Boryeong Mud Festival
19 Aug
Summertime in Korea is in full swing. Boryeong, a town a few hours south of Seoul, is well known in Korea for it’s mineral-rich mud flats on the west coast. Every year they host a festival which brings in millions of Koreans and many foreigners to run around and play in the mud. Can you imagine something more fun?
Amys and I, triple threat, left Gangneung late Friday night and got to Seoul’s express bus station around 1 am. We had no plans on what to do or where to stay, only knew that we wanted to catch the earliest bus the next day to Boryeong. We grabbed some soj, contemplated sleeping on park benches, until the mosquitos were too much to handle. We wandered around until we found a jim jil bong, a Korean bathhouse, which is conveniently open 24 hours and has a big room to sleep off a long night of partying.
Getting naked in front of my friends was slightly uncomfortable at first. We bathed, we shaved, we sauna’d. Then we put on our cotton prison jumpsuits and headed to the ‘sleeping room’ to catch a few Zs. As it turns out, Friday nights at the jim jil bong are where its AT. Post-drunk snoring Koreans sprawled out on mats that covered much of the floor. No blankets, a few fans, and one open mat. Amy and I curled up on the little spot, and CaliAmy managed to snag a recliner near the wall.
Some funny things: one particularly gruff guy sleeping to my left kept tossing and turning. My sleepy grumpy self found no humor in this constant motion. Especially when he, in his sleep, tried to use my foot as a pillow. I curled up closer to Amy, and we laughed as silently as possible. A very obese man was sleeping to Amy’s right. His back was to us, and well, lets just say those cotton prison jumpsuit shorts were not the right size for him. He was obscenely showing quite a bit of crack. Ames and I are so used to saying whatever we want in English, for most Koreans don’t understand, so we ‘cracked’ a joke. The guy rolls over, and EEK, he’s a foreigner! He heard us! I couldn’t stifle my laughter this time. A few minutes later he got up to leave. OOPS!
Morning arrives, as it does, and we head out to the bus station. We meet up with Danny, a teacher from a town close to us, and get in line for our bus tickets. Danny gets the last seat on a bus leaving in an hour. Us three girls are stuck waiting in Seoul until the 5 pm bus, its now only about 10 am. AHH. We decided to make the most of the day.
Amy is very funny, I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before. She’s great at charades. She also really wants to do ‘ziplining.’ She mimes this to the confused woman at the information desk. We roll around laughing… the woman’s expression is priceless.
We take the subway to a cute little street we meant to check out during the Lantern Festival. Insadong is a very unique area of Seoul. There are tons of vendors and shops, its a great place to find something one of a kind or antique.
We head back to the bus station, catch our bus, and arrive in Boryeong (FINALLY) just at sunset. We head down to the beach and check out the festival area. Most daytime activities are just winding down, and everyone is getting ready for a crazy party night. We wind up crashing in the early morning hours on a rock jetty, without thinking about tides and such. We woke to wet toes, moved up a few inches, passed out, repeat.
Again, the sunrise proved a dependable source of happiness for us. We moved from the rocks to the sandy beach. Spent the morning sleeping, lounging, swimming, eating, sleeping, people watching, and painting ourselves with mud. It was very fun.
Bottom line, I LOVE MUD. I LOVE GETTING DIRTY. I LOVE KOREA.
MRumianowski
Hey
I love your photos of the Mud Festival on your blog. I am currently writing an article about it for a magazine in Seoul but I don’t have any photos. Would you be intertested in having some of your ptos published? I can’t offer you a payment as the magazine is a freebie (and I am unpaid) but I could credit your name next to the pics. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, then let me know and we can talk more 🙂
Pip
ABSOLUTELY beautiful though and we took full advantage of
all of the mud activities then! All in all, a great time had by everyone!
http://www.worknplay.co.kr/boryeong-mud-festival/index.html