The rest of my weekend

I woke up in Pohang on Sunday, I guess it was. I didn't stick around very long. I went to the beach to take a picture or two and then hopped on a bus back to the bus terminal. Good old 105. It seemed so much longer the night before. Of course, I rode it too long because I didn't know when to get off. It also went to all these suburbs the night before. I think it might have gone back to the bus station. How many little statues of liberty could there be on buildings. Anyways, I caught a bus to Yeongdok. I guess it's only known for crabs. I didn't stay there very long either. Maybe an hour or two. I planned to spend the night. I went to a motel. 50,000 won. For a Sunday night in this town. Then I walked to try to find the motel that this Moon Handbook travelguide mentioned was cheaper. I always want to put 2 n's in mentioned. I'm sure it's to do with French. I'm going to work on not doing it. Anyways, I walked. I bought a Pepsi in complete silence. I picked it out of the fridge, the woman looked like she didn't know what to do. I pulled out a 1000 bill. She smiled and took it and I waved goodbye. I followed some 20 something or teenage Koreans for a few blocks. I didn't feel like walking past them. Then I saw this little path. I followed it. I wound up at some Buddhist temple. I sat there on the steps for about an hour. I thought about a few things. There was dead bee there and some ants. I saw two ants fight over a piece of something. They dropped it and then wrestled and threw each other off the step and fell a few feet. Something to be learned from that...maybe. Then I looked at a tree. It had a lot of leaves and it made me think of all the life that must be in that tree. All the birds that have sat in it, the ants that crawled on it now, and then I thought about how boring it must be to be a tree. I tried to think about what to do but couldn't really. I did for a little bit but drew no conclusions as I usually never do. Then some woman came to the temple well not the temple but the little building beside it. I thought maybe I should become a Buddhist or something. I'm not a very spiritual person though and so it would all be pretend really. I thought maybe I could go inside and meditate/think about my problems. Anyways, later the woman came out with another woman and they said goodbye to each other. Then I heard a TV and thought about how meaningless everything was. I've thought it lots of times before so it was nothing new. I just always think about how I didn't exist for billions of years and how one day I wouldn't exist anymore. I really wish I believed in some kind of afterlife but it's just impossible for me.

I think it's because I believe in evolution so I always think, at what point did humans become so special. Was it at cro-magnan man, homo habilis? So really, what I'm saying is that if there is a heaven for humans then there must be a heaven for other apes, and crabs, and butterflies, and amoebae maybe. So that doesn't seem very realistic to me. Aside from all the physical laws. How do people in heaven get energy to live? You wouldn't think they'd have to eat but they must. So if there aren't an infinite amount of heavens then there must only be one and if there's just one and it's full of amoebae and squid and what not and they all still need to eat than how is it different from Earth. So anyways, maybe it would be better if I weren't so logical and could just believe certain things. I just never could. I always found it must easier to believe in the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus than Jesus, Angels, or God. At least the Tooth Fairy did something for a reason. I guess my childhood was more full of that kind of propaganda rather than religious stuff. My parents would read us the story of Jesus and what not at Christmas. It just seemed like another story to me. I remember hearing something about Bethlehem on the news and told my mom how there was actually a city called Bethlehem. She told me that it was the same one as in the story. Then I asked if the people there had heard it. I must have never believed in Jesus really. I don't even think it was until I was like 10 that I realized it was supposed to based from a true story. I would put true in quotations but who am I to tell you what is true. Anyways, where did this come from? Right, my lack of faith in anything. Well, I would have had to pretend to be faithful and the TV just made me realise that this temple was just another place. I went back to the station and ended up going to Pyeonghae. Ijust randomly decided as I do many other things. Actually, I looked at the map in the Moon Handbook and saw Hupo. It wasn't in the index so I thought maybe I should go there. Then I found something else that mentioned a pavilion outside of Pyeonghae with spectacular views of the sea and sunset over the mountains. That sounded like a good place for self reflection. That was the only time I had to wait for a bus. They've always just been there after I bought my ticket. The ride to Pyeonghae really wasn't very far but it took the longest time. Traffic was slow and it took 2 hours or so to get there. I think it was only 50km away. It was a nice drive though. I got to watch the sea pretty much the whole time alternating between rocks and sand. The water looked nice.

I arrived in Pyeonghae. Walked around a bit trying to find a motel. Found one but no one was there except a family who probably wondered why I was loitering outside the front waiting for someone. I walked to the next one. The same thing happened. The desk was on the 2nd floor. I went up but no one was there. I went back down and someone was there though. I ended up paying 50,000 won for this little motel. It didn't even have air conditioning. Luckily it wasn't as hot as in Daegu so I managed to sleep alright. After dropping off my bag I went to a bakery and bought some bread and cookies. She told me the price and I actually understood. Cheon o baek un. Maybe she was waygooking it for me. Anyways, then I walked to this old looking temple that I saw before looking for the motel thinking that possibly it was the pavilion. It was locked and I decided to follow the path that looked like it led behind it. Some man's house was there and he asked me 'Odi-e kayo?' Wow, more Korean I actually understand. Of course, I didn't know the answer and just kind of shrugged. He said something and made some kind of motion like there was nothing to see. I'm sure I was trespassing. Anyways, I felt pretty good about my virtually non-existent Korean skills. Then I decided to walk along the highway since the pavilion was supposedly a few Km outside of the 'farming community.' I really didn't think that was the pavilion. Well, I walked along the highway. I don't know how far I went. I didn't even know the name of the pavilion. I saw it on some sign as we were driving. My shorts also kept falling down. Well not down but sat very low on my hips due to my excess of change in one pocket and my camera in the other. I kept trying to fashion some kind of primitive belt out of the blades of grass. Really, I was trying to tie it around two of the belt loops. None of them worked though and I just held them up. I found some sign, well two actually. One said something, I still don't know what was 2.5km away. Then I went to the other one. Don't know why. It sounded like what I remembered reading. I walked to this little community of houses and saw some temple or pharmacy sign. It said it was 700m away. I don't think I walked 700m before the trail ended and there was a little house. There were big dogs barking at me too. I didn't know what I was doing plus it was getting dark. I turned around and walked backed to Pyeonghae. I got back and didn't want to go to a Korean restaurant that didn't have pictures. I bought some ramyon and ate it dry in a bag while watching CNN. Then bed and I woke up the next day and it was raining. I didn't feel the need to go to this pavilion in the rain so I hopped on the bus back to Daegu. Bought my ticket as the bus was leaving. I never have to wait for the bus. There must have been some crazy mixup in Yeongdok. Don't they know the bus runs based on my movements.

I tried to think on the way back on the bus. It was okay at first while they were showing a Korean movie. That was much easier to tune out than Martin Lawrence. Why do Koreans want to watch Black Knight in the first place? So that made it difficult. I didn't think much and will probably delay that until next time to talk about. I was really just announcing that I was changing my profile pic. The old one is from around last Halloween. Taken in Charleston, South Carolina of all places on one of my many many escapes from Texas trips. It was a decent picture. I don't think it looks much like me though. Not now at least. This new one though just captures my attitude so much more. Humourless, a little annoyed maybe. It's from my trip to Woobang Towerland. A friend of a friend who has never met me said I looked kind of hot in a serial killer kind of way. I don't know what that is supposed to mean really, but I'll take it.

Well, I've uploaded some photos but they are out of order and I'm too lazy to fix it.

Big green hill while walking the highway in Pyeonghae

I really like the colour green sometimes. Much more brilliant in real life. I always think it's funny how pictures can be so deceptive. Some just really can't capture anything and other times it captures everything and more. Seriously, I had some pictures of Bucharest that made it look amazing but it really wasn't all that nice.

Field we passed on the bus back to Daegu.

Bukbu Beach in Pohang complete with steel mill and ferry terminal

Big spider I saw on the way to the pavilion that I never made it to.

Better view of Bukbu beach.