Summertime and the living's easy?

So last week started the beginning of the summer vacation here in Korea, not that it's been any sort of real "vacation" for me.  Public schools and universities are out of school for 5 or 6 weeks, but hagwons don't have the same schedule.  Most of them actually extend their hours during the break and turn into an educational daycare of sorts.  Despite the longer hours, most of the private hagwons do take a week or so off, but I wasn't that lucky.  We were closed for Thursday and Friday.  It wasn't the reload that I was hoping to receive, but it was still alright.  I had friends over here that went to Thailand, friends that went to the Philippines, and Japan.  I had one friend that tried unsuccessfully to go to Shanghai (Visa issues when they actually landed in China).  I didn't have that opportunity due to the short break, but I did my best to make the most of it.

I spent Thursday with a friend and pretty much stayed at home on Friday, in preparation for a highly anticipated trip on Saturday and Sunday.  The Uljin Nature Trip (a river-trekking and windsurfing 2day excursion) was billed as being one of the tour guides "top three Shangra-La" spots in Korea... it didn't disappoint.  To get to the spot was not easy and was not fast, but it was worth it.  We started out early Saturday morning, a feat in itself when it comes to ESL teachers in Busan.  The drive was said to take around 4 hours, but traffic got pretty bad in one spot and we lost almost 2 hours.  Unfortunately, that lost time would limit us later on in the day.  There were twenty-four of us on the trip, but lunch and bathroom breaks were surprisingly well coordinated... otherwise more time would have been lost.  As far as "missing out" on some portion of the trip?  Luckily, none of us really know what we missed out on doing, so it didn't really affect us that much.  River-trekking was the main attraction on that first day.


In general, the only downside to nature trips in Korea is the sheer number of people on the trail.  Hiking is a very, very popular sport here, and you never seem to truly get away from large groups of people.  On last weeks trip, we saw probably 50 or 60 people while we were hiking.  That was not the case this week.  With the exception of some campers when we first entered the river, we were the only trekkers in the water.  After a long bus trip, it was good to get out and stretch out legs.  After a few hundred yards, it became increasingly obvious why a waterproof bag was required for the trip.  The banks were high and rocky and the spotty pools got deeper and deeper.  Eventually we were swimming against the light current attempting to hold camera bags and such above our heads.  While the trekking was fun, the diving was when the real fun started. 

After walking through the water for an hour or so, we came to the first spot where diving was available.  There was a small outcropping of rock that only rose a few meters above the water, but the pool itself was at least 5 meters deep... plenty deep enough to dive without any problems.  We spent a little time at this one, but soon continued down the river with promises of taller cliffs and deeper pools.  The next spot was twice as high with cliffs on two sides and a waterway shoot just upriver from it.  This is where we spend the largest amount of our time. 

I think that every member of our group jumped from this spot at least one time.  Took a while for some of them to work up the nerve, but I'm pretty sure that every one of them eventually made the jump.  While the height doesn't look too perilous in this pic, the view from above was a bit different.  You had to jump further out from this particular spot... only a few feet, but it looked a lot more daunting.  On my second jump, I got some sort of pressure headache from the way i was holding my breath.  The only obvious solution was to lounge languidly in the water and pull out the beer and soju that comprised everything that I had brought in my backpack... it's always good to plan ahead.  After last weeks trip, I learned my lesson and brought plenty of alcohol.  Or at least I brought enough to get us a through the first few hours of the trip, but don't worry, there was a fully stocked store just a few feet from the beginning of the trail.  I told you before, Korean's take their drinking and hiking very seriously and very vigorously.  I agree with at least half of this philosophy.

Entrance to the river... the only other people were in the tents in the background

The day was starting to get long and the next set of cliffs was another two hours up the river... this was when our driving delays started to catch up.  Knowing the trip back would not be safe as the sunlight began to wane, we started back down the river and began the next part of the trip... a limestone cave tour with lanterns.

By the time, we had gotten to the hostel, the sun was already down and it was time for the cave tour.  We joked around a lot when we were required to wear the hardhats into the caves, but the ceilings were low, the cave was black except for our lanterns, and the majority of us were on the far side of a good drunk.  (One opted to sleep it off in the bus and skip out on the cave all together.)  All that considered, the hard hats were probably a good idea.  I don't know if they truly saved us from being accosted by low flying bats, but I think they helped.  (Despite all the written warnings, I still jumped a bit when one flew at my face.)  The cave was interesting, but I grew up just a few hours from Meramec Caverns so this one didn't have a huge impact on me.  The hand carved marital aids sold in a small corner store outside the cave, however, immediately grabbed my attention.  As you can see from the picture, someone must've been practicing their technique. 

After the lantern tour, we came back to the hostel to a huge dinner with boiled chicken and pork dumplings.  I'd tell you that after dinner we all retired for the evening, but I assume that you'd smell the lie and know that we ended up playing drinking games on the beach until the early morning.  After an eventful night of "I never", "3 truths" and several other games, our host woke us with Naengmyeon and soju.  The next day would prove to be as fun as the first.

Sunday morning was overcast with very little wind.  Luckily, it didn't stop us from trying to windsurf.  The convenient store beneath our hostel was strangely run out of beer and soju the night before, but luckily, the alcohol truck must've arrived before we woke at 8am.  At least it was lucky for me, I was hurting in a way that only a full-fledged continuation could fix... hair of the dog and such.  Windsurfing was now on the plate.

I'll start off by saying that the day would've been a lot more interesting if we had been granted at least a modicum amount of wind, but it wasn't in the cards for this Sunday.  Despite a severe lack of airflow, windsurfing turned out to be a lot of fun.  The staff that hosted our training session were really the reason for the good times.  They fully understood that it wasn't the best day for windsurfing and the "training" reflected that knowledge.  We all made our attempts, some of us were more determined for success and a few of us were more hellbent for a full on training session.  There were trainers there to meet those demands.  Thankfully for the rest of us, the whole day was very laid back and when the wind gods didn't cooperate, they brought out a motorized skid and several 2man rafts to extend our fun.  Considering that gravity has not been my biggest fan for the previous decade or so, the rafts were a welcome alternative.  Through it all, of course, there was an ample supply of beer and soju.  (I hope that you, the reader, are beginning to realize that the drinks are just part of the experience over here.)  I spent the highpoint of the day lounging in a raft (as evidenced by the strange "life-jacket-sunburn" that I've been sporting since returning from the trip.)  A little frisbee tossing and some catch with an American football and our weekend came to an end. 

.... except of course for the 4 hour bus drive back to Busan.