mean, this has taken a while to do what I'm doing, but it would take a lot longer to fully survey Jeju.

And that reminds me when I was at horse island at the southwestern corner of Jeju Island, there was a plaque there saying it was one of the 10 famous views of Jeju based on an ancient poem. And I managed to track down the poem. It was a little tricky. I don't remember the details right now. It's not a super famous thing. I just kept finding like 20 things to do on Jeju, you know, like current day blogs. It was a little tough to find this ancient poem.

But I tracked it down and I didn't write down all the details because whatever. But basically of the 10 things, I think I saw four of them just inadvertently by walking around the island. So not bad, man. Not too fucking bad. I'm walking by a tourist information building. How about where can I buy some fucking popsicles? How about that? Give me a convenience store, man. Oh, it sucks so hard that one wasn't open. Maybe I wonder. I mean, I don't know what that sign said. I guess I could have Google translated it. Maybe I should have, oh, wait, there's a 7-Eleven sign with an arrow. Maybe I should have waited around about waiting around in the sun for an indeterminate amount of time. It just seems crazy. It seems like you're begging for your own death.

But yeah, speaking of tourist stuff, last episode at the end of the episode, I found another one of these big tourist billboard things. They're not tourists. I found another one of these local things to see billboards. And one of the things that stood out a little bit was an action figure museum with a bunch of Marvel figures. Some of them were small, some of them were life sizes, all kinds of stuff. The kind of thing that it was just in the Busan citizen park, just in the park for free. And I looked it up and it looks like it's about 12 bucks to get in. And the reviews say, you know, you can see everything they got in like 30 minutes. 25:00 They were like, yeah, you know, it's kind of cool if you got kids or whatever, but I wouldn't really say it's worth it. And that was more than enough to shake me off since I don't normally do that kind of stuff anyway. You know, I don't dislike Marvel, but I'm not like a huge Marvel guy. It's just like, oh, that's just kind of neat. That might be kind of neat.

But my concern is just to finish this circumnavigation. So I won't be heading there. Here's a like a walkway out into the ocean that has a big statue of a seashell at the end of it.

And the waves are way chopier now. It's like a breakwater and on the other side of it. Nice white choppy waves.

Oh, it's a cruise terminal here.

Seguapo gangion cruise terminal.

And a cafe. Got to make sure there's not a 7-11 down there. No, okay, good. That's not where the 7-11 is. Oh, well, maybe it is. I don't know. The arrow's pointing that way. Where the fuck? Where's my 7-11? Come on, man. Is it really hidden down here?

Man, I met a weird crossroads. So I just went and peaked ahead of me a little and I don't see 7-11. I'm walking down toward this cruise terminal. It would be a long walk to get all the way down into the depths and I don't see a 7-11.

But then also the Ola trail is now doing one of its classic, hey, go up through this farmer's field. It's like I just I don't think I can do that today, sir. It's so fucking hot. I gotta stay on this road by the shore just so there's breeze.

I will die if I go up there. So hopefully the walk along the coastal road continues unabated. Under construction, please take a detour.

Well, I'm just going to keep walking. I'm just going to keep walking across my fingers because, yeah, man, it gets, it's incredible how hot it gets when you're out in these fields. Like that's the, you know, the thing I brought up many times that I saw a recommendation not to do this Ola trail this time of year. And I think that's good advice and that's generally true. But by the coast is not nearly as bad.

Going inland and walking through one of these fields, it gets so much more hot. It's just incredible. I'm not doing it. And yeah, that sucks balls about the 7-11, but I think I think that's why there were arrows. I think it is hidden down in that cruise terminal complex somewhere. So that's why they needed arrows. Yeah, here's another arrow now pointing back the way I came. It's down there somewhere, but oh well.

Being teased and being teased by 7-11 today.

It's all right. I got some bottle of coffee in my pocket. I got water in my other pocket. Just don't think about a man. Don't worry about it.

Zen out. The next convenience store will be here before long, but I got to just put it out of my mind.

So this is nice. It seems like I can walk along the coast. I don't know what the detour thing was all about, but it seems like no problem. It's a nice coastal road. It's actually pretty quiet. I don't fancy my chances of finding a convenience store, but that's okay. I've already moved on. I've already reached enlightenment. But yeah, it's really pretty. It's just this nice coastal road.

It was palm trees all along it, and the nice coast on this side was the crashing waves. The way it looks with the blue sky and everything and just some nice clouds. I guess coming from Canada, my main exposure to this kind of scenery. I just think of like old sitcoms that were set in Miami. It looks like TV to me. It's like, wow, look at this. How is this real? It's fucking beautiful. But not only that, I turn the camera corner, and I can see down the coast. And there's a big-ass fucking mountain. Way in the distance. And it's like, well, that's gotta be fucking sand-bang-sand. The one with the Buddhist grotto, where you're not allowed to go up the top. Yeah, you can even see from this side. It's like really steep on the front edge, but on the back edge, you could much more easily walk up it. It's gotta be what that is. So then there's another pretty big mountain.

Ahead of it, so I'm guessing that's Goonson. But then there's another bigger one. To the right of that, that's closer. I don't know what the shit that is. Unless that's Goonson. I'm not sure. Like, I'm not sure if there's another relatively large mountain between me and the end of this journey. Or if that's it, but it sure does look big. No, that's definitely different. Because I'm thinking of when I was on top of Goonson, and I was just looking around at the full panorama. I did see a mountain that I thought was halasand in the distance, but maybe it wasn't. Maybe this other mountain I'm looking at, you know, just because it was the biggest thing in the proper direction from where I was. I thought it was halasand, but halasand, halasand's really far away. Like, you know, I'm looking over toward it right now. I mean, it's way in the distance.

So I think I was seeing that other mountain and mistaking it for halasand. I don't know what that is. Anyway, I'll do some research later, but I might have one big-ass mother-fuckin mountain ahead of me, although. Maybe it's not so terrible because sandbank sand is behind it, and it's still taller. That thing is a monster.

So maybe whatever I'm looking at isn't that bad, but it looks it. From here, it looks quite imposing. But that's cool as fuck. I mean, if I'm looking at the right stuff, which I think I generally must be, because I looked at this from the opposite angle last time. You know, I looked down the coast, and I didn't really see much coming up, which makes sense. That's where I am now. You know, leaving Seguapo, there were no major elevations. All the way in front of me, no major elevations. So then all those big mountains I'm seeing over there, those are all the ones I was on before.

It's pretty crazy to just see in the distance like, well, there it is. I gotta make it, right? What is the date today? The 24th of July is when I've got to leave. So the 23rd is my last possible day. Today is July 12th.

And I mean, if I can see the end from here, that's the end, man. I gotta make it. I have to. I have to. I mean, I'm looking and I'm like, okay, I gotta walk all the way along this, and then all the way around this other thing, and then we're all around this coastline, and then around this next thing, and then there's this mystery mountain. What I mean, I can see it, dude. I can see it. Surely I'll fucking make it.

As usual, Saturday is my colon home day. I'll be taken tomorrow off, but I mean, besides that, if I just had to gun it, just gun it every day. There's just no way. I can't imagine how I won't make it at this point.

Yeah, that was quite a surprise. I didn't expect to turn the corner and just see all those mountains. And it's just so cool that they're so, so distinct. It's like, well, that can only be, can only be Sandbang Sand, that big, crazy, evil ass mountain.

That's no fucking orium. That's like goddamn mountain. Hey, and there's a Ola trail ribbon. Hmm, I wonder. It's so weird when, so I guess, I guess it was just that farm I just looped around. It just made you pop through there. Again, who knows what mysteries I may have missed, but that one really looks like it was probably just a field. I don't know. I don't know. Why would you not want people to see this coastline? It's fucking insane. They make the weirdest choices. Like, sometimes it's excellent. Sometimes it's an amazing thing that you're glad you saw. And sometimes it's like, are you high? Are you fucking high? The coast, I feel like, should always take precedence. And then if you have a century's old horse path made of cobbled stones and stuff, yeah, yeah, take me to that. That's worth it. If you have an amazing mountain, take me to that. That's worth it. Otherwise, the coast, are you kidding?

I want to make my own version of the Ola trail, the Keith trail. You know, generally the same, but with a few small, but coast leaning alterations.

But I wonder where it came out. You know, I didn't see the exit point. Just suddenly we're back on the Ola trail. It's like, huh, when did that happen?

But yeah, being by the coast for a bit, having a consistent breeze. Now I believe in the 24 degrees. That feels about right. I'm not excessively sweating. I'm not, I feel like my brain's not melting anymore. It actually feels pretty good. 35:00 She feels pretty fucking good.

Yeah, you know, now I'm walking inland. I got a story about that, but yeah, I'm looking at Halasand in the distance. And yeah, there's no question when I was on Goonson seeing the panorama. That mountain I thought was Halasand was definitely not. Halasand is so far away. It's way far from here. So yeah, that mountain I thought was Halasand, which was big enough to trick me. That's still between me and the endpoint. That's eerie.

But it's kind of surprising to me how often something will happen in this podcast and then like a response happens very soon after. It's probably not really happening. It's just that my mind is primed for whatever topic and then it just seems like, oh, now the opposite's happening. But yeah, I was just saying how I didn't want to go inland. I didn't want to walk through a farm. Why are you doing this to me, Ole Trail?

But now I'm walking inland and I'm walking through a farm. And yeah, it is indeed much hotter. I'm getting low on water. I had more than enough water.

Yeah, I'm just looking for Ole Trail. Is that the arrow? Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah, it was tricky. It's like a whole weird intersection. And it's just like, oh, you'll figure it out. There's an arrow way in the distance.

Yeah, I had enough water on those overcast days, but I need to double up from here on in. I probably should have just walked down into the detour to get to that 7-11. But I still got a coffee once I ran out of water. But yeah, it's not super-duper terrible hot, but it's not not hot. But I got to another arrow pointing inland. But this one had like a big elaborate sign with like a map and everything. Like it was definitely saying something legit. So I pulled out my phone, did the whole Google translate, and it looks like as of 2022, there's a bridge coming up that they're working on. I don't know how long it takes to make a bridge, but I guess two years at least. Because it's 2024, is I record this? And apparently it's not done. And it said, yeah, you know, for your safety, please take this detour.

This must be weird, like for the person I just passed. I passed quite a few people farming. You know, I don't think this is a permanent Ole trail. They've just temporarily had to take on the burden of dickhead tours like me for this detour.

But yeah, it said, there's bridge construction coming up. And then when I looked ahead of me, there was also a just do not enter sign. Don't go this way sign for even the traffic. So that could explain why this coastal road has been so slight with the traffic.

And you know, as much as I like to struggle against the Ole trail and stick to the coast, I don't want to be a dick about it. You know, if it seems like it's just two options and one of the options is go inland and maybe see some stuff or stay by the coast and see the coast, I'm happy to do the coast. But if there's an actual reason, if there's a big sign, if there's a big warning, they're just saying, look, don't do this. Don't go that way. I'm not a fucking asshole. I'm not going to deny that. So here we go. I'm walking inland. I'm walking through a farm. Oh, and it is hot. I'm feeling it now. It's starting to build on me. Again, just then, just walking then. Don't think about it. I think I'll walk about. Find out. What is all about? BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM.

You know, it's nice enough. Oh, bamboo. Look at that. But yep, it is just a farm, man. Getting the real, I'm getting the real experience. Forget all this tourism.

Fucking, oh, go walk the trail, shit. This is just a temporary detour through a farm.

Some of the other farms that I've been detoured through, you know, there's like little things that will pop up. Like, here's the, here's a place where they used to make fires for smoke signals back in the day, stuff like that.

Not this one. This one is 0% interested in trying to cater to me. It's just a farm.

Farm life. Farm life. Alright, stop rambling. You fucking brain-boiled moron. Just shut up and walk. Get through this detour. Get back to the coast.

Oh yeah, just another one of these little things that just seems like, you know, things that are on my mind start popping up around me. Again, just coincidence, but it feels like they're connecting. I've mentioned a few times how this hat, this big wide-brimmed sun hat that I bought, that is what all the locals wear. And it just, it's a game changer. I can't believe how many days I walked with just a cap with only a bill in the front.

At a dumb little flat cap. It wasn't even like a baseball cap. It barely even had a brim.

As noticing, my ears getting a little burned and stuff. This big wide hat is the truth, man. It's not optional. It's very necessary. But every time I walk by a, like a traffic mirror or something, or I catch my reflection in a window, I'm like, yeah, doesn't look good though. I don't know. It looks good on the locals. I look like I'm even bigger, gokier, idiot than usual. But I mean, you know, again, I don't even know why I bring it up. Like, who cares? No one cares what I look like ever any time. They extra don't care here.

Another intersection where the Ole marker is in the center of the intersection. That's not helpful.

Okay, well, this seems like the most developed way to go. Oh, and there's a guy. I hear someone coming down it. Old guy on a scooter. That's gotta be the way.

This actually reminds me a lot of, I have like a lot of uncles and aunts and cousins, like tons.

Yeah, there's the next marker. There's a bunch of them that live in pretty rural parts of New Brunswick. No actual farmers, but a lot of mechanics. But this reminds me a lot of like their properties and kind of what it feels like to go visit them.

It's very similar. It's kind of comfy in that way.

That old guy picked up an old lady and then they just went by again. I wonder if it's the same situation here in Korea as in Japan. I've been hearing a lot about Northern Japan and stuff. There's these farms that are like not small farms. They're like mega farms. And I mean, I don't know what, designates farm sizes. But for instance, this one I'm on now. It's not little. Everywhere in every direction I can see is all greenhouses and farming stuff. But I don't see any young people. And yeah, apparently that's very evident in Japan.

It's like all people like the young guys quote unquote are like 50. And the question is, you know, who's gonna work these farms for the next generation? Who's gonna take this over? Certainly outside of my sphere of understanding. But I wonder if it's similar here in Korea. But yeah, the hat. Whenever I catch a view of myself, I'm like, yeah, I just don't like how I look in this hat. I just don't. But if I was in elementary school still or even junior high, I would probably just because you know, it's like, oh, no, I don't want to be embarrassed. I don't want people to make fun of anything. I'm not gonna wear gloves in the winter in case someone makes fun of me. I'm well beyond that. I'm not gonna sacrifice safety and functionality for how I look. But I do think I look dumb. And it's just funny that I'm not the only one, the only North American white guy who feels that way. Because I was watching family guy clips on YouTube last night. And one of them was Joe Peter and Quagmire were sitting out on a boat out in the middle of the water. And it's all sunny out. And they're just sitting in chairs. And Quagmire takes out a great big wide brimmed floppy hat and puts it on. And the other two were like, what the hell is that? It's like, it's a sun hat. And they just go, no, no, no, you're not wearing that. Get that fucking off. And he's like, no. 45:00 You know, protects my neck. It protects my ears. It's perfect. And they literally wrestle him to the ground and fight him to tear off his hat and throw it in the ocean. They're like, no, you sit here. You can wear suntan lotion and just sit in the sun with us. And those are the family guy jokes that I feel like age the best. When it's just something very idiosyncratic, just like such a weird little observation. And that was one of them of like, yeah, I don't know why I don't know what's in our stupid cultural DNA. But it's just not cool for a dude from North America to wear a big floppy sun hat. It's just not cool. It's like, you're not going to do that. We're not going to allow you to do that. And yeah, just for whatever reason, I got that in me. I'm like, man, this hat looks so dumb. But it's great. It is a great hat. It has increased the ease of this journey by like tenfold, like incredible. I can't even imagine like at this very moment if I was wearing my other cap and my ears were just exposed to the sun. And just this little brim that didn't cover the back of my neck at all, barely shielded my eyes. What a terrible, terrible dumb little hat. You know, this thing rocks. I love it. Just looks stupid.

That's something else I noticed recently. It's like took a little while for it to sink in because it's hard sometimes to notice the absence of something. But I noticed in Seoul there were an absurd number of mirrors. Mirrors all over the place. Like there'd be all these, you know, the exercise equipment set up in the woods, which seemed like a bad joke in the wintertime. Anywhere where there was like a mountain or there was a cool hiking thing or there was a park. There was tons of exercise equipment. And I was like, yeah, this is really cool. Theoretically, I think this is awesome. It's so neat that there's so much availability of equipment and exercising outside. It's just way cooler in needer. It feels more natural. It feels a lot better than going into a gym. But it was the horrifying pollution of the wintertime. And you know, it's just like, this seems like a bad joke. Why is all this stuff here when you'd have to be nuts to come out here and do exercise and breathe deeply of this death air? But I bet this time of year it's really nice. Like I bet now it's a lot more sensible and a lot better makes a lot more sense. Wintertime in Seoul is very fucked.

But I got to the point where I don't remember seeing any mirrors on Bukhonson, but everything leading up to that.

I'm just walking by a little stream now up to another road with much more traffic.