Fortnights and Fortitudes, part 2

(I've gone back and forth about whether to publish this story.  I do not want to ever single anyone out in these blogs and I go out of my way to try and leave names off the page.  These are my personal stories and you can take them or leave them.  Remember that there is a different side to every story told, though.  The guy referred to as Drunkie in this blog is just as alone over here as I am.  I do not know him that well, but everyone adjusts to a major life change in a different way.  He was very easy to target this weekend, but that doesn't mean I don't have a little sympathy for him.  Part 1 of this blog can be found here)

This past weekend promised to be a little more organized than the previous one, simply by limiting the number of people on the trip.  The more people on the trip, the more down time from bathroom breaks and stragglers.  Or at least that's the conventional wisdom.  We'd find out over the course of the weekend that it only takes one...

Most of the trips put on by this travel group are open to any of the 600+ members of it's Facebook page.  A few of them are a first come, first serve basis.  Every once in a while, Charles has an invite-only trip for people that have been on several excursions with him.  This was one of those times.  This one happened to fall right in the middle of summer break for many of the ESL teachers in the area and it was also a three day weekend.  The original plan was stream trekking all day Sunday, camping out that night, and letting Monday take us where it would.  A lack of camping equipment for everyone and a strong possibility of rain had us abandon the camping for a minbak, but that was the only real change.

I will start off by taking partial blame for the events that would transpire over the next 12 hours or so.  While I did not force anything upon anyone, I did provide the catalyst that would provide the group with a very, very long day.  I brought the Soju.  Now, this is not an attempt at braggadocio, but I've been known to imbibe a few times over the last fifteen or twenty years.  I've also been known to put myself in embarrassing situations.  I was once pulled over in a Jack in the Box drive-thru wearing nothing on but the skin I was born in.  (The cops couldn't keep a straight face long enough to ticket me, so they just followed me the one block home.  I miss Las Vegas.)  I understand that sometimes the thirst can grab you and take you to places that you didn't know existed... you're own little Oz.  Keeping this in mind, I try not to judge but it's not easy.  In retrospect, I should not have pulled out the first bottle of soju at 10am.

The five members of our little tour hit it off pretty much from the start.  Two friends had came together from a different city, but other than that, we were virtual strangers.  We played a few drinking games on the bus and basically set the table for the rest of the day.  We stopped for food around 1pm and that's when the first indication of future trouble really occurred.  One of the guys decided that he didn't want to eat lunch.  A beer or two would be enough to keep him going for the next seven or eight hours he said.  The rest of us gorged ourselves on the spicy duck with rice dish called oli bulgogi.  He continued to drink.  After lunch we headed to the stream and quickly saw that we were not the only ones who thought that the 3 day weekend would be a perfect time for a little nature trip.  There were people and tents everywhere.  The stream was completely inundated with Koreans on inner tubes.  At times, it looked like a lazy river ride at a waterpark.  Luckily, the further we went upstream, the more the crowds began to thin.  There were many good spots for jumping and swimming along the way, so we stopped when it suited us.  That was the best part about the small group; you can only be pulled in 5 different directions instead of 25.  Four of us were pretty much on the same page, but the lunch-skipper was starting to do his own thing.

The sign on the left says No Swimming; the sign on the right says No Jumping.  Oops.

I brought a little mini-cooler filled with soju and beer for the trekking and we were dipping into it pretty consistently, but the four of us weren't getting hammered by any means.  It was more like a casual day drinking at the lake.  Drunkie didn't get the memo, I guess.  The further we walked, the more he stumbled.  The river didn't split anywhere so we would occasionally leave him in shallow sections as we kept walking towards the next series of pools and jumps.  Towards the end of the day, Charles took us a little off the main stream into a side tributary that ended up being the highlight of the day for rest of us.  About thirty minutes later, Drunkie stumbled to where our guide was waiting at the split.  Eventually, he made it up to join us.

While the stream itself had been pretty busy, the hidden alcove had only one group of four Koreans at a small portable picnic table.  They were friendly with us all and even invited us to share their samgyupsal.  The alcove was protected from the sun by a bridge overhead.  That left the deep water several degrees cooler than the river had been just a few minutes before.  It was very refreshing.  The only real downside to this spot was that the water was much darker than the rest.  It was still clear, but the combination of a lack of sun and the depth of the pools left it difficult to see the bottom.  This was a particularly large problem for us considering we were having an epidemic of lost sunglasses and necklaces.  No one could seem to remember to take off their sunglasses before jumping.  Two of of the party members were divers, so that helped considerably.  Lost items weren't the only issue with dark waters, though.  As I was floating beside one of the rocks, I managed to get my feet tangled in some loose kite string.  The more I tried to free myself, the worse it got.  Finally, I had to pull float while one of the girls helped me out.  After finally getting free, I started pulling in the string so it didn't happen again.  Eventually, I got to the end and pulled up a small catfish attached to a hook on the end.  The Koreans at the that had joined us said that this was somehow a sign of good luck.  I was just glad the hook didn't end up in my foot. 

As the sun continued to go down, the alcove got darker and darker.  We said our goodbyes and went back to the river.  At this time, Drunkie decided that he didn't want to go the way that we were headed so he climbed out and tried to walk above the stream instead of in it like the rest of us.  That translated into more waiting for him to try to make his way back to the group.  By this time, we were fed up.  We went a little further up the river and spent some time at a waterfall shoot that was a blast, but every stop took twice as long as it should because he could not keep up.  As you can see from the picture, the sun was going down fast and the walking would be pretty treacherous if it went down completely.  This didn't help convince Drunkie to walk a little faster... or even stay with the group.  He again went off on his own as our guide tried to corral him towards the path while it was still visible.  We finally got to our stop as the sun went down for good.  The worst of Drunkie was still yet to come, though.

When we got to the spot were we were supposed to sleep for the night, we found out quickly that it was supposed to rain that night and, if it did, we would be stuck on the wrong side of the river.  So we started a twenty minute walk towards our bus to go to another spot.  There was a little confusion and our group got split up a bit.  When we realized what had happened, everyone stopped on a small bridge and waited to get everyone back together.  Drunkie did not stop with the rest of us and no one really noticed.   He decided he'd just meet us at the bus.  He must've forgot that he had no idea where the bus was parked or which road to take at the four way stop to find it.  We're in the middle of the Korean wilderness.  There are no lights and there are cliffs on all sides going down to the river valley.  We spent the next three hours trying to find him.  No one had eaten since early that afternoon, and all of us were fresh out of energy.  Eventually, he hit resend on his phone and called the bus driver.  Luckily, the guide had used Drunkie's phone to call the first time.  Stumbling around lost for three hours seemed to sober him up for a time, but it wouldn't last.

We finally arrived at our actual minbak for the night and Drunkie partially redeemed himself by making dinner.  When he had gotten back to the bus, he had attempted to put the blame on us for him being lost, but he was quickly backed down.  Despite everything that he done so far, that dinner was delicious.  It was augmented by some delicious grilled eel provided by a friend of the guide.  Unfortunately, that goodwill was short-lived as he started to drink whiskey with a group of Korean marines that were also staying in our minbak.

Minbak picture from a previous trip

About this time, I had decided to call it a night.  It had been a long day and another long day was planned for Monday.  I didn't really sleep, though.  I read for a bit and just rested mostly.  About an hour later the rest of the group started to come into the room.  The Koreans that Drunkie had been drinking alongside begged us to put him to bed.  Begrudgingly, the other guy in the group helped lead him into the room and directed him into his own little corner.  In the picture, you can see how a minbak is just an empty room with a pallets laid out on the floor.  It's nice and cheap and is a great way for large groups to travel together.  Snoring tends to be the only real problem with these types of rooms.  We had a different sort of issue on this particular evening, though.  Thankfully, we pushed him off into his own corner, because somewhere over the course of the night, Drunkie pissed himself.

The next morning we woke to fresh omelets and Mandu Ramyun.  Then, we were quickly greeted with the sounds of a dying giraffe coming from inside the minbak.  Needless to say, Mr. Drunkie had turned into Mr. Hangover.  After keeping quiet for a while, someone finally broke down and told him that he had pissed himself in his sleep.  He then came up with some convoluted excuse about how when he drinks he pisses on his post prized possession... like some sort of inebriated enlightenment.  When he picked up on the fact that nobody was swallowing his bullshit, he finally relented and just slept in the back of the bus.  The rest of the day was fairly laid back and pleasant.  No trekking on Monday... just swimming and lounging around.  We even got back to Pusan a little early and enjoyed the last hour or two of Haeundae Beach before having burgers at the best Irish pub in town, The Wolfhound.  Drunkie stuck with his m.o. and disappeared before we even hit the beach.  Finally, though, he was not our responsibility to watch.  No one looked for him this time.