Flying in Korea: Day 1 in Danyang

I organized a paragliding trip to Danyang (단양), a county located in South Korea's only landlocked province-North Chungcheong Province (충청북도)- last weekend. Most of it stemmed from me wanting to cross something off my Korea bucket list before the semester ends and a small part of it was to satisfy the adrenaline junkie in me. Planning  paragliding trip was tough because it required alot of sifting through Korean sites that barely had any English, and those which did had the barest minimal (ie. nothing which could satisfactorily answer my questions about safety, locations etc.). So... I decided to write a blog post to share it with you all who want to do the same in Korea but have no idea where to begin. 

To get a sense of where Danyang is...

This is the paragliding company which we used:  단양두산레저파크 and you can visit its website here (www.dspark.kr). The only drawback is that it only has information in Korean, although you could send an email to kimjaeeun5014@daum.net and get a brief response in English. 

They are extremely friendly and helpful, providing me with information about how to get to Danyang from Seoul, where we could stay, as well as where else in Danyang we could visit after paragliding. The service was simply impeccable! There are two types of paragliding, one being tandem and the other being solo. The former means that there is an instructor who will do it with you, and all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the view, while waving to the go-pro camera which will record the entire journey. The latter can only be one after you have done a course on HOW TO PARAGLIDE, and this course typically lasts a day. DSPark does not offer the course because of the lack of popularity (most people are just seeking a hassle free and safe one time experience!) and how time consuming it is. Of course with foreigners, there is the extra language barrier (neither the learner nor the instructor will feel safe if they cannot communicate properly...). 

So the ten of us, as shown below, all did tandem paragliding for 100,000 KRW (about 98 USD /122SGD) per person. 

The price included:

Pick-up and drop off at Danyang bus terminal/train station

Paragliding equipments + outerwear

*Ramen post-paragliding*- extension of their hospitality :)

Full video recording of your paragliding experience

This is very reasonable considering the three other places I called up charged between 90,000 - 120,000 KRW for paragliding alone and an extra 30,000 KRW for the video. DSPark offered us a further 10% discount for paragliding since there were 10 of us and we managed to go on a Friday (their non peak day). Now give me a reason NOT to go...

A very excited me all strapped up and ready to go! Instructions were simple: look at a red house in the valley below,  break out into a semi-run/speed walk, then lift your legs once you don't feel the ground under you. 

All the paragliding gear.  You will wear the haversack and it serves as a 'seat' for you during the flight. 

"I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky." 

With Jaeeun, my tandem instructor. He has SEVENTEEN YEARS of paragliding experience but still finds it exhilarating each time he does it. How nice it must be to do what you love, and love what you do. 

While waiting for the rest to come back from the valley where they landed, we decided to challenge our physical limits atop the mountain.  Human pyramid!

A video of me hopelessly running towards the red house in the valley as instructed:

Now the largest problem I had with planning this trip was transport to and fro Danyang- it isn't exactly a super popular tourist area. Since the bunch of us who went are all studying at Kyunghee University's Global Campus in Suwon (an hour away from Seoul by bus), our options were more limited. I wanted a hassle free way of getting there and back (ie. no transferring buses in some remote place), so I researched the option of travelling there by train. 

From Cheongnyangni (청량리) station in Seoul, the journey would take around TWO HOURS, and below is the time table of all the trains from Cheongnyangni to Danyang daily. Tickets cost between 10,000 to 16,000 KRW one way depending which train you plan to take.

From Suwon station, which is much closer to our campus, there is only ONE train to Danyang. It would take TWO HOURS THIRTY MINUTES and cost us 25,400 KRW each. Yet after factoring in the time it would take for us to get to Cheongnyangni and the cost of getting there, we opted for the train from Suwon. 

Nevertheless despite it being nearer, we were still in a rush and caught the train with only seconds to spare. I guess on hindsight, we should never underestimate the power of morning traffic. Though the driving prowess of the taxi drivers is also something to be applauded. Our cab driver even tried to convince me to hire the cab to Danyang directly, saying that it would only take us an hour and a half and cost us 150,000 KRW (I rejected the proposition by saying that it is a group of us who are going and we are all in different cabs + I cannot contact them by phone since they all don't have a Korean number + we are poor students). Had to add the last part because scarily/coincidentally he drove up to the two other cabs which the rest were in (!!). 

I also discovered that there was a group discount available (a nice surprise) if you buy 10 tickets at once , so we paid only 22,300 KRW each for our ticket to Danyang. 

Below are the trains available from Danyang back to Cheongnyangni and Suwon respectively, at the same prices. Half of the group returned to Seoul after paragliding because they had a pool party to attend, and the other half of us stayed on for a night. 

Post paragliding, we headed to the Gosu cave (고수동굴). DSPark very kindly drove us there and even procured us a map of Danyang so we could plan where to go. Jaeeun even helped me call up the water rafting place in Yongchun to make a booking for the following day. So thankful that I picked what must be the best paragliding company in Danyang ^.^ 

The interior of the caves provided us with a cool respite from the early summer heat. It was a very comfortable 15 degrees Celsius inside, and we spent a good part of an hour exploring the cave. Wikipedia was not wrong to call it an "underground palace" of limestone formations. It is hard to believe that structures from some 450 million years ago remain so well preserved. I am also still in awe of how the Koreans installed staircases inside the cave to take visitors into every nook and cranny. 

Entrance and exit of the Gosu cave. 고수동굴입구

The staircases inside take you to various corners of the caves. At some point, I don't know how, we were about 4-5 floors up and had to climb down a seemingly never ending spiral staircase. 

The guys trying to imitate a pose I was in seconds earlier. Don't they look happy?

After putting half of us into a taxi bounded for Danyang station, the other half of us headed for a late lunch/early dinner. We decided on having some home cooked Korean food, and got a really good deal: 8,000 KRW per person.

From left to right, as I remembered it: Soybean paste soup, cucumber kimchi, beansprout kimchi, toufu, wild veg kimchi, fish cake [Row 1] and Fried fish, cabbage kimchi, another type of kimchi, braised quail eggs and garlic sprout kimchi [Row 2]

Before food.

After food. The boys were so exhausted that they fell asleep on the very comfortable wood flooring of the restaurant. 

We slept overnight in a jimjilbang (찜질방) for 9,000 KRW per person, which was way cheaper than any guesthouses available. It was all very comfortable (unless you are not the floor sleeping type, and even then I would urge you to try it out. It's all part of experiencing a foreign culture.) except for the fact that people snore. And being the light sleeper that I am, I did not get very much sleep. The guys slept like dead logs though. Then again, they can sleep anywhere, anytime so they aren't the best gauge to use. 

Before bed: us playing German bridge very seriously in our jjimjilbang wear.

To be continued.

Turning 22 with a Korean style 생일주 (birthday drink)

Been wanting to blog ever since the mid terms which started two weeks ago and which ended last week. Have still been procrastinating, but I shall quickly blog about my birthday three days ago, which I spent in Korea. It was also during this birthday that I experienced what Koreans call the "BIRTHDAY DRINK (생일주 seng-il chu)".

I have heard of it since I started school in Beijing, but have never been on the receiving end of it. The closest I have come to it was when we were dining at the restaurant near PKU, and there was a bunch of Korean guys celebrating someone's birthday in the other room. The poor birthday boy came knocking on our door and asked if any of us girls would be willing to help him with his birthday drink while his friends were shaking their heads at us and laughing. To cut a long story short, we did not so he returned to his room with the giant soup bowl containing his birthday drink. I swear I spied a cigarette butt floating in that murky liquid when I quickly glanced into the bowl during the fleeting moment when he was at our door.

And I digress. Presenting....my 생일주

Sugar, spice and everything nice. Yeah, right. 

As you can see, it 1) is murky 2) has unidentified objects floating in it and 3) is way bigger than one shot. The below is a list of what went into it, as far as I can remember:

Beer (맥주)

Soju (소주)

Maehwasu (매화수) 

Spicy chicken sauce (간장)

Dipping salt- for fried chicken

Mustard

A lot of spring onion (파)

Radish (무)

Fried chicken

How it worked was that the jug was passed around and everyone seated at the table would add one item into the jug. The last person would swirl it together nicely before handing it back to me...To give you an idea of how huge the jug was:

Can hold 3000cc when filled to the brim. I'm guessing my birthday drink was about 800cc?

Less ingredients went into the jug than there were number of people at my birthday dinner. Most of the girls decided to spare me, so they just looked disgusted and somewhat amused as the guys passed the jug around with glee. Lucky me, no one was intoxicated enough to try dipping a sock into it, or even throw a used napkin in (yes, those have happened to some others whom I know!). Still, this didn't mean that the drink was easy to down. 

First mug: It smelled faintly of fried chicken as I held it close to my face. Not sure if it was the shop (since we were at a fried chicken place) or the chicken floating in the mug. I looked at my friends sitting opposite me instead of into the mug as I put the edge to my lips and that made it better. My first thought after the first mouthful was that it was better than I had imagined it to be. The chicken sauce helped made the drink somewhat sweet tasting, and the fizziness from the beer helped immensely. I finished one third of the mug in a gulp.

First verdict: Drinkable. Pleasantly surprised that no gag reflex kicked in. 

And then there was more toasting and everyone wanted a drink with me. Which meant that I had to look for a black knight (흑기사 hut ki-sa) to take the fall for me. He polished off the remaining two thirds as a birthday gift me to me. He even ate the spring onion(!!). 탱규 오빠^.^ 

But then my black knight left dinner early and there was more of the birthday drink in the jug. Oh the terror of the birthday drink with the radish bobbing up and down on the surface. I don't even like radish to begin with. It is possibly my least favourite Korean side dish. 

Second mug: Tasted stronger than I remembered it to be. This time, it had dregs from the bottom of the jug that was poured into it, so it tasted less alcohol-y and more yucky. The worst mouthful was when someone went on to add some liquid from the radish side dish into the drink and it was like I was drinking radish water plus everything GROSS. 

Final verdict: Not something I would want to drink again. The taste of radish is just...@.@ 

To the people with whom I shared my first birthday drink with:)

The calm before the storm: while waiting for my other bunch of friends:)

By this time me and my black knight have downed the first mug.

We were all laughing so hard because the owner was so kind when we asked him to help us with photos. Too kind. He must have taken like 20 shots of us from all angles possible.

After the drinks, it was cake cutting smearing time. Here's one shot of the cake before we put it on each other's faces...Or rather before everyone tried to put it onto MY face.

The stunned me when I got the first smear right after I cut the cake. No more pictures after because they were busy avoiding my tit-for-tat smear muahahaha. 

Post dinner was some good old BOWLING and then more drinks and some very crazy drinking games until 6am. Kind of wished I took more photos, but since I wanted more to relish the moments in their entirety than be busy snapping away and experience my life happening through the lens of a camera, something had to give. 

At the bowling place after I won both rounds.It's my birthday afterall:)

Sitting outside the convenience store (편의점) with our drinks and snacks. Extra star for Korean convenience store because it really is the epitome of convenience. Tables and chairs which customers can just set up and use!

It was a good start to turning 22, and another memorable chapter in my exchange semester in Korea! I started my birthday on a fabulous note last weekend with a gift to self- BUNGEE JUMPING at Nami island, which I shall blog about soon.