This weekend was one of the best weekends I've experienced so far. Becca, a great friend I've made here, her friend Matthew from England and I went on an impromptu trip down south where Boryeong, South Korea hosts Mud Fest every year. We hopped on a bus Saturday from Seoul and took a 2 hr. trip to the beach. We had no idea what we were gonna do or where we were going to sleep. By the time we arrived it was 7:30 pm and the muddy events were over for the day, although we did catch the show on stage which consisted of break dancing, traditional dancing and a pop group. Since the festival was on the beach, all the restaurants surrounding specialized in seafood. We had an incredible dinner and met a great group of people sitting next to us celebrating a birthday. Becca ended up challenging one of the guys to a drinking contest and convinced the table to learn how to play flip cup. We read that motels around the area could be extremely expensive with thousands of people flooding the town that weekend. Someone mentioned they paid 150,000w for one night, roughly $120 for a small room. We made our rounds through the neighborhood looking for a motel or Jimjilbang (a Korean bath house). One by one I went in asking how much for a night. The first place tried to convince us into getting into a random car to be taken to the destination and the second place claimed the only room they had available was for 145,000w. Luckily, I was able to talk the third one down to 20,000w a person.
The next morning, we put our bathing suits on and walked down to the beach. The weather was incredible considering it was pouring the day before. As we got closer to the epicenter of the event, more and more foreigners were present. I have to admit it felt really awkward to be around so many Americans. There were thousands and thousands of people. If you went to Mud Fest, you got muddy. Even if you didn't want to, just by walking around you were bound to bump into someone covered in mud. We opted for the colored mud. The event was free and we were surprised that all the activities were free also. Colored mud painting = free, mud slide = free, mud wrestling ring = free, obstacle courses = free. All we had to worry about was getting there, a place to sleep and food. We spent most of the time people watching, hanging out in the sand and taking a swim in the ocean. It was an incredible weekend getaway.
Dinner! Fresh clams, scallops and sea snail
Meet Matthew, Becca's friend from England.
Becca was a clam shelling machine that night
Becca explaining the rules of flip cup
Mud slide! Totally worth waiting in line
No comments:
Post a Comment