Day 8, Leg 7

Today's walk from Jangsu Pension took me to the northern reaches of the city of Choongju (I deliberately spell it that way to avoid the "ooh/uh" ambiguity of the Chungju spelling... think: Connie Chung to see what I mean*). The day started off miserably in more ways than one.

I left Jangsu Pension at 5:25 a.m. It had been a fitful night's sleep, with my back giving me some grief. I packed quickly and was out the door. One thing I didn't do was take an early-morning shit, and that came back to haunt me. I'd been walking in semidarkness for about thirty minutes when the urge struck me full force: I had to go, and I had to go now. The first twenty minutes of the walk had been partially lit by street lights, but once I took a steep ramp down and found myself at river level, things were a lot darker. It was also ass-cold out: InaccuWeather put the temp at 36°F (2.2°C). In my desperation, I didn't give a damn about the cold, but I was glad for the darkness. Because I have no talent for the "Asian aquat," I require a physical aid. I found it in the form of a signpost. I quick-released my backpack, brought out my wet wipes, dropped my pants, hung on to the signpost, squatted, and fired off a wet and steaming salvo into the night. Relief flooded through my being, and all was right with the world. I used my wet wipes to clean myself up and wash my hands, and I prayed that I hadn't accidentally shotgunned my pants. 

I was happy until about 7:20 a.m., which is when it started raining. So I was now experiencing the second of my two greatest hiking nightmares: the first nightmare involves having to shit outside when there's no bathroom around and no proper cover, and the second nightmare involves cold rain, which saps the morale and deadens the soul. If you're a soldier who's had to slog miles through cold rain, my hat is off to you. The rain was gentle but more or less steady until around lunchtime, which is when the sun suddenly decided to make an appearance, banishing the rain demons for today, at least. Because the rain's intensity kept fluctuating, I found myself putting on and taking off rain gear, including the shroud for my backpack. This slowed me down even further; it also got a bit annoying. Again, InaccuWeather had said nothing the night before about any rain. I'm tired of this nonsense, so I'm now switching to the Korean government's official weather website for my forecasts. 

I took what pictures I could before the rain began, and I even took some pictures during the rain. Once the sun came out, I went back to shutterbugging with vigor. As usual, I grumbled to myself about not being able to take certain pictures when it was raining. I did, however, get more pics of military operations happening, and even more pics of dead snakes. This is, in fact, the most dead snakes I've seen on such a trip. A lot of these suckers never make it across the road. I also stumbled across some sort of walking festival at Binae Island; one highlight of the festival was a Korean woman crooning a list of mostly American tunes from times gone by. I wanted to record some of this, but by the time I walked up to her, she was singing something modern. I'll upload the video so you can enjoy a few seconds. Other photos are of the usual images I like to capture: landscapes, crops, properties (both rich and poor), and barking dogs.

Today's walk was 22K. I'm at the W60,000/night Eden Hotel, also called the On You Hotel. There are several hotels all clustered together in this area, and they all seem to use each other's names for different things. For example, my hotel says "Eden Hotel" at the front door, but my room key and bedsheets are stamped with "On You." Other hotels in this part of town are called On You and Eden Forêt. There's no computer, but the WiFi is terrific. You just have to look at a sticker on the server that gives you the password. The front-desk lady was kind of cute; when I asked her the price for a room, she wordlessly made a "six" with her fingers, then said, "sixty thousand won" (in Korean, 60,000 is rendered as "six ten-thousands"). It was nice not to have an extra "weekend" cost or an "early arrival" cost.

Since I got to town so early, I decided to have lunch at my usual soondae-guk** place. The lady running the resto didn't remember me from three years ago, even though I've been here three times before. Two Korean men came in right after I did; we all ended up talking together, mainly about my walk. One guy was more talkative than the other, and he even asked the rarely posed "Why?" question that most Koreans never bother to ask. Conversation was going great... until the subject inevitably turned to my weight. Jesus Christ, that fucking annoys me. And things had been going so well. I mean, I know the way to get people to shut up about my weight is just to lose the weight, but I also wish I lived in a culture that didn't think it was okay to talk about the body of someone you've just met. Actually, my theory is that Koreans don't like it when people mention their weight, either, but because this is a culture that thrives on finding and/or manufacturing conflict for conflict's sake, people here can't help themselves. On some level, just about everyone here is an asshole in that respect.

Some images:

Bye-bye, Jangsu Pension.

dark road, intermittent street lights

the dawn's early light

Now, that's harvesting.

cold, wet, not very happy, but still thumbs-upping

more military stuff

no step on snek—too late

a very American-looking tree

"There are fields, Neo. Endless fields."

They were nice... until the subject of my weight came up.
Guess which one's the more talkative one.

And a bonus video:

In other news: I started peeling a day or so ago, so you'll likely see closeup pictures of my face and hands soon. Also, I've been losing weight again, as usually happens on these walks: I started off cinching my hip belt to the fourth hole; I'm now on the fifth hole as of a few days ago (Yangpyeong), and I'm almost ready to go to the sixth hole. When I bought the belt at an Itaewon Big & Tall store, it had five holes punched into it, and I punched in two more. Will that be enough? We'll soon find out. 

Tomorrow's walk takes me deeper into Choongju. I'll be downtown, and not far from the start of the Saejae path. It's looking like a 30K walk to downtown (there's a 20K walking route, but it doesn't follow the river), so I'll be up at 4 and, I hope, on the trail by 4:30. The Korean weather site is predicting a bright, sunny day for tomorrow, but it's starting off cold. Probably gonna be this way from here on in: cold mornings, moderate afternoons. And Busan ought to be warm by the time I finish my final segment in the afternoon.

__________

*If you're familiar with the Korean government's official romanization scheme, then you know how to pronounce Chungju, and there's no ambiguity. But not all of my readers know that romanization scheme, so they might see the city name and rhyme it with "lung Jew."

**Again, if I wrote "sundae," some people would think it should be pronounced "sundae," as in "ice-cream sundae." As for writing guk instead of gook, well, the reason for that should be obvious.

PHOTO ESSAY

leaving Jangsu Pension... soon to have an intestinal moment

crossing the bridge

follow the arrow

It's hard to tell, but I'm looking downhill in this shot.

We're down now, following a watercourse off to the right. And my anus is about to explode.

I think this was the first pic I took after my massive dump-in-the-dark.

dawn approacheth

I'll be seeing a lot of these half-harvested fields.

I wonder if that means "Island River."

Heungweon Chang shwimteo, according to the sign

collected breath-moisture... gross

arfer

more military vehicles by the river

A lot of cars brazenly drive on the bike path.

Gukto Jongju: we're on the right path.

Turning right; the tall, red-edged sign says good-bye.

Of the 5 Rules for Bikers, only three are visible:
1. You must wear a helmet.
2. Don't speed for the safety of pedestrians.
3. Something about cell phones... maybe "Don't use them while biking."
4. You must turn on your light at night.
5. Only Allah knows.

The Chinese designates this as the Namhan-gang Daegyo, i.e., the South Han River Bridge.

There'd been news of a joint military operation, hence all the hubbub.

Welcome to Chungcheong-bukdo! (North Chungcheong Province) And turn left toward Choongju Dam.

a couple signs telling me to turn left

a sign for Choongju City

This orange building looks about complete compared to the last time I was passing this spot.

tense in the tents

The blue line separates the bikers from the walkers.

Could be perilla mint or fern fronds. Anyone know?

elegant in death

These are the autumnal colors I live for when I do these walks.

plane landing 1 (see it? if not,  click and enlarge)

plane landing 2

plane landing 3

The sign by the plane (series of syllable-squares) advertises skydiving.

I saw a ton of possible flowers when I looked this up, but each was wrong somehow.

putt-putting along

that Amurrican tree

That is one crushed snake. Death by tire. "I'm tired."

I like this shot, except for the slight tilt.

If you leave nature to its own devices, it'll get everywhere eventually.

Did I mention there was rain?

myo/묘 tumulus—someone's family plot

cabbages, flourishing

shrine

cabbage (only the part near the ground is eaten, not the huge leaves)

chilies

CHILIES!

farm roads and irrigation canals

Looks to be another, bigger shrine.

on its way to becoming snake jerky

I think I was fascinated by all the dangling vegetation.

guys in back, pulling the traffic cones off the road

the mysterious toilet seat and cover

almost certainly chrysanthemums

I can envision an old man sitting on his rocker.

A sign saying this is both the 4 Rivers path and the South Han River Bike Path.

You have to say "garbage" with a fake French accent: gar-BAHZH.

stubborn cosmos, toughing it out

I still have no idea whether this place is occupied.

taking a quick break on the property... no one seems to be home

potential for pumpkin pie

nice view of the quiet river

Zinnia violacea, I think

guardians of the suburbs

more myo

intellesting architecture

I got to a rest stop and bought snacks. A festival was in progress.

Island of Sound. Or something like that.

I approach the sound of singing.

He's having none of it.

squash flower

still growing

Binae Marsh, rest spot for migratory birds

red-and-white chrysanthemum

old sign for a shyupeo ("super," from supermarket, i.e., a convenience store)

a store that sells makkeolli (rice wine)

A sign out front says there's also a minbak (lodging) nearby, but this is not where I usually stop.

A Choco Pie bought from the store.

"Urinal That Way" (lit. "place for your urine")

Something trying to pass itself off as a temple or something (faux-)spiritual.

Seokwang-sa (Stone King Temple). How temple-y is this place, really? Probably not very.

Not-quite-amber waves of grain.

This stretch puts you close to traffic.

scaffolding

"Good-bye!" Chocheon Village.

Neungam Carbonated Hot Spring(?)

nearing the place where I'll be stopping for the night

traditional vessels

in town

The cat was shy, and not my friend.

Where I usually stop and eat... the lady running the place never remembers me.

Fric and Frac. Fric was a bit of an asshole.

The front says "Eden Hotel," but...

...the key says "On You Hotel."

my poor, beat-up toe

worse for wear