My First Snow Festival

I saw a flier from the tour group (Koridoor) we like to use advertising a trip to a snow festival in Pyeongchang, where the 2018 Winter Olympics will be held.  It offered snow sledding, biking, bobsleigh, snow carvings and ice slide.  I have never participated in any type of snow activity (other than building one snowman when we were young; I have a picture of Kevin, Momma and me standing next to the snowman we built in the backyard), so I thought this was my opportunity to experience these things on a small level.  It was cheap, too.  When I purchased the tickets, David at the USO tour office said to bring some won (Korean cash, pronounced wahn) and a change of clothes if we didn't have a snowsuit.

Amazingly, I am the owner of a snowsuit.  It was given to me by a fellow dog agility competitor who could no longer fit into it, and she offered it to me.  It has kept me warm on many a cold agility morning, and now I would get to use it as it was intended!  I packed a backpack with a change of clothes for Bill and a pair of jeans for me, just in case.  I always bring snacks, too, because you never know.  We arrived at the USO at an early 6:30 am only to discover we would be driving for 3 hours, the first hour of which 9 of us would be packed into a minivan.  We would transfer to a bus with some folks from Camp Kim at a rest station.  Bill sat up front while I was relegated to a fold out seat whose hardness reminded me of the Army loaner bed we slept on the first 2 months we were here.  The bus was a vast improvement.

Pyeongchang is a small fishing town.  It and two other nearby towns will be transformed into a world class winter sport theater.  Right now, other than the Snow Festival, the most exciting thing going on is the fish drying everywhere.  And I do mean everywhere.  Large racks, small racks, just racks upon racks of dark, bony, lengthy fish.


There wasn't any odor from the fish hanging at the entrance.

The ponies pulled sleds and others gave kids rides.  I was a bit concerned the ponies were pulling a lot, but sled runners don't have much friction on snow/ice.  We decided to try bobsleighing first.

That's me in the red snowsuit, hauling my pink inner tube up the hill.  Above I am sitting in said tube, 'bobsleighing' down the 'luge'.  It was kind of fun, but my knees couldn't bend up enough, and I kept hitting the icy sides of the chute.  I went down a couple of times.  Then we went to the snow rafting which was the most fun.  Bill and I were in a raft by ourselves, so we were able to make the raft slingshot.  It was so much fun, the guy on the snowmobile sped up and tightened the turns and almost got us airborne.

Next was sledding.  For some reason I wasn't comfortable with the idea of sledding down a hill with a bunch of other folks, so I watched.  It was impressive.  You can see Bill best on the second picture.  He is wearing his khaki jacket and is on the left going down the hill.

If you didn't notice, the fellows running the sledding are Rotary Club International members.  Folks got their sled, waited until they got to the top of the hill, sat on their sleds waiting to let the other riders finish, then the Rotary fellow blew his whistle signalling them to go.  It was so controlled without being controlled.  Everyone was polite, there was no shoving or shouting, kids waited their turn quietly holding their sleds.

 Below I am inside a snow sculpture of a kangaroo.  Bill cut off the kangaroo's head.

Here is Bill with a pirate.  He sort of got in the family photo.

Fortunately we found those yummy bean paste-filled doughy treats we love.  One of our tour guides said they were chrysanthemum bread and the other called them mung bean bread.  Whatever, they are great.  Silkworm larvae are on the right, a spoon is in the bowl.

This is the ice slide.  They slid down on plastic covered sacks like this one.

Here I am with the statue of liberty, sort of.

The second part of the tour was a visit to a sheep farm.  I was looking forward to seeing how Koreans kept sheep, but it was more a park with a sheep petting zoo.

As we walked around the barn, we saw the sheepdogs.  One was sleeping.

The other was not.  I squatted down, and she came to me and enjoyed petting and a belly rub.  She got up and started looking for a toy.  All she could find was a tiny piece of stick, but she brought it to me, and we played fetch.  She had all the eye any real border collie would.  I suppose she could be the Korean version of a border collie.

Can you see the stick in the left lower corner?  This girl was fat, and after a few minutes of fetch, she laid down for a break, and we walked on.  It was quite snowy and icy and cold.  The trees and scenery were breathtaking.

And there was a giant windmill not far from the farm/park.  It is the biggest windmill I have ever seen.  I have been surprised at how well I have dealt with the cold thus far.  I do not travel without my hat, gloves, chapstick and always wear my long underwear.  Maybe that was too much information.