well, guys. i told you i was gonna do it, and i did. jamie and i went to the mud festival today. it was overcast and began to drizzle just as we arrived. it was a long train ride (2.5 hours).

we were attacked by motel people and taxi drivers the moment we arrived. after a short busride, we were up to our ears in mud. really. it was great. a little cold, but great.

since boryeong is known for great seafood (it's a beach town) we went to a restaurant before getting dirty. of course, my korean wasn't much help, so we played pantomime with a very nice waitress. we had spicy soup with clam, snails & crab (in the shell), octopus, scallops, veggies, and more. we knew it was fresh because we'd seen most of it swimming around on the first floor. yummy.

if you'll check out the picture on the left, you'll note that jamie and i got PLASTERED with mud. we did the giant mudslide twice. as you climb the inflatable stairs some guy with a hose aims cold water at your head. then you race the person next to you to the ground. as ou go, some lady throws a bucket of mud at your face. cool. then you land in a mud pool.

note: don't wear contacts to a mud festival. you're going to get mud in your eye. i nearly went blind.

then it was on to the mud surfing ring. i sucked.

then i begged jamie to do themud challenge wit me. this is where you jump and slide overunder inflatable bumps to grab a red rubber ball and bring it back first. it was awesome, but this was also the beginning of korea kicking my but (it's only 1 week in as i write this, and this country has detroyed me, i assure you). we were even until i--mud in my eyes--got lost, by the time i could see her, she was heading back, ball in hand. so i did what anyone would do. i tackled her. with the ball now in my possession. i proceeded to cheat by jumping around the obstacles. i slipped and slammed nose first into the ground, but i got up. i though i was homefree until she came vaulting over a bump and landed on top of me. somewhere in there she belted me in my thigh. but i won, oh yes. i won ;)

cold and wet do not even begin to describe how we felt after all that mud and rain. so, after a final dip in te ocean, we ran to the boryeong hot spring house and experienced our first "nakie-time" experience in korea.

now, i'd done this many times in japan, but lemme tell ya, this was mucho differento.

just like in japan, we got naked and went inside to wash off and slip into a tub. but, instead of being the serene experience we were used to, we found a naked zoo:

1) no one was hiding their girly parts with their towel. it was more like "see what i have to offer! step right up." after up-tight japan, this as a big shock.

2) people weren't just showering, they were doing their laundry. that's right, people were washing out swim suits and mudy clothing on the shower room floor and them hanging them to dry in the sauna. we followed suit. if this had happened in japan, someone would have killed us.

3) there was a mud bath section where you painted on mud an them bathed in a special pool. a group of old biker-grannies (i kid you not) decided to get rowdy after doing their laundry. they painted themselves with mud and started bumping bodies. then there was wrestling. then a water fight. again, if this had been japan, peole would have died.

4) i stepped up to the mud place, but there was no room, so i started to walk away when i feel a paintbrush on my back. a niec woman started painting me all over (face, head, butt, boobs) with mud. you haven't lived until an anonymous, mud-covered woman has painted your armpit with mud, i tell you ;)

5) i was bathing in a hot pool when an old lady came over, started calling me and jamie really pretty and asking us questions. i did the best i could and then just started nodding and smiling. you'd be surprised how far you can get when people think you now what they're saying. then naked gramma hugged me and started smacking my shoulders. hehehe. people are funny. it was cute.

6) almost noone paid jamie and me any mind. in japan, they would have stared at our naked butts without rest. that was a welcome change.

so, what have i learned about korean bath houses? sometimes it's okay to get naked and mud wrestle. a good lesson, i suppose.

on the way home, jamie and i killed a few hours in a coffee shop. i ordeed the vienna coffee. chocolat-y. whipped cream-y. tast-y.

the train ride homw was longer because it was a slow train. we didn't get home until after midnight. i was whipped. since we'd been at the hot spring for about 3 hours, we just went right to bed.