READY, SET, GO!
In summer, life rarely slows down and who would want it to when the good times just keep on rolling..
The annual Mud Festival in Boryeong was next on our agenda of things to conquer and boy, did we do a good job of it this year.
Saturday morning whipped around after a lovely evening of hula hooping in the park under the beautiful full moon and we arrived at the bus terminal ready to rock and roll fully suited up with a 5 litre cooler full of soju mix, enough cups for the rest of the bus, refill for the cooler, coloured body paint a tent and the cuddle pillow. Ryan and I decided to be partners in a buddy system for the weekend - a dangerous duo - but at least we had our priorities straight from the beginning and bar about 4 or 5 hours at some point we managed to stick together for most of the debauchery.
ALLLL ABOARD the ultimate bus of fun...
Not even 45 minutes into the 3 hour bus ride did we have every person aboard paper cup in hand and ready to revolutionalize the glorious invention that is a 'NORAEBUS' or in other words a bus with in-built karaoke. This concept certainly falls into the list of top 3 best Korean novelties. Not only can you sing Karaoke 24 hours a day anyway but you can also do it on a party bus with 45 others drinking out of a 5 litre soju cooler and noone even bats and eyelid.
..and so we danced and sang our way to Boryeong and practically leapt off the bus straight into the mud. Mud slides, mud painting stations, colored mud, mud obstacle course, mud prison and my personal favourite - the mud wrestling pit. After covering ourselves in mud, frolicking in the ocean, drinking soju from our cooler spot on the beach, re-covering ourselves in mud, having buckets of mud thrown at us in the mud prison and winning in the obstacle course - Ryan and I decided we were ready for the Wrestling pit. However, the line to get in over the waist high bouncy blow up walls and into tackling glory was winding further than the eye could see. We decided that was not going to stop us and so we devised a plan to invade. We patiently awaited our moment to skip the line and "sneak"into the ring (and by sneak I mean we waited for a new round of people to be let in, took a run up and charged with no fear, slid over the wall and wrestled our lives away.) We repeated this trick every 10 minutes for about 2 hours, not realising that we were causing quite a scene amongst the people waiting in the queue. In fact, I later found out that our friend Sarah had been patiently waiting in the line for about an hour around that time frustrated at the 'idiots' who kept barging in (ie us.) :
A conversation that took place:
Sarah: "Oh my gosh, all these people just cutting in over the sides are so annoying!! JUST WAIT YOUR TURN!"
Sarah's friends: ...while pointing at Ryan and I making a run up and diving over the side, stampeding our way in for the 10th time.."uh..Sarah, aren't those your friends?"
Sarah: "Oh, shiiiiiiit!"
Thank goodness for our lovable personalities, right?
But, did we have a wild time in there - sacrificing 3 pairs of sunglasses, an almost concussion, multiple bruises, and partial blindness from muddy eyes was a small price to pay - it was outrageous amounts of fun. We eventually stumbled out of the mud to get ourselves clean about 7 hours later and 'nourished' ourselves with convenience store Ramyeon and a beer to keep our spirits going and then it was back to the beach until all hours of the next morning watching some fun bands and stunning fireworks display over the ocean under a perfectly clear night sky. There were even stars to be seen and counted (and that's a rare sighting in Korea!)
We woke up after a couple of hours of rest and plunged straight back into the muddy gauntlet. Once mudded up for the second time, we attempted to get some snappy breakfast pizza at the only pizza spot in town leaving us with a two hour wait sitting at a table out in the sun, covered in mud. This sounds like a bit of rain on our parade but it was actually a great time just chilling, cracking jokes, singing songs, and drinking extra strength booze-in-a-bag cocktails bought from the cute korean girls just down the street (so cute in fact that I specifically remember Ryan proposing marriage to both of them!) After our pizza was gulped down we headed back to the beach and began a body painting bonanza, covering everyone in vision in rainbow colours. Though we stopped when parents began lining up with their kids - I felt a little inappropriate decorating kids after consuming multiple long-island-iced-teas with the words 'GET IT ON' written in large Green letters down the front of me.
We climbed back on the bus Gwangju bound still covered in paint and mud, cocktails in a bag in hand and fully intending on getting our party on when we returned to the good city. Our buddy system got us as far as the taxi ride back to Gillian's apartment where Ryan fell asleep after spontaneously yelling - "ya know, if I was any more fun I would explode!" He's right on that one.BOOOOOM, Ryan, out. I managed to drag myself up the lift and into the door before collapsing on the floor in a heap. BOOOOOOM, Katie, out.
Safe to say, it was definitely in contention for the best Korean weekend I have ever had or at least very high up there and even though my body (and my many lost belongings) still felt the effects in certain ways up to 3 days later - it was worth every bruise!
A truly unforgettable time.
Coming soon - our Summer holiday to Singapore and Malaysia.
Sending love,
Katie
In summer, life rarely slows down and who would want it to when the good times just keep on rolling..
The annual Mud Festival in Boryeong was next on our agenda of things to conquer and boy, did we do a good job of it this year.
 |
| Let's get Dirty! |
 |
| SOJU!!!! |
ALLLL ABOARD the ultimate bus of fun...
 |
| Party bus to Boryeong. |
 |
| NORAEBUS! |
 |
| Mud FUN! |
..and so we danced and sang our way to Boryeong and practically leapt off the bus straight into the mud. Mud slides, mud painting stations, colored mud, mud obstacle course, mud prison and my personal favourite - the mud wrestling pit. After covering ourselves in mud, frolicking in the ocean, drinking soju from our cooler spot on the beach, re-covering ourselves in mud, having buckets of mud thrown at us in the mud prison and winning in the obstacle course - Ryan and I decided we were ready for the Wrestling pit. However, the line to get in over the waist high bouncy blow up walls and into tackling glory was winding further than the eye could see. We decided that was not going to stop us and so we devised a plan to invade. We patiently awaited our moment to skip the line and "sneak"into the ring (and by sneak I mean we waited for a new round of people to be let in, took a run up and charged with no fear, slid over the wall and wrestled our lives away.) We repeated this trick every 10 minutes for about 2 hours, not realising that we were causing quite a scene amongst the people waiting in the queue. In fact, I later found out that our friend Sarah had been patiently waiting in the line for about an hour around that time frustrated at the 'idiots' who kept barging in (ie us.) : |
| Mud Wrestling Pit |
Sarah: "Oh my gosh, all these people just cutting in over the sides are so annoying!! JUST WAIT YOUR TURN!"
Sarah's friends: ...while pointing at Ryan and I making a run up and diving over the side, stampeding our way in for the 10th time.."uh..Sarah, aren't those your friends?"
Sarah: "Oh, shiiiiiiit!"
Thank goodness for our lovable personalities, right?
But, did we have a wild time in there - sacrificing 3 pairs of sunglasses, an almost concussion, multiple bruises, and partial blindness from muddy eyes was a small price to pay - it was outrageous amounts of fun. We eventually stumbled out of the mud to get ourselves clean about 7 hours later and 'nourished' ourselves with convenience store Ramyeon and a beer to keep our spirits going and then it was back to the beach until all hours of the next morning watching some fun bands and stunning fireworks display over the ocean under a perfectly clear night sky. There were even stars to be seen and counted (and that's a rare sighting in Korea!)
 |
| Chaos, absolute glorious chaos. |
We woke up after a couple of hours of rest and plunged straight back into the muddy gauntlet. Once mudded up for the second time, we attempted to get some snappy breakfast pizza at the only pizza spot in town leaving us with a two hour wait sitting at a table out in the sun, covered in mud. This sounds like a bit of rain on our parade but it was actually a great time just chilling, cracking jokes, singing songs, and drinking extra strength booze-in-a-bag cocktails bought from the cute korean girls just down the street (so cute in fact that I specifically remember Ryan proposing marriage to both of them!) After our pizza was gulped down we headed back to the beach and began a body painting bonanza, covering everyone in vision in rainbow colours. Though we stopped when parents began lining up with their kids - I felt a little inappropriate decorating kids after consuming multiple long-island-iced-teas with the words 'GET IT ON' written in large Green letters down the front of me.
 |
| The bus back to Gwangju, after 24 hours of being unruly. |
We climbed back on the bus Gwangju bound still covered in paint and mud, cocktails in a bag in hand and fully intending on getting our party on when we returned to the good city. Our buddy system got us as far as the taxi ride back to Gillian's apartment where Ryan fell asleep after spontaneously yelling - "ya know, if I was any more fun I would explode!" He's right on that one.BOOOOOM, Ryan, out. I managed to drag myself up the lift and into the door before collapsing on the floor in a heap. BOOOOOOM, Katie, out.
Safe to say, it was definitely in contention for the best Korean weekend I have ever had or at least very high up there and even though my body (and my many lost belongings) still felt the effects in certain ways up to 3 days later - it was worth every bruise!
A truly unforgettable time.
Coming soon - our Summer holiday to Singapore and Malaysia.
Sending love,
Katie
First of all, thanks for that photo of Danielle ;-) Haha
ReplyDeleteGreat to read this. It makes me feel awfully Korea sick. The Mud Festival was probably my favorite part of the Korean party culture.