It's a cold cold day in Seoul

Brrr! Stay warm Seoulites!

buses on strike today... Art work at Anguk station

waiting for the dear bus...

as of 7:20am November 22, 2012, the buses are now back to normal.

the strike didn't last long - they declared that they were going to be on strike from 22nd, but due to the overwhelming demand and complaints - back to normal now.

strikes are rare in Korea.  no worries!   i think they were trying to make a point after the infamous "taxi as public transportation law" was passed?.. .im not too sure about this, but its going on right now - and we will see how and what turns out.

Seoul now - autumn rain

Raining and wet. At least it's Friday!

Korean subway etiquette & norms

I remember my first time in the Seoul subway and how disturbed I was of the "null" faces and how eerily quiet the train was...  I was a newbie 5 years ago.  A non-city girl.  The subway was intimidating and all so new. 

Knowing the norms and etiquette will probably make things easier.  Here are some things I've learned over the years.

Airport Subway - which one to take?

An empty airport subway is a rare sight nowadays.  Just a year ago, it was pretty empty.  That's all changed now.  The last time I rode it, people were actually standing!

It's great that there are newly added stops to Hongdae and our town, Gongdeok.

The airport subway is pretty convenient, but takes a bit long.  Be prepared to bring something to entertain yourself with.

The pros of riding the subway over an "airport bus" is that it's much cheaper.  Less than 4000won one way.  But again, it takes a bit longer than the direct bus.  The direct buses to the airport takes around 50 minutes(more or less), but this depends on the driver and where you are. 

Either way, getting around to and from the airport is not so bad and you have many options.. direct bus, regular subway(airport subway), or the faster train (which is not really that much faster..shhhhh don't tell them I told you that..).  And of course, there's taxi - which is not an option unless you have money to spend.  It takes 60,000won and up from Gongdeok.  Don't take one unless you're a group of 4 or more and have many many bags ;)

They have been advertising the "faster airport train" heavily (that runs to and from Seoul station) - but it's only 15 minutes or so faster and runs at odd times(every 30 minutes?) - so I never caught it.  I think it's a waste of money on their part - I would only take one if it was 30 minutes faster.  It's too bad that's not working well.  They have slashed the price pretty low now.

If you have some time to spare and don't have many bags to lug around, I would recommend the regular airport subway. 

Seoul subway - Gwanghwamoon

Here are some photos of Gwanghwamoon station.

Name of the station/#/in Chinese & English

 A lot of signs are in English and Chinese. 

beautiful sunday weather!

for the first time this year, it was really beautiful(!) outside~~ perfect for a sunday stroll~



the walk way to the nearest subway station from home is "noksapyung"~ the weather made the walk more of a "stroll in the park"~ a very nice treat for the week.

hope everyone is enjoying the weather^^