Water sports on the Han River? I know, I know. I know what you’re thinking. Seoul is big. Real big. Seoul is, in fact, the world’s second largest metropolitan area. Yup. The greater-Seoul area has 24.5 million inhabitants. That’s a lot of people. The entire population of Canada is 34 million. Canada.
Cutting right through these 24.5 million people in Seoul is a river, known as the Han. Now I’m not certain, and in fact I have no idea whatsoever, but I’m willing to bet at least some of the 24.5 million people’s poop has made it into the river at some point.
My situation is this. I was born and raised on the west coast of Canada and I practically grew up on the water. Moving to Seoul made me realize how much I missed the ocean, boating, watersports, what have you. I missed it all. So when the opportunity arose to do some wakeboarding, obviously I embraced it. Poop or no poop. ;)
Directions: To reach the dock, take the subway to Apgujeong, exit 6. Walk straight about 300 meters. After the GS25, turn right and walk down the road until you can’t go any further. Take a left here and walk straight until you see a tunnel to the beach on your right-hand side. Through the tunnel and down to the beach, you’ll see a couple of large parked boats to your right. You’ll see the wake dock beside River City, and you’re there! Not only do they have waterskiing and wakeboarding, they also have tubing, a banana boat, a water chair (!!), and apparently a flying mattress too (illegal in most countries).
The prices are a little steep – they charge ₩20,000 for a 10-15 minute tow along the river (they provide the driver and you can throw all your friends in the boat and make them take pictures of you ;) ), but you only live once and when else will you get to wakeboard/waterski on such a perfectly polluted river? ;)
Haha, it wasn’t that bad. Really. I didn’t have to jump over a single dead fish (or floating body), and I didn’t even develop a mystery rash. And I promise you, I swallowed my fair share of poop water. ;)
Anyway, and more importantly, it was fun! A day on the river with good friends, a few pints, and a little wakeboarding. And when the sun went down, we retreated to the grassy field to toss the frisbee and kick the soccer ball around. Things could be worse. :)
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I really like your site. Good content without the fluff and nonsense.
Thanks for the post :)
Looks like everything was worth it in the end, although when you do stop and think about all of the pollution in the water, you have to wonder.