Paparazzi, Beach, Ocean rafting, and Whiners.

Imagine putting 45 young adults who are very independent, are mostly very opinionated, and only speak your second language on a bus and then attempting to take them on a weekend trip.  Doesn't sound very appealing, does it? This is what our poor leaders this weekend had to deal with.

There are a few companies in Korea that do weekend adventure trips around the country - hiking, festivals, etc. - and they take care of transportation, accommodation and some meals.  A few friends have done a trip or two before and said they were fun, so I decided to sign up for a festival&ocean rafting trip that took place this past weekend.

The program, Adventure Korea, is based out of Seoul so we (Me, Amy, Loren and Brenton (both from Australia)) decided to just meet the group at the festival, as that was much closer and cost effective.  Saturday morning at 7am we hopped on the KTX (high speed train) to Daejon, switched to the slow train, and by 10:30am was at our destination, Eumseong, for the Pumba Festival.

Pumba was the word repeated in the songs of street singers, especially when Korea was once impoverished. They strolled around marketplaces or villages seeking food, money, or anything they could get. Pumba doesn’t have a specific meaning but is a language mechanism for keeping a rhythm. These days, the word pumba generally refers to gakseori. These performers do not beg for food or money, but do sing at events or festivals.  The festival has multiple gakseori (performers) who were on stage all day as well as a plethora of booths where you can learn about cutting yeot (Korean malt candy), pound rice for rice cakes (tteok), or buy some delicious festival food.

The festival itself was about standard - I wouldn't travel just to see it but we had fun overall.  The most interesting part was the photographers.  I'm not joking it was like paparazzi.  They had us dress up in Pumba costumes (mine was pretty normal) and then painted most people's whole face.  I opted for just a small watermelon :] but the Korean photographers were intense. Brenton got his whole face painted and they were all up in his face with huge lenses and clicking away.  It was funny to watch some foreigners ham it up for the camera...we went for the less attention grabbing positions and Brenton washed off his face after awhile.

After the festival we got on the bus and went to Boryeong, about 2 hours away.  Boryeong is this little tiny beach front town that hosts a HUGE festival in July called the Mud Festival.  Other than that, it really doesn't do much but have a nice, clean long beach and a few restaurants. Our accommodation was right by the beach, so we dropped off our stuff in our room - no beds, traditional style of mats on the floor - and were free for the evening.  The 4 of us found some dinner and spend the evening relaxing on the beach and watching people set off fireworks.  We had some good laughs and it was SO good to just be by the beach again - made me miss San Diego and California in general that much more!

Sunday morning brought sunny skies and beautiful weather.  It had been predicted rain so we were pleasantly surprised.  On to our activity for the day - ocean rafting.  Now you may think...what do you do on the ocean in a raft? there are no rapids, cliffs to jump, or whirlpools as I'm used to rafting.  And you're right...there isn't much to do.  There weren't even waves to maneuver over.  They put wayyyy too many of us in one raft - 15 people!! - and it was awkward and not very fun.  This is when I was really irritated with the group too...they were a bunch of whiners.  Some of the girls didn't want to get wet at all. Excuse me, but you are on an ocean. which is made of water. and you are rafting. get over it. Anyway, I won't rant about that.  Being by the rafts made me miss Kidder Creek so much and knowing that they were on their annual Memorial Day rafting trip made it even harder.  However, it was fun to just be on the water and hold a paddle. :]

Post rafting we were given lunch - yummy samgyupsal - pork and tofu and cabbage in a spicy soup like stuff with rice - and then Brenton and Amy went paintballing as an option and Loren and I relaxed on the beach for the afternoon.  It was sooo relaxing to just lay around, drink an iced coffee, and talk.

The way home took forever, as these things generally seem to do.  I think we used almost every mode of transportation possible in Korea.  City bus in Boryeong, Intercity bus to Daejon, taxi from bus terminal to KTX station in Daejon,  KTX to Daegu, and then subway home. The phenomenal part was all of that transportation only cost about $35. Fabulous.

Overall, the weekend was a nice getaway.  I had a great time with Loren, Brenton, and Amy and it was so nice to see the ocean and relax on the beach, even if I did get a bit sunburned.  We didn't take a ton of pictures on the trip, but I'll add a few soon, so check back if you want to!