Namchang: I saw my life flash before my eyes!

Yoh, the heat in Korea is hectic. It gets so hot and humid to a point where people walk around with mini portable fans just to make it through the day. The air conditioner here is constantly on “Uit die blou van onse hemel” levels because that is the only way to survive.

Anyway, so this weekend Thabile and I went to visit Malibongwe, who I interviewed last week, at Namachang. Namchang is a small little town in the countryside with beautiful and tranquil beaches. So of course, it was a given that a beach day would be on the cards. We went to this private little-secluded beach that is quiet and not too busy.

I had been out on beach days before but I avoided going for a swim. I think it was because the Cape Town waters traumatised me. Those waters were freezing and unbearable to swim in. So anyway I decided to test the waters this time around and hoped for the best.

The day was perfect and the water, although cold, was bearable. The more I swam the more I forgot about the temperature. It was pure bliss. We made a friend, took lots of photos and ate a great lunch. Anyway, so while we are there busy swimming and playing around in the water a lifeguard comes by and calls for our attention. He tells us, in minimal English, that his friend owns a jet-ski and they are offering us a free ride. We were so excited! I mean what are the chances? We get to go on a jet-ski and we don't have to pay a cent! We quickly all agreed and he told us that he would call us later.

Instagram influencer, yaas!

We continued frolicking in the water until he called us for our ride. We swam over to the jet-ski and put on the life jackets and helmets. Turns out we were not going to ride on the actual jet-ski but we were going to ride on some couch-looking inflatable thingy that is attached to the jet-ski with a rope. This inflatable couch has three seats and handles to hold on to but…wait for it… there are no seatbelts. The first thought on my mind was, “Haibo, where are the seat belts? What is going to hold us down?” But the thought of chickening out at this stage was quickly blocked by the thrill of the adventure.

Malibongwe getting buckled up.

Thabile kept telling the lifeguard’s friend that she didn’t know how to swim and he and the lifeguard reassured her that we would be fine. Nothing would go wrong and if it did, they would swiftly save us all. Anyway, we all got on to the couch and the life guard’s friend and his little daughter got onto the jet-ski and off we went.

Thabile said a little prayer for us because we were all scared of what we were about to experience, but hey, "YOLO" right?!

And we were off!

Anyway, so he started off slow and I was thinking “Hey, this is great. I can totally do this!” Ahh, he then picked up the pace and that’s when we began to see flames. The inflatable was hitting the water at an uncontrollable speed and so we were bouncing up and down constantly. On top of that the water was spraying in our eyes and because of the impact, our helmets were falling off. At some point, I remember my eyes being closed and my bum floating in the air. The only thing that was holding me down was me holding on to those handles for dear life. 

All the while, Thabile was screaming at the top of her voice pleading with the man to stop. It was hilarious but also very scary. Malibongwe and I were laughing, not because we were enjoying but because we were so shocked. At some point, I began screaming with Thabile asking the man to stop but the problem was the language barrier. "How does one say stop in Korean?", I thought. It seemed like the more we were shouting ‘stop’, the faster he went.

Click here to see a short clip of us making our way across the ocean:

I literally saw my life flash before my eyes. Was this how I was going to go out? In the middle of the ocean, so far from home? What was my family going to think? "Yena aya kwini, aya kwin?!" - Where was she going?!

Anyway, eventually, the little girl heard the terror in our voices and told her father to stop and he stopped in the middle of nowhere. At this point we were all shouting “Take us back, take us back please!” and he was like “Oh, faster?” and were all screamed “Noooo!”

We eventually made it back to shore safely and when we arrived Malibongwe and I were still laughing uncontrollably while Thabile was crying. It was literally the scariest thing we have done in a long time but it also made us feel alive. That’s the thing about taking risks, they are both scary and thrilling.

The after effects...

When we got off the inflatable couch and made it to the beach we noticed a lot of people looking at us. Apparently, we were screaming so loud that the entire beach could hear us, hahaha. I guess they can say that we gave them a show that they will never forget!