Boryeong Mud Festival 2011

Every year, Boryeong, South Korea puts on one of Korea's greatest festivals, known as Mud Festival! This year it was held July 15th - 24th. Even though this is my second year in Korea, it was my first Mud Festival. Our English/Korean study group decided to make a big trip out of it.

We met early Saturday morning just outside U-Square and took three cars up to Boryeong. The drive was only 2 hours and uneventful. We were jittery in anticipation for what was to come. First, we stopped off at our pension, which was just outside the city. Mostly everything is booked up in the city and overpriced during this event. Since we had drivers, it wasn't much of a hassle to stay 15 minutes outside the city.

The pension was decent. It had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, living room, and the most important thing of all, an airconditioner!!! The fifteen of us dropped off our things, quickly changed and got right back in the car to make the most of Mud Fest 2011!!

It was really nice driving to Boryeong because there are no direct bus routes there but parking was a little difficult. So, we were dropped off and started the afternoon off with a beer and bubbles!! Admission to the mud park was 5,000 won and you could come and go as much as you wanted as long as you had your wristband on. There were two giant mud slides, a few mud wrestling pits, an obstacle course, a mud jail, tug of war, and some other things. The down side to everything was that the lines were extremely long and it was full of rude foreigners. There were beligerent drunks everywhere and they would cut in line, not leave when the time was up, and just be genuine ass-holes. However, after I had a few beers, I didn't care as much anymore.

We spent the day playing in the mud, running the the 7-11 to get beer, because it wasn't allowed in the mud park, and playing in the ocean. There was music and competitions going on all the while on the stage on the beach. There were also a lot of tents set up with food, souvineres, and mud products. There was also a station where you could pay money to get paited with different colored mud.

The park closed at 6pm and then we played a little more in the water and then headed out to the pension. After we were all showered and shiny, we cooked BBQ and played drinking games. We had a blast. Then we head out once again for the beach where there was music and fireworks. We also supplemented the fun with extra drinking games and relay races on the beach. Afterwards, we went back to the pension for more drinking games. At about 2am we decided we needed to dance. So, we went back down to the beach and went to a club. The club wasn't much, the drinks were expensive, and the people weren't cute. So, the boys left and the 3 of us girls stayed behind. We hung out with a group of Koreans and drank at the beach until 7:30. We grabbed a taxi and caught 2 hours of sleep.

The next morning we woke up, ate delicious ramen, got ready and went back to the beach. We decided to just spend it at the beach and not do the mud park. But there were mud sinks scattered all over the beach so you could still get muddy without going into the park. We played with the mud, played games in the water, did mud pictures, and just had an enjoyable afternoon. We took a 3,000 won shower at the beach and went to luch. We had grilled shellfish and BBQ. We polished off a bottle of vodka and a few bottles of soju. Then we went to the theme park and did the Nori-Zone ride. I was wearing a short skirt, not the best idea for this ride, and Jane was wearing a strapless jumper. So, during the ride, I flashed my hot pink underwear to everyone who was in the whole park and Jane flashed her bra because her shirt fell down. We were quite the duo.

At about 9:30 we decided to head back to Gwangju. I caught about 30 minutes of sleep in the car. After arriving in Gwangju, we proceded to drink soju and beer until about 4:30am. But, somehow, I found the willpower to make it to work the next day and teach all of my classes effectively!

The trip was very exciting, fun, and totally worth it. The only downsides were the crowds of drunks, everything was expensive, and I ended up getting 2nd degree sunburns! I spent about 200,000 won for Saturday and Sunday. But, I think it was worth it and will probably go back again next year. Except next year I want to try camping. Then I won't have to worry about driving home and can come and go as I please.

Boryeong Mud Festival = 8/10 and a Korean must do!!