Boryeong Mud Festival - July 13th 2008

After a long hiatus, I am back to my "exploring Korea" mode of life! Got sick and tired of the long working hours and working weekends. Since, I had missed out on the mud festival last year,

I was determined not to give it a miss, this time around.

I do love travelling alone. A lot of time just for myself and for all the thoughts of the world! Boryeong festival would have been a big bore had I actually gone alone. Luckily my Korean friend Eugene, whom I hadn't met for more than a year, too planned to reach there from Busan. It was nice to get to meet finally!

Since I needed to leave in the morning and return by evening, the trains were the best bet. As I realised later, Boryeong is more fun if one were to stay overnight. I did miss the fireworks, and some other special shows of the evening. Maybe next year!

It was a little strange that I could not book train tickets online. In a country which probably has the highest broadband density in the world, it sure was weird. There must be some reason which I am not aware of. The 무궁화(Mugunghwa- long distance train) takes about 2 hours 15 minutes from Suwon station to Daechon. The rice fields along the way reminded me of the long train journeys I used to take as a child. From the station, it is about 15 minutes by bus to the Boryeong beach.

The scenes at the beach were awesome! I knew from the website(www.mudfestival.or.kr) that there would be a lot of foreigners, but I never imagined a sea of bikinis! Probably, one of the rare occasions where there were more foreigners than Koreans! And, from the looks of it, bikinis, booze, mud and sea were a lethal combination!

I really need to appreciate the way these festivals get organised in Korea.

Despite the language barriers, a lot of effort had been put to take care of the needs of foreigners. The free locker for keeping the bags, the shower rooms and lots of English speaking volunteers were some of the things I noticed.

After exchanging a few phone calls, Eugene and I located each other. She had come along with another friend of hers. Together we went over to have our lunch...I had prepared some sandwiches and she had brought along Korean curry and some bread and fruits. Then it was time to get dirty in the mud.



Painting our bodies with the brush and liquid mud, it was so good. And, then, I realised I had never been to a sea-beach in Korea before!

Water has such a fatal attraction for me! I enjoyed myself thoroughly with all the mud and the cleaning in the sea! It was good fun.



Left Boryeong by 4:30. All the seats in the train were sold out. Following the lead of enterprising University students and some Koreans I moved on to the Cafeteria coach and sat by a window sill! So the seat problem got resolved and a wonderful trip soon ended!









Would surely love to go there next year. In the meantime, need to plan for some other place soon! The travel bug has bit me:)