The Way to Gyeongju

I left Seoul for Gyeongju very early in the day about 5 o'clock, because I wanted to meet the bus bound for Yangdong Folk Village which was just designated a World Heritage in 2010. I planned to take KTX, Korea Train Express by which it would take 2 hours from Seoul Station to Singyeongju Station. I reserved a Korea Railway Pass for foreign visitors, with which I could make a round trip a day.

 I took a train in South Korea for the first time, and I didn't mention if there was an introduction about how to use KR Pass on the its official website (probably not). I got a KR Pass card in Seoul Station the last day, and just went to the station with it in the morning. The card was just a piece of hard paper. I didn't know how it worked. I kept going to close the train thinking a ticket gate and a station employee would be in front of the train. But it wasn't -- no ticket gate and employees were there. I got on the train and selected a seat to sit down, though I found all of the seats had a number. I was nervous and waiting for the departure. Finally, the train started to move. 

A young female employee came into my car to check ticket after the train left the second station from Seoul Station. When I showed her my poor card, she seemed to have trouble. I asked her if I couldn't take this train with the KR Pass. She said no. She could speak limited English words, and kept to touch the screen of her hand machine. I tried to guess what did she want to say. As a result, I went along the train to look for an unreserved seat car -- I though there would be one, but there were not. I went back to ask the employee. She still touched the machine screen ceaselessly (In fact she was searching a seat for me. I knew it later) while speaking some single English words. What the hell it is? She seemed nervous and to be at a lost. In the end she asked me where to go and gave me a seat number. At that moment, a man in the uniform likely the conductor passed us. The female employee called him and spoke to him about me. I guessed the dialog was as follow.
F: Conductor, this foreigner has a KR Pass but not reserve a seat. 
M: Where will she go? Busan?
F: Singyeongju.
M: Then give her a seat.
F: OK.
M: Where does she come from? Japan?
F: No, China.
Uncle conductor was very nice. I liked his smile. Though I didn't know Korean at all, I got it! How exciting!

When the train was getting close to Gyeongju (I knew it because I kept time and I had a GPS), I prepared to get off the train. The woman asked me something in Korean. I guessed it was "do you get off at the next station?" I nodded definitely. But the next station wasn't Singyeongju which station the train would arrive at several minutes later. Anyway, I arrived in Gyeongju safely. 

When I returned Seoul in the evening, I got to know I should reserve a seat by showing my KR Pass card to the employee in the window of the station before getting on the train.

I took the 5:30 KTX

In the train

Singyeongju Station

In the station