Three guys, one gal and a whole bunch of spa-quality mud

So, when I heard about this festival I thought…hmmmmmmmmmm…and then I decided that I had to go. It is a ten day festival and die to other things happening I thought weekend two was better…So Liam, Terry, Onaje and I ventured forth to the Boryeong Mud Festival last Saturday morning. And we are not just talking any dirty ol’ mud, but pumped in from the medicinal healing Boryeong fresh water pure mud site.
Boryeong is about 2 hours north of Gwang-Ju-right on the water. We were going kinda blind, some of them hung-over and under prepared (how better to go?). Gathered and left on a bus around 11am arrived and such by around 2 pm; a brief stop at E-Mart to secure Terry some sandals and swim-trunks and another brief photo op that included an overturned scooter; and went to seek accommodation. We found it not a hop skip and a jump from the beach and festival’s main street for a decent price for one room (four people) a bed, a mat and a hot shower/working toilet (my only two requirements were the last two!).
After arriving and securing such accommodations we toasted to the future weekend and headed to the beach. It was cloudy and very windy, but the temperature was still perfect and as soon as we had gotten off the bus you could feel a difference in the air quality and overall “freshness” of the salt water. First a dip in the salty sea and then down the beach to the “mud painting stations” instead of, as I had thought, a big mud ditch where you get all muddy; they have little stations filled with mud being pumped through a hose with paint brushes tied on to paint yourselves with mud. That is exactly what we did, as well as fight and paint each other in random manners with it as well.
Highlights of the rest of the afternoon include: getting free mud soap; mocking statues; Liam winning a hammer from the basketball carnival booth; having a random Korean man call us all pretty and take individual pictures with us on the side of the road; using a squatting toilet for the first time; having a family ask to have their picture taken with us; catching a runaway ball then losing the runaway ball to the wind on the beach and Liam taking off after it (a had to be their moment that I will love remembering—ball gone before realizing the ball is gone Liam has the shoes off and is after it and half a mile down the beach chasing it, lost it a few more times, lost sight of him completely and finally getting it back only for Onaje to forget to hand it over to the “guard” and us losing it again.); drinking on the street; washing off in the ocean and cleaning up in our room-deciding who got to use the bathroom first via “Rock-Paper-Scissors” (I won!); going back out and eating at the “Restaurant for Foreigners” (which was a tent area with hamburgers/hotdogs and etc type food); getting air-brush tattoos; stopping by the Hip-Hop jam and stopping by a bar; going back to the hotel to rest until the rave began; going to the “rave” and being rained out due to the monsoon season; meeting some people in the convenience store inviting them back to our place and drinking/talking with them all night.
It was a fabulous beginning and day. I was sooo exhausted by the end of the day (early morning). Sunday I was awake super early and the boys were very passed out, but bided my time, and finally the management reminded us of check out time 11 am and we gathered our things and headed to sit at the beach. It was gorgeous sunny day Sunday and, of course, more people were out and about because of it. Terry and I decided that the water was too much to resist and changed into some clothes, left Onaje and Liam sleeping with our belongings and headed to the sea. For the next five hours we alternately spent the time in the water (a break for lunch/breakfast) in the water and in the water. Finally, we did change and dry off and sit with Liam and Onaje for a while walked around a bit and basically “sunbathed” some more…sunscreen didn’t work on to parts of my back and I am super sun-burnt their and poor Liam and Onaje’s legs got it pretty bad form the sun moving over the trees we were under.
We came back exhausted, dehydrated (salt water-really…for some of us) and very glad for the experience.

More later…sad for Onaje; chicken flesh; new camera; upcoming vacation…