13th Annual Mud Festival - Boryeong, South Korea
It's a friggin good time.
Ok.So the last few days have been nothing short of wild.
It all started about a week ago, when I headed to Seoul to meet up with my friends from New Zealand who were coming into town. I don't have a home or anything, so when I got to Seoul an awesome friend of mine let me sleep on the floor of his kitchen. It might not sound like he's a good friend from that, but the places here are retardedly small, and otherwise I would have probably just slept outside.
So the next day I met up with my buddies, and we went to the place I found for us to crash for free ... I swear Couch Surfing (couchsurfing.org) is one of the best travel resources I've ever come across. Plus a lot of times, the people I meet from it are totally up my alley! I guess it takes a certain breed to let strangers sleep in their house. Haha.
So our host was this 41 year old ex-pat Texan who simply said he'd host us and 'I hope you kids can drink'. I knew it would be a wild ride, good or bad, so I was in; not so sure my friends would have felt the same...so I just didn't really tell them much detail. ha. Whoops.
We rocked up at the subway station, and Texas and his dog Uju (universe) came to meet us.
Turns out this guy is a complete legend. Mind you, he seems to survive solely on beer and Marlboro cigarettes. I kid you not; I have not seen this man put anything past his lips other than these two items and the trumpet one evening at 3am.
He is a total blast - a university english teacher, but obviously a complete hippy and one of the most laid back people I think I've ever met. We all came and went as we pleased, drank beer and told tales, bashed around on his array of instruments (time being no prison guard of us, and the neighbours not complaining), and he is also the one who took me out to teach me to ride his motorcycle. This is amazing in itself, but he also offered that I can make his place my home base while in Korea if I need, so that really just made all the difference in the world and made me stoked; since as of August 24th, I will have nowhere to live.
We also went to the infamous Boryeong Mud festival along the west coast of Koreal about half way down. I came back bruised, a little injured and really tired, but DAMN it was a good time. I spent most of my time in the mud wrestling pit, and also quite a lot at the mud fight area; which is basically like a giant snowball fight with all the kids in the neighbourhood... just mud and a whole bunch of strangers pounding each other mercilessly.
Surprisingly, I didn't really see any major injuries. One guy broke his arm and had to get surgery, and I hear rumous of a broken nose, but other than that, the only thing people suffered seemed to be lost posessions or mud in their eyes. I was in the latter catergory, and had to get my eyes flushed and swabbed out, and I kid you now, I was finding mud for the next few days when I would blow my nose or clean my ears. It was like it was seeping out of me. It was kind of gross, but I had such a good time i really didn't mind paying such a small cost. I normally slightly detest such huge crowd evens involving liqour, but the only real drunk people I saw were two of my friends; one having a better story to tell than the other. He was discovered drunk with no phone, no money and I believe no shoes, and covered in sweet & sour sauce shivering.
After a wash in the ocean and a good sleep, he was good to go again for the night (still drunk, mind you), but it was definitely a wild weekend with not too much debauchery going down; in public at least.
Turns out this guy is a complete legend. Mind you, he seems to survive solely on beer and Marlboro cigarettes. I kid you not; I have not seen this man put anything past his lips other than these two items and the trumpet one evening at 3am.
He is a total blast - a university english teacher, but obviously a complete hippy and one of the most laid back people I think I've ever met. We all came and went as we pleased, drank beer and told tales, bashed around on his array of instruments (time being no prison guard of us, and the neighbours not complaining), and he is also the one who took me out to teach me to ride his motorcycle. This is amazing in itself, but he also offered that I can make his place my home base while in Korea if I need, so that really just made all the difference in the world and made me stoked; since as of August 24th, I will have nowhere to live.
We also went to the infamous Boryeong Mud festival along the west coast of Koreal about half way down. I came back bruised, a little injured and really tired, but DAMN it was a good time. I spent most of my time in the mud wrestling pit, and also quite a lot at the mud fight area; which is basically like a giant snowball fight with all the kids in the neighbourhood... just mud and a whole bunch of strangers pounding each other mercilessly.
Surprisingly, I didn't really see any major injuries. One guy broke his arm and had to get surgery, and I hear rumous of a broken nose, but other than that, the only thing people suffered seemed to be lost posessions or mud in their eyes. I was in the latter catergory, and had to get my eyes flushed and swabbed out, and I kid you now, I was finding mud for the next few days when I would blow my nose or clean my ears. It was like it was seeping out of me. It was kind of gross, but I had such a good time i really didn't mind paying such a small cost. I normally slightly detest such huge crowd evens involving liqour, but the only real drunk people I saw were two of my friends; one having a better story to tell than the other. He was discovered drunk with no phone, no money and I believe no shoes, and covered in sweet & sour sauce shivering.
After a wash in the ocean and a good sleep, he was good to go again for the night (still drunk, mind you), but it was definitely a wild weekend with not too much debauchery going down; in public at least.
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