On Friday, July 13, YISS hosted a one-day field trip to Boryeong for the annual Boryeong Mud Festival.
Meeting at New Millennial Hall around 9:00 am, we gathered onto the bus and traveled to Boryeong, located on the south side of Seoul. The bus ride took about an hour and a half to get to the area. When we first arrived, we headed to a local restaurant for lunch. We had a huge plate of pork and lettuce, squid and gochujang, vegetables, and side dishes. The food was alright, but I wasn't living for it.
Afterward, we headed to the Boryeong Mud Festival. The festival was only held that one week, and we got there on the first day. Despite that, there was a lot of people at the event. This event is held annually to promote the mud skincare from Boryeong, attracting millions of tourists and locals. The first festival was held back in the summer of 1998.
The location was quite small with only 7 attractions/rides, but it was very entertaining. There were two large slides, a middle pool of mud for the game "Snake", an obstacle course, a wrestling game, a relaxing pool of muddy water, and another type of wrestling game with heavy paddles. My favorite ride was the slides; a close second would be the pool of mud for the Snake game. It is also located right next to the ocean; on the beach, there was a stage set up for performances. We saw a group of four girls performing to songs like Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" and Hyuna's "Bubble Pop".
The first thing we did when we got there was head to the ocean for a quick dip. The water was really cold for some reason even though it was already summertime. Then, I was drawn to the stage of hearing lit music: the four-girl group was dancing to various pop songs. Finally, we decided to go to the muddy attractions. We rode the slides and went to the mud snake game before we had to head back to Yonsei.
K.E.V.
The Boryeong Mud Festival is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play around in the mud! I would highly recommend going, but the trip there from Seoul is quite far so be sure to go hours earlier. Wear swimwear and bring a change of clothes; if you want to film or take photos, be sure to bring a waterproof pouch for your phone. Lockers are available for a small fee as well as a shower room. It was a good time to have fun with new friends and get muddy. At first, I was kind of scared to get dirty, but I'm glad that I went since it was very unique!