Boryeong Mud Festival 2015: Getting muddy with my buddies

This past weekend I went to the Boryeong Mud Festival (보령머드축제) on Daecheon Beach with a large group of friends.

 

Here's a short version of what we did: we took part in a water gun fight, mud slides, mud wrestling, mud games on inflatables, watched a parade and just enjoy the beneficial properties of Boryeong mud. While we were able to roll in the mud during the day, there was also a fireworks display and concert at night. Overall, it was really fun.

 

If you want a more details about my trip, I'll have more written under all the pictures. If not, enjoy the pictures!

After wrestling in the mud

 

Throwing water on each other at the water gun fight before watching a parade

Enjoying the super crowded beach and cold water.

With all the girls on the beach

Watching traditional fishing on the beach

Dancing? I think she was doing some kind of traditional blessings for the fishing ladies. It was beautiful but unclear to me.

 

With my friends in our pension rooms.

Night concert that we didn't really watch.

Sunday morning was really empty and perfect for trying out everything.

Playing around in the mud with my friends.

Falling over and looking fine with all my friends

 

On the west coast, about 2ish hours from Gwangju

More detailed weekend:

 

We used a travel group run by Pedro, a nice Korean man in Gwangju. Truthfully, it wasn't the best when it came to communication but it was fine. We caught a bus at 9am and we were at the first mud activity zone by a little after 12. We were running late because we had stopped at Emart (like Walmart) to buy food and drinks for the day. We were supposed to have time to take part in all sorts of games in the mud but, since we were late, we didn't have much time. My friends and I still had a lot of fun rolling around and getting super dirty. This mud zone was maybe 20 minutes from the actual mud festival on the beach. It was a special zone because it was free and catered to foreigners.

 

From the mud zone, we went to a water fight in town. It was actually pretty lame but, because of awesome friends, it ended up being pretty fun. While it was fun to dump water bottles over peoples heads, it felt like I was ruining the environment one bottle at a time. We watched part of a parade but at that point we all wanted to get to the big mud festival.

 

We were disappointed to find out that we didn't have bracelets (tickets for the mud zone) until the following day. Not only did we not have tickets, the mud zone was also closing soon. We made it to our hostel, dropped our stuff, and decided to wander around the mud zone anyway. Even without a ticket it was amazing to people watch. It was packed with people and everyone was covered in mud. Although we couldn't play on the inflatables, we all went to the beach and went swimming. Cold water and friends = fun times.

 

That night we went out for samgyeopsal (삼겹살- Korean BBQ) and watched the fireworks on the beach. There was a large concert happening before the fireworks but it was too crowded (plus I had no idea who the people were).

 

That night we ran around on the beach until 4am. We woke up at the bright and early 9am to go to the mud zone. Genius decision. It was practically empty and we were able to immediately try all the inflatables that we wanted. By the time we left, it was crowded and there were massive lines. Yay! We showered, ate a delicious lunch and then hung around until it was time to head back to Gwangju.

 

Fantastic weekend all around. I'll really miss the friends I've made in Korea.

 

Peace!