I spent the weekend at the 2007 Boryeong Mud Festival at Daecheon Beach. I went to the festival in 2004 and had a great time so had to go back.
It was an expensive weekend but well worth it. All of the trains to the place were almost completely sold out a week before and many of the hotels as well. Getting a hotel was a bit of a job. Many of the places just hung up on me - "No English". I ended up having a Korean friend phone for me.
The mud festival is all about the mud, of course. Basically, you play in the mud, let it dry, then go for a swim, then play in the mud some more, let it dry, go for a swim, etc. There were a lot of mud related activities set up all over the place:
mud prison,
"SUVIVAL FIGHTING" mud wrestling, mud slides, mud baths (such as the pool that Kate and her boyfriend are in below), mud massages,
mud treatment self painting, etc.
(ummmm... i don't think i am THAT skinny)
Playing in the sand. It was decided that I should be buried alive.
The mud is a special mud from the hills near Boryeong. They also sold several mud products - facial masks, cleansers and creams, shampoo and conditioner, soaps, etc.
We went down and bumped into several of my friends here and there.
I saw my friend Kate for the first time in almost 2 years. She was one of my classmates at TEFL International in Alexandria, Egypt. She was teaching in Korea a while ago, but was quite far away from Seoul, and then left early. She is back with her boyfriend again, and they are now closer to where I am. No excuses this time for not getting together.
For dinner Saturday night, we had a bit of a hard time figuring out what to eat. All of the restaurants were seafood restaurants, mostly raw fish, seafood soup or shellfish - and incase you don't know, I can't stand seafood. There were a few meat restaurants, but being with a Muslim sort of cut all of those out of our options. Revo wanted to try the shellfish so in we went.
He didn't particularly like it. I ate a few little clams drenched in a spicy sauce. It was definitely not worth the price (NOT cheap). I think if he had realized the price, he would have eaten a lot more - it was sort of an all-you-can-eat/free-refills sort of thing. Oh well. The Korean pancake that came with the shellfish was good.
Later on, we went back to the beach and to enjoy the music.
(the light in the distance at 10 times optical zoom) 
There was a big concert going on. We couldn't see the performance, but the music was good. We ended up missing the fireworks, though. They weren't on until around 11:30 or so - I thought they were supposed to be much earlier, and for some reason, figured we had missed them. I heard them from my hotel room. :( They lasted so long and from what I heard, were beautiful.
The next day we decided to spend relaxing. Since we had to check out of the hotel by 12, we decided not to play in the mud and left most of our things at the hotel until we had to leave.
It was nice being able to just sit around and enjoy the nice weather. I was sort of wishing that we could play in the mud again. Sunday they came out with different colored mud. It would have been nice to have been blue. ;)
While we were wandering around, there were several little booths/shops doing spray on tattoos. Revo got a cool spider tattoo on his arm (ugh... spiders).
Walking along the beach.
Waiting for the train:
outside the station
It was an expensive weekend but well worth it. All of the trains to the place were almost completely sold out a week before and many of the hotels as well. Getting a hotel was a bit of a job. Many of the places just hung up on me - "No English". I ended up having a Korean friend phone for me.
The mud festival is all about the mud, of course. Basically, you play in the mud, let it dry, then go for a swim, then play in the mud some more, let it dry, go for a swim, etc. There were a lot of mud related activities set up all over the place:mud prison,"SUVIVAL FIGHTING" mud wrestling, mud slides, mud baths (such as the pool that Kate and her boyfriend are in below), mud massages,mud treatment self painting, etc.(ummmm... i don't think i am THAT skinny)Playing in the sand. It was decided that I should be buried alive.The mud is a special mud from the hills near Boryeong. They also sold several mud products - facial masks, cleansers and creams, shampoo and conditioner, soaps, etc.
We went down and bumped into several of my friends here and there.
I saw my friend Kate for the first time in almost 2 years. She was one of my classmates at TEFL International in Alexandria, Egypt. She was teaching in Korea a while ago, but was quite far away from Seoul, and then left early. She is back with her boyfriend again, and they are now closer to where I am. No excuses this time for not getting together.For dinner Saturday night, we had a bit of a hard time figuring out what to eat. All of the restaurants were seafood restaurants, mostly raw fish, seafood soup or shellfish - and incase you don't know, I can't stand seafood. There were a few meat restaurants, but being with a Muslim sort of cut all of those out of our options. Revo wanted to try the shellfish so in we went.
He didn't particularly like it. I ate a few little clams drenched in a spicy sauce. It was definitely not worth the price (NOT cheap). I think if he had realized the price, he would have eaten a lot more - it was sort of an all-you-can-eat/free-refills sort of thing. Oh well. The Korean pancake that came with the shellfish was good.Later on, we went back to the beach and to enjoy the music.
(the light in the distance at 10 times optical zoom) There was a big concert going on. We couldn't see the performance, but the music was good. We ended up missing the fireworks, though. They weren't on until around 11:30 or so - I thought they were supposed to be much earlier, and for some reason, figured we had missed them. I heard them from my hotel room. :( They lasted so long and from what I heard, were beautiful.The next day we decided to spend relaxing. Since we had to check out of the hotel by 12, we decided not to play in the mud and left most of our things at the hotel until we had to leave.
It was nice being able to just sit around and enjoy the nice weather. I was sort of wishing that we could play in the mud again. Sunday they came out with different colored mud. It would have been nice to have been blue. ;)
While we were wandering around, there were several little booths/shops doing spray on tattoos. Revo got a cool spider tattoo on his arm (ugh... spiders).Walking along the beach.Waiting for the train:
outside the station
3 comments:
you lost weight!
Not in the past few months but in the last year, yes. Not from trying, though. I can't complain about losing it, but the reasons suck (being sick; being stressed; medication?)
Guess I'm the only one who didn't go to the mud festival this year. Actually, I've never been. Always "next year."
That's some cool color on the second picture (the folks at the water's edge).
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