Mulloskeys Adventures Abroad

With some reluctance we decided to head to what is touted as Korea’s best festival. We had always wanted to partake except it was quite close to our trip home and we still had some shopping and preparations to do in Seoul. We took the chance and boy, were we glad we did.

First off, it is worth telling you about the gong show that was our trip down to Daechon city, host of the Mud Festival. We get to our local Ansan Bus terminal just before 8:00 am and ask for tickets to Daechon. There happens to be a bus leaving in a few minutes and we hop on board. 2 hours later, we arrive. At this point it is a little unsettling not seeing any other tourists for the mud festival. Now the website said it was a short $10 cab from the bus station.. so rather than mess around with local bus routes we hopped into 2 cabs (there were 7 of us). A few blocks later the other cab pulls over.. They tell us that the cab ride is approx $100!!! Figuring we were just getting ripped off, and that the beach is clearly just around the bend, we took matters into our own hands. After a short trip to the PC room (ubiquitous sketchy dark internet rooms with equally sketchy beings unable to communicate except via their character in StarCraft) to confirm the details, and some help form an English speaking local we cabbed it to the “other” bus terminal in the city. We get out at the other terminal and it looks promising.. there are other foreigners there clearly headed to the festival. Cab drivers are trying to convince us to let us take them for $10 per person.. we discover that the bus needed is also $10. Slightly confused, we decide to take the cab. Little did we know that the $10/person is restricted to a van-cab only. Our new friends and us pile in.. 9 passengers and 1 driver into the van. Who cares.. its around the corner anyway. The driver puts on a DVD “War of the Worlds” which we find amusing.. we are only going to be in the cab for a few minutes anyways. We start driving out of the city.. I could swear the beach is just over the next mountain. Now its been about 30 minutes. I make a passing joke “Wouldn’t it be funny if we managed to watch the entire movie?” So, 2 hours later we finish the movie and it’s time for the next DVD.. 1995 dance hits. Where the hell are we? Finally a sign.. “Boryeong 40 km”. We are cramped and confused. We finally arrive at our destination after 7 hours of travel.. 4 more than we had expected. A sign to the local station reveals our mistake.. We went to Daejon instead of Daechon! (Insert preferable curse word here – I recommend ‘crap-ass-shit-nocker’). For those of you who are not as good as Erin at deciphering the Korean characters (I include myself in that group), the ‘j’ sound and the ‘ch’ sound are distinguishable by a small dot (similar to the dot on top of a small ‘i’ on top of the letter). Imagine trying to get to Toronto and getting dropped off in London and trying to hail a cab.. then, actually taking the cab.

So we got there.. the guys set up their tents as they planned to say the night. We would have loved to do the same, however we had to be back in Seoul that night so to do shopping the next day etc.. So after the tents were up, it was time to explore. We hit the main drag and found a series of activities including inflatable gauntlets, mud massages, a huge mud wrestling pit and a whole lot of mud covered people. Here are some of our first pics.

We were about a block form the beach which was the main headquarters of festival-goers. Here there were more mud pits, a massive slide and the main stage with bands playing non-stop. What a beautiful day too.

Our first goal.. lets get muddy! The beach had stations where there were mud bowls and you could paint yourself and each-other. Keep in mind this is some of the best mud in the world.. for your skin that is (as the festival claims) so it was two birds with one stone (dirtiness and soft, supple skin). Getting each other all covered in mud was one of the best parts (including the obvious homo-eroticism).. consider it team- building.

Erin is hot on the worst of days.. check out how hot she is covered in mud.. ignore the handsome fellow to her right.

Aaron found a plastic Canadian flag and decided to show his true colours. It is here that you get the best example as to why he is a near perfect cross between Brook Dyson and my brother-in-law Ron. Of course, he has a smoke.. priceless Aaron:

We went wandering around the festival feeling refreshingly muddy. Then we found the mud prison. We met Lindsay and Michelle there who had simply been looking for some mud to put on. Some camera men saw us and wanted to film us.. we did some ridiculous scene pretending to ask for help (clearly filming ads for next year’s festival … we played along shouting… please let us out of ‘prison’)… I pretended like I was asking for more beer to make it look genuine. At every turn were some Koreans looking to take our pictures. I’m going to guess it was the beard which looked more full in the mud..

Then Ben and I decided to compete in mud wrestling on an inflatable ring. I have a video of it which I will post on facebook. If you analyze the tape, as I have, you will notice that the only reason I lost was a failure to plant my foot during my approach in taking Ben down.. I would have had him. Given that we both got more muddy, it can be said we were both winners (spoken like a true loser). The next challenge was on the obstacle course. The video is mediocre but here is a pic of us in line.

We grabbed something to eat at the local fast food joint – a Korean version of McDonalds called Lotteria. This is one of my favourite pics. All the stores and restaurants just accept muddy people for the two weeks of the festival.. take a look at these guys.. we looked about the same, but ate outside.

After food, we got some more beers and wandered the festival some more. Lindsay and Michelle ran into some people they knew (as always) and we headed toward the beach again. We swam in the ocean for a while cleaning the mud off for good. This was by far the best swim we had had since Thailand.

It was time for Erin and I to head towards the train station. A short cab ride took us to the correct Daechon station and a breeze train ride had us home less than 3 hours later and with a new friend Sarah-Lee from Oregon. What an amazing time! Our only regret was not camping with the rest of our crew but given we have only one weekend left before home, it was impossible. I recommend it to anyone who might be reading this and going next year.. This is truly Korea’s best festival!