Very Danger But Funny

"It looks creepy, like something out of a murder mystery 'who-done-it' book," said Nicole.

"Yeah, it looks eerie," said Rebecca.  I looked around.

We were sitting on our tiny back porch having breakfast, enjoying the view of the lush, green mountains across the river.  It was pouring rain and fog had just rolled in over the trees.  It didn't look creepy or eerie to me--it looked exactly like the Smoky Mountains.

I had been ogling over the views since we had arrived in Inje the day before.  I almost couldn't believe my eyes.  Now that the trees have leaves on them, I realize how much the Korean landscapes look like the southeastern United States.  Except for the Asian-looking buildings and signs in Korean, I felt like I could be in the mountains of North Carolina, driving through Asheville on my way to visit my parents in South Carolina.

I breathed in the cool, humid mountain air and enjoyed the comforting feeling which came from watching the misty fog slowly billowing through the hills.  The sound of rain was completely disguised by the rustling of the river.  Could we go ATV'ing in the rain?

Saturday had been beautiful.  We had really lucked out because we are actually in the middle of monsoon season, meaning it has rained pretty much every day for the past 2 weeks, and will keep raining for the next 3 or 4.  But yesterday we were given the gift of a sunny, 80 degree day, perfect for whitewater rafting!

It was Rebecca's birthday trip.  She, Kim, Erin, Nicole, Kylie, and I arrived by bus and shuttle at our tiny cabin around 2pm on Saturday.  The interior was entirely wooden, like a ski lodge or the inside of a sauna.  It was definitely the nicest place I'd stayed in outside of Seoul.  There was enough room for 3 people to sleep on the bottom floor and 3 more could sleep up in the small loft.  The stairs up to the loft were more reminiscent of a ladder and I opted to sleep on the ground level where I knew it would be cooler.  There were no beds, but there was already a cushy blanket on the ground floor, and a small wardrobe with tons of blankets and pillows.  We were set!

Rebecca, Kylie, and Kim in the loft

The view from the back door was amazing.  Right below us was the river we would be rafting on.  On the other side of the river were the small, rolling green mountains.  From the floor inside the cabin, I couldn't quite see the top of the hill, making it look like a wall of trees outside.  I had to keep reminding myself I wasn't in Gatlinburg.

The view from our back porch

The porch, and porches to the connected cabins

The rafting portion of our trip was mostly tame, but enjoyable.  We took a shuttle up the river from our cabin.  Our driver whipped our van through the curvy, narrow mountain road.  As soon as we got to the  right spot and began walking the path to the river, Erin reached down and picked up a giant, furry caterpillar.  "Don't touch the fuzzy part--it might be poisonous!" I told her, remembering what my mother had told me about the yellow fuzzy ones we used to find in Tennessee.  Then I realized that might not even be true.  My parents had grown up knowing about gila monsters and rattle snakes--not necessarily fuzzy yellow caterpillars.  Maybe they had just been cautious about these critters, which were probably foreign to them.  After all, bright colors often indicate poison...but my brother and I would pick up literally any creature we could catch.  We had no fear, and I'm sure that must have sometimes worried my poor mother!

Erin's caterpillar

I got in the front of the raft with Kylie, and Kim was directly behind me.  Before we really got started, I noticed a brown seed pod floating in the raft, picked it up, and fake-screamed as I tossed it back onto Kim's leg, making her scream for real.

"Just kidding!" I laughed.  She fake-scowled through a smile.

Later, at one point she lifted up her oar and almost whopped me upside the head with it accidentally.  "You're gonna knock Annie out with your oar, Kim!" Kylie shouted.

I laughed.  "It's not like that'd be the first time I've been knocked out by an oar!"  I could handle it.

Before we hit a rapid, our Korean guide, who was riding in the raft with us, said, "This part coming is...very danger...but funny!"  Koreans often mix up the words "fun and "funny."  It's easy to do.

"Oh boy!" we thought, ready for some action.  The six of us screamed as we hit the big waves created by the rocks of the riverbed and the flow of the water, which was extra high from all the rain.  But it felt a lot more "funny" than "danger," which was probably a good thing, really!

Outside of the cabins before rafting

Other rafts nearby, which we played splashing games with

Left to right: Rebecca, Kim, me, Kylie, Nicole, and Erin

That night we used the cabins' grill to cook our own dinner.  It was a small town and we had been told that there were no real grocery stores nearby, so we brought our own food from Seoul in a cooler.  My friends let me slap my marinated tofu on the grill before they put the meat on.  I ate it with precooked rice, which they sell at stores in little plastic bowls.  We sat at the outdoor picnic tables for hours, drinking beer and Soju, playing drinking card games and "Truth or Dare."  I had bought a set of plastic playing cards for Kim for $3 after she had yearned for them at the beach, where they were almost $10.

My tofu!

From left to right:  Rebecca, Kylie, Nicole, Erin, and Kim

Kylie and Erin during "Truth or Dare"

I (already drunk on raw broccoli and yellow peppers) took shots of water when it was my turn to drink.  Nicole did too, until the girls convinced her to chug the Soju.  She understandably got sick a little while later and we moved to our tiny back porch.  I perched on the railing and let the others have the picnic table, which was too small for all of us, and we played Trivial Pursuit 90's Edition.  Then, we went to bed.  I slept comfortably next to the open back door and small fan...apparently through some thunder and a lot of early morning laughter from our neighbors!

Sunday morning, we ate our breakfast of muffins and yogurt as we contemplated the day's planned activity of ATV'ing. It was pouring rain.  Erin went outside and asked the lady in charge of the cabins if we could still do it.  She said yes.

I'd just like to point out that, thrill-seeker though I am, four-wheeling for the first time ever during monsoon season in a faraway land probably isn't the best idea--especially when you have to be at work on Monday.

But it sure was fun!

We drove our ATV's along the river on hilly, muddy paths, covered in huge river rocks.  Once I realized my little vehicle could handle the large bumps, and I got the hang of steering it, I was able to thoroughly enjoy myself.  But before that, I gunned it a little too fast over a hill, caught air, got frightened, and screamed--which distracted Kylie and caused her to crash into a small muddy hill.  Everyone was ok, though!  It was raining buckets.  We drove through literal rivers of gushing water and puddles almost a foot deep.  Half the time there was no semblance of a path, there was so much water!  My helmet, which had a little brim, kept the raindrops mostly out of my eyes as we curved around hills, through huge mud puddles, and underneath skinny trees, bent over our path like little rainbows.  I ducked under leaves and branches, which were sometimes level with my wet face.  My black T-shirt and pants were sticking to my skin.

"That almost wouldn't have been fun enough if it hadn't been raining," mentioned Kim after we were through.  I was surprised to hear her--the girl who doesn't like to get wet or dirty--say such a thing.  I had to agree!  It felt sublime to be covered in mud, clothes and hair dripping with mountain rainwater.

After ATV'ing, the six of us, soaked to the bone but happy, returned to our cabin to change clothes and have lunch.  I sat on the floor and stared out the window once again at the foggy hills covered in forest.  The view filled me with such joy that I wanted to bottle it and take it back with me to Seoul.  I instead had to settle for some good pictures.

The bus ride home was, as usual, quite enjoyable for me.  Driving through rural Korea transported me across the world and back through time to my childhood in Oak Ridge, TN.  This time, my brother and I were playing in the woods with some of our friends.  We had two sets of walkie-talkies which we used to communicate with each other as we became spies on the run.  To our delight, we discovered that the two sets shared the same radio wave length, and all four of us could hear and talk to each other!  How cool!  We trampled through the trees, jumping over creeks, past the big wooden swing set in the clearing we shared with neighboring houses, and to our headquarters--a two-story wooden fort, built like a bridge over the skinny creek which ran directly behind our house.  We used to catch box turtles back there on rainy days like this one...or toads, or snakes, or huge crickets and praying mantises...whatever we found we would curiously examine for a while before returning it to the wild.

None of it's there anymore...not the fort, not the wooden swing set...not even the creek, which they decided to turn into a drainpipe underground, long after we had already moved away.  But it doesn't really matter.  I will always remember those things clear as day as I continue to tromp playfully around this beautiful, green Earth!

I'm reminded that I'm not in Gatlinburg...

...or in Asheville

...and then I forget again

Corn

Peppers

Pink Flowers

Yellow Flowers

River and Mountains