FlyLikeaSegal

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I joined a group called Climbing in Korea (CIK) to do hikes. This weekend we went back Gangwon-Do province, but this time to a small town called Inje, where we ditched the rafts for some rock hopping. Having learned my lesson from the last hike, in which I found myself on an unexpectedly steep uphill climb, I figured that when they said we would be walking through the river with "our feet immersed" that we would actually be walking through waist deep water. Thankfully I came prepared to swim:

Post- posing by a waterfall picture (sorry I don't have it!). We went swimming too.

 That wasn't a jab at CIK, I love their hikes, I just feel anyone who joins should be warned that their hikes aren't necessarily for beginners (or those looking to stay dry if there is a river involved)!


The fallen tree really heightens the dramatic effect of wading through the river here...actually the river was very pretty:

Taken from the top of a boulder which I barely made it off of...sometimes hiking and short legs don't mix.

Unfortunately I got some water on my camera lens (the perils of hiking) but you get the idea. Nothing however, was more dramatic than this:

We were taking a break when suddenly this helicopter emerges from around the bend. For a second it sort of felt like that scene in Avatar when they wake up to those giant tree crushing machines about to take down Eiwa (alright honestly, the analogy that first popped into my head was that it sounded like some Northern neighbors were invading, but somehow that seemed inappropriate). 

Anyway, what we thought was some kind of Korean ranger practice turned out to be a real rescue mission for a...wait for it....a hiker who had sprained his ankle. While this seems super excessive, the trail was actually extremely rocky. Between that and having to wade through the river, it would have been nearly impossible to carry an injured person to the end of the hike. And the scene unfolds:


Here's Rescue Man #1 coming to save the day...the pictures are a little washed out because of all the water being stirred up by the helicopter...I don't know how many of you have ever had the pleasure of sitting beneath a helicopter in operation...but it's loud, windy, and doesn't go well with water.


Rescue Man #1, Rescue Man #2, and a lovely man from CIK helping out sprained-ankle guy...who I'm sure was a bit embarrassed by this whole scene (mind you there were about 50 other hikers sitting behind me also watching this happen). 


And there it goes...while this was happening we also realized that there was a snake on the boulder we were all sitting on (just a little guy, but still mildly terrifying). Never a dull moment in Korea...

The next day I hung around Seoul and walked to Insadong, which is the artsy walking district downtown. I'll do another post on it later when I get to see/ know more of it. On my way home though I finally passed the Cheonggyecheon River which I'd been wanting to see. It's a river that flows through downtown Seoul. It used to be covered up but recently became the focus of a massive urban renewal project, so they've been building all of this awesome park space around it. Kind of like the High Line in NYC, but for a river...


No cute news this week, but here's a photo of a cool magnet from a gallery in Insadong, complete with a wannabe Marilyn Monroe (a poor substitute I know....sorry!)

This weekend I went hiking and rafting in Yeongwol, Gangwon-do (a neighboring province) with Climbing in Korea, a Meetup group based in Seoul. I'd heard rumors about hiking in Korea, and they all involved beer and women wearing heels, so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult. Of course, I probably should have figured that since this is an expat group with "climbing" in the title, that their version of an "easy" hike would be a bit different from mine. What I imagined would be a nice two hour stroll through the countryside, turned into three hours of this:


I naively took this self-congratulatory photo, wanting to document my conquest of the staircase. Little did I know however the next twenty minute leg of the path would be just as steep...minus the staircase, plus a side rope to dangle on as I huffed and puffed up the mountain. For the most part I am in good hiking shape, but the soju I drank the night before disagreed with my life decisions.


Thankfully a little mind-over-matter attitude, along with my just rip-the-band-aid-off approach to physical activity, helped me to high tail it most of the way up despite the lovely burning sensation in my calves. The views at the top were certainly worth it. I plan to keep doing hikes like this to see more of Korea. Plus the company is better than twiddling my thumbs alone in my apartment on the weekends.


When we reached the top we received an enthusiastic greeting from a group of Korean hikers. Now I should explain here that Koreans are, or at least like to try to be, extremely fashionable. In general, even on the subway, I always feel like there's a fashion show going on that no body told me about. On the subway at 6 AM you'll see girls in skinny jeans and sky high stiletto heels (and I'm pretty sure they're not coming home from a late night at a club, though some might be). Apparently though, you must be fashionable even whilst hiking. No Korean hiker would be ready to go anywhere without head to toe, top of the line, brightly colored synthetic hiking clothes. No old, free college t-shirts and worn out yoga pants here.

Anyway, once at the top we were given a bottle of makkoli, traditional Korean rice wine, by a jolly old man who was apart of the group pictured above.  I smiled at the old man as I drank a small cup of  the too-sweet, luke warm beverage, secretly wishing for bottle of Gatorade to appear. An old woman warned us not to drink too much so we wouldn't go crazy on the way down. It was fun to partake in this tradition with the other group, but I have to say its strange drinking on a mountain top since I've always thought of sipping on beer or wine as a sitting-on-your-front-porch activity. Clearly I've been missing out.

When in Korea, make like this guy and grab your makkoli (that green, soda bottle looking thing).

Here's an unimpeded view of the river. Usually the water is a nice shade of blue-green, but we had some monsoon rain the day before which stirred up the silt, etc. Luckily these rains make for good rafting which came next!


Here's me throwing up a peace sign with the Korean hikers. The nice man next to me let me hold his walking stick so I'd look more legit, but it was still kind of hard to blend in....

In case anyone was wondering, they invited us to take pictures with them, so I didn't have to awkwardly jump in. It might seem insensitive using a hiking group as a tourist attraction for a photo, but I assure you the using was mutual and all in good fun.


Halfway through the hike we walked along the river, but the path was pretty badly flooded. Luckily I seem to have retained my rock hopping skills from childhood. The worst part actually was the hornets nest on the path that led to some pretty bad stings! I was spared from injury but one girl who was stung on her lower leg could barely walk afterwards! Thus my fear of insects intensifies...the giant spider we saw didn't help either.

Once we got to the river though everyone was excited. They made us do some light warm up exercises which was pretty hilarious considering we had just been hiking for over three hours. The river was fast but calm, only one set of rapids nearly sent me tumbling off the raft. The most action we got really was using our paddles to engage in splash fights with other boats. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures since I don't have a water proof camera. If you really must see a rafting picture, I suppose you can Google "rafting in Gangwon-do Korea"

For your continued entertainment I'll end the post with my new favorite re-occuring theme: crazy Asian stuffed animals. I really want to get a dog but I don't want to pay for vet expenses/ I'm really not home that much anyway. So instead I decided to purchase a stuffed animal that made me laugh. I think it already has a name...and might be a her...but I'm going to call him Gus because I think something about that name really captures his expression. Gus, meet world. World, meet Gus:


Not sure why his face is like that...maybe he drank too much Soju, or just doesn't like what you're saying to him right now.