last night i biked towards anpyeong 安平, a town of old country roads, and smells of burnt grass and decomposing organic matter. i turned towards jangsan mountain and the street soon became a dirt road. then it was just the light of my torch and the narrowing path in front of me. as things got creepier i started thinking about old dokkebis cooking stew in their little skull-strewn caves. i smelled a slow brewing cauldron somewhere near by. i inspected the treeline with my headlamp and a pair of cat eyes glowed back at me from the jungle. the road ended at a metal gate where i assume a dokkebi and its pet cat lived. it had cctv. i heard a low rumble. i looked back and in the distance i saw a train of the elevated line four quietly slither on the tracks above the empty street.
school cancelled for 3 days because of mers.
at 3 i start a long bike ride around busan.
west to oncheoncheon.
up the creek i find men net casting on a pool of water.
i stop in pnu for lunch. i turn around and bike south to seomyeon. i cross to west busan, the industrial heart of the city.
i arrive at the banks of the nakdong around 7.
i travel south to dadaepo beach following the river.
night falls
men building fires in the dark. praying or passing time where the nakdong empties into the pacific.
in dadae, makeoli for the protectors.
a little after 10 i pass a shop that makes plastic lucky pigs and other creatures in busanjin. they’re working late, perhaps trying to meet a deadline. i hear a machine somewhere in the shop. the machine makes rhythmic sounds as if breathing. with every exhalation out comes a new plastic toy. inside the shop i see a woman sitting on the floor surrounded by a thousand yellow plastic hearts. she is fixing heart-shape stickers on each plastic heart. handmade i suppose.
i stop in seomyeon for a burrito. by 11:30 im home.
sunday. in an alleyway near my home in jaesong we find a sad parrandero.
we walk from jaesong south to centum. we have lunch. we cross the orca bridge and follow the suyong to where it meets the pacific in millak. we reach ksu just in time to see: