Mud Fest 2010

We'd heard about this through friends and such over the years, and Chloe was dying to go. What is Boryeong Mud Festival you ask? Exactly that. Millions (yes, millions) of foreigners and Koreans gather on the beaches of Boryeong for their world famous mud, and spend the day playing in it, throwing it at each other, wrestling in it, sliding in it, pretty much anything you can think of to do with mud.

So we made some plans with our Ansan friends, woke up at 6am on a Saturday, and boarded the bus at 7:10. A two hour bus ride, and we arrive in the city of Boryeong. Deanne tried to find some directions to our hostel, and failing that, we set off in the rain. We were all dressed for the mud, so the rain wasn't a problem. Plus, it's really warm here, all the time. We wandered the streets in the direction of the hotels, and got a few suggestions here and there. Once we found it, we got a bit of luck, because check in time was 2pm, and we arrived around 10. Fortunately the room was ready! Two rooms, two bathrooms, no furniture. Haha, and it's 35$ a person, for 10 people! It had air conditioning though, and Chloe will pay anything for air conditioning.

One of the rooms in our hostel.

We dropped our things off, and set out to find the mud. There was a nice little brick roadway with lots of shops and restaurants, next to a boardwalk, next to the beach. We found some stone sculptures, and sand sculptures, and a giant stage. And then… MUD! There were tents

with all sorts of crafts, you could paint yourself with coloured mud, buy souvenirs, etc. There were lots of… hmm, what are they called… those giant air castle type things? There were slides, and race courses, and giant baths with a bunch of people sitting in them. That's right. Sitting. WHAT?! Fortunately we found one with people bouncing around in the mud, and we all jumped in to have at each other. It was pretty fantastic, strangers taking you down and helping you up and helping you gang up on friends. We got some good pictures. There was also mud prison, which is just a prison with bars on two sides, and the staff spray you with a mud hose. It actually looked kind of painful, so we avoided it.

Mud prison.

Castle race.

Mud Fest mascots... and Brandon.

Dee, Jaryt, and Adam wrestling in the mud.

We ran into lots of people we knew, and splashed around in the rain and mud. There was a GS 25 nearby (for all you Canadians, that would be a Mac Store, 7 Eleven, etc) so we bought beer (for all you parents, it wasn't for us… really). Korea has no laws, as far as we

know, about drinking in public. The beer is also very cheap, and in very large bottles they call pitchers. We spent awhile exploring, checking out the beach, meeting up with new friends, and then it was time for a shower. Mud is fun, but after awhile, you just want to be clean. Shower time also meant nap time, haha.

We woke up and found half of our friends also taking naps with us, so we all decided to find some dinner together. There was one pizza place, absolutely packed with foreigners, an hour wait. No thank you. There were millions of Korean restaurants, all the same, galbi,

samgyeopsal, and seafood, so we found one with tables and chairs (it's also not fun sitting on the floor when your feet are wet) and enough room for all of us. Then there was more friend meeting and drink buying (for friends, really!). Later in the night they had a concert, fireworks, and we spent awhile dancing to Korean songs and old school classics like Mambo Number 5. Chloe had some difficulties, because her new sandals bought specifically to get muddy had caused some rather painful blisters, and dancing on rocks is just not much fun. Oh, and the convenience stores by that point were just covered in mud! On our way home, we found a delicious pizza snack; it looks like an ice-cream cone, except they put sweet bean paste in the bottom, boo!

Hehe!

Pizza Cone!

Sleeping on the floor was rather comfortable (although we did find out that the pillows were stuffed with cut up straws), and we woke up at 9am. Everyone else was still asleep, so we wandered to the beach. It was a BEAUTIFUL sunny day, and we found a second, smaller area with more mud painting, slides, and that lame mud bath where no one was wrestling. We also found lockers, which helped that whole checking-out-at-noon problem. However, we did have some problems waking everyone up, huh.

Beautiful beach.

Enjoying the sun.

Mud pool (sans wrestling).

And that was pretty much it. We spent about 2 hours buying souvenirs, getting lunch, and enjoying the sun while avoiding the mud (nobody wants to be muddy on the bus, right?). Chloe bought some mud lotion, which seems weird when you think she spent 5$ on mud, but… it's famous, right? The bus ride back was four hours for some strange and annoying reason, but we got home in one piece, a little damp and slightly sunburnt. Definitely a worthwhile trip!

Buddha's Birthday

It's Buddha's Birthday again, and though Chloe was quite tired from her night out, we still decided to head to the city for the parade. Chloe had seen the parade when she visited Korea last year, and was really excited to show Sam the rice paper floats that breathed fire. That's right. Paper and Fire. We met Katie and her friends, including everyone who was out with us the night before, and scored some

decent seats where we could take millions of pictures. It wasn't as exciting as last year; there were large groups of Koreans dressed in hanboks representing different groups (or so we assumed based on their banners). You get tired of that after awhile. The floats started showing up, and they were as amazing as last year, if not the same floats. Sam did enjoy the paper dragon breathing fire, and was just as surprised as Chloe had been.

We didn't stay long, being tired, so we headed back to Ansan before

the parade was over. We saw an awesome Korean couple on our walk

to the subway, some kind of Korean Elvis and his lady, with a Korean

afro and very tight pants. It's hard to take a subtle picture without

using flash, let me tell you! Then on the subway, we ran into Melissa who had joined Chloe the night before. She had just had dinner in Myeongdong, and was also on her way home. It's still kind of funny that very few Koreans go to see the parade for Buddha's Birthday; Melissa had no idea it was happening.

Monkey Beach

Chloe: I hadn't been out dancing with the girls for awhile, and everyone kept talking about Monkey Beach, so I decided to join them in Itaewon. We met at the Loft first, because drinks are free for the ladies. A couple of my students joined us actually, thought they left early. I can understand; a table full of girls in a club offering free drinks to ladies, you start to draw a lot of creepy men.

So after having a few drinks, we took a cab to Apgujeong, where Monkey Beach was located. Monkey Beach is awesome, because when you order a drink, you get it in a bucket. No joke, picture little sand buckets on the beach, except filled with deliciously flavoured drinks and a bunch of straws. That was kind of awkward actually; Melissa and I split on a Melon flavoured drink, and put it on a shelf right next to us where we could watch it. And we did watch it. We watched as some strange girl walked up to the shelf, and took a sip out of her straw. I looked at her, reached for my drink, and pulled it away. It was kind of funny, and she apologized profusely. I didn't really trust the drinks in the place after that, so spent the night dancing. It was a small bar, with too many people crammed in, so it got hot quickly. But we had a lot of fun, and didn't end up leaving until about 4:30. Fortunately, Melissa lives in Ansan, so we could share a cab home, and she crashed at my place until the subway started again at 6am. It was fun, but I think I'm getting too old to be staying up all night long.

Oh, I almost forgot! You get to keep the buckets! Most people are either too drunk or too busy dancing to remember, but not I!

Katie and Laura at the Loft.

Children's Day

Korea has some interesting holidays, but by far the best excuse to get a random Wednesday off work is Children's Day, "The day on which to esteem the personalities of children and plan for their happiness." And since Chloe and I are teachers, we got the day off too. We took the opportunity to sleep in past seven o'clock, and then head to Asia's largest underground shopping mall. What we didn't realize until we got there, was that everybody in Seoul had the same idea. It was the busiest mall I've ever seen, busy enough that you literally had to let the flow of people dictate where you went. Needless to say, once we found the line for the aquarium, the line was hours long and we had to pass on it. We also had to miss out on the kimchi museum (what?). Instead we waited until we were drifted toward the food court, and made a break for it. One thing about Korea, no matter how busy a food court is, there's never a line at Sbarro. After two deliciously normal slices of pizza, we picked up a jig-saw puzzle and made our escape.

Much more relaxing than the mall, was the Buddhist temple complex across the street from the mall. There was something profoundly peaceful about standing in a 1200-year-old temple in the middle of a 10-million-person metropolis. It was relaxing to say the least after that mall experience. After that, it was back on the subway for the long trip home. At home, we started our jigsaw puzzle (how could we not play with toys on children's day?) and drank piña coladas to celebrate a well-deserved Wednesday off.

Everland

After making plans with Katie the week before, we decided to spend Saturday night at her place so we could catch the bus early the next morning. We spent the night playing Wii, and proving that we are smarter than 5th graders. The next morning we met Angelina and Katelyn in Cheolsan, where the bus was waiting at a seemingly random spot outside a Burger King. It was a cute pink bus with curtains inside, pretty much typically Korean. The ride took about an hour and a half, with some crazy traffic (and driving!) on the way. Our bus driver decided at some point that it would be ok to change lanes into the oncoming traffic lane, to pass the traffic jam. Oh, and did we mention it was at the top of a winding mountain? Fun. Fortunately most of us slept through it. We paid once we arrived, and took pictures of our bus stop to make sure we would remember where to catch it again.

It was about 35$ to get in, and the outside was very castle-ish, what amusement parks should be like. There were flowers everywhere, and false buildings with country scenes and castles painted on them. It was Tulip Festival time, hence the flowers. We started off with some funny shops and the only sunglasses we've seen that Koreans actually buy, and caught a picture of Fake Mickey and Minnie Mouse. We're not really sure what animals they are supposed to be.

Our first ride was a spinney one, very much like Psyclone at Canada's Wonderland. Sam was apprehensive about his ride reaction, and countered this with some gravol. Perhaps not the best idea, which we realized once he started dozing off in the next couple lines. After "Psyclone," we headed for snacks, and spent some time chasing a wonderful Korean mullet/rattail with our camera's. Secretly of course, but Angelina insisted. Chloe loves pretzels, but Korean pretzels are stuffed with this really icky sweet white cheese. She keeps trying them though, and this time was no different.

Next was the Santa Maria, same as the Rage at Wonderland. Sam decided to have some ice cream and wait it out. We noticed some more Korean couple stuff; the matching outfits we've gotten used to, but this time we saw some impressive dedication. The wait in line was about half an hour, and a girlfriend made her boyfriend hold the park map above her head to shade her from the sun. Half an hour with his arm above her head.

The next ride was similar to another Canada's Wonderland ride, the Riptide. Sam and Chloe didn't feel like getting wet, so they stopped in a nearby restaurant for drinks. There were fake jukeboxes, which we poked at until we were sure they didn't work. Then another spinney ride, and on to the T Money Express, a wooden roller coaster which apparently has the steepest drop. Sam had a nap while we waited, and Chloe can't really say it was her favourite ride ever. After the ride, we stopped by the gift shop so Angelina could buy an adult size leopard pajama set for her school's PJ day, and Katie bought those animal ears that everyone was wearing.

Later in the day we walked to a food court type area, decorated with thousands of flowers, especially tulips. We ate a quick lunch, and headed to the zoo. That was Chloe's favourite park of the day, and Sam was perking up by that point. There were tiny little baby monkeys, so cute! Chimps and gorilla's and those funny ones with the red bums. There were lemurs leaping around, and a GIANT turtle, talking parrots, and weird animals to have at the zoo, like gophers. Oh, and there were tigers! We finally got to see a white tiger.

Our last stop on our way out was the gift shop, which delayed us for longer than usual when we found the toys. They had John Deere tractors! Then we caught the bus, rode to Cheolsan, and took a taxi home. Long day, but worth it. Everland, check!

Cherry Blossoms

After having heard so much about it, and seeing beautiful cherry blossoms blooming all over Ansan, Chloe and Sam decided to attend the Cherry Blossom Festival in Seoul. Korea is in mourning because of the sunken ship, so there was no festival with concerts and fireworks and airbrushed tattoo's and all that, but you'll still find trees blooming and millions of people around.

Yeouido is kind of hard to get to, but we did get to try the new express train, AND we found a sandwich shop when we arrived (FINALLY!). Chloe spotted the free shuttle bus, which took them to the 63 building, a very well known gold building that glows brilliantly during sunset and sunrise. We didn't see much going on, but we tried to explore. Our exploration ended rather abruptly when we found we weren't in a cherry blossom expo, but rather a gynecologists conference, AH! Back downstairs, we did find the wax museum and aquarium, but it was crazy busy so we avoided it.

On to the cherry blossoms! We walked to the Han river, passing under a bridge where Sam was

convinced he saw trolls. Well, think about it. They were living under a bridge, collecting things (garbage) near the big gold building. It just makes sense. We narrowly avoided being hit by tandem bikes as we crossed the path to the waterside. We found KFC on a boat! Really strange. You could also rent jet skis, and go on a cherry boat ride. Afterwards, we headed back to the walkway so Chloe could take, oh, about a million pictures of cherry trees. We checked out the vendors, and turned right back around when we hit the crowds and the bug sellers. Oh, speaking of vendors, they get creative sometimes. One guy was selling food off the back of his motorcycle!

We were feeling pretty hungry at this point, so we headed back to the sandwich shop we'd spotted by the subway station. It was a little french place, and had everything from club sandwiches to camembert panini's *mouth watering*! It was expensive, of course, but definitely worth it. Haha, and by expensive, we mean the same price as in Canada, or slightly cheaper. *sigh* Korean food is so cheap.

We took a slightly different route home, and ran into Katie and her friends. It's really weird how often we run into people we know, considering how many people live in Seoul. We made plans to go to Everland next weekend, which is touted as the best amusement park in Korea. So, while the Cherry Blossom Festival may not have been in full swing this year, we certainly enjoyed ourselves!

Beautiful trees!

KFC on the water.

Jetskis.

Cotton candy on a motorcycle.

And the usual, bugs to eat.

James Bond

Finally, an excuse to wear one of those suits I've

had made. For their seventh anni- versary, the Manhattan threw a 007-themed birthday party. And like all great seventh birthday parties, this one had half-priced martinis! So off we went in our finest British spy-wear to celebrate You Only Live Twice style.

Our first order of business was introducing our Korean friend Daniel to Vodka Martinis. He took one sip, declared "that was gross," then promptly finished it and ordered three more. Later on, he had to fend off his own Bond villain, a young woman who had obviously had a few martinis of her own.

Shortly after arriving, I was dragged behind the bar for a contest, the details of which I'm still not sure about as the instructions were in Korean. Despite the facts that 1. I had no idea what was going on, and 2. I was wearing a clip-on bow-tie (NOTE: no one in Korea has heard of a real bow-tie, they don't exist here), I apparently won a 50,000 won gift certificate! Unfortunately, we bought three rounds of shots before we realized that we couldn't use the gift certificates that night. Oops!

Gomungo

One of Jade's students had a friend who plays traditional Korean music on a traditional instrument, called the gomungo. She invited Jade, Chloe, and Sam to come and see it, so we spent another Saturday heading to Seoul, specifically the traditional village at Chungmuro. It took awhile to find it based on the directions, but Chloe has a knack for finding hidden places. We met Hannah outside the theatre, and she not only bought our tickets, but also a CD of her friends music. Before we sat down in the theatre though, Sam and Chloe spent some time scouting out these little dwarf fairies they had hidden all over the place as decorations, taking pictures. Hehe.

We had really good seats in the front, and the stage was fairly plain, adorned only with a couple instruments and a screen which played pictures of beautiful traditional paintings and Korean scripts. Obviously we missed most of the story. The show started with the gomungo, a flute, and traditional Korean drums. There were four parts which included a keyboard player, and also this weird instrument which we are convinced is some kind of magical rock. Jade says it's a kind of bamboo flute, but we have doubts. It was a fantastic performance, even though we didn't understand a lot of it.

Afterwards, we went out for dinner in Itaewon, something a bit more simple: burgers! There is a popular chain in Korea called Kraze Burgers (which Chloe pronounces as "craze", but everyone else pronounces as "crazy") which makes huge delicious burgers. You can get really weird things added to them too, like a fried egg and avocado. Mmmmmm, this is making me hungry! That about wraps up our "traditional" Korean weekend.

Road Trip!

Having had

his wanderlust stirred by the voyage to Soraksan,

Regan was eager to see more of Korea by car. Thus, on Tuesday, he and I set out to parts unknown. After braving such hazards as treacherous road-side ditches, ridiculous road

signs and a Korean War-era tank, we found our way to a secluded "beach." We then continued south-ish, intending to see all that the countryside had to offer. However, after about an hour of driving, we instead decided to stop at one of the most incredible rest-stops anyone has ever seen. Located halfway across a giant bridge, and accessible only by a 450° descending ramp, this monster had like a hundred restaurant booths, each represented by a different animal cartoon. Regan bought a sandwich from a cartoon pig, and I of course got a hot dog covered in batter covered in french fries. Awesome. I washed it down with a ginseng drink that had three inches of actual ginseng root IN THE BOTTLE. I still don't know if it was delicious or not.