Category Archives: festivals

Korea adventure – day # 24 – Mud festival

Week 34
Joensuu, Finland

On Wednesday July 24th we went to the mud festival in Boryeong city. So we needed to drive from Suwon – point A in the photo below – to Boryeong – point B. This driving offered us the possibility to see some of the Korean landscape.

Suwon to Boryeong

Location of Suwon (pont A ) and  Boryeong (point B)

Landscape from the highway,  view from the bus window

Landscape from the highway, view from the bus window

Honestly I was unsure of what to wear and what to expect. I read a couple of things on the internet related to the mud festival clarifying what it is, but still I was unsure about it. So let’s discover.

We arrived to the festival. The mud area, where are some games as well, is  behind the tends of the photo below.

Arrival to the festival

Arrival to the festival

Somehow everything looked “calmed” when we arrived. It was a still early, I assume, because when we left was more activity.

The festival area is large and  I heard that on the weekend is busy. However, with this amount of people was possible to enjoy the MUD.

Germany present!

Different view of the festival area – Germany present!

We had some time before we were able to get into the mud.  So, first we put our bags in the lockers.

Mud is the main event.

Entrance to the lockers room. As you see MUD is THE event.

Lockers

Temporal Lockers

Message in the lockers

Message – no idea what it says.

Afterwards we went to eat lunch. One post will be dedicated to Korean meals, it deserves a post on its own.  However here an intro.

lunch time

lunch time

It is fascinating that the grill is in the middle of the table!

After a good meal, we got ready to get into the mud as time was approaching and that meant start to put mud on ourselves. No photos as available from my camera, as mud is not good for cameras.

For the dress up, I decide use some OLD cut pants which were ready to send to the trash.  Those were advices from some websites I read.  However when I saw photos taken from us, I got surprised how I was brave enough to use them. OMG!

TIP: Use something that you will not be sad that will be destroyed, but still nice and comfortable. 

This photo was taken after I was in the mud,  while I was waiting for the busses for our return to Suwon.

This photo was taken after I was in the mud, while I was waiting for the busses for our return to Suwon.

The first thing I did was to slide on that blue slide (photo above, the slide of the left), and it was FUN. However, my grip with the surface was VERY poor, and that made me slower than normal. Before my next step I wanted to be sure I was stepping correctly. All was so slippery!  So, even that must games were competitive, my aim was to experience the event and I was with a great group of ladies to do that. 🙂

My second game was on a red pool, which was located on the right of the slides. The photo does not capture it, but I confess I had a BLAST! It was so good!!!! I had much fun, the idea was to make different activities in the pool, e.g. make pairs, make teams of five, etc. Those who were unsuccessful sat in the middle and at the end we wash them with mud, shortly afterwads revenge emerge and we were shower with the mud. It was much FUN and after this moment I was really IN the event.

Unfortunately no much photos are available, except of my shoes from the picture below. This is a type of event that I could try to explain it 10000….. times and the experience cannot be transmitted. One has to live it. Great fun!  

one of those are my shoes

one of those are my shoes

another view of the festival

another view of the festival

Note: however one has to be careful too, as it is easy to slip. We had one of our students hurt 🙁 

After play and get REALLY dirty! we took a shower and got ready to get back. Below some rice fields on our way back. A very nice trip.

Landscape on the way back to Suwon

Landscape on the way back to Suwon

Next, temple stay…