Rafting and River Trekking

I went to the Inje area last weekend, which is up towards the North Korean border, to go white water rafting and river trekking. I went with a group of other foreigners, mostly Americans and Canadians, and we spent the first day rafting and then the second day river trekking.


The rafting was quite tame, but it was okay. We finished late afternoon and then headed to a pension in the mountains that we had rented. I went for a short hike there and saw many of these Oriental Firebellied Toads like the one pictured above. They are green with black spots/stripes on top, and then red with black on their underside. I saw a dead one that was all red and black, so I assume they gradually change colour.


The next day we hiked into a river and then walked down through the river about 8 to 10 kilometres. It was a blast. The river was pretty calm most of the way, but there were a few of these mini water slides like the one above.
The Koreans you meet while hiking tend to be quite friendly. At the start of the river, the man above grabbed my arm as I walked past him and started talking to me in a mix of broken English and Korean. He dragged me into the river with him, but because he was laughing the whole time, I was curious what he wanted so I went along with it. Turns out he wanted me to sit down in the river with him so his wife could take a picture of us.
He was a really happy/crazy guy, so when I ran into him later down the river, I had his wife take another picture of us. It's quite easy to notice our different attire. All of the Koreans I saw were dressed like this. It doesn't matter how long the hike is, they ALWAYS get dressed up like they're going on a multi-day expedition.