Mud glorious mud!

It is strange to be leaving Gunsan after such a short time, however it feels like I have been here for months on end and I know that I will keep in touch with everyone. Had a get together on Friday night to see everyone for one more night out here. We had a few drinks in a bar then moved on to where we always end up - the noraebang (karaoke for those who don't know)!! It's always a good laugh and after singing for about 3hours, we called it a night ready for the fun packed weekend ahead.

MUD FESTIVAL!! Yes, this is where we spent the weekend :) Covered in MUD. And it was brilliant! The first thing you have to do, is put ALL your belongings in a locker before you get thrown in a mud bath with them, the next thing is to go to the 'self-massage' area and pour mud all over yourself and third thing is to have lots of fun doing it!! Managed to swim in the Yellow sea too which was amazing. It was the first time I have been fully submerged in water in nearly 3 months - great feeling. I also had my first jinjibang experience - this is a public showers type affair where you can have a hot shower, bath, sauna, body scrub etc for the price of about 2 quid and they are all over the place. A lot of people go once a week as it is so relaxing. It all gets very close and personal as it is all communal so for those who aren't too keen to strutt your stuff naked in public and have random women scrub your back for you, this may not be the thing for you! And if you are a man with hairy arms or legs, be prepared for the Korean men to pull them while they are sitting next to you starkers as it's not something they see very often!

So, Victoria, Tara and I had our showers, got all the mud off us, then got some food. We had clams and beef bulgogi (hard to describe but it is beef cooked as if in a stew but without all the liquid. It's very tasty). A drumming and singing performance was layed on followed by fireworks, after which we made our way to a club to cut some shapes on the dance floor. Was great to be able to dance whenever you want to rather than having the dance floor manned by the dj. The beers in there were \10000 (about 5 quid each) so we were cheap and didn't drink! I guess that most business down there make most of their revenue over this one week period. It's a very quiet town on a normal day.

Breakfast was a very non-Korean breakfast. The first in a long time! Toast with jam then pancakes with lemon and sugar! Tasty! Stayed with a friend at her mate's house and there were about 10 of us there having brekkie together - most South Africans. I was going to head back to the festival but it was tipping it down (the sort of rain you get soaked through in after 5 secs in it) so decided to come back to Gunsan.

All packed and ready to go for my new start in Seoul. Looking forward to it!

Photos to come tomorrow.