sea cucumber

At Muuido we were informed that the funny pale orange sea cucumbers that are sometimes seen on the mud flats when the tide is out actually fluoresce.
How did we find that out? A couple of guys we met had wandered out on the mud flats a couple of nights earlier after having a few drinks and one either stepped on one or hit accidentally hit it with his foot causing it to light up. What a cool discovery!
We did get to see it ourselves. They are hard to find at night because there aren't that many of them to begin with. When the tide is well out, take a flashlight and go for a walk. They appear whitish on the dark mud in the light of the flashlight. With the lights out, when touched, they glow a greenish blue color. Love it!!!

Muuido once again

I've been there before and I'll go again. I don't think I will ever get bored of Muuido. :)SunsetFreehand zoomed in shot of the moon.Wandering out past the mudflats to reach the distant knee deep water: the view back to the beach.On the way back to the beach, rescued a little dragonfly that was floating in the water. Half an hour later he was finally able to fly away. :)Tents on the beach. Love the teepee tent! Belonged to a Korean hippy family. They befriended us later that night. Said they saw me earlier and thought I was like a hippy. ^^

Mud.

Once again I went to the Boryeong Mud Festival. What could be more fun than lots of mud to play with, a nice sea to wash off in and a beautiful beach to relax on?! We played in mud during the day. Mud gets EVERYWHERE! Sometimes you even find more mud in your ears a week later! The stores (HERE's an example at the Family Mart that is next to the festival ground) and restaurants around are used to the couple of weeks of mud and don't mind being filled with drippy and muddy people. The money is all soggy and dirty but no one seems to mind.Then in the evening sat and enjoyed some drinks as well as the festival music. The last night of the festival there was a special rock concert: Kim KyungHo band, who I've known of since I first came to Korea. I've had one of his songs in my Ipod since I got it. After the concert they had the festival closing fireworks. Beautiful. Then we sat on the beach and enjoyed the rest of the evening. The lights shining on the beach are bluish. I love it!

Muuido, again.

A couple of weeks ago I finally made it back to Muuido. For the past few years, friends of mine have planned a big end of May trip to the island. I went a couple of years ago and loved it. Then last year I was unable to due to a sick rabbit. :SThis year it was a group of over 50 going (though it sort of broke off into smaller groups, of course). It was perfect weather for the beach, at up around 28 C.Muuido isn't really a swimming beach, as it is pretty much all tidal flats. Yes, you can swim, but when the tides are in, it doesn't get very deep, and when the tide is out, you've got to walk a mile to get to the water.During the day, Koreans are out digging for clams and snails and little crabs that were everywhere. It is a great place, though, to lounge around on the sandy beach enjoying the sunshine and friends.You can also ride a horse around the beach for 5000 Won, or ride an ATV around the other end of the beach.Jared is always great at planning things (and a handy car) and so we had food for the entire time. For lunch, grilled chicken kebabs. For dinner, barbecued steak (sandwiches, if desired), sausages, salad, potatoes, etc. For breakfast, bacon, eggs, sausages, coffee (thanks to David), donuts, etc. At night after dinner, a pit was dug and a fire built. I love bonfires. Everyone sat around the fire or stood nearby talking, drinking,roasting toes, roasting marshmallows, burning marshmallows (one Korean girl had never roasted marshmallows before and doesn't like marshmallows, but loves burning them!).David had a great idea of giving people shots.... from a watergun. He spent almost the entire evening perfecting his aim (though he still missed every now and then).We had some entertainment in the form of one of the guys tossing knives and flames around - a hobby like juggling is a great thing to pull out at a bonfire.The next morning, we had a huge breakfast and then everyone did their own thing. Some packed up and left, some took naps on the beach, some hiked out across the flats to take a dip, some wandered about the beach and the tidal flats.Eventually it was time to pack up and head back to reality. The trip out to the island and back into the city kinda sucks. The length of time really depends on timing. To get there, you take an airport bus to the International airport and then catch a bus to the ferry. The airport buses run every 20 minutes and can take up to an hour (or more?) to get to the airport. Then the bus to the ferry runs only once an hour, at 20 past the hour. If you miss that, you've got a long wait. It is possible to catch a taxi, but it costs 10000 won for only a five minute drive. Worth it if there are a few of you. The ferry across takes about 20 minutes. Then you catch an island bus to the beach.Waiting for the ferry, David decided to try the little shellfish that were being sold and bought a bag. A couple of others tried with him. The verdict - he said they were okay but kind of tasteless. I say no thanks.

mud

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

Sharm el-Sheikh

[Bedouin (sheesha) cafe decor][Mohammed, Megan, Ehab and I dancing in the cafe][the beach][Alex looking spiffy][dancing lessons at the beach][at the Bingo Cafe: Mohammed, Me, Ahmed, Megan, Ehab][waiting for the bus]