If you would have asked me a year ago, "Jenn, next year do you think you'll be ATVing on a riverbed in South Korea?" I would have laughed at you. Yet here we are...
My new coworkers asked me if I wanted to join them on an outdoor jaunt to a town Northeast of Seoul to ride ATVs, go-carts, and eat lunch on a Saturday, and I thought...why not? This would not have been my first choice, but I hadn't really done anything like that before, and it sounded fun. It was! I am glad I stepped out of my comfort zone.
2 of my coworkers (Aaron and Phil) had been before, but myself and Mensah had not. We did not know what to expect. We had a nice car ride there and had time to kill before everything opened. We got some coffee and Phil showed us the town. It should be noted that he has a jeep, built to go off regular terrain.
He scared the shit out of Mensah and I (Aaron knew it was coming), when he decided to veer off the mountain road into the dirt riverbed without warning. They thought it was hilarious, we did not. It definitely woke us all up though. Did I mention we left to get there at 0700 on a Saturday?!?
After that, we went to the ATV rental, and got set up. They gave us helmets, made sure we knew how to operate everything, and sent us on our way. The boys took off and were a little crazy for my tastes at first, but I took it slow till I knew what I was doing/felt comfortable driving. We spent an hour driving through puddles, up and downs little foothills, and just having some carefree fun in the rain. Overall, once I felt the need for speed, and got used to the ATV...I HAD A BLAST! See below for a compilation TikTok of ATV, or go to my page to check it out!
Then we decided to test our luck at go-carts. The rain/light sprinkles had let up, so we took the opportunity. The Korean man operating them was surprised we'd want to, and we found out why. At first, I loved them. I was the superior go-cart racer, and I got to spin out and fly around the track. Then when the rain water sprayed up, and covered our faces in dirt and pebbles...we understood why he thought we were crazy Americans. We got more filthy from 10 minutes of go-carts then an hour of ATVs. Whoops...
After we hosed ourselves off (literally), we got back into the car to go get lunch. Phil decided to scare us again, but it didn't go as well as planned in round two. Not only was my bladder upset, but his car had an incident. A stick lodged itself into the grill and went straight through the radiator. We should have taken a picture. I joked it was karma for scaring his coworkers...too soon?
We ended up walking through the little town, scarfing down lunch, and boarding a train back to Seoul. It was definitely an adventure. Lunch was great, we had Chicken Dak-Galbi at a traditional restaurant (I'm talking shoes off and floor mat seating). The train station was up the side of a mountain, so we got our steps in. By the time I got home to my apartment...I needed a hot shower, to wash my clothes, and take a long nap. Overall it was an interesting, fun, and unforgettable adventure.
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