Mud Festival '08

Just came back from the 10th annual Mud Festival in Boryeong. Tom, Katy and I took the KTX train from Yongsan station in Seoul. It took about three hours to get down there. We met up with a large group of people we shared a room with. The group was supposed to be about 35 people in a minbak, a Korean room without beds. It was basic cheap and did it's job. The place was right around the corner from the beach and in the middle of the muddiness.

Once we arrived I changed into my shorts and the three of us walked up and down the main strip checking things out. There was a huge air slide, mud prison, mud wrestling, mud people and, well mud in general. There was no nakedness that I saw, but lots of skin showing and lots of eye candy. We had lunch at a galbi (ribs) restaurant where Katy and I ahd our first beer of the day. After lunch Tom ran off to do some stuff with Adventure Korea - a tour group Tom's been on a lot of tours with. Katy and I walked along the strip then decided it was better to go jump in the water for a while. We got covered in mud after that and watched a band comprised of about ten military guys rocking out on the stage. Just before their last song we jumped back into the water to rinse off.

After that it was a series of more beer, each of us running into people we knew, finding the group we were sharing the room with, then meeting up with Tom. We got muddy again, this time with Tom, then went back and chilled with the group on the beach. When the sun started to set we went back to the room to change then set out for dinner. Katy, Tom and I were joined by Tom's brother, Anthony and his girlfriend, Amy. We found the foreigner restaurant but heard nothing but bad things about it. We walked for a while and found nothing but seafood restaurants. We were a bit weary about eating there because of the apparent low quality of the fish and the food prep being sketchy at best. We decided to head back to the galbi place but it took us a while cause Tom's a well known guy (We stopped a lot so Tom could talk to people. Since he is leaving Korea in a month we gave him a pass.)

continued

By the time we rolled into the restaurant they were completely packed and it would have taken us a while to get a table. We walked along the main strip but had no luck finding a good restaurant that wasn't packed. We even tried the pizza place but the wait on a pizza was horrendous. We found the other restaurant that had pizza and samgyapsal (basically really fatty pork. The direct translation is three layers of fat). Turns out they were out of samgyapsal. We were desperate and hungry so we ordered two pajeon (Korean pizza but not really pizza) and Katy had ramen. And we got a bottle of soju to calm everyone down. Soju and food went quickly and we got out of there and met up on the beach for fireworks.

The collective group had no idea about what time the firesworks started. Usually firworks start when it gets dark. It had been dark for a while and no signs of fireworks. Then we thought 10pm. Beers and beers later still no fireworks. There was talking and talking with people I didn't know from the group and a girl from the room telling people I was her future husband (jokingly, I think) then said girl and I innocently laying down in the sand for a while. That's as far as that got. In hindsight. COOL! I'm glad it didn't go any further. My bladded was ready to burst so I went to the toilet and what do you know. The fireworks start going off.

It was a good show. The fireworks made the sea light up in reds, blues, purples and greens. The finally was spectacular and everyone felt it wa a great way to end a mud filled day.