Day 2: Rail Bike - Gimyujeong, South Korea

I have seen people ride on these rail bike before and thought it's super cool!  So, this time on my visit to South Korea, I made sure it's the first thing I do.  You can book your rail bike on their website: http://www.railpark.co.kr/

That sounds convenient, doesn't it.  Booking it online to make sure you will get our bike without fighting with other.  Wrong!  The site is only in Korea and will require you to have a Korean phone number for authentication if you do wish to book.  These bikes gets booked out before the actual day comes, especially the morning batch.  So, what to do?  For me, I asked my Korean friend in Hong Kong to give the place a call.  I just booked by phone leaving my name, date and time.  I just needed to arrive 30min early telling them my name to get my reserved bike.

These bikes runs every hour.  So, if you miss the 9am ones, you will have to wait an hour to get the 10am ones.

We had 3 people, so we got the 4 seaters for 35,000 won.

I booked the 9am rail bike.  It takes about 2 hours to get there by train from Hongdae!!!!  We woke up at 5:15am.  Got dressed, ate breakfast that we got from convenience store the night before and head out at around 6:15am.  We were just so slow as we slept at around 3am.  The bed wasn't very comfortable and there was no AC.  We had a hard time falling asleep.  We forgot to include the walking time from Hongdae exit 2 to the actually train.  We went to the wrong platform and lost some more time to that.  By the time we arrived at Gimyujeong, it was already 8:50am.  We ran as fast as we could to the ticket office, hoping my reserved bike is still available.  Just turn right at the station and run across the parking lot to the ticketing office and rail bike boarding platform.



Luckily, we got our bike!



There's a Korean guy introducing to the crowd about what to do and what not...I assume.  I have no idea what he was saying as it was all in Korean.



Finally, we can board our bike.  There are 2 long rows of bikes.  Everyone will start at the same time. So, the people at the front must paddle as fast as possible as there are people waiting behind them.

The ride is pretty short.  It was only about 30 minute.  It's the end of October when I went.  The weather is quite cool and leaves are turning yellow and orange.  Really pretty.  

Here, we have arrived at a resting spot where there is a washroom and a food stall.  We of course didn't buy any food there.  We are too poor to splurge our money.  We got lots of onigiri (rice balls) from the convenience store the night before to carry in our backpack.  Yes, we are ghetto travelers.  But honestly, I love the sandwiches, burgers and onigiris in convenience store in Seoul!  They are so good and CHEAP!  If the 7-11 sell that in Hong Kong, I'd be eating it everyday!

After a 15 minute break, there will be a big cargo train to take everyone to the next stop where will be a free shuttle bus taking us back to Gimyujeong Station.  Honestly, I thought we were going to ride our rail bike to the Shuttle Bus stop.  Don't know what happened there.  Anyways, we followed the crowd to the shuttle bus.  There was an old uncle whom we ask directions from.  Turns out he was going to the shuttle bus as well and we just followed him.  Koreans are so nice!

Gimyujeong Station is at point G in the list "Places Part 2" in the map below

Chi

Day 1: Arriving at Hongdae
Day 2: Rail Bike --> Lunch at 명가춘닭갈비 --> Nami Island --> Gwanjang Market --> Nail Art Shop in Miglore --> LED Rose at DDP --> BBQ Dinner
Day 3: Haneul Park --> Incheon China Town --> Jjajangmyeon at 新勝飯店  --> Incheon Fairytale Village --> Dinner at Meat-ing --> Desserts at Sulbing
Day 4: Breakfast at 돈수백 홍대직영점 (猪寿百 弘大直营店) --> Change Airbnb Room --> Majang Market --> Common Ground --> Namsan Tower --> Myeongdong --> Dinner at Chicken678 --> Desserts at Sulbing
Day 5: Persimmon Juice --> Semi Breakfast at 김선생 --> Brunch at Pizza Mall --> Shopping Hapjeong --> Gyeongbokgung --> Apugjeong Rodeo --> Dinner at Hi-Meat
Day 6: Naenmyeong at Naenmyeong Town --> Deer Feeding at Seoul Forest --> Dinner at Myth Jokbal --> Rice Ice Cream at Subok
Day 7: Teobbokki at Teobbokki Town --> Seoul Grand Zoo