My Winter Camp

I did a Winter Camp on editing and making movies. This is the project that my kids came up with and completed. PS: They are a fantastic group and made it a really fun experience.

The most PaInFuL DaY of SnOwBoARdinG!

Snow Boarding

I have recently started to snowboard and what a great experience it has been so far!!!

Paragliding P2 Highlights

Jeju with My Parents

This is a video I put together after my parents left Korea. They were here for about two weeks and we had a fantastic time in and around Korea. Ill let the video do the talking. Hope you enjoy it.

Peace

Something to think about

Learning to SnowBoArD and SkI at YoNgPeoNg

This is a video I put together of everyone learning to snowboard and ski on the weekend. It was by chance that I decided to get a season pass and what a great decision it turned out to be :)

Korean Time :)

This is a video which sums up the first six months I spent in Korea :)

Phillipines Holiday

Phillipines is a great place to spend a holiday!

Phillipines is a holiday that I will never forget any time soon as it was extremely eye opening. It was a total contrast between absolute poverty and subsistence  living to extreme luxury!   My holiday was about two and a half weeks. I traveled with my girlfriend Giuli Colarossi. We traveled three different areas of Phillipines.

The first area was Manila and the Taal Volcano just to the south. This was a horrible but eye opening experience which I will never regret being a part of. I am from South Africa and I believed that I had seen poverty. This was until we got lost in Manila and ended up in the most scary and precarious situation I have ever been a part of. Our first night in Manila was spent in an informal settlement which was completely unexpected as we realized that sometimes websites and booking online can be really misleading. Arriving at one o'clock in the morning didn't really help the situation either. The next day was a trek down to the volcano which is meant to take about one hour and took us about four hours in one bus, three jeepneys and a tricycle ride. On our way I saw poverty which I do not want to even try to begin to describe. When we arrived at the volcano, we had to pay someone to travel with us and personally take us into the volcano. We were the only foreigners around the first to days we spent in Phillipines which was an additive to the uneasiness we felt. This being said, it was a absolutely amazing experience and it was the first time I have been inside an active volcano which smelled of rotten eggs (sulfurous) and boiled as if there was a massive fire underneath us.

The next part of our trip was to Palawan island. We went up to El Nido and spent a couple days there in aw of its absolute beauty! This was absolutely fantastic and Ill let the video do the talking. The last part of our trip was absolutely amazing and was spent at Bohol. We met up with Giuli's parents and we stayed in paradise. We literally could not have stayed anywhere better!!

I hope that you enjoy my video :)

Giuli and I after a GREAT dive at  Bohol 

The view from our accommodation in El Nido

Diving off an island north of El Nido

What are my dreams really??

Well my dreams are somewhat different to most peoples. But in the true sense of a dream, its the same!
I dream about having a wife, family, good friends, money, happiness among other  'normal' things. The problem is that I like to jump off things, really high things; I like to ride dirt bikes; I like to body board; I like snowboarding, wake boarding and cliff jumping; In general I like things that get my heart going.

The biggest question that came with this fascination and to use a commercial term "addiction" is, do I like the concept and image of actually doing these things? Or do I truly love doing them? Iv often toyed with these ideas in my head because my sports are in no way cheap. The way I am going to answer this questions is by tell you about my dream and what made me realize that I am truly in love with what I do.

I have always been fascinated with base jumping to the point that it would often ruin a good nights sleep, I would wake up rushing and wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of the night. I started really looking into the sport and the requirements for getting into it! The easiest way is to get into base jumping is through skydiving and once you have completed from about 150-200 skydives you can get access into a first base course.

When I was at varsity, I didn't have the money to even get started  so I kept pushing what I believed to be my dream aside. I then applied to teach in Korea. The benefit of teaching in Korea is that I get to make the money to start working my way to accomplishing my dream.

When I arrived in Korea I was sort of a small fish in a huge ocean. I didn't know if I was coming or going or where to get stared. As you saw in previous posts, I started bungee jumping and doing whatever I could to become more comfortable with heights and adrenaline. Still I felt held back and that I wasn't moving forward quick enough.

I decided to start paragliding.  Paragliding is like nothing I have ever done before. Its so relaxing but at the same time trippy because you never know when something can go wrong. In essence its taken the controlled element out of the rush. You never know when and how you will get one. Its been a big step into reaching my dream.

Now to get back to the question. Is what I do for the image or for the pure love of the experience? Ill tell you a little story about when I came to the answer. It was a normal day at Yongin paragliding site but the winds were gusty and strong. My instructor (Mr Kim) on that day gave me the choice of whether to fly or not. Obviously I decided to give it a bash. During my training, the norm was running off the side of a mountain and floating away peacefully. In this particular situation, things did not go as planned.  I inflated my wing while being anchored by my instructor as the wind was to strong to do it on my own. I started ascending right of the bat which is what I was expecting but what happened next was A little bit worrying for a beginner. I started making my way of the side of the mountain when the wind started gusting. The left hand side of my wing collapsed and my glider felt like it was inside a shaking machine. I managed to correct the wing when the right hand side decided to follow suite. By the time I had corrected the wing and I was feeling way to close to the trees for comfort as I had lost loads of altitude. I started planning which tree would be the best to land in and whether I could make a landing on a newly built road. All of a sudden I felt myself go into a thermal and start lifting. I have never felt relief like that ever before. When I landed safely I realized the answer to my question.

I found myself smiling from ear to ear and I found myself wanting to do it all over again! That's one of the biggest defining moments for me. I now know that i'm not living in a dream world, I can actually do this.

Above: Normal take off at Yongin flying site

Flying at Yongin with SKY paragliding team

Wake boarding in Knysna in South Africa

Acting a fool with friends in Transkei in South Africa

Bungee Jumping in Korea

One of my instructors (Mr Jang) helping me prepare to take off

Final approach towards the mountain at Yongin at sunset

The bugga's on the day I had my woopsy daisy on take off. 

My parents coming to watch me fly!! Great moment for me

Snowboarding at Zermatt Ski Zone in Switzerland while on a exchange program with my university.

Trip to Jeju Island In South Korea

Getting tickets to jeju over the spring “honeymoon period” proved to be extremely difficult but Giuli and I managed to get flights from Wonju on Friday and back to Busan Monday morning. This means that we are left with two full days on an island that we could easily spend a month on. We were desperately trying to find accommodation and things that we should definitely do. Language barrier turned out to be the biggest problem. We were becoming so frustrated at something that we should have been so excited to plan.

I went to a co-worker of mine and asked his advice as his family is from Jeju. He referred me to a Russian Tour Guide named Victor who speaks English. I was super skeptical about a package tour as you never really know what you getting. I contacted Victor and the itinerary that he gave us looked something like this

http://jejueco.com/special_trips/eco.htm

It all sounded really great and Giuli and I decided that we should go for it. We arrived on Friday and before our arrival Victor gave us details on how to get to the accommodation and he told us to be ready at nine in the lobby. These guidelines turned out to be true and Victor did exist! We arrived at spectacular accommodation (Crystal hotel) which was situated near Seogwipo City Center. It’s not like every other city. The people are friendly, the city looks green with vegetation, its clean, there are tons of things to do and the local food in the area is incredible.

We found a pasta place which was absolutely phenomenal. It was called ‘Promise’ and it was owned by the kindest Korean man in the world. He tried to speak English and accommodate us as much as he could and he put great care and effort into preparing our food. When we went to eat at promise for the second night in a row he responded to us by saying, ‘you, my house, second time, I’m so happy’. It was an experience, not just the average supper and I would recommend that anyone who visits Jeju Island, visit and eat at “promise”.  Promise contact number: 01196648588

The next morning Giuli and I woke up and had our breakfast at the hotel. The conversation revolved around questions, what would Victor be like? Is it like a big buss with a person on a speaker phone talking to everyone in a million languages? Would we actually do what he said we would do? These questions were all soon to be answered.

While waiting in the lobby, we got a call from Victor stating that he is extremely sorry and he is going to be late. This to Giuli and I was hilarious because in South Africa everything is late and it is often more than a few hours late. This being said he was only two minutes late. We already had a good feeling about him because he had the decency to call and let us know even though one or two minutes is not really that late (AT ALL).

He arrived in a Hyundai minivan which was awesome and he greeted us with a big smile. He explained to us what we would be doing for the day and that three others would be joining us. So far all our questions were answered, we had a small intimate group, a good guide, a good itinerary and everyone spoke English.  

On the way to pick up the others, Victor took the scenic route past a few places which he could explain. It’s so great to hear him talk about different areas as he is fluent in Korean and knows all the myths and legends which have been told to him by the Korean people of Jeju.

The weather in Jeju was not the best as it was rainy, overcast, sunny, you name it and we still managed to do all the activities on the itinerary drawn up on the Jejueco website. When it was not a good idea to do an activity, he would have something else for us to do which was just as spectacular as the activity that we were expecting to do. I would really recommend Jejueco to anyone that plans to go to Jeju.

Ill let the pictures do the talking about what we got up to on the island.   

The jeju statue which gives a first born male to any couple who rubs his nose (hence the flat nose)

The bridge on the way to the falls which has statues of woman who bath nakid at night in the pools below 

Game face

The falls with unbelievably clean water AND NO ONE SWIMMING, I know right WTF

When we visited the crater it was extremely misty but we still got the eerie feeling associated with being around something so un-man-made and strange. It was also nice to go on a walk where there was no music playing at the top which is one of the few things I dont enjoy about hiking in Korea.

Our Guide (Victor) and tour group having a gander at where we are on the map

No one swimming again WTF! Prepare to swim in cold water in Jeju or feel the regret of not swimming in it afterwards

Many formations which match that of Burks Luck Potholes in South Africa except on a smaller level

I want a son :)

Green tea plantations which I must say were more unbelievable than I thaught they would be

Learning how to make and drink green tea the proper way

There are 80000 of this mini Budas in the temple. They come from people donating money and getting a Buda in their name

The bridge to an adjoining island. It mimmics the look of a ship 

Playing in the fountain at the cave open for tourists on Jeju

A worrier turned to stone. If you look carefully you can see the face of the worrier in the stone. It is said that when he turned to stone, he scared his enemies so badly they all committed suicide

A Korean dam

Ancient Korean houses. People still live in these today and in return the government gives them taz grants and free water and electricity

The awsome minivan we rolled around in

Old school meets new school. Kind of reminds me of the informal settlements in South Africa which have all the modern technology any modern household would desire

Adding to the abalone depletion in the world. I must say that it is absolutely amazing

On our way home we visited busan and we made a mission to the aquarium which I must say was spectacular

For those of you that know me, you know how I feel about shopping and it is for this reason that I will not be talking about shopping at the biggest some kind of shopping centre in the world.

Guryoung Falls Odeasan National Park



Public holiday are always such great excuses to go wondering around the national parks that South Korea has to offer. On this occasion a bunch of friends and I decided to go to the northern section Odeasan National Park. We did a short hike that was approximately 4km to Guryoung Falls. It was a great chilled hike and it really allows a person to relax as the scenery is absolutely stunning. The only suggestion that I would give anyone who wants to visit that area is that they should plan the bus schedules correctly as we wasted large amounts of time in between busses.

Our meeting place, about 15 minutes from gangneung. We could have got a direct bus.



The most beautiful tree out of this temple which was absolutely silent

The entire walk is through a massive ravine and the water is crystal clear

Spring in Korea is amazing

The waterfall

A photo a nice Korean girl took for us on the return trip