#162 The Andeok River Valley - So long Jeju!

Transcript

Who holy fuck dick! It is fucking hot as fuck out today! Started off real overcast. Now it's become brutally sunny. But I mean I won't dwell on it because my whole last episode was called I'm gonna miss or I will miss Jeju Island. But I will miss Jeju Island. All I did today was go to Ediya Coffee. Took the bus to Ediya. Since there's not one in Seogwipo, I had to travel a little ways by this beautiful shoreline area. Got myself a fancy pants latte sat there all afternoon and I'm just heading back to the bus and fuck yeah it's like Jesus. I really can't be outside in this for too long because I'm so stupid but since it was majorly overcast and my only plan was to take the bus to the coffee shop, I didn't put on sunscreen today. What an idiot! I know better than to do that but I'm just gonna walk one bus stop down just so I can do a little yammering. But I almost maybe I shouldn't. I am a little scared of getting burned even in this little bit of time out under the sun. But I am in a Miss Jeju Island. Just this neighborhood is particularly nice. I have a great affinity for any neighborhood with an Ediya coffee but I feel like anywhere I would go would have been nice. I have no more adventures planned. Just gonna put her around for my last few days. But I feel like I could just put her around or ever and it'll just be like ah this is just nice.

But anyway my plan now is to just try to use up money before I leave. I've got about 40 bucks on my T money transit card and I think I got about 80 dollars in cash left which the cash is less important. I mean maybe I even should be keeping it and just get it converted into Taiwanese dollars at the airport. But I'd rather just try to use up everything and then just hit an ATM once I get to Taiwan. But especially with the T money card. If I don't use that credit it is stuck. I think it's about five bucks to get to the airport. So basically I'm aiming for around $10. If I can have $9 or $10 on this thing that'll make sure I can get to the airport and then just have a few dollars that'll sit on the card that's fine. But 40's way too much. And it's like a dollar 50 to take the bus. So transit wise I can't possibly use it up in time.

So I thought I would go to Paris Baguette because they're everywhere. I've been walking past them every day for the last six months and I've never gone to one. But when I first got to South Korea I looked up a list of stores that purport to take T money cards. And I guess basically what I've learned is that they just don't. They just don't. A T money card is super useful in South Korea. I mean basically necessary for transit. But I think you should really just think of it as a transit card. You can use it at most convenience stores. But even every once in a while I've had a convenience store of one of the major chains just not take T money. Sometimes they just don't. I don't know why. And that could be the case with these other chains as well. Maybe I went to the only Paris Baguette that doesn't take T money. But I don't know. I don't think so because I've had this experience before at different coffee shops. I can't remember if it was a Tucson place or Starbucks. But one of them claimed to take T money. And I know did take T money once. And that's like almost worse when it works once. And then at the next branch they don't take T money. And then the next one they don't take T money. So I just was like, okay, I give up. No more asking. And Daiso same thing. I have a vague memory of the first Daiso I went to taking T money cards in Seoul. And then it never happened again. It never worked again. And they all had, as did this Paris Baguette, they have the T money symbol on the credit card reader. So at some point this was a thing that worked. You could use T money cards. But either the chains have just moved away from that and never updated their little logos on their credit card reader. Or it's just a branch by branch thing. And many branches apparently just don't take the card. But yeah, I don't know. I just thought I'd bring that up of just like, it's great to have a T money card. It's very necessary. But it is just for transit. I should be able to use this up because you know, like I said, most convenience stores. 95% of convenience stores, if not more, will take the card. So I should be able to eat up 30 bucks. Pretty easy. You know, if I just buy some fancy pants sandwiches and whatnot, that'll add up real quick. But I think that's my only option.

As for Paris Baguette though, the reason I never went to one is I would always peer into the window as I walked by. 5:00 And just nothing stood out. Nothing was like, oh, I got to go in and I got to try that. And now that I finally went in one, that is kind of how I felt. Surprisingly, how can I put this? Non-unusual. You know, that's one thing I've been finding this whole time in South Korea is the well of strange flavor combinations and flavor profiles that we just don't have in North America seems endless. All the way through this trip, I've been finding more and more unusual strange combinations that I'm just like, oh, that's a little unexpected. And at this one Paris Baguette, I mean, this was a smaller branch, but it was like nothing that stood out in that way, which I, hey, I shouldn't complain. I've been complaining about the reverse this whole time. But even the sandwiches, this is literally the only place where I've seen normal sandwiches. Just a normal BLT and a normal chicken wrap or whatever. Not a grape jelly and pineapple paste and tuna, you know, or just whatever. Just the randomness of convenience store sandwiches. And then all the bakery stuff was just like, yeah, I don't know, seems pretty just bakery. Oh, shit. I'm walking by one of these times when they've got squid from the ocean just hung up like on a clothesline. Except this time, it's not the other time I saw this, I feel like it was like pins, like clothes pins.

This time, it's just skewers. They just use a skewer through the squid to hang it from these ropes.

But yeah, the other place where I saw this was way further north.

That's pretty cool. For one of my final things to see on the island and just the squid hung up like stockings on a clothesline, just drying in the sun and the wind.

But yeah, I got like a banana milk. I got a BLT sandwich. I got a, uh, some kind of muffin. I don't know, I haven't eaten those yet. It has like 11 bucks, not the worst deal, not the best deal.

But yeah, like I said, even though T-Money was on the little card reader thing, when I said T-Money, the lady looked very, uh, unsure. So I held up the card just to make sure it wasn't a translation issue. And she said, hey, go ahead, put it on the thing if you want. I guess I kind of, I kind of appreciated that. Where did I, like, I just laid it on the card reader and nothing happened. And she's like, see, see, it doesn't work. And I said, got right fair enough. I mean, I can't argue with that. So I just paid in cash. But I could have swore. I could have swore in Seiguapo. I think there's a Paris Baguette where I saw like an ad. It was like if you use your T-Money card on a Tuesday or something, you know, you get like a 10% discount or extra points or whatever. I could be wrong though. But anyway, that's the overall story of the T-Money card. Totally unreliable for anything except transit, but absolutely necessary for transit.

Which is fine. I don't think you can use transit cards for anything, but transit in North America. It's a bonus that you could use it for anything additional in these other countries. But the Japanese Suica card is a lot more flexible than the old T-Money.

Something else I noticed today is that near the idea I went to, there's a like a family pool type of thing. And as I walked by, I noticed nobody was shirtless. And I think that's kind of cool because it really makes a lot more sense. The North American thing is if you're a dude and you're at the pool, you're shirtless. But everyone here was wearing basically like long-sleeved sort of like divers shirts, you know, like a wetsuit, but just a long-sleeved shirt version. Every person. And it's definitely not like, oh, don't want to show my chubby belly. There's a ton of super fit people in South Korea. It's definitely not that. It's because the sun is death. It's really, really irresponsible to go swimming without a shirt on. You're just asking to get sunburned. And in North America, we should not be doing that shit. And they figured that out here as it is just so sunny and so hot and so brutal. They're just like, no, that's apparently. I'm inferring why they're doing this, but it's got to be because of that, right? Because like that amount of bare skin, if you're going to be in the 10:00 sun all day, is a hugely bad idea. And it's just kind of neat to see that, yeah, there was literally not one person male or female that didn't have their upper body covered while they were swimming. And I approve. I approve of that. It's a good move.

Oh, also, man. I noticed while I was sitting at a deer, it's just a weird little slightly bad smell. And I was like, well, that's definitely me because I'm sitting off in the corner by myself. No one else is around. And I'm just smelling all of my various items and they all smell fine and I realized it was my t-shirt. And it's a very small smell. Like, if I directly smell my t-shirt, it doesn't seem that bad. It's just, as I'm just sitting there, I don't know. I could just catch a whip of it once in a while. But this is a t-shirt I just, this is a t-shirt that I just put through the wash, just put it on today. Supposedly clean. And I realized what happened is that my weather-resistant jacket that I've just had slung over my shoulders while I've been doing the circumnavigation of Jeju. It was so sweaty and so gross the other day. It just smelled so bad from built-up sweat. That I quarantined it. I put it in its own separate bag. I was like, this thing is so gross. I literally don't even want to put it in with my other laundry. And then when I did do laundry, I put everything together. But I got even like, it's like 50 cents to get detergent out of the machine. And I know you're not supposed to oversope your clothes just, you know, so it doesn't overflow the machine or fuck something up. But I was like, just that coat is so gross that I got a dollar's worth. I got a second thing of detergent just to really blast my clothes. And yeah, it didn't work. Like, it did make the jacket clean. But it just seems like that that awful smell did transfer just a little to my other clothes. So hopefully my next round of laundry before I go will balance everything out. But it's like, damn, that is how brutally sweaty and gross my jacket got. Because everything else I would just wear for the one day, whereas the jacket I would have like slung around my shoulder all week. And it's just yet so disgusting that a round of laundry was not enough. So I looked into the anti-microbial wool. It's called marino wool. I was looking it up a little and apparently it is really expensive and not extremely sturdy. So I don't know, I'm curious. It sure couldn't hurt.

Traveling with just one bag as I do with my limited space for clothes, it would be nice to have clothes that were more resistant to getting all gross and sweaty. But but this shit is like really expensive. Like I could buy, you know, a pair of socks for three bucks or I could buy the marino wool socks for 30 bucks. It's like yikes. But I mean, maybe it's worth it. I don't know. It just spends like 150 bucks on a shirt. But if it's like an awesome shirt, the anti-microbial thing sounds real good, but the idea that at that price it's not actually very sturdy. I don't love. So I'm not going to go out of my way, but I mean, it's on my mind. I'm aware of it now because yeah, it just sucks. When you do laundry and you're fucking laundry is still slightly odd smelling. I don't like that. All right, did I have any other little odds and ends on my mind? I guess not. I think those are my last little as what I figure I'll do till I till I leave South Korea is just any more little tiny random weird little things that I notice. I'll just sort of sweep them up. I'll just try to grab them. Grab them and throw them in the podcast.

But time is wrapping up soon. And that's all I got for now.

And you know, there is some stuff that you know, it's hard to come to a conclusion about until until I'm on my way out till I've been here six months and can really verify how it is. And yeah, that's how I feel about tea money. I wasn't totally sure. Is it just me? Is it just coincidence? No, I think at this point I can say even places that say they take tea money, they don't. They don't. You're lucky if they do. Consider that a bonus. Definitely don't plan 15:00 on buying shit with your tea money card.

I just had an unfortunately long wait for a bus, so I was like, hey, there's a happy to see you convenience store. Let's pop in there. Let's take a gander. Let's see what I can do with this tea money card. Because I think I was thinking too small. I was like, I don't know. I guess I'll just buy like a bunch of junk food, you know? That's what I did at the end of Japan with my leftover yen. So I just bought a bunch of crap at the airport and I ate it. But obviously, I must not have had, I don't remember specifically, but I must not have had too much money left. Where I'm thinking about that here, if between my tea money card and my cash, I got over $100. It's kind of a lot of junk. Surely I can do something better with that. And of course I can. I don't know why I didn't think about this. So I just looked through the convenience store and I realized I could just buy useful stuff. So I bought some wet wipes, buy one, get one free toothbrush, a little traveler-sized mouthwash. I meant to buy some Tylenol, but I forgot. Sometimes Tylenol is just on the shelf, but sometimes it's behind the shelf and you gotta ask for it. That's how it was here. So I forgot. I forgot because it wasn't directly in front of my face, but I'll do that next time I met a convenience store. And I noticed they also sell socks in there. They might not be the best socks of all time, but it's kind of neat where I've been running through socks like crazy. But even if I have socks with a hole in them, I'll throw them in the laundry, run them through again. It's like, I won't wear those on a big hiking day, but I could put them on upside down or something for just a normal walking around the neighborhood day. Squeeze a little extra time out of my socks. But now that I only have one more round of laundry before I leave South Korea, now if I have a worn out sock, it just goes right into the garbage. It's not going through another round of laundry. So I'm not actually sure how many socks I'll have at the end of this, but I probably need a refill on the socks. Still probably better to just do that on the other side when I get to Taiwan. But again, if I just need to spend tea money credits, it's like, oh yeah, I can buy useful stuff. I can buy stuff I actually need. Just like hygiene stuff, toiletries, stuff. Socks. Awesome. I don't know why I didn't think of that earlier.

Man, also, I don't remember if I told this story or not, but it doesn't hurt repeating because it's a quick story, that when I traveled in 2019, just a lot of stuff I hadn't thought about when I went to Japan the first time. Like for example, I only had one bank card, one ATM card, and I suddenly realized that was a problem before I even got to Japan because in Amsterdam, I put it in an ATM machine and it got stuck. And for many minutes, it would not come out. And I eventually prided out with a library card that I also had in my wallet. Do I still even have my library card? I don't know, but it was very scary because I was like, oh, fuck, my card stuck in there. It's my only way to get money when I'm overseas.

And I can't even call the number on this ATM because I don't have a phone, a normal phone. I was pretty scared. And then months later in Japan, my bank card expired. Got an email from the bank just saying like, hey, your card's about to expire, but that's okay. There's a new one in the mail heading to your address. And I messaged them and was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, could you please delay that by any amount of time? But preferably a couple of months because I'm overseas. I'm not coming home anytime soon. I can't get this card. And they were incredibly unhelpful. Scotia Bank in Canada. I will always talk shit about you forever because of that. Fuck you. I just don't understand why you can't just change a number in your stupid fucking database and make my card work.

Total shit bank. But yeah, my fault on both ends that I didn't realize that having one card is a huge mistake. And that I wasn't at all keeping track of when my bank card was due to expire. And it expired at the worst possible time. But hey, as long as you don't make these mistakes twice, right? So this time around, I got a second bank account at a different bank just so I'd have two 20:00 bank cards. And I heard a saying about this that I think is really good. It's an engineering saying that if you have like a critical piece in a schematic, the saying is two is one and one is none. Like if it's an important part, you need redundancy. You need a backup because if you don't, one is none. You may as well not have it at all. You may as well just assume that this system is going to break. That this is dangerous and this isn't going to function. So this time around, I have two bank accounts, two bank cards. And I even also have a backup pair of glasses. I mean, it's a pair of glasses I've got where the prescription is still fine. But the arm of the glasses broke. So they're a little funny looking because I tried gluing the arm back on, but the it just wouldn't keep. But instead, I used a plastic straw, which those are quite rare. Now that everything's a paper straw, it's actually pretty hard to find a plastic straw. But a plastic straw was perfect to just hold the arm of my glasses on. It's not even that noticeable if you don't look too close. But they're my backup glasses that hopefully I will never need. But I've got them packed away because that's another mission critical thing, is if I lose my glasses, I'm fucking blind. I'll be so fucked with all my glasses. So I got two bank cards, two glasses. I wish I could have a backup passport. That's the only critical thing that I only have one of, but I don't think there's any way around that. I think one passport is all you get. But beyond that, yeah, I highly recommend doubles for things that are important, which in my case are bank card glasses. And I, in fact, have two smartphones. My second one, I mean, it was like this really cheap, really shit phone that was a hundred dollars Canadian brand new for just some crappy Android phone. And I dropped it in soul. I think it was. Cracked the screen, but I just bought a screen protector from Daiso. And it's like, oh, well, that's my shit phone with its cracked screen. And in fact, now it's starting to I've only had it a year, but it's starting to lose its battery is extremely quickly. But whatever, like that's the point, just to have something. That one is not as important. You can go get a smartphone in any country anywhere. But why not have two? Doesn't hurt. Double the batteries. If one of them dies when you're out in the world, you got another one. If one of your phones gets lost, you don't have to go buy a phone with an OS that's not in your language. And it's just why not. That one I feel like just doesn't hurt. But not critical, just handy. But anyway, the reason I bring that all up is that my original bank card, I always just have tucked away with my passport in a little sling. It's around my shoulder right now. Put it in the sling, put it under my shirt, set it and forget it. Just have it on my person all the time. So I've been using the other card for everything. And it's starting to get glitchy on me. And notice that when I was at KFC the other day, and I had to put it in the machine many times, like three or four times before it finally worked. And then I went to a McDonald's and it wouldn't work there either. I went to the other kiosk and then it worked. So my only problem so far have been fast food, no biggie. I haven't tried it at an ATM since it started getting getting bad on me. But obviously, you know, if I was back home, I would just go to the bank and ask for a replacement card. But I can't do that while I'm out in the world. So it's still a little uncomfortable. I don't like the feeling of having this card that I got to keep trying. And it doesn't quite work right. And it's definitely starting to starting to wear out. But I've got a second card. I got a backup. So it doesn't really matter. It's vaguely uncomfortable, but it's not like, uh-oh. It's a tiny, tiny worry in the back of my mind instead of a major calamity. See that man, backup stuff, mission-critical backups. Two is one. One is none. I feel like that's one of those sayings. You know, you hear these little sayings and they usually don't stick in your mind. But the ones that are actually useful in real life, they do stick in your mind. Like I remember when I was in 10th grade English class. I had this kind of flaky teacher. But she taught me this thing that I still remember to this day where because she was kind of flaky, the way she said it was, righty, tidy, lefty, Lucy. And it's just a way to know if you're turning a screw or you're trying to open a bottle, right tightens it, left loosens it. So in my mind, I just changed it to right tight, left loose. You know, I just unsing-songed it up a little. But that's been in my mind my entire life. 25:00 For decades now, right is tight, left is loose. Two is one. One is none. You know, these are, these are the fucking nursery rhymes that are actually useful in life.

All right, anyway, the bus should be here soon. So let me stop yammering about my travel logistics. However, stay tuned, because I'm sure there will be more coming up.

Holy fuck. This might be a little bit loud. I'm on a street corner. It's not a super busy street, though. But I can't have any choice. This is the only place I can stand where I'm in the shade and won't fucking die. So it's a Monday today. Wednesday is the day I leave Jeju Island. So I thought today would be my final little mini-adventure. And then tomorrow I can just make sure I get all my shit together. Go do laundry. And man, I just saw on, there's a little, one of the little LCD screens near me that has all the, what's going on today. 30.5 degrees Celsius, where the weather report said it's supposed to get up to 32. It is pretty early in the day. It's been a bit miserable. It's been making my last few days worse. But I've been doing a good job of getting up early in the morning. And then the rest of my day is kind of like, oh, fuck.

So hopefully it pays off, though, on the travel day, that I'm used to getting up at 8.30 in the morning. You never know. There's still the chance that I could all just go to shit, that I'll just get insomnia the night before, and all this will be for nothing. But at least I'm trying. But yeah, at least we haven't reached peak heat yet, although we probably will, just as I arrive. But yeah, it's one of those like feels like 38 degrees type of things. And the humidity, it's so insane. So it's the end of July right now. And yes, summer in Asia is no joke. I mean, I always heard about it. But it is true. It's insane. So like I jumped in the shower this morning, and I towled all off. You know, I want to be as dry as possible, because I've got my little my little sling I put under my shirt that has my my passport in it. But more importantly, I've got a knee brace that I always put on to stay compression elastic knee brace. And a little little rubber thingies, little toggles that I put around my big toes to keep my toes from pointing inward and developing bunions. Basically, all that stuff, you know, it's got to be dry when I put them on. I can't start with them being all clammy and gross. Although, you know, they'll get that way from sweating. But I can't at least don't want to start like that. Give my body the best opportunity, especially with my shoes, just because I still wear in these big boots, which I haven't found to be a big problem. In fact, my feet don't even sweat that much. But if they start wet, you know, it's kind of trapped in there. But the point is I towled all off, all super toweled, and just walking across the hotel room and just picking up like, you know, picked up the little sling with my passport in it. And I saw beads of wetness running down my chest and running down my arm. And I was like, what the fuck? I know I just dried off. And it's that in just instantly, in moments, I'm just sweating and not like little drops of perspiration, like sweat running down my body. In less than a minute, it's fucking crazy. I had to turn on the air conditioner and just stand under it for a minute and just leave it on while I got dressed just to give myself my best chance of not just being swamped. It's crazy. It's so hot. The pollution levels are great though. They're the best they've ever been. I still don't know how this works like why exactly in the winter things are so bad that it's like depressing. But in the summer, it just like blasts the fucking pollution in a way somehow.

Like, they're in the teens where they've been hovering a little above 50, most of the time I've been here, but now it's like way down in the green zone. Yeah, you know, ups and downs, but yeah, this weather is fucking insane. I know the place I've got coming up in Taiwan, they charge you to use the, like, three or four bucks a day to use the air conditioner. And I was thinking like, I'm sure I can just manage without that, but I probably not. Probably not. I think that's going to be a phantom cost to my Airbnb. $20 a day Airbnb is probably actually. See, that's again where I get, I get tricked with these things. If I just got an Airbnb that was $24 a day that had air conditioning, it would have been the same thing. And probably would have been nicer, you know. Like, I realized that in Amsterdam, that I got a cheap-ish Airbnb out in Oatsorn, two cities away from Amsterdam, but then I realized it cost me five euros each way to get into Amsterdam. So it's like, why didn't I just spend 10 extra euros and get a place closer?

I've been the same thing. You don't think about these hidden costs sometimes. But I thought what I would do, because it is a very clear day today. Just go to Goonsan, orium. I tried to go yesterday and I couldn't do it. I waken up early, just killed me. I got out by left the house. I walked to the bus stop. I should went back to Paris Baguette. And yeah, it is pretty nice. All my complaints about the odd food in South Korea. Paris Baguette is very Western. Just got some sandwiches and some bakery stuff. Not cheap though. It was like $15 for all the crap that I bought. Though to be fair, I mean, I guess if you go to McDonald's, it's $10 on a good day, but you can get that bill up to 13 easy. So it's all relative. Maybe it's not so bad, but if I had gone to Paris Baguette every day, it would have been expensive. But it is definitely an option. If you just want to go get a nice sandwich that they made in the store, it's like, you know, pretty good. It's just that the sandwich is $7. But in today's modern world, $7 bucks for a sandwich isn't even weird. That's pretty normal. But yeah, I ate that stuff and then I was like, I can't do this and I went home. Today I'm feeling a lot better. But yeah, I just thought I would just go to the Goonsan Oreo. Just go there, go up, soak in the view, go down. Still going to be brutally hot. Still going to be deadly. But not a whole big full day of walking. Because yeah, this weather, it is like still heatwave warnings and stuff. I really shouldn't even be doing anything. I should just stay inside. But I did that yesterday, and I'm going to do that tomorrow. So today we're doing it. We're going up to Goonsan. I'm going to soak it in one last time. But unfortunately, I got to the bus stop at about the worst possible time where there's still 25 minutes till the bus arrives. Fuck me.

So I just thought I'd record this little update to pass the time. So there we go. Thank you for eating up some time with me now. I'm going to go wait for the bus. Oh, I guess I should say I did that. I've been trying to use up my money. So I managed to use up all my t-money card money, but too much. I just bought everything in the world yesterday from a convenience store. Oh, chips and chocolate bars and some kind of cream bread thing and a couple of these little 3% alcohol peach drinks. I know a pair of socks. Anyway, I spent so much money. I only had $3 left on my t-money card. And it takes like six bucks to get to the airport. So I had to put $10 back on the t-money card. So that ends me off though with 13 bucks. I spent three bucks today. Six bucks getting to the airport. I have four bucks left on it. That feels good. That's fine. I got enough money that I don't have any worries that because I don't want to get to the bus Wednesday morning and not have enough money to get to the airport. I have to sort that out on the fly. That would be terrible. So I'm very confident that I got enough money to get to the airport. And just a few bucks left kicking around on that card. That's fine. That's the price of doing business. Oh God, yeah, just walking out into the sun. Just to go check the timer on this fucking bus stop insane. But yeah, when they do laundry tomorrow, unfortunately, to do laundry and make it fully dry costs just over $10. And it only takes the 50 cent pieces, the 500 one pieces. But the machine only takes $10 bills that it converts into coins. 13 more minutes. Fuck me. So basically, even though I only need like 11 or 11.50 in money, I got to put 20 bucks in this thing. So I'm going to have like $8 worth of 50 cent coins to get rid of. Again, no big deal. I just got to be that annoying guy. It goes into the convenience store and pays for everything with coins, you know. But at least that's one nice thing since there's no tax like in Canada. The prices are all bizarre and random because of tax. Taxes are added on as you buy stuff. Where at least here in Korea, you can plan it out. Like today, I bought a specific Starbucks coffee and a specific bottle of water that like I bought the more expensive water. Instead of the 700 one bottle, I bought the 1000 one, you know, the one dollar bottle of water just so it would all come out to exactly $4 because I had $4. And I just gave her the $4 and thinking, ding, ding, they get rid of those. But yeah, it turns out to using up your money, not that hard to do. Quite fucking easy to do. Should be no problem. And then whatever little coins and stuff I've got left at the airport, I'll just, I don't know. Put them in like the coin return of a machine or something. So the next person who gets their change back will get a mystery extra dollar 50 or something. Just because otherwise I'll be, you know, sometimes I would keep coins from the Netherlands or from Japan as a little keepsake. But I don't really. My memories of the keepsake, 35:00 any Korean money I don't use right now, I'll just have to carry it forever. So it's better just to leave it. But yeah, this should be no problem. Of all of my various little things to juggle, not that there's anything particularly difficult going on in my life right now, but it turns out spending money is very much not a problem. There's no problem. Just ratchet up the junk food budget, go to Paris Baguette a few times, you're all safe.

Wow, this is pretty fucking beautiful. So I met the Andiak Valley bus stop just west of Goonsan, A-N-D-E-OK Valley. And for anyone who's been keeping up with my little adventures, this is the spot where when it was rainy, there was caution tape put across the walkway to get down here. But anytime it's rainy, they put up the caution tape at quite a few spots, just anywhere that goes down near water. So I still went down and I walked across and it was no big deal. But there was a further path that I was like, you know, I'm not going to tempt fate here. I'm not going to go down there. Everything was fine on that day. But yeah, I've done the whole walk now through the Andiak Valley. It's fucking beautiful. Super highly recommended. I mean, it's right next to a bus stop, very easy to get to. And it's pretty short walk, but it's beautiful. You go way down into the valley where this little river flows through these really deep rocks. And there's a little bridge that goes above. But yeah, even today where it hasn't rained lately and it's super hot out and the water's probably as low as it's realistically going to get. But it was actually tough to make this walk. I could barely fit like there's parts where you just got to walk right next to the water or kind of hop across some slippery rocks. You know, I'm surprised that there's even a walking path down here at all because it's barely accessible by a person. I assume this is probably blocked off like a great majority of the time. But when you can make it, it's beautiful. It's really gorgeous. So yeah, off to a good start where, you know, I'm being out in the heat and I'm not going to miss that bus. The 201-202 bus just really triggers my motion sickness. I do not like it. The other bus is aren't as bad, but that one is just death. So I was going along on the bus. It's all hot and I'm like, wow, this is type B fun for sure. This is totally just like, so I'll have a nice memory in the future. Between this weather and this bus ride, God, this sucks. But as has happened many times, once I get off the bus, it's real fast for the day to turn around. For me to be glad I went and ventured out and like, Jeju Island is so fucking beautiful that even if the journey to get to one of these spots is less than great. Really makes me miss the subway. No motion sickness on the subway.

But yeah, now that I'm here, it's really good. This is super duper worth it. This is fucking beautiful.

This valley. What the fuck? So good. Actually, the Andiock River Valley. You should go one stop further. One stop further west. It's the best way to get down here. Just to make sure you get the whole thing. But yeah, despite it being a very clear day, it is still a bit cloudy but generally clear skies. There is still cloud cover and mist on sandbang sand, which is an especially large mountain around here. So I noticed on Goonsan, the one I'm heading to.

There's just the tiniest bit of mist cover and it's only exactly at the very, very peak. The very, very pinnacle. So it still might not get as hard to tell. It's hard to tell what the view is going to be like. It's very hard to gauge from down here what it'll look like up there.

I mean, maybe it'll all just clear over or maybe it'll still be just a weird, swirly mist filled with kamikaze insects that have lost control of their navigation. It won't be nearly as misty as the other day. It's not close to that. But it's just funny that the little area I'm heading to is like the one little spot just exactly right there. There's some mist.

But overall, honestly, not that bad out. Considering, considering its heatwave and sanity.

I felt worse. I felt worse in my life. I don't think there's any convenience stores around here. I got one bottle of water. But again, since I'm not going on a whole trek today, I'm basically just going straight up and coming right back down. That's probably all right. Oh, wait. No, there we go. GS25 over here across the street. Fuck it then. It's not take any risks. Let's get coffee in a cup and some popsicles. Probably a little extra liquid.

Because I've still got some cold hard cash to use up. And why risk it?

Because yeah, I'm a little surprised even that I'm getting this used to this used to the heat that I even just find this tolerable at all. I'm a little surprised because I am so much more geared for cold weather. But I mean realistically, I'm a skinny guy. Maybe I am like built more for hot weather. And I'm just prepared for cold weather. I just know how to dress for cold weather.

But Mercy, I miss the cold weather. I've probably said this before, but if anything, I wish Canada had more winter. As long as you're all bundled up and you're ready for it. Man, it's so cool. It feels so cool to be all bundled up with your great big coat and your great big hood and have your face covered. So your skin doesn't sting from the horrible cold.

And then it's like you're walking, it's like you're in a spacesuit. It's like you're on Mars. But you're on the snow globe version of Mars. You're like an astronaut or a deep sea diver going out into the perfect picturesque Christmas land world. It's fucking great. As long as you got the clothing for it, winter is so awesome. But I am getting used to summer. I'm handling it better. I don't know, I don't handle it that well if I'm just at home and it's hot and there's no air conditioning. I mean that sucks. But as long as you're out walking around doing stuff, yeah, I don't know. I'm going to give myself a self-high five. I'm doing okay.

Now that I got my floppy sun hat, my sunscreen, it's not the worst. But all right, here we are. GS25, popsicle time.

Oh man, thank God it's not that bad of a lock to get up to Gunsan. I don't want to talk too loud because there's actually another person here. I saw three people on their way down on my way up. So it's not the virtually no one that I usually see up here. Actually I guess on the misty day I did see those the most people. I saw like six or seven people up here.

Really not that far because I hear somebody else maybe they're coming up. I feel surprisingly bad. So at the convenience store I got a coffee shotgun that I bought three of these fancy ice cream bars that were like strawberry and blueberry ice cream bars by two get one free. And then the guy who ran the convenience store I was out front placing my ice cream bars in the cup as he came out to do something and he nodded at it. He's just like oh nice you know. He indicated that he liked that idea.

But I also bought a bottle of water that I guzzled down and had another backup one. And it felt good to eat all those ice cream bars at first. It kind of cooled down my core but I think maybe just eating ice cream bars. That number of fancy pants rich ice cream bars probably didn't help how I feel. And then just walking uphill in this insane heat. I'm starting to feel better now that I've just sat down for a sec but I've started to get like queasy. Like this really feels bad. This is not the right weather to be out here doing this. I'll say I've said it a few times already but I'll say it one last time for the road. That website that's about some guy set up about walking the Ole trail that he highly recommend. Do not do this in July and August. He's absolutely right. It's not comfortable. It's just so fucking hot. It's insane. This is such a bad idea. Oh God, hit us. Yeah. Don't feel good. Don't feel good. Oh there's a nice breeze though. I think I'll come back. I'll come back to life now and there's no more uphill. 45:00 I mean just a little more to get to the peak. Oh there's some of the mist. That is so crazy. I can see some of the mist like the other day where it looks like smoke. It's thick enough but that's just so nuts. How does that make sense? When it's hot like this I just don't understand. So yeah it's still sort of generally clouded over. Although the sun just came out a moment ago and it's like oh but it went back away. But my view is still pretty perfect. I don't know what it'll be like from the tippity top peak but from the observation secondary peak that has the sign set up. Here's what you're looking at. Here's what all these things are. From here it's great. I can see. As far as a person could possibly see. Like the other day. Yeah that's why I didn't notice it was the other day.