Korean Adventure Part 3: Riding The Train

Riding the train is the easiest and cheapest way to get around in Korea.  Not only do you not have to worry about the crazy and sometimes frightening way that the Korean's drive, but you don't have to worry about traffic.  Almost everything that you would want to go to in Seoul is accessible by the subway.  Hubby took me to Seoul several times and no matter how far into the city we went, the fare per person was never more than around $3.50 and that was the most expensive trip.  Most were less.  Hubby is very proud of his train navigation skills and steered me though line transfers with ease.  It was a definite experience and I got a taste of what it is like to be an average person in Korea.  Many Koreans use the subway as a form of every day transportation.
Each time we took the subway we would have to take a taxi to the train station.  It was only a five to ten minute ride depending on traffic.  Hubby had us use Nogyang station most frequently because it was closer to post but there is also a station in downtown Uijeongbu.  Below you can see a picture of the entrance to the station complete with really neat bronze horse statues.

After going into the station Hubby would take me to the ticketing area.  Everything is done electronically.  The machine has language buttons at the bottom of the screen so the first thing you have to do is select English.  Then you touch the "Single Journey Ticket" option.  (Pictured below as the number 1 although in the picture nothing is in English.)  

Hubby rides the rain frequently so he has a re loadable card that he uses but each time we went somewhere we would have to buy a ticket for the trip and return for me.  After arriving at the station screen after selecting single journey,  Hubby would pull out his subway map and look for the station that we wanted to go to that was closest to our destination.  Most of the time Hubby had researched this before we left.  See below for a picture of what the subway map.  We rode several of the lines!

After deciding what station we wanted to go to, Hubby would scroll through the menu, select the station and then feed in the appropriate amount of won (Korean currency). 

*Side Note: 1,000 Won is equal to about $0.88 in US currency so it is better to use the Korean currency even though many vendors will take dollars.  The vendors will charge you the same amount even if you use dollars and then exchange them in to make the profit in the exchange.  It's not a huge difference but it does add up over time.

After paying, the machine spits out the ticket.  They are made of plastic almost like a credit card, although a bit thinner plastic) and mine were always bright orange or neon yellow.  ( I have a picture of one below but it doesn't say the station that we used because I borrowed the picture from someone else.)  You have to pay a 5 won deposit to get the ticket but you get this back at the end of the day when you cash in your ticket at a return machine.  I would compare this to states which require you to pay an extra 5 cents on each can or bottle of soda/beer that you buy in order to encourage you to recycle and then give it back to you when you return the empty ones.  You don't have to return it but you lose your 5 cents if you don't.  I thought the plastic was a definite upgrade to the paper that we get here in the states but I guess Americans don't like to be hassled with paying the deposit and then having to return the card at the end of the trip.  I didn't find it to be a big deal and as I mentioned earlier, Hubby has a re loadable card that he just puts money on every now and then when it gets low so he doesn't have to worry about trading in the card each trip.

Ticket in hand, the next part of the fun was to go through the turn styles and up to the platform.  Most of the stations didn't actually have turn styles but just lanes that you walked though.  Each time you had to lay your card over the "T money" pad as you walked though and it would deduct the amount of the fare from your card.  Sometimes when we transferred we had to go though another one of these to get to the proper platform for our next train but since we had always selected our destination station when buying my ticket, it was always loaded with enough money for each one that we had to walk though.

1) http://seoulsounds.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/199-seoul-metro-bells/

2) http://seoulsounds.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/198-new-seoul-metro-fanfare-announcement/

3) http://seoulsounds.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/교대역-transfer-station-announcement/

The inside of the train itself looks a bit different than some other trains I have ridden.  They have seats lining the sides and the straps to hang onto if you are standing in the aisles.  Once or twice Hubby and I sat down next to an older Korean person only to have them get up and move.  Hubby said that some of the older generation do not like the Americans very much.  We also got a lot of stares but mostly people were nice.  During rush hours the train gets VERY crowded!  On one train ride a tiny Korean lady grabbed my butt hard and pushed me out of the way instead of saying excuse me!  I thought this was a bit rude but Hubby said that is normal.  Riding the train was an adventure!