Welcome to Mud Fest 2009!(I wish I could say I was brave enough to take my camera but fortunately, I was not! While I at first worried that I might lose the visual experience, soon into Mud Fest we learned that the entire ordeal would be very well documented as hoards of Korean photographers lined the streets and hung out of windows snapping pictures without stopping throughout the day and night. If you're interested in what it really looks like to have tens of thousands of people covered in mud, just search the web. If you want to be bored with an bare-bones account of a one day flyby of the fest, well, then read on. This pic was stolen from another Mud Fest 2009 gallery, thanks!)
An early wake up call was in order for this extraordinary event as our transportation arrangements were completely out of our hands. Months ago, Nate and I signed up for a group trip down to Mud Fest, coordinated by a friend, Christine, who was also kind, and organized, enough to arrange our winter break ski trip. With the success and ease of which we pulled off a weekend ski trip, having to do no more than simply fork over cash and show up, we figured latching on to a group would also prove to be a good idea heading down to Boryeong for the 12th annual Mud Festival.
In early spring I coughed up 65,000 KRW for two way transportation and one night in a room, then promptly forgot all about the event. It wasn't until just a week before the actual event that I got a reminder, via Facebook, that I had been booked to head down for the Fest's first weekend.
Originally I had requested that Nate and I be put on a bus leaving from Seoul as there were numerous pick up spots. The 'group' that we signed up with however was predominately from Suwon, a large city about an hour south of Seoul central. In the end, this meant that we were unable to hop on any other bus and instead had to hightail it down to Suwon, a two hour trek from Nowon, early Saturday morning in order to catch the 10:10am bus. After a barrage of back and forth messages with Christine, I finally got enough information that allowed us to feel (somewhat) comfortable with taking off in the week hours of the morning and hoping that we'd be able to find our group of 20 or so Fest-goers by the strict, 10:00am departure time.
An early morning gimbap snack at GS got me ready to go and Nate and I hoped on the 1142 bus towards Sanggye Station by 6:45am. By seven we were on Line 4 headed south where we would remain for the next 70 or so minutes. Transferring to Line 1 at Geunjeong, it was only another 20 minutes before arriving at Suwon Station. Somehow this journey took about 20 minutes less than my last jaunt to Suwon during which I simply hopped off the train, sold a guitar, then climbed right back on to make the two hour return trip home.
Our 'just to be safe' planning had worked as we came up out of Suwon Station just after 9:00am with plenty of time to spare. Breakfast consisted of snacking between GS25, Smoothie King and a McCafe. Finally, around 9:30am, we went off in search of the Angel in Us Coffee Shop that was designated as the final meeting point. We poked our heads in and sure enough recognized a handful of people whom we had accompanied on our ski trip but didn't quite know well enough to sit down and invade their early morning coffee talk. So, we simply hung around outside getting warmed by the rising sun and waiting for the full Suwon Crew to arrive before marching down the street towards the small police station, our designated pick up area.
Much to our surprise, Nate and I actually recognized, and remembered a handful of those whom we had met only once before full adorned in ski wear. Christine eventually showed up and I again thanked her profusely for not only planning such an ordeal but allowing us to tag along, as that seemed to be our position within this group of primarily public school teachers who work, and play, together throughout the Suwon area.
Everyone squeezed into the big coach and there were just enough seats left over for the three South African women we met outside the station who had missed their earlier bus down to Boryeong. On the bus we met a few of our roommates, six to a room, and I tried, in vain, to get a bit of rest. The rest stop after about two hours seemed unnecessary as we were only about a half 'n hour outside of our destination. Even so, it was nice to get out and stretch in the morning air.
The best part however was watching one of the girls from our group try to do an unsuccessful pull-up on a high bar while an elderly Korean (not so)gentleman laughed hysterically at her weakness. We thus encouraged him to show her how its done and after stamping out his cigarette, he too proved to be unable to pull his little round body up with just his arms. Ha.
Arriving in Boryeong our bus made a number of wide looping circles throughout the area, apparently looking for our hotel that was inaccessible by road, at least to a giant bus. We eventually clamored out and followed Christine who met up with a Rudy character who was actually the mass-organizer for this event of which we composed only a small fraction. While waiting to be directed to hotels, we were approached by a rather jocular man who immediately called us out on being Mud Fest Rookies as we dressed as though we were going to the beach, not to a giant mud pit. He pointed out that his tight pair of boxers printed with the Korean 10,000 won bill, or man-won, was only appropriate as King Sejong would offer him all day protection, just where he needed it.
We were finally pointed towards a hotel and did eventually drop our stuff off in a room after kicking out the couple who had sneakily stepped in front of us in line and signed out the key to our designated room. Apparently, Rudy's enormous planning efforts did not go without issues as at least 16 people were left homeless due to double booking or other shady practices by local hotels. Thankfully, we we didn't have to deal with anything but a cramped, over loaded room. The six of us, which eventually to swelled to eight or so, were meant to share a room that could not have been much bigger than 10'x10'. Sure, it had its own bathroom but did the water come out with more than a trickle? Obviously not!
We quickly changed into swimsuits, loaded our pockets with won, left everything else wrapped up and tucked away, then headed out to the beach. And so began Mud Fest. Overwhelmed by the opportunity to get muddy, Nate and I simply didn't know where to begin! We certainly weren't waiting in line for the Mud Tunnel, Mud Super Slide, Mud Fountain, or Mud Bath. So, the best option seemed to be just push on through the crown collecting mud residue as we were squashed in between mud soaked revelers. We paused at the Color Mud Zone to get a bit of face 'paint,' and then continued on to the beach.
Oh the beach. I have seen pictures of crowded beaches in Asia but was my first time actually seeing one in person. From end to end the sand was literally packed with human beings. Those in the water were limited to only a small blockaded swimming area so the majority of beach goers simply wandered around on the sands. We figured it wasn't quite time for a swim yet so, walking past the Mud Beach Self Massage and Mud Couple Slide, we headed back up towards Mud Main Street where we ran into others from our group.
After a while of standing around hesitantly, people began making the bold move towards the Mud Jail, meant for those who had yet to apply mud to themselves. Here, fest goers waited around in a 'jailed' room waiting until someone gave the word and guards, positioned around the jail, would unleash a fury of flying mud at the prisoners. This was certainly a great way to get muddy and an even better way to get your contact knocked out by flying mud. Luckily, with quick, yet dirty, hands and some innovative cleaning methods, I was able to rescue the contact and get it back in, though not with out a good amount of yelping in pain. It wouldn't be another 15 minutes or so until someone pointed me in the direction of the eye wash station. . .of course!
And if you think is muddy...(Picture courtesy of Jo Kotyuk's Facebook)
At around 6pm, organizers began shutting down the mud. How exactly you 'turn off' the mud on a muddy throng of tens of thousands is beyond me but, eventually, most of the mud was packed up and the streets were cleared. . .of giant inflatable tubs at least. The mud slide too was eventually taken down but not after being bumrushed by a number of eager fest goers who decided that they should be the last ones to ride for the day.
We held out until the last trickle of people made their way towards the beach or back to hotels to clean off. Figuring that a rinse in the ocean would help us later in the shower, we did just that. Even so, none of us could have predicted how drastically a hotel full of muddy revelers could deplete the running water supply. While we did eventually get 'clean,' it was at the cost of turning the bathroom into a complete and utter mud-zone.
Still picking mud from our ears and hair, we dressed and headed out to prepare for the evening's festivities. Namely, a fireworks show. The rain that had persisted throughout the day now began to irk fest goers who had gone through considerable lengths to get 'clean' and 'dry.' So it was no surprise that the corner Lotteria (McDonald's equivalent) turned into a sort of meeting place, social area, bar, and night club. As the first round of explosions lit up the sky, we took off towards the beach but couldn't quite make it through the already densely gathered crowd.
Standing in the open air it was all to obvious that a storm would break out and that it did! As the fireworks exploded over head and music boomed out of the enormous sound system, we ducked under other people's umbrellas and eventually just succumbed to once again being soaking wet. The rain of course stirred up all the mud still lying in the street and while most people were clean from the waist up, the other end of the spectrum didn't make it out so safe.
From the fireworks we were treated to a 'concert' by Korea's all female pop group, Girls Generation followed by a giant techno/dance party. Here we enjoyed jumping and screaming to hilarious remixes of K-pop and old American favorites while praying that the brave crowd surfers would make it back to land on their feet, rather than heads as people didn't seem to keen about keeping them up in the air!
Following the dance party we picked up a number of yo-yo's from the various carnival games lining Main Street. With yo-yo's in hand we wandered the streets aimlessly looking for something, anything to do. At this point we were also searching desperately for Steve whom both Nate and I had found then lost track of in the later afternoon.
After yet hours more of cavorting, people eventually began to filter back to the rooms where the activities were far from over. When sharing a room with a half dozen people, it's not always easy to get to bed at a reasonable hour and this occasion was no different. While we did finally make it down, the thin blankets we were given, not at all like the thick, cushioned yeo's we were promised, did little to protect our tired bodies from the hard floor.
Sunday morning, those that rose early enough were treated to a torrential monsoon that pelted the town of Boryeong, preventing the majority of the Mud Fest inflatables to reach their full potential and forcing life guards to make a human chain along the beach, preventing anyone from daring to enter the menacing surf.
When we eventually roused, we followed others to a much welcomed breakfast buffet at a near by hotel where I ate my fill of eggs, toast, breakfast meat, coffee, OJ, cereal and corn topped pizza. Well, I tried a bite of the pizza at least!
We waited out the storm in the hotel lobby before our 4:00pm meeting time rolled around and we charged through the wind and the rain to the waiting buses. As we clamored on to the Suwon bus, hardly looking forward to a three hour return bus trip followed by a two hour subway ride, I over heard people talking about an Itaewon bus with ample space on it. After only a minute of hesitation, Nate and I dove out of the Suwon bus and onto the Itaewon one, headed towards Seoul. No clue who or how these buses were paid for but we're assuming that they were all apart of our larger, Rudy organized, group as no one questioned our presence on the new ride.
With enough space to stretch out over two seats, I immediately conked out and slept the better portion of the way back to Itaewon where Nate, Stacey (a tag-a-long), and I grabbed dinner at the Wolfhound before making the short subway journey back to Nowon. While my ranch chicken sandwich was delicious, nothing felt better than hoping into a hot shower and watching the remaining mud coming pouring off me.
A few days and a lot of bleach later I got my bathing suit back to a respectable state. As for my shoes, or Sanuks rather, they were easily cleaned up by one shower and a load of wash. Luckily, I was smart enough not to bring any other clothing out to the Fest as it would likely have not made it back or not done so in any sort of wearable condition!
Overall I had a fantastic time at what I must say is without a doubt the most fun event I have participated in thus far in Korea. Heck, I couldn't imagine anything in Korea being as much fun as the atmosphere in Boryeong was simply, well, not Korean. Sure, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that the majority of fest-goers are foreigners, but the overall freedom, fun and festival atmosphere prevailed here unlike I've seen elsewhere in the Hermit Kingdom.
If you're in Korea and you haven't been to Mud Fest, well, you'd be foolish not to go. If you're not in Korea and have considered coming, this is perhaps the only thing that I would really, sincerely say is worth visiting the country for. That is of course, until Jazz Fest incorporates a mud section. Even so, just being muddy at a music festival doesn't come close in comparison to an event where the purpose is really nothing but to, well, get muddy!
Thank you to the people of Boryeong and the festival organizers who for 12 years now have graciously hosted this festival. Without their enduring patience for putting up with a raucous crowd of foreigners, nothing like this would be possible, and with out Mud Fest, who knows what foreigners might get up to during the hot summer months!
Now that the sun has set on the Fest, it's time to start thinking about my departure. . . more on that soon! Thanks for visiting, don't expect too much in the next few weeks as I mentally prepare for the end while tackling the all-day challenge that is Summer Intensive!
