A Year in Korea: The Soju Chronicles!: Mudfest

     Throughout the year there are different festivals all over Korea. One that is especially popular among ex-pats is Mudfestival. It was started to promote the mud in Boryeong, which is suppose to be very rejuvenating for your skin, but it has since evolved. I had heard so many awesome stories about it so I decided to go this year. Unfortunately I got a cold the week of the festival so I was a little under the weather.
   We took a train from Suwon down to Boryeong, it only took about two and a half hours. I went with a big group of friends that I met at a foreign bar in Suwon. We stayed at a minkbak, which is basically a large room with very little furniture in it. They provide you with sleeping mats, blankets and pillows. It's pretty much the cheapest accommodation you can get for a large group of people. Once we put our stuff down and got our swim suits on we headed down to the beach.
   The very second we set foot on the beach it started raining. This proved tragic because it rinsed off all of my sunscreen. We walked along the beach for quite a while in the rain and luckily it eventually stopped raining. Once we reached the festival there were SO many people there. We found a spot to set up our headquarters and settled in for the ride. They had these big sinks with mirrors that were filled with mud. They had paint brushes attached to them so that you could paint the mud on yourself and your friends. However, more often than not people were scooping up the mud and throwing it on each other! After we got all muddy we would go and drink some more soju and then go for a swim in the ocean to rinse ourselves off. This was pretty much the cycle for the day... First we drank, second we covered ourselves in mud and third rinse (in the ocean) and repeat! It was really fun even though I felt like crap. They also had a big area where you could go down mudslides and do mud wrestling other activities. Unfortunately I was too sick to partake in that.   That night a group of us had some delicious Korean barbecue and then we watched fireworks shot off over the ocean. It was a great day!