MUDFEST!

Do not judge us - we admit that we went to the Mudfestival in South Korea. Probably with every other foreigner currently residing in South Korea. Call it curiosity, call it what you will, but I am still a firm believer in experiencing things first hand and making up your own opinion on the subject. Having now been there...done that...I can say that it was a fun weekend for a variety of reasons, but once is definitely enough for this little muddy duck.

Let's start at the very beginning. Friday night we headed down to Pohang and stayed with our adopted Kiwi family. We dragged our still asleep bodies out of the apartment at 6am and headed to the Pohang train station where we thought we were meeting the group that we were going to travel with....OOPS! Note to self, read emails properly. At 7am, which was the meeting time, we thought it was a tad strange that we were the only ones there. A quick phone call established that we are complete idiots and a 5 minute taxi finally got us to the right pick up point and on the bus to head to the Boryeong Mud Festival. 6 hours later....many shots of Jager (we didn't have jager, it just rhymed...there was lots of soju and beer though) and A LOT of Karaoke, we arrived and were ready to get muddy.

The Boryeong Mud festival has been running since 1998 and it is said that the mud from the nearby mud flats (which is brought by trucks to the festival site) is great for the skin! Essentially the festival includes various water slides, inflatable mud pools and lots of muddy fun that attracts foreigners from all around the country. However, the queue for alcohol at every convenience store in town tells the true tale of the festival - really...it's just a chance for everyone to drink a lot, get silly and get dirty. What's wrong with that you old fart, I hear you say! Not a lot, except that too much alcohol combined with an environment that encourages stupidity generally produces excessive amounts of stupidity. Don't get me wrong, I partook and had a lot of fun, but I think I had more fun at the music concert and catching up with friends than I did being wrestling around in the mud by drunk, frisky, aggressive foreigners (and the odd frisky old Korean dude). Plus mud in the eyes really really hurts.

Anyway, tick it off the list I say. It was a great time for what it was, but I think i won't be taking up a career in mud wrestling anytime soon. A big cheers to the guys from Pohang who organised the trip - top work and you really made the trip a big success.

Back to work for this little de-mudded duck and looking forward to the summer vacation coming up soon. Love to you all and take care and be safe wherever you are.

//Kate