JUWEONNAGO…

Subway Photos

// July 1st, 2009 // Environment

As promised, the pictoral evidence of my travels on Seoul’s public transportation.

July 12th, 2009

There are three main types of public buses in Korea.  There are the green “ma-eul” bus (neighborhood buses), the blue “si-nae” bus (city buses that have a longer route) and the red “ja-suk” bus (the buses that go from city to city traveling usually on the expressway and the name of the buses literally mean “buses with seats” as you can see by the picture).

My frugal attempt at getting artistic….

July 6th, 2009

You have no idea how badly I wanted to take my car to work this Monday.  After having a little too much fun all weekend long, my body craved to be driven in the privacy and comforts of my own car but I fought through the urge and got myself onto the public transport.  Did spend 3000 Won on taxi fare once I got to Seoul on the subway because I was late for work.

I also found out that it’s cheaper to get back home from Seoul on public transport than it is to get to Seoul but I’ll investigate this further on Wednesday

(Tuesdays are my car days because of scheduling conflicts).

July 2nd, 2009

I was so tempted to break my pledge today because it was raining like Noah was still alive today here in the Seoul and Gyeongi area, but luckily, as I was heading out the door for work, the sun peeked through just long enough to keep my commute a dry one.

One of the greatest things about the Seoul transportation system is that the local bus and subway systems have integrated pricing.  Let me explain…

The pay on public transportation systems are electronic and you have these little tiny “cards” that you scan as you go through the turnstiles on the subway or get on the bus, but the thing that is different about the Seoul system is that you also scan as you leave and if you transfer onto another form of public transportation within 15 minutes of exiting one, you get a discount (I’ll try to post a video of this pay system in the coming days).

So if I took the public transportation without this system in place:

Bus ride from my house to the my nearest subway station: 600 – 900 won depending on which bus I take.

Subway ride to Sadang station: 900 Won base fee plus 200 Won extra charge because I live outside of the Seoul city limits.

Bus ride to work from Sadang station: 900 Won

TOTAL:  2900 Won

With the Integrated Pricing Plan

Bus ride to my nearest subway station: 700 Won (got a student discount today because I think the bus driver thought I was a student because of my back pack)

Subway ride to Sadang station: 200 Won + 200 Won extra distance charge = 400 Won

Bus ride to work from Sadang station: 200 Won

Total: 1300 Won

FYI: at the current exchange rate – 1000 Korean Won = 79 CENTS U.S. (so it cost me about a $1 to travel 35km, not bad)

July 1st, 2009

I felt so weird taking a picture of myself on a packed subway so I tried to make it look like I was taking a “test” shot with my camera.  But damn, I look like I’m not a happy camper.

Oh yeah, my ultimate goal of helping the environment was an utter failure on this first day as I ran late for work so I had to take the cab twice.  After work, also guilty of taking the cap twice to meet certain appointments on time – like catching the last subway from Seoul to my house.  Never realized how much I “roamed around” in a day.  This month-long task might be a lot more difficult than I had previously imagined.

Subway Fee: 2800 Won

Bus Fee:  600 Won

Taxi Fee:  13,000 Won (more than the cost of gas that would have taken me everywhere I’ve gone today)

TOTAL:  16,400 Won

I’ll do better tomorrow.