Day 1: A Mad Dash (our Seoul – Busan KTX diary)

Due to our busy work schedules, my sister and I could only book our air tickets one month before our holiday. By then, there were not many choices in terms of flight timings. Eventually, we decided on SQ after much deliberation.

Our flight, SQ600, left Singapore at 8am and we landed in Incheon at 3.35pm. The flight was pretty bumpy with a lot of turbulence so it was a great relief when we landed!

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The first Hallyu star sighting came immediately after we landed – there were Jang Dong Gun posters everywhere along the travelator walkway. You can’t miss him!

We landed at a pretty good time as there weren’t many incoming flights or tourists to jostle with. We manage to board the first shuttle train to come by and made our way to the main passenger terminal where we cleared immigration within 30 minutes. Pretty efficient indeed!

Our luggage, however, took quite a long time to come out. As we hurriedly collected our bags, we didn’t even realise that one of the luggage was damaged during the flight - there was huge 15cm crack in the hard casing! Sigh! More on that story later.

Photo Credit: Segye

After we exited to the Arrival Hall, we scooted quickly over to the SK Telecomm counter near Exit 6 to collect our wifi router. There are several other companies that offer wifi egg rentals at the airport such as Olleh and KT. Before the trip, I had done research on all these companies and ultimately, I chose SK Telecomm because it offered the widest coverage around the nation (the wifi router works in cities and ulu areas far far out of Seoul which was where we were going). Olleh and KT offer slightly cheaper plans though and hence there were far more people queuing at their counters! Totally glad that we took the SK option because we didn’t have to wait very long to get our device.

The collection process was a breeze because I had already pre-registered online a few days earlier via the SK Telecomm website for the T mifi rental plan (LTE Router Rental). All I had to do was to handover my passport and credit card for verification to the counter staff (a 100,000 KRW deposit will be charged to your charge). After the paperwork was done, the staff switched on the device and helped to check that it was working properly before we left the counter. [Note: you only need to pay for the rental fees after you return the egg on the last day of the trip. In total, we paid 63,250KRW including VAT.]

The egg that we rented: CLR-1000KS. It is small and handy and fits in the palm of my hand!

Then it was a mad dash over to the KTX booth where we bought tickets to Busan. There are only a few trains that connect Incheon Airport directly to Busan so it was imperative that we caught the 4.30pm one! Otherwise, we would have had to board the AREX to Seoul Station and then switch to another KTX train to Busan. It was incredibly lucky of us to board the train with just seconds to spare. How’s that for living life dangerously!!

Photo Credit: KTO

Before we boarded the KTX, I also managed to top up our T-money cards at the airport which we would use on public transport in Busan (There is a row of T-money recharge stations near the KTX ticket booth). The T-money is the subway card for Seoul, but it can also be used in Busan’s subway and buses. I heard that it would be difficult to top-up the T-money card in Busan so I decided to top up the card before we left Seoul. There was an elderly ahjusshi helper hanging around the T-money recharge station and I was grateful that he helped me to top-up my cards speedily! When I told him kamsahamnida, he beamed at me, appreciative that a foreigner had taken the time to learn his language!

We heaved a sigh of relief when we finally boarded the KTX and finally settled down to rest. The one problem we had was that we did not have enough time to buy any food for the 3hr 45min long journey ahead of us. I walked up and down the train carriages hoping to find a dining area, but alas there were none. There were, however, a few vending machines selling drinks and snacks. In my broken Korean, I managed to ask one of the KTX staff if we could buy food on the train and she told me that a dining cart would be loaded onto the train at Seoul Station and I would be able to buy a bento then (Note: this is a half truth. The dining cart only sells hot drinks and snacks like bread and potato chips. There are no bentos anywhere!).

Luckily, we realised that the train was going to stop at Seoul Station for 10 minutes before moving on. So when we reached Seoul Station, I jumped off the train in search of food. Luckily, there was a Storyway convenience store right on the platform and I quickly loaded up on drinks and bread. Next to Storyway, there was also a little shop selling walnut manjoos so I bought a pack of 12 coz they smelled soooooo good! After completing my purchases, I hopped back onto the train where we proceeded to have our “feast”.

The KTX journey is a smooth and comfortable one and it is a must-try for any first time visitor to Korea. Travelling at average speeds of 270km/hr, you will zip by lovely scenery of agricultural lands, mountains and lakes. The seats are quite comfy and very soon, we drifted off to sleep.

After a tiring day of travelling, we finally reached Busan at 8.15pm on the dot! Was super pleased to see that Busan Station was a busy hive of activity at night with many restaurants and shops still open. There is no shortage of food here! As we had two huge pieces of luggage with us, we decided to head to the hotel to drop off our bags and then head out again for dinner. Super excited to be in Busan!