Arirang TV Weekend

So I was contacted by Mr. Kim from the climbing website about an opportunity to participate in a Korean Culture tour that was being filmed for a documentary by Arirang TV. The deal was that they would pay for me to travel to different places every month as long as they could film it. I figured it would be a good way for me to get out and see the country on someone else's dime.

This past weekend they had a Buddhist temple stay scheduled. We were supposed to go and live the life of a Buddhist monk. I wasn't particularly thrilled about this, but I figured it would be a good experience. I was picked up in Jamsil by the tv crew in a Mini Cooper. This was quite possibly the worst car for them have rented. I had also figured there would be other people besides me going. I found out it was just me and the tv crew.

On the ride to the northeastern part of Korea, I was informed that the temple stay had been cancelled. I figured 'great, I just got into a car with strangers who aren't taking me to where I thought I was going'. They told me we were going to the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival and handed me a packet of information.

We got there sometime around noon and stopped somewhere for some lunch. I will spare you the details, but for the whole trip we ate only Korean food. The good part was that we ate at a lot of very good restaurants and I didn't have to pay for any of it.

After lunch we went to the festival. The festival is based around a river that they dam up so that the water freezes. They also focus on a type of trout that is only found in this river. The main draw for the festival is ice fishing on parts of the river. Lucky for me, I was able to participate in the fishing (one of my goals in Korea). What I did not know was to what extent I would be fishing.

The tv crew asked if I would be willing to participate in a bare hands fishing contest. I figure I would be wading in some part of the river with some waders on, trying to catch a fish with my hands, Survivorman-style. This wasn't the case. They had created a pool in the river that they stocked with fish where I was to jump in and try and scare the fish to the wall to grab with my hands. All the while, I am wearing a t-shirt and athletic shorts that were provided for me. The water was ridiculously cold and the fish were very slippery. Unfortunately I was not able to catch a fish.

After drying off and warming up, we set off to go ice fishing. I was excited because I had never been ice fishing, or even walked on a frozen river. We set up around some holes that had been abandoned by less fortunate fishers. The cool thing was that you could tell where the fish were schooling by tracking the screams around the river. As soon as some people started catching fish near me, I started jigging my lure like crazy and ended up gut-hooking a trout. It was pretty exciting lifting the fish out of the water. Everyone gathered around me and congratulated me on the catch.

We stuck around for a little while longer to try and catch more fish, but alas, there were no more hits. We bagged up the fish and headed over to the tents where you could either grill your fish or have it cut up for sushi or sashimi. The line was too long for the cutting, so we decided to grill it. Well, not really. We actually gave my fish to a nice man who had just finished cooking his own fish so that we wouldn't have to wait however long it would take to grill the fish. his fish tasted good, and I can only assume that mine tasted even better because it was bigger, and because I had caught it myself.

When we finished eating, we went out to a part of the river designated for sledding. They had square wooden boards that had two ice skate blades attached that you sat on to sled across the ice. You propelled yourself with two sticks with nails at the bottom that you jammed into the ice and pulled to get moving. I started to get pretty good at it and only managed to scare a few families by almost running over their small children.

Afterwards, we walked around and got some gratuitous walking shots around the festival. I swear I must have done some of the shots like five or six times before we got them right. After that we drove to a hotel to get rested for the next day.

Upon waking, we left for the Pyeongchang Snow Festival. The city of Pyeongchang is most famous for its winter sports venues. It is also known for making several failed bids at the Winter Olympics, but it appears that after getting a steady increase in votes each time around that they may be a lock for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

On the way there, the tv crew had decided they were going to climb a mountain to get some extra shots for the show. I decided to stay in the car because they said it was an hour up and an hour down, plus I had tennis shoes on. So I fell asleep in the car while they trekked on. The funny thing was that it actually took them about two and half hours each way, and on the way up a small snowstorm came through and dropped a few inches of snow on the ground. I woke up in the car with all the windows covered.

After they got back we left for the festival, which was only a ten minute drive away. The snow festival was pretty bland, but the amazing snow sculptures made up for it. I walked around while they got the shots they needed and I took some pictures of the festival. Towards the end of the day I decided I would walk up a hill and tube down a tunnel they had created for the event. The hill was very icy and I almost fell a few times. The ride down was awesome and they got it on film.

I hope that I can get some of the footage, so that one day I can show you some of the stuff I did. In the meantime, I have posted some of my photos on my flickr website at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31272063@N08/

It was a great experience and I hope to go out with them again to more interesting places.