Yes, I am a creature of habit. We all are—if we're honest adults. Habits and routines overlap, so anyone who engages in the routine of going to work is, automatically, a creature of habit. Get up, hit the bathroom, shower, shave, eat breakfast, go to work, eat lunch, go home, eat dinner, relax in the evening. If we have hobbies that we return to time after time, we're creatures of habit. A person who does something completely different, completely unique, every single day is an exceedingly rare creature.
At the same time, no one ever does exactly the same thing every day. No habit ever involves absolutely perfect repetition. Every single day is, in fact, different in how it plays out. Some people appreciate this nuance; others, distractible and easily bored, don't.
I follow many of the same paths when I do my walks. Partly, this is out of convenience. Local routes to the Han River, for example, start from my apartment building and lead back to it. And I have favorite routes that I do over and over: the route from my place to Hanam City; the route from my place to Bundang; the route from Hanam to Yangpyeong; the route from Yangpyeong to Yeoju; the Four Rivers trail (which I've done four times); lately, the Nakdong River trail (which I'll be doing in its entirety for only the second time).
But are these the only routes I've walked? Only people who cherry-pick what I've written on the blog would think so. I've also walked the route from Oksu Station to Uijeongbu twice. I've walked along the river from Gayang Station in western Seoul to Unyang Station in Gimpo. I've done most of the east-coast trail (never again—too busy and traffic-heavy for walkers). I've walked parts of the Jeju Olle trail as well as the roughly parallel Fantasy bike trail. I've walked along a section of the North Han River from Gangchon Station to Chuncheon Station. And in the future, assuming I'm in shape for it, I'll be exploring (1) a recommended path across the Korean peninsula, (2) the Geumgang bike trail, and (3) other paths that start on the north bank of the Han and lead inland and northward.
If I were that closed-minded about exploring new paths, I would never have done my first trans-Korea walk in 2017. So I'm not going to worry about critics who think I'm just a "creature of habit." Let them look at themselves and see whether they live a life of no habits. There is nothing wrong with trying new things, liking some of them, and sticking with them while continuing to try—at a moderate pace—yet other new things. If other people are impatient with that attitude, let them stew. And that's the last time I'll comment on that.
Assuming this is directed wholly/mainly at me, sorry if I touched a nerve. Me calling you a creature of habit was just an observation and wasn't intended to be a criticism. How you choose to lead your life (your walks etc.) doesn't really impact me and thus is not for me to have a strong opinion on.
ReplyDeleteSetting aside potential differences between being a cyclist and a walker, I would say I am a collector, and therefore, although I have routes I do frequently, I also want to "colour in the map" so to speak and therefore am often seeking new routes to try as well. I too have favourite routes (I think doing a lap of the airport island is my favourite and I would do it far more often if it wasn't such a trek to get there), but I am also open to the potential that there maybe other routes that would challenge for a position in my top five if only I knew about them.
I guess for me, if I were to note one difference between you and me, it's that a river has two banks, and, at least from Incheon to Paldang, you can choose which side to follow, but as far as I'm aware, and I stand to be corrected on this, you mostly stick to the south bank, and I think there are probably parts of the north bank that you've perhaps never walked.
I went back and reread your post on the walk you did to Chuncheon, and you noted that it was very beautiful and you had a great time, and not once have you ever given any indication that you are curious about the rest of the path from Gangcheon to Ungilsan (which includes a miserable stretch alongside a busy road, and a really picturesque stretch through a riverside park).
Also, the other day you talked a bit about Yeoju and its connection to Sejong and noted you always salute Sejong when you pass a memorial at Yeoju Dam. The bike actually passes a turnoff for Sejong's tomb, but again, I don't recall you ever visiting (I know it's often dawn when you're walking past and you're extremely exhausted so not in the best mood for looking at a grass mound, but I guess you could start in Yeoju and walk home.)
Finally, when you're going cross-country, you like to stay in the same places when possible, which I fully understand, if something did the job, then why bother with change for the sake of it. But I recall one motel you stayed in near Sangju, which you noted was a dump and yet you went back on your next trip, despite there being at least 10 other motels within a kilometre. I'm sure you had your reasons and you don' t owe me any explanation, but it was not a choice I would have made, I couldn't understand your motivation from the contents of your post.
Things like the above are what lead me to conclude, fairly on unfairly, that you are a creature of habit.
Now let me be clear about one thing. All the above is not to say I'm right and you're wrong, just that we have different approaches. In some ways, I envy you that, relative to me, you come across as fairly monogamous with a core collection of routes that satisfy you, whereas I'm always out chasing a new route and wondering if there's 'someone better'.
Ultimately, I'm grateful to be able to read about your experiences of the same paths I traverse frequently and I want to share information about other paths that I personally found really nice. Whether you attempt them is totally up to you. But I would advise you to try the rest of the path from Chuncheon back to Seoul, the Geumgang and the two paths from Gwangyang to Mokpo. All are highly recommended by cyclists, and while they may never usurp Seoul to Busan in your heart, you never know...
As you continue to futilely nag McCrarey about trying his 30km trek to wherever it is, so I will occasionally bring up trying the heart course etc.
Part 1 (comment was too long as usual)
DeleteBut I recall one motel you stayed in near Sangju, which you noted was a dump and yet you went back on your next trip, despite there being at least 10 other motels within a kilometre. I'm sure you had your reasons and you don't owe me any explanation, but it was not a choice I would have made, I couldn't understand your motivation from the contents of your post.
I don't remember this. Please link me to the relevant post and quote me the paragraph where I wrote that, and I might be able to provide context. Normally, if a motel is a fleabag, I don't generally return unless I'm unable to find any alternatives. I normally use Naver Map to find motels, but I'm aware that Naver Map doesn't show all the lodging in a given area, so I'm sure I'm missing a lot. I'm also not the biggest fan of Yanolja and Yeogi Oddae apps, either, because they seem to skip a lot of motels in favor of showing more expensive hotels. (I've also never been able to hook the app up to my bank account so as to make reservations. Normally, I just walk in and ask for a room, old-school.)
Things like the above are what lead me to conclude, fairly on unfairly, that you are a creature of habit.
And as I said, I do indeed have habits, but that's not the end of the story, which is why that unfair summation was insulting.
Also, the other day you talked a bit about Yeoju and its connection to Sejong and noted you always salute Sejong when you pass a memorial at Yeoju Dam. The bike [path] actually passes a turnoff for Sejong's tomb, but again, I don't recall you ever visiting (I know it's often dawn when you're walking past and you're extremely exhausted so not in the best mood for looking at a grass mound, but I guess you could start in Yeoju and walk home.)
By "the other day," I assume you really mean "a few months ago" (June). And I don't remember ever saying I "always salute" King Sejong, so you'll have to find and link that quote—or something like it—to jog my memory. I have an abiding respect for the king and his achievement, it's true, and I do acknowledge the huge display of his Hunminjeongeum whenever I pass over the Yeoju Dam. But I never salute it.
All of these "I don't recall you ever doing X"s that you've listed amount to another accusation predicated on the false assumption that I somehow should be doing those things. You're right, though: after 30K, I'm too tired by the end for diversions, and when I do any of these long walks, I never think about diverting despite all of the tempting signs I see that lead to different sights. I'm not going to tire myself out by going an extra 5K out of my way, especially not when I'm out of gas after 30K. So if I visit Sejong's tomb, it won't be while I'm on a walk. Maybe I'll take a bus out to Yeoju, then cab to the tomb. Whatever method I choose, I'll get there someday, I hope, before I croak. I assume bikers take happy little diversions all the time since they can afford to, being on bikes.
Part 2
Deletere: the Han's north bank (in Seoul)
Yes, I don't normally move to the north bank until I cross the Paldang Bridge. My Korean friend and I did a portion of the north bank in Seoul once, and it was noisy and unpleasant. I think you wrote a comment contradicting that, or at least suggesting that other parts of the north bank are quieter and more pleasant. For me, it's once bitten, twice shy. Maybe someday, assuming decent health, I'll try a north-bank path at the western extreme of Seoul, where it's presumably quieter.
but I am also open to the potential that there maybe other routes that would challenge for a position in my top five if only I knew about them.
That's fine for you, so long as you don't impose that preference on me. I like what I like—period. But yes, I'm at least open to entertaining suggestions, some of which will sound instinctively appealing, and others of which won't. I'll choose among them as I will.
In some ways, I envy you that, relative to me, you come across as fairly monogamous with a core collection of routes that satisfy you, whereas I'm always out chasing a new route and wondering if there's 'someone better'.
I'm curious to try new routes, but as I've written over and over again, even the familiar routes have something different to offer every time I do them. You can either appreciate that or not. Meanwhile, I'll leave you to your "someone better," which makes you sound incapable of contentment since you're always left chasing something.
God, I wonder what sermons you would have preached at Immanuel Kant.
The Yeoju comment is here: https://bighominid.blogspot.com/2025/10/back-to-life-back-to-reality.html
DeleteThe Sangju comments are presumably on two of your different walk blogs and relate to the Motel Havana.
And finally, I tried to be explicitly clear that I wasn't trying to criticise your choices or to say that you should be doing certain things. My point was that when walking the same part of the river ten times, for example, you could walk the south bank ten times, the north bank ten times or any combination of north plus south, and you could decide that by some kind of logic, by tossing a coin, by mood on the day and they are all equally valid choices. But I don't think it unfair to say the person who walks ten times on the same side without ever worrying too much what's on the other side is a creature of comfort and that wasn't meant as an insult, nor would I take it to be one.
Maybe this is because most of your trips are uni-directional whereas as most of my trips involve going somewhere and then turning around and coming back so it spices it up to go out along one bank, cross over and come back along the other bank.
You are right of course that the same section of river is different each time due to development, weather, season, mood, and what happens to catch my eye as I scan ahead among other things.
I'm curious which part of the north bank you walked, I were to hazard a guess, it must have included the part around Ddukseom, which is teeming with people and difficult to traverse. Or did you mean literal noise as in traffic from the Gangbyeon Expressway? Anyhow, personally, I can easily tell you which bank I'd rather be on for each section and it sometimes changes going east to west or west to east. However, it's impractical to cross over several times as you make your way across Seoul as each crossing adds about 1km to your journey.
So what I wrote at the linked post was, "which I pay respect to every time I pass the Yeoju Dam," and in that sentence, I was saying that I was paying respect to his invention of the alphabet, not to the king himself. How did you reinterpret that as "salute"? Paying one's respects can be a mental gesture, which it was and is in my case. I don't think of "salute" as a mental gesture... unless there's a bigger difference between US and UK English than I thought. Even when people joke "I salute you" without actually saluting, they're still thinking of the physical gesture. Anyway, no—no saluting. Just mentally paying respects and taking pics every time I pass the huge wall with the display of the Hunminjeongeum on both sides.
Deletere: Havana
You seem not to recall that when I went by the Havana just last year, I didn't stay there. Here's a refresher. See what I mean about cherry-picking evidence? I'll be staying at the Bonghwang from now on: it's cheaper, it's nicer, and the proprietor isn't a bastard. I'm aware that there are plenty of motels and hotels in that area; for one reason or another, each has proved unsatisfactory, and I've visited a lot of them. In some cases, there was no one there or no one who answered my cell-phone call. In other cases, it was an overly expensive mu-in hotel. In still other cases, the hotel/motel looked like an abandoned ghost town—very sketchy. So despite the plentiful-seeming offerings, there have never been that many motels to choose from in that area. Oh, and in that town, I know there are minbaks and other motels, but I had my reasons for dismissing those as well. I hope this is a satisfactory explanation.
re: north-bank walk with JW
Yes, that was somewhere around the Ddukseom area. I think JW and I crossed north at the Yeongdong Daegyo (which takes you to Ddukseom; I don't think you can cross at Cheongdam Daegyo), veered east, walked along the north bank a ways, then crossed back at the Olympic Daegyo. This was back in late 2020, and in that entry, I didn't describe the route, which neither of us enjoyed. Trivia: the south-bank Chinese restaurant described in that post, Dong Bang Myeong Ju, has been gone for a while now. Anyway, that walk was noisy and crowded. People and traffic. Not the best the north bank has to offer, I'm sure.
Agree that in general, people are creatures of habit, and it is by necessity. The mental stimulation would be pretty overwhelming if everything was always new. So, I think that evolution has favored those who slip into routines that can be navigated with little mental stress, but thus allows new experiences to be fully experienced.
ReplyDeleteOn the other side of that, one of the reasons time seems to pass so quickly is that when you fall into a routine, nothing memorable happens to distinguish one day from another. It can be a trap, as the path of least resistance (i.e. routine) is not always the best path, so it is important to seek out new experiences, moments, etc. to keep life fresh.
Anyway, just my 20 won worth of useless drivel.
Brian
I think habits are--
ReplyDeleteOh, sorry. Didn't see you guys in here.
*slowly backs out of comment thread*
Anyone who has read my blog knows that I am an extremist in adhering to my daily habits and routines. I consider that a blessing rather than a curse. I dread the inevitable time when I will no longer be able to do so. Granted, some folks are critical of the things I choose to do to fill the hours (especially my after-dark activities), but I do what I enjoy without apology. To me, that's what it comes down to: do it your way. I don't always walk the same paths, but there is also comfort in the familiar, like that trail I've made My Bitch. Anyway, keep doing it your way, anyway you like it.
ReplyDeleteYou should definitely read about Kant.
DeleteWhy Kant I be like that? Really enjoyed the link about how Kant lived. Thanks!
Delete"We know that Immanuel Kant’s life was far from adventurous. It is hard to imagine a drearier existence."
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