The Childlike Drunken Madness of Boryeong Mud Festival in South Korea

Arriving

Boryeong Mud Festival takes place every summer along Daechon Beach in South Korea. People come from all over the country to play in the mud. Adults acting like big kids, all under the guise of health. The mud is full of minerals, bentonites, and germaniums, all great for your skin. They splashed in giant mud pits, wrestled, slipped down mudslides, and games of every kind. Not your average spa day.

Unfortunately, the year we went, we turned up at the beach, and my first thought was, “Erm…so where is all the mud?”. Korea is boiling in summer but even more so this year. The heat meant that the unique, healthy, imported mud from the Boryeong mud flats had transformed into dust. I’ve been to music festivals in the UK that had more of a right to call themselves mud festivals. Squeaky clean, we looked out of place. We sheepishly tried to grasp at any little floor puddle or smudge on the edge of the dried up mud sinks to smear on ourselves.

Our saviour came from the coloured mud painting area! Adorned with our new body paint designs we hit the beach! All stocked up on beer, soju (Korean clear liquor), and makkoli (Korean rice wine), our worries dried up along with the mud!

The Festival - Day Time

People watching at the beach was plentiful and quite frankly hilarious. From pensioners passed out in rubber rings to American army beefcakes showing off on quad bikes. From hoards of people with enormous cameras acting like paparazzi to couples wearing outrageous, matching swimwear sets. Glorious.

An almighty roar screamed into my ears from the sky behind. My heart surged up to my throat, and my stomach plunged to my pelvis. For that split second, I could have sworn that North Korea had finally come. (This was 2013, after all) But no, it wasn’t jets of war. It was jets of love! They drew a giant, pink, jet plume in a love heart complete with cupid’s arrow. Oh yeah, Korea knows how to do cute. The most fantastic air show I have ever seen and a complete surprise! We hadn’t done much research on this impromptu trip and the festival schedule. More fool us, scaring ourselves to death!

The Festival - Night Time

Later that night, Boryeong surprised us yet again with the sound of fireworks. We followed the pied piper firework sound down to the beach without a word. The fireworks set off from ships in the middle of the ocean. It was beautiful to see them reflected over the shimmering multi-coloured water.

We stayed at a Korean Love hotel as it was cheaper than a regular hotel. One room featured an ensuite bathroom that was partially see-through. I imagined they thought the silhouette of someone’s shower could be sexy. What’s not sexy? Waking up hungover and turning over in bed to see the following sight. The silhouette of my friend, sat on the toilet, like a Greek statue having an alcohol poo- an amusing end to a memorable festival weekend.

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This story was originally published on Medium

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Georgina Nelson. Traveller. Writer. Photographer. Yoga teacher.

Sh*t Happens - because the things that go wrong make the funniest stories.