My school's Social Committee arranged a trip to go rafting on the Naerincheon river, which is located near the east coast of Korea on the flanks of the Seoraksan National Park. The trip from Seoul to the put was supposed to take two hours, but it turns out that many of citiy's 24 million residents also thought that a trip to the east coast was a great idea, so the trip took four hours. Some people were a bit disappointed by the traffic, but I was glued to the windows, looking at rice fields, mountains, and quaint houses with traditional Korean roofs.
On the way we stopped to go to the bathroom at a big rest area. If you think this would be boring, you're wrong. What a scene! There was so much food, and all of it strange to my western eyes: whole squid on the grill, fish cakes, rice cakes, various proteins floating in hot pepper sauce, and hundreds of salted new potatoes sizzling on a giant griddle.
When we got to the put-in it was a mob scene. People on both sides of the river were hauling boat after boat across the rocks and down to the water. At first I was worried that the crowds would detract from the fun, but in fact they added to it.
Our guides were great, but spoke very little English. He started off teaching us to paddle forward when he said "go!", and to stop when he said "stop", and to paddle backwards when he said "back!", but he quickly decided that he'd rather use the Korean word for "back", which I saddly don't remember. But he was fun, funny, and great at steering, so we had a time.
The river wasn't particulary demanding, but the day was hot, the water was cold, and the scenery was delightful. One thing that made it particularly fun was that every time our raft came near another raft (which was often) a splash battle woud commence. I got the sense that competitiveness is big in Korean culture, because as rafts came up behind us, the people in it would start paddling like crazy, shouting what I think was "go" in Korean. Then as they passed us, they would really get into the whole splash-war thing. The great thing about it was that everyone on that crowded river was having a blast and laughing their heads off. I guess water play is a human universal.
Keeping in mind that this was billed as a whitewater rafting trip, I am pleased to report that there were a few rapids along the way - nothing at all scary, but enough drop to be fun. We did great - paddling forward when our guide said "go!" and back when yelled something in Korean - until...
Now I don't have a picture of what happened next, but we ended up stuck between two rocks with the stern of the raft way up in the air. We tried to push, rock, and bounce our way free, but nothing worked, so one by one the guide told us to get out and float the rest of the way!
It was a fun and unexpected way to end our float trip.
Then it was time to shower, change, and get back on the bus for another gruelling ride back to Seoul. Once again we stopped at a giant rest area, and this time we had the great idea of ordering spicy chicken skewers. The man working the counter told us we didn't want spicy - we said we did... he was right! Wow, it burned so bad I immediately got the hiccups. Now, I like spicy food, but that stuff was crazy. The only way to cool our mouths was with this funky J-shaped ice cream cone sort of thing.
All in all it was a fun and memorable day, and I am grateful to the Social Committee for putting the trip together. Our next outing is supposed to be a run through the DMZ (no, I'm not kiddig), but the recent tensions, though common, may prevent the race from happening. We'll keep you posted.
In the meantime...
Adventure awaits you when you come to visit.
