A map of where we traveled! Seoul is the top marker and Boryeong is the bottom marker.
On Saturday morning we woke up at 5:30 am in order to make it to Sinnonhyeon Station by 7:30 to meet our friends who we were traveling to mud festival with. We were running late so we had to take a taxi to the station instead of a train but it was only 12,000 won ($10.75) split between three people.
Two of my friends sleeping in the car on the way to Boryeong!
We met our friends at 7:30 and split up into two cars to drive down to Boryeong which is a beach town about 2.5 hours south of Seoul. We stopped 1.5 hours into the trip at a rest stop in the port city of Pyeongtaek where we ate lunch.
The rest stop in Pyeongtaek
After leaving the rest stop we continued south until we got to Boryeong. Once we arrived, we went and set up our two tents at the campsite, which was really just a park about 100 feet from the beach that had turned into a tent city. One of our friends is a member of a website called Couchsurfing, which is a network where people essentially trade hospitality for free (in other words, they let people sleep on their couches when they are traveling and need a place to stay). There was a Couchsurfing meet-up at the mud festival so we ended up camping with them, about 30 people including our group.
(Left) The Couchsurfing banner hanging at our campsite. (Right) Trying to set up the girls' tent.
We couldn't figure out how to set up the girls' tent but luckily a nice Korean man who was camping next to us with his family knew how to set it up and helped us do it.
Standing on the "beach" at high tide. The mud festival is at the far end of the beach behind me.
After we got the tents set up we headed down to the beach. It was at high tide at this point (around 11:30 am) so there was hardly any beach! When we tried to go in the water, the ground was covered with rocks and shells and it was painful to walk on in bare feet! We decided to go ahead and walk down to the mud festival which was about a 15 minute walk down the beach from where we were camping.
The group that I came with (from left to right): Kelly, Matt, Victoria, Andrew, Me, Callie, Yunsik, Jiwon, and Hogeun (the camera man).
The mud festival itself was not quite what I expected. It was in a contained area that you could only get into after buying a ticket. They closed it for about an hour to replenish the mud inside so we had to wait around until we could get in. Also, once we got it there were really long lines for all of the activities, so we had to do a lot of waiting. We got really muddy since there was mud everywhere but the only activities we actually ended up doing was the mud obstacle course and the giant pool. The mud felt nice and cooling in the sun until it dried and then it felt terrible and itchy, haha.
The mud obstacle course!
Once we decided we were done at the mud festival we left and went back to the beach. There were so many people! It looked like one of the Spring Break specials that they show on MTV. We people watched for a bit at the top of a staircase before heading back to the campsite.
(Left) So many people on the beach! (Right) Sitting on the steps watching the crowd
Once we got back to the campsite, we went to the nearby public shower, which was an interesting experience. It was akin to a high school gym locker room shower: a giant room with a single drain in the middle and 20 shower heads on the walls (the handle type ones, not a fixed head). I guess you could say this was a moment of bonding with my Korean brethren!
After showering we went back to the campsite and started grilling barbecue! All 30 of us (including the Couchsurfing people) pitched in and bought a huge bag of really tasty meat which we grilled as well as cooked rice and baked beans.
Matt, Kelly, and Yunsik preparing dinner
During the process of cooking dinner and afterward we socialized a lot with the Couchsurfing people. It was really interesting! Out of the group, I met people from Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Canada, France, Korea, and America. Luckily for me, the common language for all of us was English! We played a Korean game called 쇼킹! (Shocking!) which was really fun but really loud and eventually someone came over and asked us to be quiet (how embarrassing!).
After being hushed, we went to the beach to watch fireworks be set off. The beach was really cool at night because it was at low tide and that meant there was about 300 feet of sandy beach versus the 3 feet at high tide!
Watching fireworks on the beach at night
We just hung out on the beach and socialized for the rest of the night before heading back to the campsite and going to bed.
The next morning we got up about 8:00 am and ate a small breakfast and broke down our tents. After packing, we headed to the beach one last time to see it again and it was back at low tide, which was nice! It's a really good beach when the tide is out. We caught some hermit crabs and drew our names in the sand before we headed back to the cars to pack and go home.
Seeing the beach one last time on Sunday morning
On the way back, we stopped in Pyeongtaek again for a rest stop before continuing on to Seoul, where we arrived at about 2:00 pm.
I was really tired from sleeping on the ground the night before so I took a shower and immediately went to sleep! Later that night I went out to eat my Noodle Box (my favorite!) with one of my friends at Yonsei University.
That's all!
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