KTX : Korea Train eXpress

Korea Train eXpress (KTX) is South Korea's high speed rail system, operated by Korail. I was very much eager to get the travelling experience with KTX quite some time and finally it was possible when i decided to travel Busan. You may be wondering as to what's the big deal in travelling KTX! What's the eagerness for!!  Yes, you are right, but i am weird ..

Busan is ~330 km from Seoul & KTX takes just 2.5 hours to reach there. Being an Indian staying at Bangalore & home town being Mangalore 348 km away, takes me one full night to reach in train & if i opt for bus journey, it takes ~8 hours. That's the eagerness to realise :)

KTX

It was one of the best train journey i ever did. The journey was very smooth, calm & pleasant like flight, but even flight journey is too noisy & unpleasant. It roars while passing through cities, silently waves through the lush green agricultural fields, pierces through the numerous mountains comes on its way. Earlier, when KTX passes through in some of the subway station with a very big noise shaking the platform, i was wondering how people can have a pleasant journey with this. But, then i was completely wrong.

Korail is foreigner friendly and they provide discounted price for the people who visit & stay here. They provide Happy Rail Pass for the people who are staying here for more than 6 months & KR Pass for the people of short duration. Its a ticket you can purchase on line with discounted price & you can select the day of travel on your convenience. Once the voucher is purchased for a particular days, you can travel any number of times during the period. If you are single, the gain is not much but if you miss your train, you can purchase again with no extra cost.

Happy Rail Pass:

• Ticket can be purchased on line & the website is in English too
• Go to any of KTX stations & get the pass voucher
• Once you have the pass voucher, just book the tickets
• Book the tickets early if your travel is on weekends (at least 3 days in advance)
• If you miss your train, just buy another ticket with no extra cost (you should be lucky if that happens on weekends like me)