Electronically Tested Latex Prophylactic

A couple weekends ago, the friendlies, B.A. Bryan, and I headed out to Boryoung for the annual Mud Fest. Bryan and I woke up at 6:45 on Saturday morning. It’s not always easy to get Bryan out of bed and I had to use my teacher voice to accomplice the task. We packed everything the night before so all we needed to do was eat and leave. However, we did have to make a stop at Sally’s apartment to fed and water the damn cat, keeping him alive for another weekend. Fingers crossed.
We had made the decision a few months ago to sign up for a package deal. The package included buses, accommodations, and a free T-shirt (especially a free T-shirt). It seemed like a cheap and easy option. Our bus was supposed to leave at 9:30, on the dot, with out without us. We arrived at the bus location at 9:00, grabbed a Danish and coffee at Tour Les Jour and then boarded a bus. At about 10:00, we rolled out. Sitting on the bus waiting to leave, we noticed a lot of folk, foreign folk, starting their weekend. A lot of beer, a lot of soju, and a lot of harder stuff. I know there is nothing that I like better than Jim Bean at 9:45 in the morning.
A few people on our bus were already a little trashed by the time we arrived at the first rest stop. As we all got back on the bus, one fellow, decided to make the bus more entertaining and tried to get us all to sing. A few of his drunk friends obliged. Bus time noraebang.
The second half of the bus trip was louder and much more obnoxious than the first half. Also, we watched Mad Max, a film I have never seen. It was odd and parts were disturbing and Mel Gibson was really young and handsome.
Because people were drinking so much, some folk insisted that we hit a second rest stop. A second rest stop in addition to getting caught in the mass evacuation from Seoul that occurs every weekend, we didn’t arrive in Boryoung until about 3:00, two hours later than expected.
We were dropped off and then had to walk down a street, past the elephant rides where a person from Asknow, the organizers, was waiting and then we back tracked as she lead us to our Minbak, adding one more accommodation to the list of places I have stayed at during my time here. A minbak is apparently one of the cheapest options. Like the pension I stayed in at Sokcho, a Minbak has many giant rooms with no beds, only floor mats and blankets. However, unlike a pension, you pay to sleep and you never know who might be sleeping on the floor beside you. Also, there is no kitchen the room, but there was a kitchen in the main area. I guess it is kind of like a hostel without beds.
When Bryan and I arrived, we had to find our friends who had come on a different bus and arrived about two hours before we did. We changed into our beach wear that could get muddied and headed out ito the slight rain. A bottle of Chang-ha (a sojuesk, but more winey type beverage) later, we were rolling around in a pit of mud.
Ok, so mud festival was not really that muddy. There were two mudslides, but one closed before I could ride it. There was a wresting pit and then two other pits and none of these really had all that much mud. Also, there was a mud jail, where people threw mud at the inmates. We waited in line for the one mudslide for a about two hours, being a big group, we all took turns leaving to get alcohol or get muddy. After we finally got on the slide, a large inflatable slide, one has to climb up and then gets to hold the hand of cute Korean guy at the top before he pushes you down the other side. It was a lot of fun. We then went to the ocean to rinse of the mud. The day was rainy and kind of cold but the ocean was actually very nice and pleasant. I like swimming in the ocean. It’s psaltie.
It started raining harder and harder and eventually we realized we were experiencing the first part of monsoon season. We went back to the minbak to find dryer clothes and showers a bit. We cleaned up and began the serious task of finding a place to eat. Once again, I was beside the ocean, surrounded by numerous plastic restaurants filled with fresh raw fish and once again, I was with friends who hate that sort of thing and once again we had samgupsal. I like samgupsal, I like it a lot, but raw fish is not nearly as common and I feel that the closer to the ocean you get, the better the fish gets. It was interesting to note that the samgupsal and other meat places were packed with foreigners while the plastic stales with the sea food were predominantly Koreans. There was only one table of Koreans in the Samgupsal place we finally settled on. The grills were leaf shaped and the stew was more seafoody than normal.
After the meal, we left the restaurant (and I forgot Bryan’s umbrella in the restaurant, never to be seen again) and headed again to the beach to wait for the fireworks. The rain had slowed to barely a spit and we hung out. Dave and Bryan went on a quest for more alcohol and while they were gone, the rain picked up again and the rest of sought shelter. During our search, the fireworks started so we endured the rain, huddled under useless umbrellas. They were very decent fireworks, big and long and colourful. I love fireworks. I like the smell and the noise they make. I still feel like a child when ever I get to see them.
After the fireworks, it started raining harder and harder and the wind picked up. We had to find a place to hang out for the remainder of the evening. Everyplace we tried was packed to the gills, everybody had the same idea as us. We weren’t allowed to eat or drink in the minbaks so we had to find a place. Eventually we gave up on bars and hofs and picked one the plastic restaurants and drank their more expensive beer. We followed this up with noraebang. The noraebang place was pretty busy so we didn’t get any service even though we stayed for two hours. I fell asleep sometime during the last hour, I was a tired little bear.
This pretty much closed the night. After noraebang, I went straight to the minbak to really sleep while the others sought fried chicken. However, most places were closed already so they followed me shortly. We set up our beds and kind of crawled in, the room was almost dripping it was so humid.
During the night I was woken by the rain coming in through the window and discovered a puddle was forming around my bags and Sarah. I moved the bags. Sarah was soundly sleeping I fell back asleep and was then woken by the dire need to poop. And poop I did, many times that morning. Apparently, the samgupsal from the previous evening didn’t want to remain in my body. I felt horrible, I think I may have had a small case of food poisoning. I felt hung over with the fun of getting drunk enough to be hung over. When Sarah woke and swam out of the puddle, we braved the monsoon to find the nearest convenience store, at which I bought a lot of water and some ramyeon. Something about instant noodles that is comforting.
We assumed we had to get out of the minbak by 12:00 at the latest, but the monsoon occurring outside our front door, did not inspire us to hurry. Our buses were leaving at 3:00, so we had to find a dry place to hunker down for the afternoon. Pelicana chicken glowed like a small piece of fried heaven and it had only just opened so there were still some tables left for the eight of us. I was the first to walk in and I hesitated at the door, seeing the owner sleeping in the booth. Poor little lamb, he had a rough weekend. He hoped up when we entered and sat us two tables. We hung out for a couple hours, eating chicken and cabbage salad while answering Mike’s “would you rather questions”. I would defiantly rather have x-ray vision over night vision, but if I found the last dinosaur I would let it be rather than kill it and eat it. And if I had to choose a member of Big Bang with which to have a one night stand, I would pick Tae Yang, he has the best body. If I had to pick a member to marry tomorrow, I would pick Dae Sung because he is the most ugly and therefore probably the nicest.
Eventually, the time to leave came and we once again braved the monsoon and bean what turned into a mass exodus of foreigners leaving Boryoung. The company that organized our trip was organized for 1300 others. As we were walking, a very very drunk guy (maybe even blitzed), still clutching his soju bottle came up to Bryan and asked if he were going to Seoul. He was rather upset about the fact that everybody he talked to was not going to Seoul. He was very surprised to have learned that not everybody lives in Seoul. He followed us for a bit, but eventually we lost him. He was too drunk to walk in the straight line and we were in a hurry. As the buses were pulling out of the town, we saw the fellow, stumble on to the street, still holding the soju, trying to stop the bus. He failed. I would love to meet up with in the future, just to find out how he got home. I bet he didn’t get to work on Monday.
Our bus ride was fairly uneventful, but one of our friends on a different bus reported at being puked on by a fellow traveler.
So my weekend was good, despite the monsoon and the pooping. However, some people did not not get to have a very good weekend. Monday afternoon, I received an email from Asknow concernring the trip and the complaints. It was very long email but here some gem like excerpts:

Our biggest mistake was assuming that people in general would behave themselves and be civil to each other. What we didn't anticipate was that people would sneak into rooms, take each other's blankets and pillows, threaten each other and engage in other destructive behavior such as causing damage to rooms etc...

I hate to say it, but after what I've seen and having been in Korea for 10 years, I know that if we organized this event for Koreans, we would never have seen this type of behavior. I am embarrassed to be a foreigner a lot of times when I'm in this country, and never more than I was this weekend in Boryeong

They were a large group and were very friendly during the whole preparation and were excited for the trip. Now, I am pretty sure they hate us because some assholes went into their room, took their bedding, were drunk and obnoxious, and even decided to go and have sex in someone else's room.

That reminds me, one of the places I stopped by to check up on after actually chased me out. The guy literally came out from behind the counter and in Korean pretty much said "get the fuck out of here." I guess we didn't make a good impression there.

I guess the weekend didn’t go so well for everybody. I feel bad knowing that so many people are such douche bags that make all of us look bad.

I still had a good weekend. I really did. I would even go back to Mudfestival if given another chance.