Day 9, Course 11

Aside from the faintest of sprinkles early this morning, I had another nearly perfect day, weather-wise: cool, cloudy, and breezy. I ended up taking a massive shortcut to avoid the difficult-rated Course 11—the last of the difficult courses on this walk. I had to walk an extra few kilometers backward to my lodging, though, so I ended up doing the original 18K. Still, the main part of the walk was relatively short, and I finished that part way early.

Today's jaunt took me along farm roads and local highways. Traffic wasn't too bad, and while some parts of today's route lacked a shoulder, there was never enough traffic for me to feel threatened. I've felt safe my entire time in Jeju—a major contrast with walking the Korean east coast, but on par with walking the Four Rivers trail. 

As always, there was plenty to see. Among the things I noticed: how commonplace it was for there to be myo (burial mounds) right in the middle of a plot of farmland. Most of these myo are surrounded by low walls of craggy volcanic stone, Jeju-style. I also got a closer look at Museul-bong, the local mountain with some sort of facility built on top of it, which looks like an observatory. I never got to see the facility up close, and Naver Map doesn't seem to show anything about the place (military structures and properties are usually left blank), so I'm left to guess and speculate. Maybe I'll research the question once I'm back from this and the Andong trip. What sits atop Museul-bong?

Temperature and humidity make a huge difference in how much water I consume while walking. Today, I downed a single 500-milliliter bottle of water because of how cool and windy the morning and early afternoon were. Even when things got sunny a bit after noon, the wind kept the temps down. I barely sweated today, which is saying something given how sweaty I normally am.

I went to a Vietnamese place for lunch. While the food tasted good, I couldn't help noticing that the place was pretty stingy with its proteins: there were only three small strips of brisket in my pho. The ambiance of the place was nice, but the ordering procedure was weird: each table had a touch screen, and you had to select your order that way, then hit "order" to confirm. The guy who took care of me kept wanting to speak English; he saw my shirt and guessed "Kevin?" As I was leaving, he stage-whispered, "Good luck, Kevin!"

When I left the restaurant and went down the street to a convenience store to pick up a snack, the friendly lady there gave me two tangerines to munch on. She also offered to let me eat inside her place, where she had indoor seating, but I preferred the windy outdoors. So while I've bitched and moaned about Korean rudeness, the fact is that people here can be friendly and solicitous when they want to be, just like in the States, I suppose.

The big news is that I'm thinking of changing my route pretty drastically for the next three segments of the walk. As things stand, I'm supposed to do Courses 12 and 13 tomorrow (Saturday), then Course 14 on October 9 (Sunday). 12, 13, and part of 14 are all inland routes. I'd rather follow the bike path along the coast instead. Problem is, JW might be arriving in Jeju tomorrow, although I haven't heard a thing from him about confirmed travel dates. I have a sinking feeling that he's not coming at all; last we talked, he mentioned having to deal with company-related issues (he works for POSCO, and there was serious flooding at their Pohang facility recently, so JW's office is handling that mess); I'm guessing he might not be able to make it, but I'll know more tonight.

I had to call a number to get checked in to the Daejeong Motel. The room costs W40,000. Since no one was at the front desk, I called a cell number and was told by a lady to use the mu-in machine to get a room key. The lady said that regular sukbak (overnight stay) normally wasn't possible at this early hour; the machine would only allow people to select the daeshil (hourly) option (motels do hourly rates for horny couples wanting to have an afternoon quickie). She guided me step-by-step through the process: select daeshil (even though I would be staying overnight), then insert two W10,000 bills, and the lady would come to my room later and collect the remaining W20,000 from me personally. But the machine had other plans: it ate my first W10,000 bill, then, when I restarted the process, it allowed me to pay another W20,000, at which point it spat out the key for Room 201, which is where I'm finishing up this entry now. That was quite the linguistic adventure.

You're in luck today as I have only 303 pics to share. Enjoy them all. Comment hard and often. Make me proud.

open early

Museul-bong, the mystery peak

windy

observatory?

tangerine truck

strange concrete walls make this look like a litter box

interesting scoop

looked like an animal skull at first

looks like a monk's hat

Mother Circle and her little spheres

note the Olle arrow

It was so early by the time I got here.

aggressive dawg on the property

sorry not to see the chocolate museum

hello, ladies

haven't seen an Izod logo in years

fellow traveler

Farmer Bill putt-putting along

skwarshes

sign for a cathedral

What am I looking at?

There's a weird blend of local images.

See the myo?

keetty

frozen with fear

"Are we eating... ourselves?"

what a shwimteo is for

my lodging, but I'm too early

saw a few of these on the east coast last year:
"Let’s live right!"

note the rollers

Vietnamese place

good but a bit meager for the price

from the nice lady at the convenience store

The day went from cloudy to sunny in the afternoon.

convenience-store sign

one lone bit of topiary at the park I was at

the front entrance of Daejeong Motel

no one at the front, so I had to call

I called the 010 cell number.

rulez and rates

my room

baffroom

I might provide an update if I get any news from JW. Frankly, I'm not hopeful.