Eventually we made it to Daechon beach (I was with Charlie and Sue). The first person we managed to find from our group was Aurora -- who promptly took us to the hotel they had reserved so we could swap into our bathing suits. You can see that we had a lot of catching up to do:
They had some stations with mud in buckets and paintbrushes -- so you could get a bit of a head-start by brushing yourself with mud:
Eventually we got thorougly covered. It really was an amazing time.
The mud festival was at the beach, so after rolling around in the mud for a while (or on giant inflatable playground-style equipment) we could just jump into the ocean for a nice rinse-off. The girls were the first to go, they climbed up the slide with all of their effort and then slid down. But Charlie and I like to shake things up a bit so we added another rule -- Hands behind your back! I have to admit I caught myself once (cheated) but we almost made it to the top -- just to have Charlie fall all the way back down... It was worth it though because we got to slide down separatley. Charlie got some truly MASSIVE air...
And... Clean!
A lot of the places served drinks in pouches instead of cups -- It stopped things from getting wet and mixing with the splashing mud and water that was everywhere! They also had a massive stage on the beach, as well as a "club area" where the DJ was lifted into the air by a crane and played some sick beats while a massive crowed danced like it was 2am in the sun and surf! There were massive water cannons that would release a deluge of water into the clubbing crowd, and men with high-pressure hoses that would make it their job to soak you through.
Of course, a blog entry wouldn't be complete without some terrible spelling:
That night we went to get shellfish for dinner, which produced one of the few gruop pictures that we have:
I used to not really like that kind of food; but now I love it! Walls, Sue, Liz and I ate an entire bucket worth:
After dinner we walked down to the Hip-hop concert:
In the crowd, everyone tends to just stand on the chairs:
But sometimes they break:
There were actually a lot of Indians at mudfest, some of them were really agressive and mean (throw mud in your face on purpose), but some were really cool:
Then you allways have the one scene where all you can see are some crazy americans:
Walls and I rockin' it hardcore:
And I should mention; Korean hip hop is REALLY GOOD. They had some sick beats, some bangin' DJ's and rappin' with some real soul and rhythm. I'll try to post some videos later!
These corndogs were even better than the last ones... They were covered in FRENCH FRIES:
Walls and I decided to rent a small electric motorcycle for 20 minutes ($10) and got to blast around the beach for a while (taking turns driving; which was hillarious):
Wang got a cup of cooked snails, which he shared -- basically you just put your mouth up to the shell and suck the snail out. They're pretty good!
Afterwards we hung out on the beach for a bit (Aurora went for a swim) and then chilled at a local bar for a bit:
The next day, we woke up to a soggy, rainy mess:
But as most things in life, it didnt last. The other members of the group didn't really want to get muddy again, but as allways I can count on Charlie to be there for me when everyone else is being boring:
And we had a BLAST. We did this obstacle course -- you know that thing about the extra rule though: This time we resolved to do the whole thing in tandem. Holding hands! We didn't make it all the way but it was still a LOT of fun (note: that's a really hard thing to do when your covered in slimy mud...)
The last game we played involved attaching a giant rubber band to your waist and standing at opposite ends of a moon walk style inflatable platform -- then you can run at each other and hold on, or try to play tug of war... But instead we just opted for getting as much air as humanly possible. So being good little scientists we grabbed each other in the center and proceeded to rock back and forth at what felt like the natural frequency of the cables -- until I had Charlie as far on my end as possible. Then jump and launch! Of course, then we got to do the reverse. It was an amazing thrill. We went back to the beach to clean off a bit, and then headed back to the mid beach club to party it up some more before cleaning off for the last time, grabbing some snacks, and heading to the train station.
It was a really long festival, and some of the people working it were just as beat as we were:
Auora and I wandered off to the nearby E-Mart after Charlie borded his "earlier" train. E-Mart is kinda like the Korean version of Sams Club. We got some pizza and headed to the couch by the 3D television display to watch some Avatar in 3D -- and man this TV was awesome. I've yet to see the 3D effect that crisp! (My guess is they somehow figured out how to use circular polarization, because the lenses when placed 90 degrees to each other didn't cancel each other out.)
On the way back to the train station I saw this:
It's a bus-wash! It's like a carwash but instead of the car moving (bus in this case) the machine moves around it and scrubs it down! Anyways, I thought it was pretty cool -- and the technitions that owned the place thought it was really interesting that I thought it was cool.
Note: the two "L"s at the end of Hall are missing, so instead it's just really funny.
Aurora's train left about 15 minutes before mine and arrived about 5 minutes before mine. We took the subway to Nakseongdae and instead of heading back went to my favorite bulgogi place to get a bite to eat.
Careful, Cedric, your "Jacob" is showing.
ReplyDeleteThat bus wash is totally awesome!! Genius!!