#160 Circumnavigation of Jeju complete!

Transcript

Alright, this is it. This is the big finale. This is the end of Circumnavigating Jeju that took me two months to do. And was fucking cool as hell. So for the complete picture of the final day, I split this episode into two. So you gotta check out last episode to get the approach to this final mountain. And now I'm heading up the mountain. So without further ado, let's go!

Hi, I found a little area to sit, who has a little roof to protect me from the sun. Unfortunately, I can smell propane from somewhere. So that's unpleasant so I won't stay here too long. But I think I got a rest a bit because it's all uphill from here. And I was just found a little washroom, my last washroom opportunity. And while I was sitting there, I was sitting on the toilet. I closed my eyes and my head just started sinking down. And it's like, oh, I just want to take a nap. That's not natural. I mean, I have many days where I'm kind of tuckered out. I didn't sleep enough, but I don't remember that ever happening when I'm just sitting on a toilet. And I just want to curl up and go to sleep. So it's probably a combination of just waking up early today. I mean, even now, it's still only quarter after three. And I'm coming to the home stretch. So yeah, plenty of time. Definitely a good thing, but it does mean I didn't sleep in as much as they usually do. Maybe I can keep this up since I got a travel date coming up soon, but I don't fancy my chances. My stupid body is not good at following orders. Yeah, just take a little seat. Take a little rest before I go. And man, now my left eye is getting sweat in it. Definitely, what the fuck?

Why are my eyes stinging from sweat to get out of here?

So I was walking on the same route. I was on the other day where I knew I would find the GS25 convenience store, but I saw a little mom and pop store on the way. So I stopped in there instead. The lady in there was just doing sewing. And I just bought a two liter of cis water that's all over this island. Sam Desu Juju from Juju Island, a natural mineral water. Got the two liter bottle. I'm going to drink this whole fucking thing.

Gonna be a pea machine and just got a little can of coffee for later. That's gonna be a palette cleanser for when I get to the top of the mountain.

But yeah, in this case, because it's so stupidly hot out in this weird deceptive way, and I was so glad to get the water. I thought it was worth a pantomime today. The lady was very taciturn. As most people are, not everyone, but as the average person is to a foreign visitor. Oh, maybe that's not propane. I see there's little incense things lit on here, just like a coil of incense. But if that's what I'm smelling, it smells like shit. It smells terrible. It smells like gas. If that is what I'm smelling.

Maybe it's a mosquito thing.

See, I do see a mosquito under here, and there was one in the washroom which fits with my theory that they just can't survive under the direct sun, maybe.

Yeah, I wonder if that's a mosquito coil. I don't know what they look like. Or smell like.

But yeah, I thought it was worth it in this case to give her a little pantomime. I just mopped my brow to demonstrate the heat of the day and then tipped my water bottle to her and bowed in banks. And then she cracked a smile.

It's somewhat similar to Japan, except there's more of a sense of politeness in Japan, but it's a similar sense of like I don't want to open a conversation with you because I can't have it. Because it's very obvious. We don't speak the same language. So I think that's why people just start off somewhat standoffish, or maybe that's the wrong word, just very serious, very busy. But yeah, you do a little song in dance. You clown it up a little bit, and the average person will give you a nice smile.

Yeah, I was thinking about with mosquitoes further to my theories about why there are so few mosquitoes here. I think it could be another reason could be that it's so super duper populated around here. Even the quote unquote unpopulated parts of Jeju are still very populated compared to my hometowns. They spread it to New Brunswick. The center is, you know, it's a normal city. But as soon as you get to the edge, it immediately becomes woods and it becomes the for real woods like deer, moose, bears, 5:00 beavers and millions of things smaller than that, tons of different birds and stuff. Like big-time animals everywhere. And I always remember this one deer I saw in the woods during mosquito season that was just covered in mosquitoes. I couldn't believe it. Hundreds of mosquitoes on this thing. And it made me understand a little bit about the mosquito life. Like mosquitoes probably consider human beings a second-class target. Like why would they want to deal with us? Most of our body is covered in clothing that gets in the way and we're incentivized and able to fight back. There's a good chance that a person is going to kill you. Like that mosquito that's buzzing around my hotel room right now. He doesn't know it, but his fucking days are numbered. It's just a matter of time because I cannot allow him to just buzz around all night. So why would a mosquito even want to deal with us? It's a way better deal for them. And it's got to be the reason why there's so many mosquitoes in North America, or at least in Atlanta, Canada, is that there's animals for them to eat. A fucking zillion mosquitoes can go suck on a mousse, you know? Feed on a mousse or a bear. And like, what can it do? It can't do shit. It just sits there and takes it. It just lives that life. And then there's all the smaller animals that a mosquito can just hop down and get a go for a fucking squirrel or something.

Where not only do I not see a ton of insect life, I don't see a ton of wildlife in general. There's a fair number of birds. You can hear some right now. But as far as small rodenty animals, really, really uncommon. Mostly I see sea life. You know, I see those weird sea cockroach looking things, or I see crabs, or whatever other various weird scurrying sea life. I see that all the time. And apparently if you go inland, you know, there are boars and stuff. They do exist here. And there's obviously the horses sometimes. But I think mosquitoes must have a much easier time in the wilds of New Brunswick, Canada than they do around here. There's just fewer targets. You know, I think that could be part of it too. I'm starting to piece together my theories if I had to go to court and try to present my case for why I think this is happening. Add that to the list.

Anyway, that's enough rambling. I don't feel like I'm about to fucking fall asleep, but also being on the move, movement really helps. So when you're moving, and especially when you're hiking uphill, there is no feeling tired. I don't think that would happen until you're literally going to collapse and pass out. If anything, it's the opposite. You feel woken up. You have no choice but to focus.

So I've gotten my little rest in. I got my water. I think it's time to go. Oh geez, yeah, look at that. Just where my elbows were on this chair I'm sitting in. It's all wet. Fucking gross. I'm going to make it my mission to drink this whole two liter water just so I don't accidentally dehydrate because the amount I'm sweating is fucking crazy.

That is one last thing. I felt kind of seen the other day because I do have to pee constantly. Luckily, I should probably be up on this mountain by myself. It shouldn't be that hard to pee in the woods because I'm going to have to or they drink all this liquid. But I was listening to the Trash Taste podcast and they were talking about times that they peed in public. It just had horrible accidents, usually while drinking, and somebody just won't come out of the washroom or whatever. But Joey, the anime man, Joey Bizzinger of the Trash Taste podcast, he was talking about how much he has to pee and how annoying it is. And he said, I know some people that only pee two or three times a day. I have to pee like 10 or 20 times a day. And I was like, fuck yeah, I'm not the only one. It's not just me. And yeah, I have to pee so much that my friends in Toronto were like, you should get checked out to see if you have prostate problems or prostate cancer or something because that can be a sign of that. And luckily, it's not. That's when I got an MRI separately at a different time because I had what's that thing? Appendicitis, where your appendix gets inflamed. And I learned it's a whole trio of things. I have small interior organs, my stomach is small, my bladder small, keeps me skinny, keeps me peeing. And my bladder doesn't drain properly. So I noticed that all the time. It's like LP and then 10 minutes later I got a pee again because it felt like I was done peeing, but somehow I wasn't done peeing. I don't really understand fully how that works. And I just have a fast metabolism. So you add those together and I got a pee all the time. But old Joey was saying, like, there's upsides. It's like here, unlikely to get a urinary tract infection because your pee just keeps on moving through the system. It never has time to hang around in your urinary tract and cause an infection. And it just keeps your system flushed out in general, but it is annoying in the modern world. I have to pee all the time. 10:00 And yeah, I fucking, I know that feeling. If I lived out in the woods, it wouldn't matter. But yeah, like, you know, if I lays around in bed for 20, 25 minutes and I don't manage to fall asleep, it's like, well, I better get up and try to pee. Because even if I don't necessarily have to pee, I just kind of feel like I do. Like, it's worthwhile to go to the washroom and just just flex those pee muscles, you know, just like prove to my body. Like, yeah, nothing came out. Don't worry. We don't need to pee. But my body won't let me rest till I do that. So it's annoying even just on a meta level beyond the actual method I have to pee. But anyway, apparently there's upsides. Apparently there's health benefits. And I don't know. It's just glad to hear. So if you're one of, if you're one of us, if you have to pee all the time, it's not just you, man. Many of us. There are literally dozens of us. But all right. Technically, too. I mean, this is where the sign is, where I saw that there's a action figure museum in these parts.

Technically, technically, I have completed the circumnavigation. Technically, I've been here before. Technically, I've just completed the loop. But shh. Don't say it out loud. Don't say it. Don't just keep it to yourself. We're not done yet.

We've got to get to the top of the mountain and then we'll be done. Okay. Okay.

Shut up. Shut up. We're not done. Don't celebrate yet. We're not done. We gotta go a little further.

That's all right. Let's fucking get going.

All right. Just a recap from last time I was here. I read this sign that time, but I found it at the end. Now I'm taking the proper route, the clockwise route. So I'm seeing it at the start. Route 9 of the Ola Trail, Mouljil, M-O-L-J-I-L. This path was walked by horses during the Corio dynasty, 13th century. I thought it was 16th. Holy fuck, it's even older. J.J. born horses were sent to the Mongol-led UN dynasty. I just said dynasty and dynasty. And the road was built for this purpose.

See, this thing is cool as heck. And while I was on it last time, I was like, what even is this? What the hell is this thing? See, and now I'm heading in. And it's like I got to assume it started as like a ravine, you know, like some kind of relatively naturally forming event on this mountain. I wonder after it rains like this water rush down this thing. But it's dry now. And it's just rocks. It's like a combination of big rocks. And then at the flatter parts, it's a series of smaller rocks. So it's like man-made, but it feels extremely natural at the same time. It's the most natural version of man-made. And there's a little rock wall along, I guess on both sides whenever it needs to be there. And yeah, I guess you could just lead a horse through here. It's sure the horse would prefer slightly more stable ground. Whoa, big crab.

Hey, look at you, buddy. You're not even near the ocean. What are you doing here? Wow, most of the crabs I see are just brown. This one has red pensors or red arms and yellow pensors technically.

Since I got a two liter bottle of water and an umbrella under my arm and my recorder, I'm not going to try to pull out my phone to take a picture of this lad. I'll leave you be, sir.

Yeah, that thing's pretty fucking large. Relatively, I mean, it's still small enough that I'm not like freaked out by it. It's not going to like chop my finger off.

But that was right in the middle of the path, so I should be mindful, be wary. Like the other day, after it was raining, I saw tons of snails all over the place where I've never seen a single snail the whole time I've been here. But given certain weather, gotta watch out, gotta be careful not to step on snails. But yeah, I guess if you were a horse, you'd probably like to have slightly more stable ground than this, but as long as you walk slow, it's not the worst.

So guide the horses very slowly along this route, because there's little walls on either side, natural or man-made, and it's the rocks are laid out to be stable enough, flat enough. And yeah, it's kind of like 50, 50, half covered in canopy. Like right now, I just stepped out into the sun, but there's more canopy coming up. It's just really cool. What a cool little thing!.

I was thinking though, I read somewhere that supposedly most people do the clockwise route, where I did counterclockwise, and they didn't say specifically that people start from Jeju City rather than Seiguopo, but Seiguopo is 50,000 people, Jeju City is 500,000. So I assume, I assume most people started Jeju City and do the clockwise. But the problem with that would be, then that northward way.

The western stretch, which is like the lamest stretch of the whole thing, that would be your home stretch. That would kind of suck. So I'd recommend not doing that. I guess some of those beaches right as you got back to Jeju City, they're kind of nice. I guess actually maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but you'd have like several days right at the end that would be kind of like the worst part.

I'd say maybe not starting at either city is the best bet. Like I did a last second mulligan to make the Goonsan Orient my final spot. I mean, hey, just do this man. Just do Goonsan, it's the best. Start here, dude. But really, you could pick any cool landmark to start at.

Just so that when you end, you'll end somewhere at kill and somewhere cool and not somewhere lame. Now I'm coming up to some spiders. I have a feeling not many people have walked this path recently. So I'm going to put this recorder away between the spiders and apparently the crabs. That is weird to see a crab not by the ocean.

There's a butterfly, but hey, what if there's phantom horses, Jeju horses of the past? If I have to dive out of the way of a phantom horse, it's probably best that I have my wits about me. So I'm going to put this fucking recorder away.

Wow, this walk up to Goonsan. It's a lot longer than I remembered. This is different too since I went in the reverse fashion last time. Last time it was just walk up into the trees and I was just walking up through trees the whole time. So it was quite a shock when I got to the top and realized I could see all of creation. This way, I guess this one didn't stick in my mind as much because this was just my way down the mountain. But this is way more twisty, turny around various farms. Went by a little Buddhist temple. Oh, the sun just peaked out right ahead of me, right above me. But I was just going to say I have a perfect view of sandbank sand from here. And yeah, it's interesting to see it exactly in profile like that front side is a crazy cliff. That's the scary part.

Yeah, the back end in the days when you were allowed to walk up to the top. Yeah, it seems very doable. The spine of the mountain on the northern side looks very, very doable from here. Not that bad.

Were you allowed, which you're not. But I was going to say how it's just the weirdest weather that I can see basically infinitely. Like I can see as far as I could ever see on the greatest, clearest of days. I can see oryums way in the distance. I can see all the way in the horizon till I either get to the sea or just the edge of Hafar I can see. But there's still these perfect clouds overhead and the sun just basically got covered up again. Like just the top, exactly the top of sandbank sand is covered in clouds. It's like a perfect straight line of fairly dark clouds. However, there's been no rain been carrying this umbrella all day. So I don't regret it because if it does rain, I was thinking that through at the hotel. I was like, I don't bring the umbrella. I don't have to carry the big long umbrella all day. But then I'm imagining, you know, because they can just start raining at a nowhere around here. I've seen it in the last couple of days, just random insane bursts of rain. And if that happens, then I've got a huge umbrella. Then it's like fun, not that bad. But if I've just got my little collapsible one, which I do still have also, but my little one that folds down in my interior pocket, that thing just doesn't work against heavy rainfall.

So I don't regret at all bringing this umbrella, even if I don't need it. But it's just such weird weather that it's so clear until you hit like this exact point in the sky, you know, about 320 meters up or so. And then it's just boom, cloud cover. And it's exactly enough to cover the top of send banks on. And I believe by extension, it's going to be, if this remains, exactly enough to cover the top of Goonson. It's very fucking pretty though. It's very beautiful. And yeah, again, I'm really not complaining. If the sun was out today, it's so hot, even like this.

I would just be afraid for my life. Even though I'm going to have a nice smattering of days left on the island after I finish this circumnavigation, I do think this might be it. I mean, there's little things I could do. There's other places I could go, other little mountains I could go up, other little side islands you can take fairies to.

But this weather is just a kick in both balls. I just think it's a better idea to just fucking relax, appreciate my air conditioning while I got it.

Because the Airbnb I'm going to in Taiwan. I'm going to have to figure out how that works, where I...

Oh, nice breeze. That feels good. But they charge the equivalent of about $4 to use the air conditioning. And I'm not quite sure how one pays for that because they're very insistent that you pay for it first, you pay up front. Though it did also say some rooms don't have aircon. I think mine does, but I guess we'll see. But I'm suspecting. Seeing as next up is August. I think there's an extremely good chance that it might be to my benefit to pay for air conditioning.

Oh yeah, now I can see over on the other side as well. So I assuming that is Halasan. It's a little hard for me to tell exactly what I'm looking at, but I think it is. It's covered at the top, although not extremely. So maybe that isn't Halasan, I just don't know. It must be though, right? What else would it be? And then there's a big orium in the distance that is just beneath the clouds, just not quite covering the top, but yeah, the top of sunbang sun. It is fucking so cartoonishly like only this is covered up with clouds. That weird. But okay, I guess we'll see. Now I'm turning off the road onto a path up into unsan proper into the trees.

So I guess we'll see when I come out at the top. Will I see anything or will it just be clouds?

Man, this is so weird. So this happens a lot where I'll bring something up and then very soon afterward a counterpoint happens in real life. But I was just talking about my mosquito theory that maybe there's not enough wild animals to have mosquito feasts for mosquitoes to live on. And I don't know that could still be true, but I just saw my first Jeju deer. So there are some around. I mean, it is my first one in all this time. So maybe there's just not a ton. I don't know. But where you see one, there's probably a crap ton more that you didn't see.

Damn, is that another one? Get out of here. Weird in me out because they're small. They're like baby deer's. But I'm concerned about there being a mama deer around here.

You know, I don't want to suddenly get and they make some noise.

Yeah, I don't want a mama deer to suddenly fucking side swipe me out of nowhere like a car hitting. Yeah, I'm late here with my ribs broken and my lungs filling with blood. Because wild animals are scary. They're fucked. They're so strong. I can hear you. I can hear you. Why don't you run away? This one's doing the same thing the other one did where it just wouldn't leave. 25:00 And I yelled at it and it wouldn't leave. So finally I started banging on the side of my water bottle like that. And then it finally ran off. But it only went a little ways and it just still stayed there in the woods watching me. And it just wouldn't leave. So I just kept banging my water bottle like a drum and just walked down by.

But then even weirder is a car just went by. So I have no sense of where I am or what's going on.

Because I've just been walking through the woods and it's like him heading up gradually heading upward. But I'm getting very good at hiking. So I'm not especially winded. But I thought I was getting near the top. But then a car went by. Okay, here we go. Maybe this explains it. I came out of the water. Okay, here's what's going on. There is a parking lot up here. So I am near the top.

So that car wasn't like a normal road. Yeah, the town is way down below me. I am getting high up.

But there is a road up here to a parking lot. Yeah, I must have just passed by this so quickly on my way down last time. It just didn't register.

So that was double weird. I'm like, whoa, a deer. And this deer is annoyingly not scared of me and just won't go away.

And even though the baby deer could probably fuck me up pretty good. It's like, is there a mom around here? I just got to really be careful. But then a car went by and I'm like, I'm in the sky. How did a car go by? What is happening? You know what's going on?

But yeah, apparently you can cheat on this mountain. You can drive almost to the top. And there's a nice parking lot. You can see at least two cars there right now. You cheaters.

But anyway, yeah, deer time. Deer time. Weirded me out a little. I was a little nervous about the deers.

This is pretty good though. Yeah, even if I'm not able to see from the very, very top, which seems like it still may be the case.

I don't know. I guess I'm not sure how sick it is up there. Maybe I'll still be able to see through a bit. But even if I can't see the full panorama, I'm already, I'm like four fifths of the way up and I can see fine from here. It's just, you know, I can only see. Instead of seeing 40% of the island, I can only see a tiny 12 degree radius. But it's still nice. It'll do. And here comes the car driving down. Cheater. You cheater.

Though this time of year, especially, I can't hold it against them.

Nobody should be hiking up here in this fucking weather because I was just thinking too before I saw the deer. Like I haven't seen any people. But of course I haven't seen any people. This is incorrect. It is incorrect to be doing this shit this time of year. Yeah, you can see the mist up here. It looks like smoke. It's so sick. It's so interesting how it just goes from like everything's fine and everything's clear to instant, instant mist.

Like you can just see right here. If I just walk up a little higher, I'm going to be in mist town. Like the mist is like, I don't know. 20 feet above me. That's fucking weird as shit.

All right, I'm at the top. Technically, I'm done. I mean, technically, I was done before. But technically, per the rules that I set, I'm all done. There are some signs up here, but they're quite long and they're all fully in Korean. So I might be able to painstakingly Google translate them, but it would be tough. There's a lot of words. You've probably come out to a little weird on the other end. I'm just like, whatever. I'm not going to bother. I'm exhausted. And predictably, yeah, I mean, it's been very misty up here all day, every chance that I've peaked at it. So I'm not surprised that it still is, but I can see below me a bit. I haven't gone up to the, well, I guess I'll go up there right now. The super duper high panorama peak. I'm just going to take a little sit down, but no rest for the weary. But I can see like directly below me. I can see the city directly around where I am, just not into the distance at all. But this is kind of nice in its own way. It's much brazier than before. It's kind of cool. Like the weather is noticeably colder. I guess maybe that's why. Maybe that's what's making the mist hang around. I don't know. But because it's windy, you can see it. You can see the mist blowing by way more than the other day. It looks like smoke. It's actually disturbingly similar 30:00 to the terrible death weather in Seoul. But I checked the IQI this morning, the air quality index. And it's one of the best days ever today. It's only like 26. It's well in the green today. So this mist looks creepy, but it's not bad for you. Yeah, that's not bad. So yeah, from up here, it's a weird panorama. Like I can only see just the stuff directly around the mountain. There we go. All the way to the top. Yeah, I just can't see anything in the distance. I can't see all the way to the ocean. But I can't see roads. I can't see any of the mountains in the distance. Wow, though. Yeah, it can, like it's easier to see the mist blowing when it's a little distance away. But it's so thick. This misty fog that even right in front of me, sometimes I can catch a little view of it, like steam or something.

Just like going by. But cold and cool. So still actually kind of a cool view. I can still see a lot more than the first, when I first came up here and I just couldn't see fucking anything. And yes, it's just a weather pattern that would never happen in Atlantic Canada. And even if it did, you'd never have just a random fucking mountain. You could climb up to experience it. See, that's the part that I still can't wrap my head around. Is it just wasn't that tough to walk up here? This is why when I saw Goonsan orium in the distance, I was like, well, that has to be something else. That can't be it, right? Look how tall it is. Look at those little peaks. Like the idea that I'm standing on one of the peaks right now.

Fuck off. God damn it. Something weird is going on here. A big ass like June bug looking thing flew right into my hat. And then when I pulled my hat off and saw like the bug was still on it, it was like, eh, get off. I broke the little next strap on my hat. Stupid fucking bug. What is your deal? And then there's still buzzing around, whatever. I'm getting out of here. What is fucking happening? There's only a $5 hat. I wasn't sure if I was going to bring this with me to Taiwan, but if I had room, I figured I probably would, but shit, without the next strap, I don't know, because this thing blows off your head really easily.

Maybe I can repair it. I don't know whatever. That's fucking weird. Anyway, I was going to say that I just still can't wrap my head around it. It doesn't make any sense when you're way off in the distance and you're seeing this mountain and you're seeing those peaks standing up on the peak right there. I cannot connect in my brain. My brain refuses to accept that those are the same thing that I'm up on that peak right now, because it looks from the ground so insurmountable and so epic. And it's just not that hard in reality. It's just not that hard to walk up here. It's no biggie. Anyway, god damn. So I guess standing on the very very peak.

I mean, I guess I am in the sky, but great big giant bugs flying into my head. What the hell? Shit, my cheap die so hat. Yeah, because I don't even know how I would repair this thing.

There's nothing to tie the strap to or anything now that it's disconnected from the hat. Again, whatever. It's not a big deal. It's a fucking dollar store hat. But that's fucking weird.

Anyway, let me take a moment now while I try to fix my hat because I'm somewhat annoyed. Stupid fucking bug. Why would you randomly fly into my god damn head? You moron. You fucking stupid dick. Wow, what an ending to this whole adventure. Now I'm just angry at the insects. Hmm. Hmm. Yeah, let me take a little break and get my fucking mojo back to a proper ending.

Now there's a stamp box up here by the way. So please close the door after stamping. Oh, 35:00 this one actually has ink too. I noticed some of the other ones. They have the stamp, but not really the ink. I wonder if you wanted to be sure you get all the stamps. You could bring ink with you. So I was kind of thinking I might just hang a round up here a bit just in case it cleared up. But actually, if anything, it's getting worse. It still looks awesome. I mean, it's just this super heavy fog just passing right by. Right before my eyes, just being able to see it. It is really neat. And I can still see the ground to a limited degree. Oh, I can see the ocean from here just barely. But something about, yeah, just being up here, I guess just being up this high, but technically near ground. And it's this windy. And I don't know, maybe the fog stuff has something to do with it, but the insects are going bananas up here. It's just fucking weird as hell.

Not only did I have the bug attack, but I did see some bees here the other day because there are beautiful flowers about as well. But a bee landed on my coat and I like jostled the coat and it didn't go anywhere. And I jostled it more and it didn't go anywhere. It's like with that baby deer. It's like take the hint, asshole. All the wildlife around here is like it gives zero shits about people. You really got to go out of your way to make things fuck off. So I really had to be like get out. I need my coat back. Oh, well, there we go. Now I can see the ocean really well. It did clear up enough. You know, so it's up and down, but it's not going to like clear up, clear up. And yeah, I'm just getting attacked by bugs too much. My only plan was, it's like, oh, maybe I'll sit up here a bit. Just in case, just spend some time in case it clears up. And I have, I mentioned them last episode, but these terrible cookies I found that are corn cob cookies, like corn on the cob with butter cookies. So I was like, I'll just sit here and eat a pack of these because they're gross. That'll be an inauspicious end. What a weird end to the adventure. But I think I already had a weird enough end to the adventure with a bug flying into my head and bees giving zero fucks. It's like, whatever. Fine. I'm leaving. Mother fuckers. It's weird as shit up here today. It just feels like a bizarre alternate. Like this is a gateway to insect land. Like this is where the where the barrier between dimensions is weakest. This is where you can most experience insect world or something. This is where they seep into our reality.

There's some butterflies flying around. That's nicer. But yeah, whatever. I don't need to eat the goddamn corn cob cookies in a real time because I can tell you what'll happen. I was like, I could just eat them as I go down, but I just kind of, I don't know. I'm right in the middle on them. I mean, like I said last time, they are still cookies. They're not terrible. I'm getting used to them pretty quickly, but I can't imagine buying them again. It's mostly because it's this, it's latte and they make a like a pineapple cookie of the same in the same line of cookies. That's pretty subtle, just a nice little pineapple cookie. The thing with these corn cob cookies is it's kind of like those like bean boozle jelly beans like super duper strong unusual flavors. Like it really does taste like corn on the cob. Incredibly so. And then the aftertaste tastes like butter. I mean, just straight up butter or margarine, maybe, I don't know, but again, really strong. And then you're just going to have an aftertaste of corn for some time after you eat these things. That's why I bought the little can of coffee, too, is that that is going to be my wash it down palette cleanser. I'm just walking over to the other peak, the lower peak. This is the one with the this is kind of cool because yeah, this is the one that has the signs of stuff you should be able to see from here. And today, since it's semi visible, I should be able to see some of this stuff. But yeah, I feel like the corn cob cookies, they kind of sum up the odd time I've had with Korean food. And again, it's not like I'm going to proper restaurants and stuff. I'm the lowest of the low. I am just going to convenience stores. So I guess I can only say Korean convenience store food. But I've had a pretty weird relationship with it so far. Yeah, I met a little pagoda and I can see pretty far in the distance. Not bad. Yeah, actually, if I stayed up at the super peak, I'd probably have an okay view. But I'm actually not sure because even just going up a little farther makes the the mist way worse. Yeah, I can see Willabong next to me is just a little covered in mist, even even that one at the top. And those bugs that were just fucking my shit up.

But yeah, it's exactly what it says on the box. It is exactly corn cob cookies and it's just so powerful. Like, why is that flavor so powerful? And I guess what I didn't really put together when I called home the other day, I think my mock kind of nailed what maybe is the situation. Because you know, it's stuff like tuna salad, egg salad, and strawberry jam all in one sandwich. Or a cream puff with like a regano or that kind of herb, like a pizza type herb in it. Or corn cob flavored cookies. And I think I think she figured out the commonality to these is that it's sweet and savory together is really what's going on here. That's really all I'm experiencing. So I guess if you just think that that's a tasty treat, you know, if you just think that's a normal, okay, cool thing to do, then hence all of these products. It's just not necessarily normal in North America. You know, I'd say the most obvious example that comes to mind for me of a sort of sweet and savory together is maybe Hawaiian pizza, you know, pineapple and ham on one pizza, which though it's called Hawaiian pizza, it was invented in Canada in Ontario, I believe. So if you go get a slice of pizza anywhere in Canada, I pretty much guarantee they're going to have Hawaiian pizza available. But it's one of those things on the internet. It's like a joke of like out you're a terrible person if you put pineapple on pizza. What a terrible thing to do. And I think it is probably a similar situation, you know, like they're just used to these combinations in South Korea. And in Canada, we're super duper used to the pineapple on pizza combination because it is just the sweetness of pineapple, along with the savouriness of of dough, I guess, and of meat, the saltiness of meat. And yeah, it's like once you get over the little mental hurdle of it, like pizza sauce is basically just sugar sauce. Of course, we also have dough and air sauce on the east coast, which is just sugar sauce. So like it's just not that weird. And I feel like that's probably similar here. I'm making a big deal out of all this South's Korea stuff. But even after just eating a few packs of these fucking corn cob cookies, it's like, yeah, it gets less weird every time. It's not that bad. It's just weird, you know, it's just, I'm just not used to it. But it's like still, it's fine, whatever. It's their pineapple pizza.

About just for a second, I could see way in the distance, and I could see another bug, another big-ass bug flying by. But I could see windmills, way, like I could see way till like the other coast. And it's like, oh, I wonder which windmills those were, just as I was trying to piece it together in my mind. Now it's all fogged over again. See, this is a 50-50 view. Not bad. I'm glad it cleared up the other day. That's handy. That was really cool. See in the whole thing.

Today I only got occasional glimpses, but still, still cool. Still a great place to end this here, hike. I'm just really not in the mood to eat corn cob cookies. It just seemed like it would be amusing at the time. But, and a bug to fly into my goddamn head is plenty amusing as a weird stupid ending. So I realized, too though, with this next strap. I took the broken side of the next strap, and I did realize like, oh, there's the, uh, the little maid in China tag. So I just looped my next strap around that. And that's good enough. That'll tied it to that. That'll hold it on my head. So I think that solves the question, or should I bother bringing this with me to Taiwan? No, this is a broken hat. But this will at least keep it going while I'm still here on Jeju. Even just to get to end off this, uh, this mountain because these big wide-brimmed sunhats, they're like wind sales. They're just like, woof, you know. It's like a parachute.

In your head, you literally need a strap. It's a 0% chance this thing will stay on your head in windy weather. Otherwise, but I got it tied on again. I figured it out of way. Yeah, it's a little weird. Now I'm walking down, walking down already. I just kind of thought maybe I'd hang out there longer, you know. But it just bugs it really. They're really fucking with me. And I guess there's this certain anti-climactic nature of these types of things, you know.

Of like, as is my big two-month thing that I did. I'm all done, but I mean, hey, you know, I'm certainly not all done. I'm still on Jeju for a bit, then off to Taiwan. Then whatever, just on to the next thing.

It's hard in the moment for this to really feel like, yeah, it did the thing. In hindsight, though. In hindsight, this will feel really cool. Even just the way the mist was today. 45:00 Like I might remember that. Now I got both things, you know, I got to see the proper view of the other day. But today, I got to see the weird, misty view where I'm in insect world, where I'm in just a different reality. And it's own way. That's pretty cool, too.

That'll be a great memory. It's just being here in person. It feels pretty weird. I'm all sweaty. I'm all worn out. I'm getting attacked by bugs. I don't know. It just feels weird. In the moment. But, you know, what is it? I'm sure there's some zen shit about this, right? Don't try to hold on too tight. Don't try to make a big deal out of stuff. Just let it go, man. Just let it be. It'll be what it is in the fullness of time. Surely the universe is unraveling. Surely the universe is proceeding as it should. Is that the saying? Something like that. Whatever. What the fuck, ever? I'm just worn out, dude. It's so hot today. I'm going to get back to my hotel and take a goddamn shower. That's for sure. Anyway, I did it, man. I did it. The Ole Trail. All right, fuck it. Let's eat a goddamn cookie.