Oyay; Oyay! The Adventurer has returned!

The last time I posted was around a month ago and in the intervening time I have seen a movie (called – The Conspirator) and done a lot of lazing about. Time is slowly ticking on my time here in Korea. As I write this I have 1 month and one week left (Though 12 days I will be in Bali).

With time being so short, this begins the last post or 2 or 3 of my adventure within Korea. I may have a post or two in me about a Korea adventure before Korean wrap up (My twin, Adam, arrives in 2 days, so I am sure that there might be a thing or 2 to say about that).

 

Today I am going to talk about “Spring Break”. In the States it roughly equates to our Matric Rave. From what I am told, it is a great deal more crazy than events in the good ol’ R.S of A with a lot more bikini clad woman and inebriated school leavers all looking for a good time.

EG:

On the weekend of 16-17 July I went to Daecheon on the west coast of Korea. On this weekend, dotted on this piece of coastline, is the town of Boryeong. Every year for the last 14 years it has hosted the “Boryeong MUD Festival”.


The idea began when some people from Boryeong who extolled the virtues of mud based cosmetics thought they needed a way to promote the products and so in 1998 the Boryeong Mud fest was born. With so many foreigners occupying teaching job in Korea the idea of mud wrestling, mud water slides and covering every conceivable piece of the human body in mud was bound to attract attention. Over the years the festival has become more and more popular such that over the 2 weekends in 2007 that the festival was held, roughly 2.2 MILLION visitors stopped by. Why did I bring up Spring Break? Well, in speaking to a few friends here the festival has become an equivalent for Spring Break. What could be better than thousands of half naked people, the beach/ocean, booze and mud wrestling!? For those not inclined to the ways of the partying foreigner sometimes the level of obnoxious, beer swelling, behaviour, presented in most part by visiting foreigners, is a bit off putting. That said Sandy and I went and it was an absolute blast.

We met up with the Adventure Korea Tour Group early on the Saturday morning (07:30) in Downtown Daegu (hoping that our overnight accommodation would be much better this time) to set forth on the 2.5 hour bus ride to the coast. We were very much optimistic about the experience and looking forward to a lot of fun. Our 1^st stop was the mud beach which is about 15 min away from the main festival site. 11:30 we climb off the bus and are presented with this vast expanse of dark brown ground with a bunch of activities set out (Mud soccer; mud wrestling; Army training; Pyramid building; and chicken fights - where one person sits on top of two people’s shoulders and attempts to push their shoulder seated opposition down to the ground).

Thanks to Kirsty Moore for these Photo's

We march off to retrieve our clothing to be used on the beach and then squelch down to the various activities. My favourite was of course the soccer however no one knows who won because of the level of chaos that ensued with 75 people running in different directions, with 4 soccer balls on the field. I did also enjoy the wrestling.

Basically it was girls vs girls and guys vs guys. The 5 guys on my team had one man about 6ft tall and the rest of us were below that. The other team had no man below 6ft. A challenge, yes? The whistle is blown and I head straight for the skinniest guy as I figure, even if I have to go kamikaze on his ass,  he will bend out of the ring like a reed in the wind if he has my weight to deal with. Sadly my position was all wrong so I change tact. I decide I will be a limpet and hang on for as long as possible that hopefully he will make a mistake and fall out. Next thing I know my face is being shoved in the mud and all my team mates have been eliminated. I lock my wrists around his waist and pretzel my legs around his thighs. Then I have 5 guys prying my limbs off him. One man per limb they are swinging me, readying me for the flight out of the ring. In a last ditched attempt to escape I wriggle and twist as violently as I can – kinda like this fish:

Hoping they will lose their grip and I could at least surprise one of them and take them out before i get disposed of.

Sadly...

I failed.

It was great fun none the less and I was left with a stiff back and grazes all over my body to show for my courage in the face of dirty adversity.

Mud beach over with... oh wait, bugger, I left my sandals at the beach *makes mental note to buy cheap flip-flops when get to motel.*
Additional note: this is the 2^nd time I have left a pair of feet apparel somewhere and I have also lost 2 umbrellas.

Continues...

 

Mud beach overwith, we put our stuff in our motel room and go looking for some grub. We have some yummy galbi-sal:

After lunch we decide to wait till Sunday to have a go at the festival rides and just hang around the beach. I swim, Sandy looks at shells and crabs and we both meet up with Deb and her friend Darren who were also at the festival.

We go for smoothies and dinner before Deb and Darren depart back to Daejeon and Sandy and I – buggered at this point, make our way back to our room. Low and behold, what do we find...

Our room’s floor and Sandy’s bag were covered in water as the freezer part of the mini fridge has defrosted because of a short in the wall that tripped the power and turned the fridge power off. WE HAVE NO LUCK WITH THIS TOUR GROUP!!! We tried to find the tour operators but couldn’t so Sandy roused the building manager from his sleep and very grumpily he helped us out. Add to that we thought we did not have hot water but it turns out that we have to drain the nearest reservoir while we wait for the water to actually heat up.

That's one angry baby!

Oh and here is what caps off our dealings with this company on this weekend: When we climb on the bus back for deagu, the tour manager says that ONE OF THE PASSENGERS IS IN CHARGE for the trip back as he is getting on the Seoul bus so that he can get home. HOW FRIKKING UNPROFESSIONAL CAN YOU GET!!!. We didn’t have anyone on board who spoke the language and we made a stop that we were unaware of that wasted 20min when we were only about 10min outside the city. It was so frustrating for 3 girls that they got off the bus then and there and caught a taxi back into Deagu. Since getting back from the trip, I emailed the company and made min and Sandy’s dissatisfaction clear. They offered us 40 000 Won each off our next trip. Sadly we are not taking another trip with them and they are yet to get back to me about that being a refund into our accounts.

Anyway – back to the weekend...

We woke on Sunday and had our pre-packed cereal for breakfast and then checked out. After putting our bags on the bus we went into the Mud Park at the festival grounds and had a ball. We both did have to go to the 1^st Aid tent to get mud washed out our eyes and I still have mud in my right ear but it was great fun. Sadly I do not have pics of Sandy or I covered in mud as I was worried about the safety of my camera. I have loads of others though (I went back with my camera once I had cleaned up).

After a swim at the beach, shower and cup of coffee we headed back to Yeongcheon, in the main happy, and very very very tired. It was a great last major adventure for us.

I may still get upto shinnanigans once Adam arrives but I will keep you... POSTED!

Adios for now