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| south korea |
| yeongwol rafting |
| July 10, 2004 - Raswon, Soutthida, Paul, Nanette, Rachael, one of Rachael's friends, Allison, Suwa and his friends and I took a three-hour bus to the tiny city of Yeongwol in the mountains outside Gangneung to go river rafting. It was a beautiful day, unfortunately it wasn't quite white-water rafting, but still a lot of fun. Allison lived in Yeogwol and we met her at the bus station there before heading to the river. I should mention that all these photos were taken by Soutthida. She even bought a waterproof camera at E-Mart for some shots in the water. |
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| We waited for the van to pick us up just outside Allison's apartment in Yeongweol. After switching to another van early in the trip we went on a wild, winding ride through the mountains to the mouth of the river. It was uphill, then downhill, on a tiny road built for only one vehicle for about 30 minutes. We were almost plowed over by a tractor using the same route, but managed to squeeze by. If only the rafting could have been as exciting as the trip there. |
| After suiting up, we were subjected, by our guide, to a series of ridiculous exercises which included jumping jacks and dunking ourselves in the cold river water. |
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| About two minutes into the trip, our guide got a bunch of us to stand up. It was hard to understand what he wanted because he only spoke Korean. We thought we were practicing a safety manoeuvre, but suddenly he rocked to boat and a bunch of people went overboard. Allison was the first and our guide had to haul her back on board. |
| After some mild rapids, we stopped the boats on a sandy riverbank. They overturned one on top of another and made a sort-of slippery waterslide. Too bad the water was barely need deep. |
| By this time, some of us were getting a little frustrated with our guide. He kept making us stand up and then dunking us in the water. After the third or fourth time, Raswon took it in his hands and threw him in. He wasn't too pleased, but he should've known it was coming. Along the way we had a few splashing battles with other rafts and fought of gigantic, and I mean GIGANTIC, horseflies. |
| All in all, it was a fun trip. The river was beautiful, though not as dangerous or challenging as we had been hoping. |
| Suwa is jealous of Ras kissing Kiran. One of my all-time favourite photos. |