the word "mud" is used 18 times in this post

ah, the epic mudfest.

we spent last weekend in the west coast to town of boryeong, for the annual and much-talked-about mud festival. this event had been on our to do list since before leaving for korea, as it's been attended by friends/former ex-pats in previous years and the hype alone made attendance mandatory. basically, it's a weekend in which revelers can enjoy daecheon beach and the mud that is trucked in from nearby mud flats, which boasts natural good-for-your-skin qualities and is full of minerals. though, i'm hesitant to even write that after seeing some of the activities and their somewhat cesspool-like qualities. scooping mud off the heavily-tread ground (filled with dirty feet and garbage) doesn't seem very purifying for the skin!

the weather didn't entirely hold out for us - it was overcast and rainy when we arrived on saturday, but we made the most of it. one of the benefits of an expectantly dirty weekend is that it's a rain or shine event.

we were lucky to be staying in one of the nicest hotels near the beach - it even had it's own pimped-out water park! we'd lucked out even further and mark managed to get us an "upgrade" on our shared, korean-style hotel room. originally, we were supposed to be in communal accommodations without beds (most koreans sleep on mats or cushions on the floor). but instead we were given a private room with a queen-sized bed, flat screen tv, and private balcony. asah! i was the happiest kid, and looking at the foreboding sky, i kind of wanted to just camp out in the down pillows+down-filled duvet and watch korean mtv!

however, i remembered our original adventurous purpose for being there, and we eagerly headed out to the beach. here we were met with mud slides, mud wrestling, a mud prison, giant inflatable pools of mud, and more. most prevalent: drunk mud-covered foreigners. seriously, it was like a wet t-shirt contest, meets orientation week, meets ... mud. we ran into mark's friend from high school, and she was anxiously trying to rescue a friend of hers who'd, in complete intoxication, turned one of the mud pools into a topless show. yikes! regardless, we grabbed some cans of cass from the nearby 7-eleven, and joined in on the fun. (and don't worry, by "fun" i mean mud-fun, not topless-show-fun.)

and it's kind of strange just how fun head-to-toe dirt can be. it was challenging to adapt to the prospect of intentionally getting dirty - i kept trying to dodge people when we rushed into the throng of muddy bodies. but once you get over that instinctive hump (and get some alcohol in your system) it was a ton of fun.

our weekend ended earlier than expected, as when we woke on sunday there was a hurricane going on outside our hotel window. seriously. looking at the torrential downpour and gale-force winds, we were daunted by the idea of having to check out at 11am with a bus departing at 4pm. ie, WTF are we supposed to do homeless in this mud-town for 5 hours??? keep in mind, the beach and mud events were deserted and there weren't nearly enough DVD bongs (warm, indoor movie rooms) in the town to accommodate 20,000 (estimate and exaggeration) hungover foreigners. i wondered what had happened to the elephants (as yes, boryeong goes all out and even has ELEPHANT RIDES for mud fest!) ... sweet luck was on our side again, as we randomly ran into one of our tour directors who informed us the bus was rescheduled for noon. i wasn't kidding about the hurricane! it was enough to make your umbrella not only blow inside out, but also blow out of your death grip, and bounce down the street. we didn't even have umbrellas! needless to say, i was very happy at the early departure news.


my mudfest review is a solid 3.5 dirt-slicked foreigners out of 5. but regardless, something any visitor to korea should experience for themselves.