We drove out to Yeongweol yesterday, which is a small town in the mountains, a couple of hours inland. It was cloudy on the coast, but when we got to Yeongweol it was sunny and really hot.Driving through the tiny little town, all you see are rafting companies. There must have been at least 20 or 30 different companies, and their parking lots were all full, which meant the river was going to be busy.
I wasn't really sure what to expect. I've gone rafting several times in Canada, and once in Japan, and most of the times the rapids have been pretty good, but I hadn't heard anything about this river.
After getting our helmets, paddles and lifejackets we were crowded into a bus that during the week is used to shuttle kids around to their various after-school classes. We drove for about 20 minutes to the launch site, which was swarming with activity. There were at least 20 rafts putting in every couple of minutes.
We were assigned to a guide, Mingu, who turned out to be a really good guy. On our boat, there was the four of us, and then one other couple, making it a nice small group.I didn't see any other foreigners on the river the whole trip out of thousands of Koreans, prompting the inevitable, "waegukin ida (it's a foreigner)" from many of the rafters that saw me. Even so, Mingu tried really hard to explain a lot of what he was saying in his very low English. However, a lot of the time I didn't really understand, prompting him to splash me with his paddle in frustration on several occasions.
The rapids were disappointing, as it was mostly just a float down the river, with only one good stretch of rapids. So that's where having a fun guide comes in. He spent a lot of the slow time having us launch each other off the boat, and attacking other rafts. The water temperature was perfect, and a great way to beat the heat.
The scenery was surprisingly beautiful, and relatively untouched. Most of the time you see rivers in Korea, their banks have been concreted, but there was almost no development along this river until the end. Unfortunately, I left my camera in the car, as I didn't want it being damaged.
We only payed 25,000 won each (about $20) for about 3 hours, which I thought was a pretty good deal.
I took this picture on the way up, while we waited in traffic. If it isn't obvious, in the first picture, I'm the guy at the front of the boat on the far right. They had a guy snapping pictures of all the boats as they came in, and then you could buy a copy for $5.