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Published: August 9th 2007
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Earlier in the week I was told that I needed to be at Shanghai 16 July for an inspection on a new Marriot hotel, so we cancelled our plans to go to the "Mud Festival" 13 July through 15 July, and we started making planes to go to Shanghai for four days. Once all our flight and hotel reservations were made we were ready to go, as a true Friday 13th would have it, I checked my email and saw one about my trip, seems like the owners were not ready and cancelled the trip. Well after we cancelled all our reservations, we re-made plans for the "Mud Festival"
1st weekend;
Saturday morning we headed down to the Mud Festival to meet our friends from our Thailand trip, once we met up with them we had to find a hotel to sleep in, after many tries and failures, a young man on a scooter approached us and said he had a room, Pearl went with him to check it out about 10 minutes later we had a room, and that's all it was a small room, and a small bathroom, but at least it was a place to sleep. Once
we got all our stuff to our room it was time to go and play in the mud. First we walked along the board walk and checked out all the booths. There were some very interesting displays, everything from spray-on tattoos, which of course we did, to Kimchi, but all the booths had something to do with mud, one booth was for foreigners, you sign your name, put where you are from and you get a free bar of Mud Soap, we must have gotten about 6 bars of soap from that place. They had free foot massages, we did that on Sunday afternoon, there was a pottery booth where Pearl and I made some pottery, there was a booth where you can make your own Mud Soap, which we also did, and many more.
Walking along all the booths we finally made it to the main area of the festival, this area had a big Dragon slide and the huge Mud Pit, which was a big pool like structure with about ankle deep of muddy water, this is where all the splashing and horse play took place. We played in the pool area for awhile it is very
cooling, but it did suck getting water in my eyes since I was wearing contacts. This mud pool was a great place to take pictures, just had to stand back, people in the pool could care less how much your nice Nikon costs they just want to splash muddy water everywhere. Further up was another pool, again filled with muddy water, which had big inner tubes tied together, the tubes had covers on them so you could "kinda" walk/run across them, next to that was the "Mud Wrestling" pit, then there was a huge slide that went down to the beach. Along the beach is the "Self Mud Massage" area, this is basically were you cover yourself in mud and let it dry on you while you walk around, then when you are tired of the dry mud on you, you go for a nice dip in the Yellow Sea, there was an awful lot of people drinking and swimming in the "Yellow" Sea, but I don't think that's the reason why it is called "The Yellow Sea".......lol. Once we were covered in mud we walked around the beach and checked out more of the festival. Later that evening we
met up with our friends at the Mud Spa center, where for around $5 a person you can go in have a shower, a mud bath, a sea water bath, a hot bath, and a cold bath, a sauna, and there was also more mud to put on your body and a place to sit outside to let it dry. This was my first sauna experience here in Korea, it is set up where the men and women have their own separate areas; it was very relaxing and enjoyable. After the spa treatment it was back to our room for dinner. Our room was on the top floor and there was a nice roof deck where we had a great meal of Sam gyup sal which a Korean bacon and many side dishes and of course we had some Ramyon, very popular instant noddle in Korea, and a big 'ol watermelon for desert. After dinner Pearl and I went for a walk, while walking we found an amusement park and we decided to check it out. After walking around the park once we decided what rides we wanted to ride, the first one was a very short roller-coaster. So we
got our tickets, a western couple sat in the very front car, we sat in the second car, 4 persons for the ride, the ride had one loop and one cork screw and lasted maybe 15 seconds, but it was very exciting and unforgettable. At the end of the roller-coaster ride I hollered out "let's" do that again? And the operator sent us on our way, when we got to the end the second time all of us were yelling "One More Time", and we did it again, the next time we asked he was letting us out, he asked Pearl if she wanted to go again? And well we went yet another time, it was a blast. The next ride Pearl picked out, it was basically a big round platform with padded seats along the outside and a padded mat on the floor. The jest of the ride is this, the operator spins the platform, and tilts it, then he stops spinning and bucks the platform trying to get people to fly out of their seats, once out he then tries to keep them from getting back to their seats, it was a beating but it was also very
fun.
Sunday;
We started our morning with a nice bowl of soup, and then headed back to the festival, where we again got all covered in mud and played in the ocean. Around mid day a Korean traditional band was coming down the board-walk and stopped right in front of us, we enjoyed this while eating our lunch, scrambled egg with cabbage and spam sandwich, after we finished Pearl convinced me to join the band and play a Korean musical instrument, so I did, and what seemed like an hour I played two types of metal instruments. The last one I played one of the band members was very helpful in teaching me how to play it, we had tons of pictures taken, and unfortunately my camera was in the car at the time...so we don't have any pictures of this very fun experience.
Dinner that night was great, it was an all shell fish dinner, clams, mussels, abalone, and a bunch of other types. At your table is a pit where a chunk of charcoal is placed, and then a screen on top, they dump the shell fish on top and let them cook on the fire,
when they open just pop in your mouth, it was so good, especially with an icy cold beer. Know this was an all-you-can-eat set up, so when you finished the first batch, all you had to do was ask for more, I think Pearl and I had 3 helpings....lol, and it was only around $40.
2nd Weekend;
This time we met my downstairs neighbors in Gunsan for the day. Weather started off cloudy and some sprinkles around, but it did not dampen the people to get all muddy and have fun. This time we found where the blue colored mud was and......yes we got all covered in blue mud, know the problem with the "Blue" mud is the spa would not allow you in there to shower until you removed it, and it kinda stains your skin....it was a lesson learned. The highlight of the day was to watch the "1st Annual International Music Festival Contest", my friend plays drums in a blues band called "The Blue Frogs". There were about 10 entries and "The Blue Frogs" took 1st place so that was cool.
This was a great festival, which it trying to cater to the "Westerners" with
free lockers for foreigners, and free soap, and lots of discounts.
My next trip...?? Not sure right now, I might be going to Bangkok and China in August for work, but that would be a last minute decision.
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Mom & Dad
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Hey!BlueMan
After reading this blog, feel like I just took a mud bath. Your writing brought me there. What fun and what an expierence. Tell Pearl I just love the vase she made for me. You also did a nice piece of pottery..Looked like everyone had a fun time. Good food also. Looking forward for your next trip.....Chio....