Paragliding in Danyang

I searched online for best places to go paragliding in South Korea, as I had wanted to try it for a long time. I had heard that Korea would be a great place to do it so I compared the different options and though Danyang had one of the shortest air time, it was said that the views were one of the best, so I went for it.

I booked my experience online just a couple of days before actually doing it. I got a lot of help from their office through WhatsApp on how to book the tickets to the bus going to Danyang from Seoul etc.

The bus ride to Danyang took around 2,5 hours and it was late from schedule when I arrived. I got a call from the paragliding office that I was to hurry to the car after my bus arrives, since there were other people waiting as well. So I made my way quickly to the office, signed a couple of papers and jumped into the paragliding outfit and ran to the car with two other people in it.

The car ride up the hill was more scary than in the end getting down from there. The roads were steep and very narrow and the car engine was definitely doing its best. The Korean lady next to me kept holding on to my hand as she seemed to be scared of the curves as well.

At the top we got very quick instructions and the main one was to just keep running no matter what. Stopping at the edge could be harmful and cause an accident.

Weird thing was, I thought that I was afraid of heights (not much, but a little bit) but I wasn't afraid at all to just run to the edge and hope for the best.

The views were stunning. The small town of Danyang is located by the riverside in the middle of hills and forests. It was a warm and sunny day as well.

Once I landed, there was a car full of people heading out for the same spot, and they all applauded and laughed for my extremely well done, not-funny-at-all landing.

I had also paid for a video of the experience, so now I can look back to this moment and the whole experience. I will definitely be paragliding again in the future.

The whole experience was over in just a hour. It all went by so fast from the moment I stepped out of the bus, that I wonder if I really even had any time to be scared.

Suddenly, I had some time to spend again. I was hungry, since I was too scared to eat anything before. I roamed the town Danyang and searched for food and ended up eating a dish of bibimbap by the river.

After eating I hopped on the bus again and travelled back to Seoul to get ready for my trip to Vietnam. I still had one day to do laundry and enjoy Seoul. I met up with my first Korean language teacher, who lives in Seoul and nowadays works for Talk To Me In Korean (TTMIK) and has helped me a lot during my language learning process. She showed me around Mangwon area and I got to taste all the dishes I still had missed. Kimchijjeon (kimchi pancake), a hotteok she recommended, kimbab, the songpyeon we searched for during chuseok and some dumplings. The kimchijjeon is missing from the picture below, but it was extremely delicious!

And so my trip in Korea was ending. I feel like this is definitely a country I need to return to at one point. Seoul on its own is so huge and there is so much to see, to do and to learn, that I feel like during this trip I barely scratched the surface. It was fun, though! Now begins the solo trip. Next post will be about Hanoi, Vietnam. Bye!