For those of you who missed out on the trip this past weekend, you missed one of the best trips I’ve been on. For once I was sensible and went to bed early on Saturday, so I was up bright and early for the 7:30am departure from Adventure Korea. There were 31 people signed up for the trip, so it was great to see such a big crowd, and also that there was a good mix of Koreans and foreigners!
The area we travelled to near Inje in Gangwon province was very beautiful…in fact probably the most beautiful place I have seen in Korea. It was an easy trip, so we didn’t have to climb up any big mountains or anything.
On arrival at the destination we set of on our way along the banks of the river. What made it so fun was that there wasn’t much of a pathway as such.
we were walking through bushes and in the river at some points, but then we were warned beforehand that we would get wet! We stopped after 90 mins or so of walking when we found a ideal spot for swimming and a huge rock we could sit on to eat our lunch and drink a few beers/soju. Jen and I were the first to jump in and submerge ourselves in water but many others followed. It was bloody freezing, but we were already pretty wet anyway so it didnt really make much difference. At the bottom of the area we were swimming there was a big rapid…it looked pretty dangerous, so we didnt really want to fall down, so we had lots of fun trying to stop ourselves from falling over while holding onto our beers at the same time.
The current was pretty strong, so you really had to hold onto the rocks and try to stay put, but even the rocks were pretty slippy so it was a challenge and a half. At one point myself, Jen, Darryl, Mark and Seok-jin were all gathered down by the rapid and it was pretty funny. Seok-jin thought he was funny giving me a quick shove but I nearly got dragged down the rocks by the current. Luckily my foot anchored onto something steady and secure (Jen’s crotch), so I managed to stay on the right side of the rocks.
We walked back along the same way we came and had just as much fun trying not to fall when we had to cross the river.
We got back on the bus and watched a movie, but as we had had a few drinks by then some of us wanted to do something a little more fun. We were going to sing some songs and when Tae-Hun came along with a Norae-bang style song book we were set for the next couple of hours as the bus had a karaoke machine installed along with disco lights down the ailse to dance to. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life, but it was a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, we got stuck in traffic on the way back, it was a pretty long journey, but it was worth it after the great day we had.
I can’t wait for the Mud festival next sunday…that sounds like another blast!!
see you there!
Neil
