Hadn't really got anything planned for the week after Ganghwa, which was rather unlike us! Cue many phone calls between myself, Anda and Faye on Wednesday and Thursday trying to plan on what to do to relie
ve another week of teaching crazy Korean kids.
Saturday morning we awoke late, around 10, so had to leave our very tasty breakfast and get a wriggle on in order not to miss the bus that was heading from Gangbyeon about 12 noon. Damn, Faye had just had a delivery of Marmite too, so I was very upset. Still, luckily the journey to the bus was pretty uneventful and we made it and met up with Anda and Mike in plenty of time. The bus ride to the rafting HQ was uneventful, though horrifically boring, owing to it taking bloody ages, and I'm pretty sure not just 'one and a half hours', like it said in the blurb. It was actually more like 2 and a half and by the end of the journey we were readier than ever to head to the water. We jumped into a taxi and headed a small caravan with a couple of what seemed to be marquees nearby and kitted ourselves out in very attractive helmets, life jackets, plastic macs and jelly shoes. Turns out that rafting definitely isn't for fashionistas, though I'm pretty sure I'm not one of those, meaning I was pretty happy with displaying my ass strap (which you had to do up when donning the life jacket, to make sure that you'd cut yourself in two before the thin
g slipped off you. Nice.), and posing for some ace pictures.
ve another week of teaching crazy Korean kids.We decided on rafting down Hangtanggang river in the end, which is situated in Cheorwon, North of Seoul and pretty close to the North Korea border. Faye and I spent Friday evening at the holiday village again, this time going for a rather lovely 김 밥 meal at her local shop and then renting out a couple of movies, one being The Holiday, a rather girly flick starring Kate Winslet and Jack Black and the other being the Orphanage, Guillermo del Torro's excellent effort at a horror movie. I don't often get freaked out at horror movies, but I did find myself a little during this one, specially as the lights were all off and Faye fell asleep pretty much straight away! Bless. Still, kids though, freakiest thing to have in a horror movie, they just invite creepiness. I'm pretty sure I'd be more freaked out hearing a child laugh in a dark, deadly wood, than I would a wolf. Definitely recommend giving the Orphanage a whirl if ever you do fancy a good film, though if you're not a subtitle fan, it's not the one for you.
Saturday morning we awoke late, around 10, so had to leave our very tasty breakfast and get a wriggle on in order not to miss the bus that was heading from Gangbyeon about 12 noon. Damn, Faye had just had a delivery of Marmite too, so I was very upset. Still, luckily the journey to the bus was pretty uneventful and we made it and met up with Anda and Mike in plenty of time. The bus ride to the rafting HQ was uneventful, though horrifically boring, owing to it taking bloody ages, and I'm pretty sure not just 'one and a half hours', like it said in the blurb. It was actually more like 2 and a half and by the end of the journey we were readier than ever to head to the water. We jumped into a taxi and headed a small caravan with a couple of what seemed to be marquees nearby and kitted ourselves out in very attractive helmets, life jackets, plastic macs and jelly shoes. Turns out that rafting definitely isn't for fashionistas, though I'm pretty sure I'm not one of those, meaning I was pretty happy with displaying my ass strap (which you had to do up when donning the life jacket, to make sure that you'd cut yourself in two before the thin
g slipped off you. Nice.), and posing for some ace pictures.When we arrived at the river it began to rain, which we didn't mind, as we were about to get soaked and were shepherded into a red rubber raft that also accommodated 5 Korean guys. The woman that attempted to give us the safety briefing wasn't very good at English, but she tried very hard and we got the basic idea, thank goodness. It wasn't until halfway down the river we were told that one of the Korean men was in fact an English lecturer, however I'm not sure how true this was, as he seemed to be shit at English and didn't help us with any explanations, in fact, the only thing he really said was 'that's gas!' after he farted really loudly. Thank goodness Mike is excellent at Hangeul, he managed to make some conversation about how to raft properly and about the scenery, which was amazing. The area around the river has been quoted as 'the Grand Canyon of Korea' and the rock formations and waterfalls were something to behold. I spent much of our time floating down the river looking up in awe and feeling pretty lucky to be where I was right then and not stuck in the UK, no offence to those that were/are! Unfortunately, there aren't that many rapids on Hangtanggang however, we got to ride a few and although jumping off one of the cliffs was strictly vetoed, we were allowed to jump in the water a few times and have a bit of a swim, which was brilliant, and something that I'd been desperate to do for a long time. At one point, we rode a bit of a bumpy rapid part, which meant that Anda and Faye both half fell into the river and that Anda was almost suffocated by Faye. I had her trouser leg to haul her out if she was under too long, but luckily, she came up laughing pretty quickly after that and we carried on our journey. Later, Anda caused more joviality by swimming in a hilarious fashion, (not intentionally) and getting a mean wedgie from the ass strap, which also affected the Korean men, when I tried to pull a couple out of the water by them - their voices were a couple of octaves higher by the end of the day, lets just say that.
The end of our rafting adventure came much too quickly and we found ourselves heading back to Seoul, as there didn't seem to be much around Cheorwon, and the rain and time of night hindered any other plans that we could have made. Luckily Frank, Jon, Tambo, Johnny Walker, Boram and her friends were in Seoul, so we headed to Itaewon for a night of dancing. There we bumped into my Korean husband again, and Little Red, and I got way too drunk (I'm not excusing it, but free drinks all night, I should not be allowed to do that, ever.) and had to apologise to various people the next morning - sorry all!
Morning saw me waking up in Jon and Lachlan's flat in Pyongnae and Jon and I had a lovely afternoon of sitting in a water park eating ice cream and relaxing in a Barbara Walters/Streisand themed bar, before I decided it was time to head towards home. Tambo decided, to stave of the hangover blues, that he would head out with me and we made the journey to Itaewon and the Wolfhound, which is an amazing Irish bar that sells all kinds of English food. I decided to go for the toad in the hole and Ben went for 'The Whole Shebang,' which was the world's biggest fry-up that he thought he could handle, however someones eyes were far too big for his belly. After, we decided to stay for the pub quiz, which was, it seems, the most unbelievably hard thing in the world and I was of 
no use, leaving Ben to struggle on for the entirety of the first round, before we snuck out, tails between our legs. Next stop was 'Woodstock', an excellent bar that has an amazing playlist, of which you are allowed to choose the music, but that night we were treated to some questionable comedy and some better music, after one of the most boring speeches ever. Suffice to say that the topic this fella chatted about didn't stick in my mind, though I think it was something about Seoul writers club. The last stop of the night was to head to Chonggyechon, the man made water feat
ure that straddles a large part of the city. Chonggyechon was built by the current Prime Minister, in order to show the world that Korea is taking it's pollution issues seriously. Which is nice. The stream itself is even more so, with lasers, lights, stepping stones and small fish, and about a million Korean couples chilling on the edges. Ben and I took a walk around for a while, looked at the art on show, before deciding that we had to grab the subway home, lest we wished to sleep rough all night. I think I reached home about 12 and then, after a quick call to the homegirls fell happily into the land of nod, knowing that another weekend had been well spent. . .
Morning saw me waking up in Jon and Lachlan's flat in Pyongnae and Jon and I had a lovely afternoon of sitting in a water park eating ice cream and relaxing in a Barbara Walters/Streisand themed bar, before I decided it was time to head towards home. Tambo decided, to stave of the hangover blues, that he would head out with me and we made the journey to Itaewon and the Wolfhound, which is an amazing Irish bar that sells all kinds of English food. I decided to go for the toad in the hole and Ben went for 'The Whole Shebang,' which was the world's biggest fry-up that he thought he could handle, however someones eyes were far too big for his belly. After, we decided to stay for the pub quiz, which was, it seems, the most unbelievably hard thing in the world and I was of 
no use, leaving Ben to struggle on for the entirety of the first round, before we snuck out, tails between our legs. Next stop was 'Woodstock', an excellent bar that has an amazing playlist, of which you are allowed to choose the music, but that night we were treated to some questionable comedy and some better music, after one of the most boring speeches ever. Suffice to say that the topic this fella chatted about didn't stick in my mind, though I think it was something about Seoul writers club. The last stop of the night was to head to Chonggyechon, the man made water feat
ure that straddles a large part of the city. Chonggyechon was built by the current Prime Minister, in order to show the world that Korea is taking it's pollution issues seriously. Which is nice. The stream itself is even more so, with lasers, lights, stepping stones and small fish, and about a million Korean couples chilling on the edges. Ben and I took a walk around for a while, looked at the art on show, before deciding that we had to grab the subway home, lest we wished to sleep rough all night. I think I reached home about 12 and then, after a quick call to the homegirls fell happily into the land of nod, knowing that another weekend had been well spent. . . 
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