Boryeong Mud Prevents Wrinkles!! Let's Have a Festival!!

Daaaammmnn I'm in a pissy mood today. Of course this is due to the sun, lack of sleep and Soju that I experienced over the weekend. On Saturday morning a big gang of people met up in Mokpo at 8am to meet our own personal bus (Thanks to Crystal and Miji for the arrangements!) that would take us to the Boryeong Mud Festival. The morning started off the right way in the bus with jello shots and much conversation on the way. When we got there, (Boryeong's about three hours north of Mokpo along the coast) I was astonished to find a perfect, smog-free sunny day. Maybe the first one EVER in Korea: very rarely are there clear days without a haze in the distance. When we got to the mudfest it was already in full swing with a ridiculous amount of people partaking in the fun. The beach was huge and beautiful but absolutely packed with people. We quickly found a place to get nice and muddy, and after that I had a sort of anti-climactic feeling. So... I got myself into a mudfight, but what do I do for the rest of the day? At this point I started wondering why this Mud Fest was even started (in 1998). I looked it up today and apparently the mud in this area is special, so the citizens of Boryeong wanted to share it with everyone by having them smear it all over eachother (prevents wrinkles!). Even though the mud frenzy wore off quickly, there was still fun to be had because big crowds equals people watching! There were so many big buff foreign guys (probably GI's from Seoul) without shirts; people in speedos to giggle at; men with pink parasols to protect them from the sun (I'm not lying); Korean ladies wearing high-heel flip-flops; and cute little kids playing in the sand and mud. At night we camped out on the beach watching fireworks and drinking, then all went to our "room" which was very big, but there were about fifteen of us packed in like muddy, drunken sardines. Good times! My face is wrinkle free, but very lobster-like at the moment.
The sleeping quarters. I woke up first, so I took a picture of everyone trying to sleep off the booze!These sharks were in a tank sitting in front of a restaurant! The bigger one is at least four feet long! Can you imagine ordering a shark at a restaurant and grilling it at your table??