2009: An Asian Odyssey

Mud Fest – Part 1 July 27, 2009

And we’re back…I apologize for the delay, but out computer was being repaired from a virus that we contracted last week. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Two weekends ago we attended the 12th Annual Mud Festival in Boryeong, Korea. Boryeong is small town on the West Coast of Korea about a 3 hour drive from Seoul. The entire town is geared around this annual Mud Festival and it attracts thousands of visitors from all over Korea.

The special mud is dug up near Boryeong, trucked to the beach area, and dumped at a ‘Mud Experience Land’ which is basically an amusement park full of Mud. The Mud is considered rich in minerals and used to manufacture cosmetics. Maybe this was part of the initial allure of the festival, but healthy skin appeared to be last thing on most people’s minds that we encountered.

You can read more about the actual event here, but let me attempt to summarize the festivities in one sentence. Mud Fest is an excuse for Foreigners (and some Koreans) to come together and throw mud at each other while intoxicated. Imagine being Crescent Street during Grand Prix weekend and then incorporating mud into the festivities.

We had been warned in advance thanks to the Mulloskey’s blog and several of our co-workers that this was basically one big fraternity party (with mud), so I did my best impression of myself from ten years ago and probably shaved a few years off my life as a result.

Let’s get to some pictures shall we…

These are our luxurious accommodations. It’s what Koreans call a “Minbak” which in English means, sleep on the floor with strangers. I’m not kidding. This came as no surprise, as this is a common type of cheap hotel and we wanted a truly unique Korean experience. And when I say unique, I mean “cheap”. We ended up paying less than $60 each for our accommodations, 3-hour bus ride both ways and a t-shirt. We honestly spent more on beer then we did on transportation and hotel combined. We ended up in a room with 16 other people even though the room was only big enough for maybe 10 to sleep comfortably on the floor. Upon arrival we met a few people in our room and exchanged pleasantries. The only problem was that they had only provided 6 pillows and blankets for 16 people. I wasn’t too concerned though, as I didn’t intend on spending much time asleep in the room anyway.

Anyway, enough about the crappy hotel, let’s get muddy shall we…

Let’s just say the picture on the left is that last we’ll ever be seeing of that white t-shirt.

We had also been warned ahead of time to beware of the paparazzi. I paid little attention to this warning but was shocked by the number of Koreans carrying thousands of dollars worth of camera gear and taking pictures of every foreigner in sight. Some of them even camped out on rooftops with zoom lenses that would put any major sporting event to shame.

Whenever I had the opportunity, I turned the tables and took pictures of the paparazzi, while they took pictures of us.

This picture really doesn’t do it justice. Keep in mind that there were hundreds of Koreans with cameras much bigger than these, and that it was raining most of the day. Not to mention that mud was being flung through the air by yours truly every chance I got. There’s no way to didn’t take out a Nikon or two with some friendly fire.

How about some more random pics and video?

After wreaking enough havoc and posing for the paparazzi, we jumped in the ocean and cleaned ourselves off. We had showers back at the hotel floor and went back out for dinner. After a nice meal we headed towards the main stage for a concert and fireworks when the skies opened up. Just as it started, I suggested we take cover in a familiar location that I had read about a couple years ago.

This picture was taken in 2007 and was the only shelter within the vicinity that offered coverage from the rain and a nice view of the fireworks. It’s called Mud Prison and was full during the day of people posing for pictures, but we were the first to take occupancy once the rain started and it was the second best decision I made all weekend (the best decision will follow in the next post). We spent some quality time mingling with Koreans and Foreigners alike while taking in the impressive fireworks display.

The rain finally let up enough for everyone to move over to the stage area where a variety of performances kept us occupied and dancing well into the night. The acts ranged from break dancing to Hip Hop to Michael Jackson tributes. It was thoroughly entertaining. After it finished and the rain started back up again, we slowly headed back to the hotel after a long eventful day.

Little did we know that my (and Darren’s) night was just beginning…