Mudfest

My very first night arriving in Daejeon, Lorne and David started talking about Mudfest and how great it is and how we were all going in July. I thought it was a little crazy to be excited by something called "Mudfest," so far in advance but nevertheless it gave me something to look forward to. Also, being that David is the manager of the school when he was making the yearly schedule he made this weekend a three day weekend to incorporate the maximum amount of time into Mudfest.

Friday night we headed out for Boryeong which is about two hours from here, we were staying at another Love Hotel, this one was much better than the last one though still pretty sketchy. I would give it a 1/2 star rating. It gets bonus points for being right on the ocean front.

Wow, there is so much to tell about Mudfest but I think if I were to write about all of it I would have severe carpel tunnel syndrome and you would probably never read this again. So I will try not to ramble as I sometimes do.


Exactly like sounds, Mudfest is just one big party of really muddy people. There were thousands of people there for it and the foreigners probably out numbered the Koreans 2 to 1. Along the beach there were dozens of tables and buckets of mud for painting yourself up. Of course, I started off as the martyr saying I was there to watch and take pictures, but a few hours into it I had run back to the hotel for my bathing suit and was soon painting my arms and legs with mud. We met up with about a dozen friends of Lorne's who were amazing people and so much fun to be around. The highlight of the actual Mudfest was the mudslide (not just a drink!) and it was about 30 feet tall with two lanes so that you race to the top of it and then race down, getting splattered by more mud at the bottom . There were also various mud wrestling pits and mud games to be played.

For dinner we went to a restaurant where you cook your own food, which are pretty popular in Korea... and typically the entire table orders the same food so that you share it all, but we were a large group and everyone had their own preferences so we divided into two: the seafood half and the pig fat half (I forget what it is really called but it is the fattiest part of the pig and people love it, I didn't try it). The seafood was amazing though, it was all live that they picked out of their aquariums and there were two big plates just full of shell fish. The clams were still alive and the shells would open and close until we threw them on the grill. (Where they died a hot, painful death) It was so good, I don't know what half of the stuff was but it was all from different type shells and was similar in taste and texture to mussels and scallops.

After dinner we walked back down to the festival for more drinks and the fireworks show. The fireworks were fantastic, the display went on for about half an hour and it was comparative, if not better, than the ones we saw for Australia Day at the Opera House.

There were about 4 couples in our group and then a bunch of singles and the singles were all sharing a room which is called a pension, which is supposed to be bigger than most rooms and more hostel style. Our room was the same size as the couple rooms, only no beds, just a lot of blankets, and twice the price as the couple rooms. I'm not quite sure how they justify that but I guess when people are fighting for rooms in the area they can get away with just about anything.

This morning we woke up to pouring rain, which isn't surprising as it has been like that for the past week, but blew my plans for lying out and sunning all day. Most of the group was also taking off today being that they have to work tomorrow. I decided to head out with them instead of staying the extra night because it would have ended up being Lorne and Mary Ann and David and his gf, which probably would have resulted in another Seoul-type adventure.

Before leaving though we went to the fish market, which was all live fish. We picked out a few fish, watched them kill the fish and then they prepared it sashimi style, and with the bones of the fish they made an awesome fish soup for after the sushi. So amazing. I wish Daejeon was nearer to the ocean for that type of stuff.

After that I headed to the bus stop and back to Daejeon, where it is STILL raining. Hopefully it lets up a little tomorrow for my day off so I can go out exploring a little!