Boryeong Mud Festival

While researching and before even making it to Korea, we read about the annual Mud Festival at Daecheon Beach 대천 in Boryeong 보령시. We decided then that Mud Fest would definitely be something we'd check out while there. It happens every year in July (the first one was in 1998) and lasts a little over a week.

The mud is imported near Boryeong and trucked in to Daecheon Beach. The mud is considered rich in minerals and used manufacture cosmetics. We picked up a couple free bars of Mud Soap while we were there too! The festival attracts thousands of Korean and foreign visitors each year.

There was a group created on Facebook that were trying to round up people to go down to Mud Fest for the weekend (Thanks Rudy!!), turns out there were enough for about 10 bus loads. Krista became friends with the girl making all the arrangements and decided to help out with 2 buses. So that weekend Krista and I were in charge of making sure the right people got on and off 2 buses to and from the festival. Thanks to everyone who was patient while we got things together!

It all started off at 6:45am at Hongkik Station.



On the way there two people on the bus started to groove to the Cupid Shuffle. Check out the video here (click here if you are viewing this in email).





This is a panorama stitch of Daecheon Beach.



Under all the umbrellas were buckets and paint brushes. Every one is encouraged to paint themselves in mud! The paparazzi were everywhere.. especially if you were a foreigner and had something interesting painted on yourself. A lot of Koreans had some cool mud painting going on too!



Interesting such as the flags John and I had painted on our foreheads, I also had a maple leaf painted on my nipples :) We drew a lot of attention from the paparazzi, even more so when we finally were covered in mud.



John



Krista and Christie (Yes two couples, John and Christie - Jon and Krista) stopped off at a booth to make special mud fest characters out of clay.











You can check out the clay video here.




Mud wrestling, a very popular sport!







Paprazzi!



Mud pool



Koreans love to take pictures of/with foreigners. These girls got a shot with John T in it, so I decided to get one of them as well.



If you could stand the long line up, you had a chance to go down the large mud slide near the center square.



Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..... crash!



Have you heard about the protest against American Beef in Korea? If you ask anyone about it they will go off about how if you eat American Beef you will go crazy because of mad cow disease. There was a report in the paper that said police were investigating the news corp that may have improperly informed the public of the situation and that may be a possible reason for the protests and riots after the Korean govn't tried to lift the ban on the beef. You can make your own conclusions...

The painting on this guy translates to "American Beef", he managed to get a lot of looks that afternoon!



As I mentioned before, if you're foreign and have something interesting painted on yourself you are a target to have your picture taken. John has "waegukin" on him which means foreigner.



We had a great time at Mud Fest, so good we decided that we're going again this coming Saturday (also because the DMZ tour we wanted to go on is sold out..).

See you again this weekend!

Days at the Beach - Hua Hin

After going to "Monkey Mountain" we went on to the otherside of the mountain to a nice quiet beach area to enjoy water and bake in the sun.

Here is jon and Eva walking towards the beach.





A little drink shop, not quite open yet.. I guess it was too early, although that didn't stop us from drinking the beer we brought!



Do you like the "prise" list, "thang you"


Up the hill were a few little shops selling tourists goods, a small temple, massage shop and a buddha standing 19m tall.



At this beach you could rent sunbeds all day for 50baht ($1.60).

















The pictures below were taken at a beach on the south side of the mountain, this beach was a lot busier but it was nice to people watch (until the 50+ yr old woman with dyed red hair like she fell into a jug of red kool-aid was sunbathing without a top on but wearing what looked like to us, her husbands speedo).






Here is a Thai woman carrying corn, a steamer and a stool to sit on. She was selling steamed corn to tourists along the beach. Passing her by, was another Thai who was selling clothing along the beach as well.



Beautiful isn't it? This depicts our time spent in Hua Hin - sand, water, sun, shade and Chang beer. You could a can of chang for 25baht at most local places off the beach, at 7-11 you could buy two for 44baht! On the beach a bottle went for about 40-50baht each, we usually brought about two cans each and then purchased one more from the local vendor.

Khao Takiap, Hua Hin, Thailand

One early morning we took a taxi to Khao Takiap with Eva to see a temple and some evil monkies, the temple is even referred to sometimes as Monkey Mountain. When we arrived, Eva was carrying a plastic bag, as she was walking a monkey jumped off the back of a truck and grabbed on to the bag and started knawing at it!

Khao Takiab can be written several ways in English: Khao Takiab, Kao Takiab, Khao Takiap, Kao Takiap, Takiep, Takieb etc. The name actually means "Chopstick Hill."



They remind me of the evil monkey on Family Guy.

As you look through the pictures, see how many monkies you can spot!













A great view from the top of the temple. That is looking towards Hua Hin.



Krista striking a pose.



A local fishing village. All of the fisherman fish at night, so the boats are in the harbor during the day, and at night the Gulf of Thailand is littered with fishing boats! The boats are really colorful, they all have the flag of Thailand, the flag for the King and their own family flag!



Here is a map of Hua Hin that shows the Baan Resort and Khao Takiap southeast.



Here is a great area map of Hua Hin from this website.



For a great selection of places to stay with discount prices visit Hua Hin Hotels for more information.