Yes.
Wanderer, your footsteps are
the road, and nothing more;
wanderer, there is no road,
the road is made by walking.
By walking one makes the road,
and upon glancing back
one sees the path
that never will be trod again.
Wanderer, there is no road–
Only wakes upon the sea.
More From Disorienting Encounters
“There is no better way of obtaining useful information than by mixing with people. According to a wise saying of the ancients: “The eye never tires from seeing, nor the ear from hearing.”
Therefore, I decided with the help of God to blacken these pages with what I saw and heard during this voyage, be it clear or obscure. For I am but a woodgatherer of the night, the one who lags behind, a horse who is out of the race.”
– Disorienting Encounters: Travels of a Moroccan Scholar in France in 1845 – 1846. The Voyage of Muhammad As-Saffar
Sometimes One Even Does It By Oneself
“During their leisure time you will see them promenading on the streets and boulevards. One of them takes his friend, male or female, by the hand and they set out on a stroll, going back and forth with purposefulness as if they had a goal in mind, but their only intention is talk and relaxation. Sometimes one even does it by oneself. They say it is useful for reflection, for revealing hidden thoughts, and for discovering new ways of doing things; and I tried it and it was true.”
– Disorienting Encounters: Travels of a Moroccan Scholar in France in 1845 – 1846. The Voyage of Muhammad As-Saffar
I Went Hiking Again
I’ll spare everyone the stories of bus karaoke. Let’s just say I have new found fear of some of my coworkers. This hike was part of a school trip where all the teachers rent a bus and have “fun” together. “Fun” meaning hiking, meaning walking up a mountain and down again and then eating so much food as to be near to bursting.
That’s “fun”.
Anyway, we went to Mungyeong and walked through the mountain gates would-be Confucian scholars would have to pass through when on their way to Seoul to take their civil service exams. The whole area makes much of its pre-20th century Korean history, which isn’t surprising considering its 20th century history might not be so cool.
The Eye’s a Filter For You to See
Jin and I went to the beach to eat at one of our favorite restaurants. I’ll probably write about the place one day, but if you’re ever in Pohang it’s behind Tilt, the foreigner bar, maybe about a block or so in.
Afterwards we wandered around a nearby neighborhood where I snapped the above picture. Posting it here has started me thinking how the city must look to people only reading about it on this blog. There’s certainly a trend in my pictures that runs counter to the actual. For one thing the city has people in it, and most of it doesn’t look like the weird, dirty, and empty parts I post pictures of.
This coming week I’ll post more mundane pictures. Maybe the quotidian will be as strange.
Up a Mountain
Mossy roots. Also the best picture I took all day.
This one is for the Mossy Skull.
I did a bit of hiking today on Mount Naeyeon outside of Pohang City. It’s actually still in Pohang county but an hour by bus north of downtown. It was a beautiful late summer day: windy and relatively cool. It rained when we got off the bus but cleared up when we reached the trail. The trail runs beside a river then loops around one of the peaks. There’s thirteen (twelve?) waterfalls along the trail. We passed maybe seven of them. There’s also a Buddhist temple, Bogyeonsa, with various hermitages and buildings nestled in the valley.
If you’re in Pohang it’s a great day trip.
Now come the blurry cellphone pictures.
A waterfall
LOOK INTO THE LIGHT!
300 years ago a monk probably lived in this cave.
The folks on the right were a father and son pair meditating above a small waterfall.
Overall a pretty fun day.
The bus trip is cheap, about 2USD (1,500 Won), with another 2.5USD tacked on for admittance to the park. We didn’t visit any of the temple buildings although most of them were open to the public and you could hear monks chanting from various points of the trail. This added to the calm atmosphere (as an aural environment it was amazing: water trickling over rocks, wind blowing through leaves overhead, and monks chanting… yeah, I wanted to record it all).
The one thing I wished I got a picture of was the coffee vending machine in the middle of the forest where the trail branched towards the temple. It wasn’t even near a rest area, just there beside the trail.
Next time.
Internet Down
Our home internet connection is out and likely to remain unfixed until tomorrow. Right now I’m using the wifi in my new favorite cafe, Hand’s Coffee above the Dickies on the pedestrian street section of Shinae. Here’s a picture of the bike trail I walked along this morning. It’s the backside of Pohang where it backs against the hills (and if you consider the front side the East Sea). According to one cab driver in town, the hills are home to packs of wild boar that rampage through the streets in the fall and winter.
Wild f’n boar!
Today I saw a few happy dogs, a scrawny cat, and a horde of ants eating a scarab beetle. No boar at all. But, who knows, maybe they were there, watching, waiting…
Yesterweird 