Mud Festival

During my first summer in Korea, I went to the infamous mud festival with a few coworkers. I went with Gary, the savage Scott. Harriet, the Ukaninan, her boyfriend Houtan, and Ricky, my Korean co-teacher. We were foolish and went with adventure Korea and spent way too much for a bus and a hotel. As I mentioned before, I'm terrible at going to sleep before I have to wake up early for something, so I had no sleep the night before this adventure.

Early in the morning, we get on the bus near Hongdae. We were on the bus either sleeping or chatting and having a relatively good time. No one was sitting next to Gary, so he was able to nap for a good portion of the trip. A few seats behind us was an odd, dimwitted Aussie by the name of Mr. Bean. He was regaling anyone near him with tales of being fired six times in one year as well as telling horrible jokes. We stop at a rest stop, and Gary gets out to grab a bite to eat. Mr. Bean moves up to take the open seat next to Gary. Gary walks in to the bus and sees Mr. Bean and shakes his head with a look of shock and disbelief. The bus goes on its way and Mr. Bean begins telling Gary his life story. He then tells such wonderful jokes as "Did you hear about the new Cemetary? It's in the dead center of town."

We get to the festival and check into our hotel. I stay behind to try and sleep, and the rest of the group goes to some mud fight event. Mr. Bean was there, and Gary took the opportunity to shove mud inside his ear. We didn't hear from Mr. Bean after that. The rest of the day was alright. I went swimming, did a couple of mud related things and had an alright time. That evening we had some samgyeopsal and a few drinks, and I passed out at around 11.

The next morning I wake up, and Houtan comes in and says hello to me and Harriet. Harriet tells him that she doesn't want to speak to him. We were both a little confused. I went outside with Houtan and had a smoke. He asks me if he did anything last night, and I told him I passed out at and have no idea what happened.

Later I hear that he blacked out, tried to start fights with everyone at the event, punched a hole in the wall at the hotel and tried to take a taxi back to Seoul. Good times. The rest of the day was a little weird. We checked out of our hotel and had to wait a few hours for the bus. Then, a terrible thing happened. I had to shit. I wander around the town looking for a restroom. Finally, I find a public one several blocks away from the beach. I walk in and it smells terrible. There are flies and bees hovering around, and I step into a stall. It was a hole in the ground. This wouldn't be so bad, but the condition of this one was frightening. It was filled with diarrhea and water which were not just in the toilet, but all over the floor surrounding the toilet. I was wearing sandals. Needless to say, it was not a pleasant experience.

We get back on the bus and head home.