South Korea By Bus
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While Mark’s Green Team blazes its way through Europe by high-speed rail, I start my public transportation journey through South Korea in a slightly more humble place: in front of a dried squid.
The squid is between a pair of tongs, which an elderly Korean woman holds over an indoor propane stove. As the squid crisps, I look around. I’m standing in front of one of the dozens of shops and small restaurants lining the spacious hallway of the main bus terminal of Gangneung, a city on the Sea of Japan, where my trip begins.
Already, we’ve come the first advantage of car-free travel: outside of a car, you see things that you probably would never see inside a car. BBQ squid, for example.
Across from the squid, lines of men and women form and disperse in rapid succession in front of the bus ticket windows. I join a line, buy my ticket in broken Korean, and try to ask when my bus leaves.
In Korea, “when does the next bus to… leave?” is a silly question. The answer is usually “right now!” Most buses run so frequently that the next bus to wherever you’re going is usually only a few minutes after the last one. With a little help from the station attendants, the bumbling foreigner (that’s me) soon finds himself sitting comfortably in a seat on the bus that he hopes will turn out to be the right one.
The engine starts. The wheels on the bus do their thing. And I’m off.
…To sleep. I close my eyes, realizing with satisfaction the second advantage of car-free travel: I can relax, read, or even sleep. For the price of a bus ticket, I get a chauffeur to take me where I’m going, or at least wherever it is I think I’m going with my limited Korean.
Outside the bus window, the wintry landscape flies by. Korea is sometimes called the hermit kingdom, and from my seat on the bus I observe how even the passing woods seem reticent and introverted under a thick blanket of snow.
Another advantage of the bus is the chance to ignore traffic and admire the scenery.
This, my first long distance trip from coast to coast of Korea, left a very positive impression of traveling by public transit. South Korea has an excellent and well-developed public transportation infrastructure that incorporates local and intercity buses with three train systems. Like Europe, it even has a high-speed rail, the KTX, with a max speed of about 350 km/h.
If you’ve ever driven in Korea, you’ll also appreciate the brave fellow behind the bus wheel who’s able to navigate everyone safely through a country of otherwise completely insane motorists.
My conclusion?
For travel in Korea, forget the traffic and hop on a bus. You’ll enjoy the ride… and maybe even some BBQ squid.
Photo source: Flickr
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