I take the bus three stops down the road every day to work, turning a 40 minute walk into a five minute ride. Other than this I've found the subway to be very convenient for taking me elsewhere in the city; it's clean, fast, and all the maps have English translations. I've even heard other foreigners go so far as to wonder why you would ever need to take a bus, and that they wouldn't know how.
After having had my attention turn to this convenient website (use with IE), I've started to be more adventurous with my bus travel. Travelling south of Seoul for the Korean harvest festival - Chuseok - to visit family, it was a good opportunity to avoid a four-transfer subway trip in favour of a direct bus all the way there.
Regarding the holiday, hanging out in the countryside was definitely what I needed after a long stint in Seoul, but I did feel mildly awkward not being able to follow my hosts' break-neck speed conversations! With an extra day off on Monday to play with, I went to see Mamma Mia: the Movie with my cousin. Once I got over how incredibly lame the storyline is, it was actualy quite entertaining. And just to note: I love popcorn in Korea! Having a mix of salted and caramel HOT popcorn is a much better idea than drying out your mouth with just one or the other that British cinemas insist you eat!
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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2 comments:
I am moving to Korea in Jan. Will be working in Gateway Tower. Do I need a car? I hate driving in traffic and enjoy the challenge of public tranist. I do like having access to truck though to move large items?
I'd pretty much answer with a flat out "no".
Gateway Tower is right near Seoul Station which is the central train station, and has links to all major cities.
Regarding roads, Seoul has no restrictions on congestion and so rush hour is a nightmare. But as I mentioned, buses go all over the city, are very frequent, and there are bus lanes so the traffic issue becomes obsolete. Otherwise, the subway is very convenient for foreigners.
Taxis are also dirt cheap (min fare is 1900won, or ~$2) so you can even get from one end of the city to the other after midnight for around $20 and don't need to worry about drinking (and police do routine breath checks so watch out).
As far as moving stuff around is concerned, I guess if you're doing that often it'd be convenient to have your own transport. If not...public transit won't
be much of a challenge :)
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