Sweating Pocari

I was on the subway a couple days ago and two old men got on, one tall and thin, the other short and pudgy. They took up impressive stances in the center of the car and began talking shit about everyone their gaze landed on. They reminded me of those two old muppets, up in the balcony, always hating on Kermit and the gang. I couldn't understand them, but you can recognize old man shit talking.

"Look at that girl, her skirt is too short!"
"I wouldn't let my daughter out dressed like that!"
"But I sure would let her in dressed like that!"
"Ho ho ho!"

"Look at that lady with the shopping bag from the beauty salon!"
"It's gonna take a lot more than one bag to help her!"
"Ho ho ho!"

"Look at that tall white guy!"
"He's probably here to find a Korean wife!"
"Hey, if you're interested, you can take mine!"
"Ho ho ho!"

I decided to get out of civilization and spend a nice day on the beach. My goal was to get to Sokcho in the Northeast of Korea, but after a half day of shuttling back and forth between express bus terminals and pretending to be French-Canadian I gave up on that plan. Then I saw a bus heading to the airport. I knew it was on an island off of Incheon, so without any thought at all to my destination beyond the airport, I hopped aboard equipped only with a bottle of my favorite Korean energy drink, Pocari Sweat.

By the time we arrived, I had decided my perfect beach was going to be a rather remote fishing village accessible only by ferry on the south western tip of airport-island. I bussed it down there and ferried my way over. More seagulls than people, for sure. Once on that island, Muui, I realized there was an even more remote island that could be walked to during low-tide, so again, very little thinking, just action. The picture above is the path one takes from Muui to Simil. Feels like you're headed to meet with Jeff Probst and vote someone out of the tribe.

I ended up having an awesome afternoon and evening on the beach. I explored rocks and tide pools, read Cormac McCarthy, and got drunk with a Dutch couple. Only two of these three things illustrate the darkness in man's heart.

The next day I was awoken by the sun and after an hour and a half of walking and ferrying, a very nice Korean couple picked me up on the side of the road and brought me back to the airport, where another express bus was waiting to take me home. It was the best kind of mini-vacation; no planning, no stress, lots of fun!