I remember being in elementary school in Peterborough, Ontario ,Canada, trying to crawl on top of the monkey bars and getting a nauseating feeling in the pit of my stomache.
And then one day, I decided not to be scared of heights anymore. So I went paragliding, floated in the sky with the help of a canopy, instructor, and wind.
I like being in the sky like I like being in the ocean.
Birds have it best.
So, over the weekend, I tried to organize a trip to Danyang-gun to do some motorized hanggliding.
I got a nice group together from all stretches of S.Korea and we took the long bus ride to this tiny town about 2.5 hours away. From the sky, you can see there is just one big road that runs through it. The town aims to lure tourists in because its surrounded by beautiful mountains and three national parks, has Lake Chungju running through it, and tons of scenic views.
However, it turned out to be too windy for hanggliding. Some of us went spelunking at Gosu Cave (1.7km) instead, which is a very popular cave with a bunch of limestone formations. Some went paragliding instead. And I went for a tour in a tiny yellow airplane.
I plan to go back at the end of the month for a hiking trip and maybe I can sneak away from the group and finally hangglide.
Where: Danyang-gun, Chungcheong
Why: Hangglide, Paraglide, Cave Exploration, Yellow Airplane Flying
Time: 2.5 hours from Seoul
The Gwangju crew waiting at Danyang Intercity Bus Terminal. They got there an hour early, waited for the rest of us, and still had positive attitudes and friendly smiles <3
We called the tourist office about hanggliding but they told us they didn't exist...
My little yellow airplane. I never realized how giganto my head was.
The pilot let me ride in the pilot's seat and he rode in the copilot's seat. Flying seems a lot easier than driving!
Kimchi!
Up up and away
The view over Chungju Lake
Those three rocks jutting out of the water are one of the Eight Scenic Views of Danyang. The story goes: a man and wife were deeply in love and wanted to have a child, but couldn't. So they got a mistress to have a child for them, but the mistress started making the wife very jealous. The gods saw this and turned them to stone. Or something like that.
We were 2,100 meters in the air going just over 70.
My pilot and me.
See how small the town is?
A little fishing
Landing.
"Yay! We survived!"
The nicest people (plus me)
Spelunking
I got all three of them in this shot!
Im not sure who this is...
This is where the fake waterfall was that they turn on just for tourists, apparently.
