World DJ Festival

Starting off with an apology because I haven't written a blog in a while :( I'm sorry if you've been sitting at your computer hitting the refresh button on this blog page for days, just put a plaster on those blisters cos blood is hard to scrub off a keyboard :/

Anyway, I went to the 'World DJ Festival' on the weekend in Seoul - they say 'world' because they had the odd bloke from Europe or Japan there - and it was hectic! It kicked off at 4pm or something and didn't finish until 6am (we left at 3ish). So, I turned up with a bag of booze in blistering heat and as we wandered up to the entrance they had the Men in Black on security checkin everyone's bags for booze and things that looked like they could contain drugs or whatever. Funny thing is they took my water bottle off of me and my So-J (Soju + Orange juice (lethal..)) but didn't even bother to check my bag! So, I was like 'oh yeah! Got some Cass (Korean beer) on the go!' but then when I whipped it out victoriously later in the night I realised that I had bought 'Cass light'... what a mug. Definitely was not worth the hassle. It was like opening a Christmas present shaped like a PS3 and opening it to find a Wii staring you in the face.. let down :P

Wasn't too fussed though because they had a 'Vinyl' stand at the festival, which is probably the best idea for an alcohol vendor anyone has ever had. I'm not sure if I've said this before but 'Vinyl' is a street cocktail bar in Hongdae that sells 'baggy' drinks which are basically like one of those IV sacks that you see in hospitals full of blood or whatever but the ones from Vinyl, if your me anyway, are usually full of Vodka lime ;) You can wander the streets, or festival, with an IV bag full of a cocktail sipping it with a straw... it's gonna be even tastier in the summer :P (I bet that would work with pimms too... maybe chuck some fruit in... sounds like a plan :O)

So, the festival itself was badass. Had some sick DJs playing stuff from Trance to DnB to Dubstep, but the highlight of the day was definitely 'The Moonshiners' (see em here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlGHTvj7bxg), a Korean rockabilly band that were soooo awesome. I can't wait to hunt em down and see em in a gig ASAP :D

Other than that there's not much more really to say about the festival really. There was music, booze, people, Dr. Martin transfer tattoos.. generally an awesome time :)

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Muuido

Muuido, in a word, was amazing. It had everything: sun, sea, sand, mud..

Day one - Journey to Muuido:

We set out straight after work on Friday evening and after an epic series of bus rides, taxis and train journeys me, Denis, and Andrew made it to the ferry port where we met Lindsey, John and Beth for the 8:00 ferry to Muuido! So, after a short walk, we turn up at the port and... what was that? We missed the last ferry? dammit... or so we thought. After acting like complete foreigners we somehow managed to convince the guys at the terminal to do one more run on what was essentially a car ferry for just the 6 of us! Nice blokes :) Unfortunately, we were also waiting on another group of friends who failed to get to us in time and could not convince them to do yet another run so I think they stayed in a hotel or something. This is the huge boat that ferried just the 6 of us to Muuido:

When we got to Muuido we asked some bloke in a shop how to get to Hanagae beach and he summoned what could have been either his mate with a van or an actual minivan/taxi for us. Either way, we got there in good time :)

Day one - Hanagae:

We turned up at Hanagae and tried to rent out a cabin. After a typical Korean vs Foreigner exchange we managed to get what we wanted: a cabin! The guy behind the desk seemed to find it hilarious that 6 of us wanted just one cabin but we just ignored him and headed onwards! Granted, the 'cabin' was tiny - it felt more like one of those changing huts you see on beaches in England - but we didn't plan on spending much time in there outside of sleeping and we could just about squeeze us all in there which was fine. These are the huts I'm babbling about:

We had a wander, got drunk, and then fell asleep in the cabin ready for the next day :)

Day two - contender for best day ever:

Beth and I woke up earlier than the rest of the group so we went for a little walk. Hour and a half later and we trundled back to camp after a little mini hike where we took a look around the forest and admired the morning :) sounds lame, but it was fun having a little bit of an explore. When we returned we mustered up some breakfast and then headed out to the mountains for a hike in the same direction Beth and I went. It was more hardcore this time because we climbed this bloody great mountain and I was the mug that did it in Converse..:

Needless to say, I was knackered.

Day two - the mud:

The mountain we climbed down was very woody and so the trees blocked most of the view. So, when we came down the mountain and we were confronted with this view we were stunned:

The tide had gone out like half a mile or more during the time we were hiking (about 2-3 hours). It was immense. And to make things more surreal, when we returned to camp there were people on horses galloping around the mud flats that had been created by the tide going out and people just wandering around on it. So, after lunch, we barefooted it out to try and meet the shore and this was the result:

Muuido is the best :)

Day two - the campfire:

After playing 6-a-side beach football against some Koreans (the score was like 15-3 to the foreigners (us)) we set about getting a campfire sorted because the temperature drops like a stone at night during the spring. It was a pretty awesome campfire: sang songs, drank booze, made 'smores' and cooked marshmallows.. top drawer stuff :)

Day three - sunburn:

Absolutely gorgeous day. We got up slightly later because we were hungover and then cooked some bacon to eat for breakie/brunch, which was amazing (thanks Beth :P). We then set off back into the mud but we decided to head out in a different direction to where the rocks were. The mud wasn't as solid as the mud the previous day, which I put down to it not having as much time to 'bake' under the sun than Saturday - we must've got there earlier in the day :S But it was still awesome. I almost fell down countless times because I was sinking in the mud hehe:

And that concludes the best weekend ever :)

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