This past weekend was an eventful one, which was good for me, considering the last few have been pretty low key while I have been hanging out in my air conditioned apartment to avoid the city's humidity and overall yuckiness. I found a group online that was going river rafting and river trekking all in one weekend. The location was described as "deep in the mountains of Gangwon-do," and that had my attention immediately. It was indeed, deep in the mountains, plush with green forests and a rushing river. It's so funny, though. In Korea, you are never alone. There are always a couple hundred other people doing the same thing. So although the natural scenery was beautiful, it didn't quite have a wilderness feel with so many other people around.
On the bus ride there, I tried to keep my expectations low about how exciting this river rafting was going to be, but for once, Korea did not disappoint. We got all suited up in helmets and life jackets with crotch straps (both of which I was thankful for later) and split up into teams. My team just so happened to be all women, and our guide, who spoke just a tiny bit of English, kept repeating to a fellow guide, "All girls, all girls," until he decided to swap one of us for a boy. It just wouldn't do to have no men on the boat! So, with very little instruction (1,2, 1,2, stop!) we were off down the river, with about ten other rafts around us. It was very pleasant and nice, with a few little rapids here and there, and then we hit something a little bigger and the raft almost tipped and we lost three people. I was almost the fourth, as I was flailing over the edge with my feet strapped in to my "seatbelt" and my abs not strong enough to sit up, but I was rescued by a fellow raft mate. I was pretty proud of myself for not falling in. We got everyone back in the raft, then went a little further and jumped out to swim a bit. "Swimming number one!" our guide said, and I would have to agree. The water was perfect! We all got pulled back into the raft and went along through some more little rapids. It's really hard to tell what is going to be rough and what isn't when you're in the raft, so after a while you realize that even if you see a big rock, we could just glide over it. But then we came up to a pretty rough spot which looked like it might be a tight squeeze to fit through, and the next thing I know, the raft is halfway up in the air and the water is rushing over the middle part. I was in the front and holding on for dear life when I finally realized the guide was saying, "GO! GO!" I wasn't too sure of my future at this point but I did what I was told and let go. It was pretty scary. I'm fairly sure I banged my head on a rock and kept on going. After what felt like an eternity of swirling and rocks and trying to locate my fellow raftmates, another guide grabbed me and pulled me into their raft full of Korean guys yelling,"OK? OK?" So funny. I was just glad to be alive. The rest of the ride was pretty tame, and when we all got back together with our group, everyone was jealous of our exciting story.
That night we stayed in a renovated school house, complete with a kitchen and dining hall and big tents outside to eat under. It was a great setup. We had a really nice barbeque, with the vegetarian population (12 0f 45) well fed with lots of grilled veggies and tofu. The night progressed into a pretty crazy party that I wasn't really in the mood for, especially knowing that we were going to be hiking all the next day, so I was a party pooper and went to bed early, only to be woken up at 3 by a crying girl on my pillow, and another girl telling me to keep an eye on her because she fell down the stairs and might have a concussion. No, thank you, I'd like to sleep. Thankfully, her friends found her and took care of her. Yikes.
The next morning we woke up at a decent time, especially considering how late people were up, and started our hike up to the top of the ridge, where we would begin our river trek. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of this gorgeous hike because we were in and out of the water the whole day and I didn't want to risk getting my camera wet. The hike up was killer, and most people were hungover so I don't know how they did it. It was straight up for probably 40 minutes. Killer. Then we went down, down, down to where the river began, and hopped right in. The next four hours were a mix of hiking, splashing and swimming through icy water, hopping around on boulders, slipping on rocks, and every once in a while, looking up and realizing that I was in a beautiful place. It was really too bad that I had to concentrate on each step so carefully, because it really was beautiful, but hard to take in while trekking through the river. It was energizing ad adventurous, but by the end of it, I was ready to be dry and not have sand in my tennis shoes. We crossed the river one last time, enjoyed some delicious bibimbap, and climbed on the bus to take us back to Seoul. Along the way, we did noraebang (kareoke) on the bus! I didn't know that was possible, but hey, it's Korea!
All in all, it was a good weekend, just because I finally got out of the city and into some green. South Korea is beautiful after all! Unfortunately, I didn't really find anyone great to hang out with and felt kind of out of the loop because I didn't want to be wasted the entire time. Such is the life of the English teacher in Korea. Next weekend is Mud Fest, which I have a feeling is going to be a spring break trip atmosphere complete with mud wrestling and I just don't know if I want to do that. I am such an old lady.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July! We sang the Star Spangled Banner on the bus. It was a good moment. Anyway, I miss you all and I will be home so soon! I booked my flight for July 25. Woo hoo!
