Mud, Mud, and more Mud!!

Hello All!

Last weekend Darrell, my cousin Chelsea and I went to the very famous Boryeong Mud Festival. We decided to go for the day instead of the weekend because poor Darrell had to start intensives on Monday (he needed as much sleep as possible). We got up at 7am in order to get ready to take the 9:50am train to Daecheon (not to be confused with our Daejeon). This was my and Darrell’s first time on the slow train. It was no KTX…I mean I could actually see things go by in slow motion…haha, but it was a nice ride. As soon as we arrived in Daecheon we had to get our stuff and get off quickly because, like the KTX, the train does not wait for you. Quick as bunnies we were! However, we made it off and once we were in the train station we were being bombarded by our first Korean man saying “Hello…Where are you going?” to which Chelsea answered, “to the bathroom.” Haha…very nice!

After our trip to the bathroom we went hunting for a taxi driver. It was very easy and we pretty much didn’t have to tell him where we were going. We knew what he was thinking “oh, foreigners…to Mudfest.” After a 10 to 15 minute taxi drive we arrived at the beach and once again there was more bombarding by more Korean men asking us if we wanted a place to stay. They were all over disappointed when we kept saying “no”. It was time to fill our bellies with Korean food and then we were off to the beach.



The first we had to do was find a place to put the book bags. We were first going to find a hiding place in the bushes, but then we were thrilled to find lockers. In went all the bags, the clothes, shoes and jewelry…but the cameras were going to stay free. I must say I had no real desire to play in the mud, so I was in charge of the cameras. That way I could capture every express on their faces. We were ready and off to the mud – Well, Darrell and Chelsea went down to the ocean first to play in the waves, but THEN it was off to the mud!

Darrell and Chelsea went through so many different mud activities. First they went into the mud pool, where they would splash, role, and even hug loads of mud. It was a nice start! Then it was off to the mud jail where Darrell and Chelsea were imprisoned in a mighty jail where the ‘guards’ would throw mud at them. Poor Chelsea had her mouth open when this happened and she REALLY got a face-full :P While we were walking around, we saw so many different colors of mud. Chelsea wanted to take part in that color scheme, so she got herself painted blue. So many people were painted with so many colors – blue, green, purple and reddish-orange. So many ages were involved in getting the pretty colors. The youngest we saw was a very tiny baby boy who was being painted green. At first we was doing okay…until he looked at his body and saw green everywhere. He started to panic and cry, but his mother made them keep painting – kind lady! I am at least happy Chelsea did not panic and cry…although they would have made great pictures :P

It was an enjoyable day of mud! But soon the day was almost done for us and we were getting beat and sleepy. Which meant dear Darrell and Chelsea needed to get cleaned up. The only things I needed to clean off were my sneakers. They were filled with mud! I remember thinking to myself “maybe I should take them off” but I’m glad I didn’t. So many people were falling or slipping in the mud because it was EVERYWHERE! Even Darrell came close to falling a few times. A small boy even slid right into my legs…so yeah…it was everywhere. I am very pleased I left my sneakers on or I might have been falling with a very expensive camera and that would have been very VERY bad.

Darrell and Chelsea had one last round of mud paint and then they were off to the sea, the Yellow Sea for that matter. They were very salty when they came out, but at least most of the mud was gone…most of it. There was still some hiding like in the ears…yuck! So, the three of us salty and oily beings were off to homey Daejeon. We had a great time, plus we were also very pleased we only stayed for a day. It was a very windy day, so some of the attractions were not up due to the wind. Even the waves in the Sea were being watched by the lifeguards. Small children were being knocked over by the waves and even Chelsea had a little tumble. However it is a very nice day trip! We left at 9:50am to go there and we took the 6:55pm train back. Both train rides were about 2 hours long plus also needing to count a taxi ride back to our apartments. It was around 9:30pm when we made it home and a nice air conditioned apartment with a sweet hot shower was priceless.

There’s only one thing I can tell anyone who might be in Korea and interested to go: make sure you have a great bunch of people or a great set of friends to go with. There is nothing worse than going and not having fun because you went with the wrong people. The company you are with can make or break the trip. Suffice it to say we were in GREAT company!