Transport and Busan - Day 1 - Korea 2016

Long time no see, long time no see. I am back from Korea with some fresh tales to impart.
I headed to Korea again at the start of July on the guise of attending the International Pharmacy Student Federation's Asia Pacific Pharmacy Symposium - when really, we just wanted an excuse to go back to Korea. The symposium was actually pretty amazing - but I'l get to that later (eventually).

As it was Summer in Korea, as opposed to the wet and windy Winter we're having in Melbourne right now - we decided that we'd have to spend some time in Busan, the summer capital. A lot of research went into this trip as opposed to just looking up the shopping hotspots and how to get there (or maybe because there was only two of us going.. I had to do a lot more work).

Busan Station. This is a terrible shot, but it was pouring and windy - I just snapped and ran.

To get to Busan, you can either fly to Busan airport, bus, train or of course - walk. We chose to train - planning to take a direct train from Incheon Airport to Busan Station. For foreigners, you are able to book tickets through the Korail site which I have linked here. This link will take you to where you can purchase seats for specific trains.

However, you can also purchase a Korail Pass (which we opted for) which is exclusive to foreigners and allows you to take unlimited KTX trains in the allotted time for your ticket. You can purchase 1, 3, 5 and 7 day passes, at child, youth, adult and group prices. You purchase this pass before hand (at a travel agency or online) and then take the voucher emailed to a booth at the KTX Station. For Incheon airport, this is where the Airport Railroad is. Once exchanged for a ticket, you will be able too book seats on whichever train you like. We were unable to get seats at Incheon Airport, as they were all booked out - and had to train to Seoul Station (via the Airport Railroad EXpress) and then book a train from there. Our schedule was pushed back because of this, but at least the KTX trains had wifi.

The front and back of the Korail Pass

Regarding training from the airport, there are 2 trains you can take. AREX no-stop, all-stop (the Incheon Airport line). There is only a difference of roughly 10 minutes between the commute times, though the no-stop trains require special ticketing and cost around 9,000Won while the Incheon Airport line runs at 4,250Won and will take from your T-Money card. The no-stop trains do have very nice seating though and provide wifi.

 Photo: Airport Railroad Map (Credit: Airport Railroad Co., Ltd.)

Once you arrive at the Airport Railroad in Incheon Airport, there are two counters and lots of ticket machines. There will be a counter each for purchase of AREX tickets and Korail/KTX tickets (you exchange your voucher here). At the ticket booths, you will be able to top up your T-money card or purchase single use tickets (where you pay a deposit for the card, and then can refund your deposit at any other station when you return the card). You can purchase T-money cards at convenience stores (not StoryWay though) and these cost about 3,900Won (as of 2016 July). If you're a hallyu fan, you may be able to find T-money card with designs/pictures on them of celebrities (mainly in Myeongdong, and these cost around 10,000Won). It should be easy to figure out how to use the ticket machines - especially since there's a button that turns everything into English~ :P

After arriving at Busan Station and discovering it was absolutely pouring, we hesitated after exiting the buiding - sightly fearful of just exactly how much water hammering down on us. I can't remember what exit it was, but we followed the arrows pointing to the metro. You come out onto this open area with several food stalls, and continue down the escalators. Head forwards and slightly to the left - you should be able to see Exit 8 of the Busan Metro Station. We walked hastily across this courtyard to the metro station, and got completely soaked. Our socks were squishy in our shoes and later we discovered that some water had actually soaked into our luggage and gotten our clothes wet!

We stayed at an AirBNB near Seomyeon and wondered through the Seomyeon First Street (If we got our directions right!). The area we entered was quiet and did not have many open stores at night, but after a while we found a whole strip of pork soup restaurants and snack stands (odeng and ddukbokki etc) and then a further while on, we managed to find a busier section and many bbq places. However, we trailed back to a small naengmyeon restaurant we had found at the very start. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures - but the exterior was brown wood? and had several pictures of food outside. The cold noodles were refreshing in the heat and only cost 6,000Won!

Well I suppose this was mainly an informative post today,
I'll be writing more touristy and fun things soon!

faithfully,
Mai