So after a much longer evening that expected location: an Irish pub in Seoul...I experienced something I've never experienced before. After going to bed at 4:30am and waking up at 6am, we took a two-three hour bus ride to the Gwan-ju river in northern South Korea. We got off the bus, bought some water shoes and separated into groups of 8-10 people. There was 5 of us (friends) in total: Sarah, Laura, me, and 2 of Laura's friends. Laura is from Ireland..she's pretty cool. :)
Anyways...We carried our 10-person raft with 3 other people and our instructor. Good thing we weren't in any immediate danger, because we would have no idea what he was saying. He was pretty cool though. We got in the water before getting in our boats, most people in their clothes. We then got in our boats and started paddling. Instead of 1-2-3-4..for paddling all together, our instructor decided to make it funny saying Kimchi (us: Kimchi), Makkoli (makkoli), Soju (soju), Mecchu(mecchu)..and so on. We got stuck on rocks a lot and had to bounce or rock/roll our way off of them. We were having trouble with the side to side...side one, side two (rolling) so Laura took over dictating who was going first, "1,2,1,2". The funny thing was...every boat we passed looked so miserable or just not having fun or getting bored. Our boat was awesome. We were silly and ridiculous, but at least we weren't bored or not having fun. At our first stop, everyone got out of the boat and for those that wanted to, jumped off a rock about 30 feet above the water. It was really fun EXCEPT...we should have taken off our helmets before jumping. That hurt. After that, we continued down the river. There were dips once in a while, where we got splashed and went down a few rocks, but other than that, it was really calm water. we saw a couple small waterfalls, but the scenery was beautiful. (I didn't take many pictures because I didn't dare bring my camera or phone on a boat. It would've gotten ruined.) We got to our next stop where we got out of the boat and had to climb over slippery rocks. I got so many bruises and it took me a long time because you couldn't see in the water, which meant if you stepped in the wrong place, you would just fall into the water. It took a while for everyone to get across them. Really hard. We kept going in the boats after that and after being in them for a while, everyone was hot and drying off, so our instructor said.."game". So we put the paddles across the boat long ways and everyone rested their feet on it pushing against another person's feet on the opposite side. On 3, you push off, and see who can stay up. My side lost BUT..we were all holding on to each other and did a pretty awesome backwards summersault into the water. :) After that, we were almost done. We paddled in, went into the showers (first public shower experience...) and got changed to get lunch. We went to a picnic area where they had a buffet style lunch set out for our group (2 tour buses worth of people) to eat before going to the next stop: BUNGEE JUMPING.
We all got off the bus and awaited where we were supposed to go. We were in the middle of a bridge and those that wanted to jump were lining up. 37$ for bungee jumping. Would NEVER be that cheap in the States. I got in line, paid, signed a waver and went upstairs to where you wait to jump. I didn't have to wait long. There were 2 options: you could have the rope attached to your ankles or around your waste. I went for the feet. When I got up to the ledge, the guy said "1,2,3, BUNGEE, yes?" Haha. I was like, "OK"...so he said "1,2,3..." and I fell forward..not even thinking before going. I didnt "jump" persay... just let myself fall forward and I fell face first with my arms out like I was flying. It was AMAZING. I have never felt a rush like this in my LIFE! The jump was 52m which is about 175 ft. The feeling when you let go and have no control of anything that happens next is exhilarating. Everyone should try. Sarah did it too. She didn't make a sound. I was screaming but it was a having fun scream not a scared scream. Anyways, to say the least, I would do it again in a second. SUPER AMAZING! After I jumped I went down underneath the bridge where we had a great view. We watched that, and got on the bus to go home. It was a LONG day and we got back around midnight if I remember correctly.
Rafting: CHECK
Bungee jumping: CHECK
