Boryeong Mud Festival 2013, Black Eagles.

Daecheon Beach, Korea

Mud festival information.

A map of Boryeong/Daecheon area.

Train station.

There's E-mart.. I suggest getting things there before you head down to the beach. Like some food things and such if you are camping, or going to cook yourself and not eat out (or if you don't like seafood!)

So here's the scoop. Basically you get a train ticket to this place called Daecheon and you grab a taxi and head to the beach area. You see the crowd of people (mostly foreigners) and that's where you'll find the mud festival! Easy enough, right!?

Places to stay:

Well there's lots of minbaks (korean guest houses) basically a room for sleeping with a tv and AC (luckily), a shower room, a toilet and a kitchen area. Ours was like 18,000 a person. There are also some hotels around.

Travel:

The best way to get to Daecheon (at least from Cheongju) is by train. It was about 3.5 hours from the time I left my house till we got there. About 2 hours on the train. Got off and then headed towards the beach (get a cab, it's the easiest way and it's about 10,000 won).















We were off to get MUDDY!

And that's when this happened....

As we were about to go in to the festival party, fighter jets rolled in.... I jumped and screamed and FREAKED! I was soooo happy. Our group (of 9 girls) were trying to get ready to go in to the festival and I just couldn't concentrate.. I was like sorry, these fighters are just so much cooler than ANYTHING else right now.

They are the Black Eagles, a Korean group of fighter jets that they use for shows and such. They are amazing!! At one point I thought it might be over, but just then one flew right over my head, super low -- I screamed and grabbed my friends' arm. I was scared, happy, shocked, terrified. giddy, amazed all at the same time! So many EMOTIONS!

Ok, so when the show finally ended I was able to go back to concentrating on the mud.

What is the mud festival?

Basically it's a caged off area where you pay (6,000 won) to go in a get to jump around and play on blow up jump house things, all while being covered with mud and getting more mud thrown at you! We did an obstacle course and a slide, the lines were sooo long we had to wait forever to do anything! So that was kind of annoying. But it was still really fun and being covered in mud was actually quite enjoyable to my surprise!

It's kind of confusing about when you can go in and such. We had a 'entry time', when we were allowed to go in and then it closed around 6. We bought our tickets ahead of time, which was good because they had all sold out that day (I guess they only let a certain number of people in!)

After there was a DJ playing some music down on the beach, which was complete with a mist-machine (our shower). Then it was ocean time, which washed the mud off even more but then the mud got replaced with sand (not better). The ocean was intense, super strong and big waves - which I was not expecting but at least it was warm (oddly). I lost my sunglasses in the madness. (3 pairs were lost that day in our group... oops).




Let me just say, a shower with clean water never felt so good. Even if it was a 'Korean shower' where we had to use a bucket.



Sunset.

I could spend every night watching the sunset over the ocean, feeling the ocean breeze, smelling the salty air and the sand in my toes and never get tired of it. EVER. I love it. It's absolutely beautiful, peaceful, calming and AMAZING!

Dinner.

....of course seafood. Because when you're at/on/near the ocean, you've just gotta eat seafood. We found a little restaurant that served all you can eat clams, muscles, shrimp, samgyupsal (pork - kind of like bacon), and other random seafood shelled things for 14,000 won a person. Pretty awesome!

Notice the white M. Jackson gloves. That was so we could just man-handle the clams right off the grill and eat them! Quite clever really and it worked, we walked out without any burns! Success.

Here's a great example of the food chain. Small crab --> Clam --> ME. P.S. I didn't eat the small crab.

Sunday.

I was up decently early because I mean sleeping on the floor, it's not horrible but it's not exactly the best sleep ever. Plus I wanted to go back to the mud area to get some pictures and hang out by the ocean. So that's what Trisha and I did... we went on a little mud adventure while the rest were sleeping!

We got some facial mud masks..

And then this happened.... Yup that's a bunch of Korean photographers taking pictures of me rubbing mud on my stomach. I had no idea what to do or where to look. And I'll just say I much prefer being behind the camera. However, it was good to get a taste of my own medicine, I guess!

Mudded up!

Then we found this little guy? girl? idk...  anyway... A Black Eagle pilot! So of course we had to get pictures. Some nice Korean photographer grabbed my camera and started snapping away!

It was a great weekend, I would highly recommend checking out the mud festival. Take a few friends and go check it out! It's a beautiful area and being covered in smooth, cold mud is quite enjoyable.

It wouldn't be complete without a picture of the beautiful rice fields. This area had a ton of rice fields, with beautiful mountains in the background. It was amazing to watch the rice move in the wind!

Yeosu - Dolsan Bridge, Odongdo Island and Black Sand Beach

Yeosu (여수) 

-- known for the 2012 World Expo (focusing on Marine animals). And for it's beautiful night views and the Dolsan Bridge. 

To view the story about this photo -- check out my facebook page! 




Where is Yeosu?

It's in Jeollanam-do (절라남 도) Province. (the south west province). It took us about 3.5 hours by car to get there. Yes, we were lucky and found a driver and a car. However, there's a KTX train station in Yeosu and a bus station (of course).




So... warning: there's going to be a lot of pictures.. but no one will complain about that... right?!



Fact: Saturday was one of the best photographic days I've had maybe ever (at least in a long time). Everything we did and saw was so amazing and it inspired me. There was so much beauty, everywhere.

The photos I got seriously impressed me. I haven't taken photos that have wow-ed me in a while! :) However, most of the credit goes to nature - I just observed and captured! I got beach, mural, portrait, landscape, sunset, AND night photos - all from 1 day! Fantastic! 

I mean it was a crazy day and kind of rough -- I walked many miles, I hiked stairs, I was hot and sweaty, kind of got a little bossy, I got burnt, I didn't eat dinner till 10 pm, I got eaten by mosquitos... but guess what? At the end of the day, I was so happy.



Saturday (Day 1)... 

The day began with a 3.5 hour drive from Cheongju to Yeosu, with my co-teacher her friend and my friend Scott (who's car we used). The trip started off a little later than planned as we had to turn around 5 minutes after leaving because I realized I forgot my camera battery (thankfully I remembered! I don't know what I would have done!!!) 

3.5 ish hours later we finally made it to Yeosu and went straight for the BEACH (my idea!) 

Here's a fun one (maybe not so much).... a two way road, a one way tunnel - no stop lights, you just go for it and hope you follow a korean or a bus or something. There were little pull off but only on one side of the road. It was kind of scary but a total thrill and therefore kind of fun! 



Black Sand Beach (만성리 - Manseongni)

(which I thought was the only black sand beach in Korea, but I guess there's another one on Jeju island). It's supposed to be good for you and help pull out all the toxins from your body? (But Koreans say EVERYTHING is good for you - oh except for sun). Nonetheless, I got to see and smell and breathe in the ocean air and if a few toxins were taken from me, I won't even be mad! 

And here's proof of just how much Korean's hate the sun! AHHHH... NO SUN!! The kids have on huge visors and are covered (but that's kind of normal-ish)....

But an umbrella, while chilling IN the ocean?! Now that might be a little bit over the top and for sure something I've NEVER seen! Leave it to Korea to come up with that one! 

 And there's no need for lifeguards....

Turns out we found them swimming in the ocean. I guess watching from the water? Sure... seems safe. whatever Korea! :)

'Angel' Mural Alley (Goso-dong) 

.. the entrance is near the Caffe Bene (the B marker on the map) - It's just south, I'm pretty sure! You should see a sign that shows you the route, you kind of walk up through some windy narrow alleys. 

Jinny, my co-worker, told us that it was an area that they were going to tear down to rebuild, but the people didn't want that. So they painted on many of the buildings and made them 'art' so that they couldn't/wouldn't be torn down! 

We are a part of the art! 

And sometimes, you have to be willing to do something maybe not quite legal, but not quite illegal to get some cool shots -- 

..like climbing on the roof of a random house.

Hey, the little half door wasn't locked, so we figured that was our invitation! There was no climbing up or ladders involved, just had to walk on to it! 

-- Plan for getting caught - pulling out that awesome 'foreign/I don't know what you're saying' card, seems to work quite well for me (most times!). 

Small Temple Look-out.

We hiked up to a temple thing on the top of a hill. That was a stair master and a half workout. 

View of the break and Odongdo Island.

There was an abandoned coffee shop at the bottom. I just really love run down kind of a little trashy things! 

Odongdo Island... (오동도)

Apparently we were going against the flow of the dragon flies on our walk to the island. I almost got beaned in the head at least 20 times. They were fly at mach speeds and were ALL flying the opposite direction we were going! I was afraid to laugh in fear of swallowing one! 

Notice the one in the right hand corner (it's the black smudgy thing!!).

Oh hey, island.

Let's take the stairway to.....  

Heaven. (a.k.a to the ocean with a view of the lighthouse).

And the Dragon Cave.

 And a singing fountain. Which played 'Under the Sea' (as well as other songs)! 

Sunset and night time. (my favorite).

I went a little crazy. The sky, the moon, the lights, the city, the ocean, the lighthouse, the fishermen (and fisherwomen). So much awesomeness and so much happiness this night! 

The photos were taken from the break (near the island), looking back at the city.

'The O' show. At the 2012 World Expo fair grounds.

We watched 'The O' shoot fire and water while lighting up all kind of colors from the other side of the ocean. I was too photo happy and didn't move fast enough to make it to the other side. (surprised? you shouldn't be!)

But I found a youtube video of the O show! I think we saw more fire... or maybe that's just all I noticed was the fire. But you'll see in this video - it's basically an O of many talents: water, fire, and movie.

The O is the brightest thing in the middle of this picture! (it was on fire!) It's about 8,000 won to get in and see the show I guess, but I was perfectly happy watching it from across the way while photographing!

Dolsan (돌산대교) Bridge

Dolsan Bridge. (the one in the foreground) Geobukseon Bridge. (the one in the distance, possibly - not as for sure about that name).

And the lights turn off at midnight - well actually.. 2 minutes before midnight. I kind of wanted to yell... I mean doing long exposures of 15 seconds, let's see I'm mad at math -- but that equals about 8 more pictures!! rip off... but at least I got a few pictures before that happened! 

Sunday. (Day 2).

Behold the 100 won statue... as in he's the man on the 100 won coin.

The 2012 World Expo grounds...

Complete with a sleeping man.

Sky Cafe. -- which looks kind of like a space ship launch pad! 

THE BIG O....

Lunch on Sunday was CRAB. Raw crab and some crab soup. Yeosu is known for crab and if you haven't tried it raw you're missing out! DO IT! Just suck that crab right out of the shell. It's kind of fun AND it's delicious! 

Some final thoughts (isn't this fun, getting inside my brain!!)

I think photographers are some of the best people at finding beauty in all things... in the weeds, in the broken, in a hole in the wall joints, and in the trash of the world. Photographers are good at making something out of nothing. And simply just good at 'seeing'. I am so lucky to be able to 'see' the world in a little bit different way and observe, really look at things and then able to capture the beauty with my camera. There really is beauty in EVERYTHING! The world is pretty amazing :) 

So, what did I learn from this trip? 1. I love being out, getting out and seeing new things - it inspires me. 2. The ocean helps inspire me and makes me happy. 3. Photography and travel are the 2 things in life that make me unbelievably happy, like I need nothing else. (ok, maybe some good friends/family!) 4. I learned that eating (and I love to eat) gets pushed well below photography and traveling! 5. I can't talk and photograph. That's too much multi-tasking. My brain gets filled with too much artsy and there is no room for anything else! 6. I also realized that photographers really ARE a little bossy and that I am NO exception! This is why I believe it's sometimes better (for EVERYONE) that I travel solo. (sorry to my friends on this trip, I was a bit bossy/inconsiderate - but I was in the photo zone - there's just no stopping me when I'm in that zone). 

I love my job. I love photography. I love traveling. I love meeting people. I love seeing and capturing and exploring and observing. I love being HAPPY! :)