Paragliding in Boryeong, South Korea

Headed to Boryeong during the Spring of 2017 for a short weekend trip. Now many people know Boryeong as just a place for the famous Mud Festival every Summer, which is currently happening now (July). However, Boryeong has much more to offer, including beach activities such as ATV rides, ziplines (flying fox), canoeing and dragon boating. Boryeong is also a great place for paragliding! Fun fact, one of the cheapest places in the world to do paragliding is still Korea, seeing that it only costs 80,000KRW (~80USD) and another 40,000KRW if you want your GoPro video taken. Thereafter, they have the famous mudflats where you can pick your own shellfish. Finally, the you can also eat fresh grilled shellfish and seafood from any of the restaurants near the beach. You can read more about all these activities by continuing the post ^^

Lunch at Hanwootang (한우탕)

Arrived in Boryeong roughly around 12pm and headed to a place where they served Hanwoo Soup (한우탕). Translated, Hanwoo means Korean beef. Now, Korea is extremely proud of its homegrown cows and the fact that their beef has one of the best marbling in the world. Or so they say. I have tried Korean beef before, and they're one of the more expensive beef that I've seen or eaten, sometimes comparative to some wagyu steaks that I've seen. 

Gamasot Sigol Hanwootang (가마솥시골한우탕)

49-1 Namdaecheon-ro, Boryeong, Chungcheongnam-do

충청남도 보령시 남대천로 49-1

After lunch, we actually had a little arm wrestling competition. The thing is, for the activities such as ziplining and paragliding, the costs of the activities were supposed to be covered by the participants, depending on what they wanted to do. However, the organizers actually had a few free passes to give away so they had games where the winners would get to pick what they wanted to do. I won the arm wrestling competition and managed to get my paragliding paid for while other friends got to pick other activities ^^

Boryeong Railbike

First up, we headed to the beach where the first activity we were to be doing was the railbiking! I've actually done railbiking a few times in other parts of Korea. Anyhow, railbiking is pretty much the same, except these tracks were elevated above the beach so you get a much better view of the sea, rather than just the nature surrounding the tracks. 

Daecheon Railbike (대천레일바이크)

768-10  Myeongcheon-dong, Boryeong, Chungcheongnam-do

충천남도 보령시 명천동 768-10

Zipline Along the Beach

After hanging around the beach for more games and finally picking all the winners, we headed on to let the winners of the zipline do their activity. Since the entire place was really packed, the rest of us weren't allowed up to watch so I couldn't get any photos of them doing the zipline. The place is called ZipTrek though, if you're interested in checking it out. It's along the beach and the tower is really high up. It costs roughly 15,000 ~ 25,000 per person depending on the seasons.

ZipTrek (짚트랙코리아)
80 Haesuyokjang-10gil, Boryeong, Chungcheongnam-do
충청남도 보령시 해수욕장10길 80

Paragliding Down a Mountain

Thereafter, we headed for the next activity, and the highlight of the trip: Paragliding!! Took a huge lorry up a hill, in which the driver drove so fast along a cliff that made me feel the drive up was more dangerous than the paragliding activity itself -_- When we were up there, the view was amazing and we watched as the paragliders prepared their parachutes and the instructors who were taking us prepare the equipment. It costs 80,000krw for the regular paragliding experience in tandem and another 40,000 if you want a GoPro video included (they provide the GoPro equipment).

Daecheon Paragliding (대천패러글라이딩)
938 Myeongcheong-dong, Boryeong, Chungcheongnam-do
충청남도 보령시 명청동 938

Thereafter, I was all strapped up and ready to go!

The view from above was just breathtaking! 

There was this part where we had to descend quickly and they called this spiraling. My instructor told me that people who are heavier make the spiral faster and sometimes we would feel dizzy and want to vomit. I told him to just go for it and it was extremely thrilling. We went really really fast sideways and the instructor was really professional in controlling the way we went. Definitely one of the things that I want to do again in the future!!

Next up, it was dinner time and we headed to a restaurant selling fresh grilled shellfish. There was a huge spread of scallops, abalone, clams, and other shellfish. I had a good time grilling them and having them with cheese. Something that would be extremely expensive in Singapore doesn't cost all that much when you have it near the beach. Almost all the restaurants along the beach sell the same thing so you can head into any that doesn't have a long waiting time.

Staying the Night in Hanhwa Resort

Headed to our lodging for the night: Hanhwa Resort. This huge hotel in Boryeong has a lot of different facilities, from singing rooms to bowling alleys and they all looked so brand new. The rooms were great and reminded me more of a one room home than a hotel room. It's a great place for people to gather together and relax after a long day of beach activities.

Hanhwa Resort (한화리조트)
11-10 Haesuyokjang-3gil, Boryeong, Chungcheongnam-do
충천남도 보령시 해수욕장3길 11-10

That's it for the first day. In the next post, I'll talk about the mudflat shell-picking that we went for, and also the forest that we visited thereafter. Stay tuned!!