However, this weekend, I did something truly awesome and unique. I hit up Korea Burn 2012, which is basically the local version of Burning Man.
For those who don't know, Burning Man is basically a massive gathering of people wanting to enjoy sunshine and a very hippie-like community of selfless giving, unique expression of self and and an overall atmosphere of love-everybody-and-everything.
We boarded the bus at just after 7 p.m. on Friday (20 kilos of food, clothing, and camping equipment on my back) in Changwon and headed to Taean Haean National Park on the east coast of the country. We were going to stop in a few cities to pick up other Burners, which gave our bus driver the perfect opportunity to get lost. About a dozen times. I swear at times we pulled so many U-turns I felt like I was on a carnival ride, not a commuter bus.
No matter, we arrived at the wonderful hour of 3 a.m. in the middle of nowhere. Upon disembarking from the bus we noticed two things. Wind. Crazy wind that made me thankful I had my massive backpack to anchor me down. The other thing was people frantically recruiting anyone and everyone to help keep the tents that were already set up from becoming airborne.
Once we finished that, we set to work on getting our tents up, and finally hit the hay at around 5 a.m. Shortly after, the entire campground was woken up by some guy giving his girlfriend what must have been the most amazing orgasm anyone has had in Korea in years. To this mysterious Romeo I say kudos. Well done, sir, you were the topic of many an admiration-filled conversation throughout the weekend.
By the way...just a small portion of the camp, my tent is the blue one on the far left under the clear tarp!! :)
After a restful 90 minutes of sleep I was up and at it again.
The day is pretty much a blur of meeting one awesome, friendly, generous person after another. It was the biggest gathering of just straight up happy people I have ever seen. It was awesome...I just walked around all day with my friends or without and everywhere I went I struck up conversations with random people (or they struck one up with me), we shared food, drinks, laughs, stories, histories. It was truly magnificent. For an outgoing, talkative, overly friendly dude like me, this place was magical!
On the beach people were doing everything from juggling to teaching each other to dance, to group yoga at sunset, all with the background of a gorgeous Korean beach and surprisingly gorgeous weather!
There were tents for all sorts of cool stuff from body painting to the unique bacon-for-poetry put on by a bunch of Oregonians. Pretty much anything went except for money exchanging hands and bad attitudes. I have never seen 1,000 or so (we're trying to get a relatively accurate count right now) people instantly come together as a happy community. It was like The Smurfs...in fact, there were a couple of dudes dressed up as Smurfs. Yup, it was that kind of a party.
To cap off a day of wandering and befriending randoms, we were treated to a magnificent sunset:
Once night fell, it was time to do the deed everyone had come to see. Burn the little wooden dudes. After a prelude performance by a bunch of nifty fire dancers, the fires were lit, the cheers went up, and the sparks flew.
At night the atmosphere changed a little from a hippie love-in to a full on party mood with DJs spinning dubstep and people dancing both in front of the DJ booth and around the Burning Man.
I ended up hanging out with people, dancing, flirting, etc 'till a little around 4:30 a.m., when I I finally packed it in and called it a night.
Sadly, the next time everyone had to leave, so most of Sunday was spent packing, taking down tents and socializing (and, in my case, bugging hungover people with my over-the-top chipperness). I also wanted a bit of "me time," so both mornings I found some nice abandoned stretches of the beach and had me a quiet breakfast, doing nothing but enjoying the sound of the ocean, the sunshine and the calmness of it all...oh and cheeeeeeese!!!
The ride home on Sunday was pretty uneventful, just some good chats with friends and a bit of a nap here and there to catch up.
All I have to say is that this was the kind of weekend where I slept a total of roughly 5 hours and still walked away feeling utterly energized and full of good vibes...that says a lot.
T
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