18 November 2022
Finally here
Gwangju to Daejeon on the KTX
It seemed to take forever to get here. The train journey in total was only 2 hours. Foolishly I got to the station in Gwangju 2 hours early and there was not a lot to see or do at that station. Changing trains in Osong was a race to the right platform and right place on the right platform or miss the train. Arriving in Daejeon was a subway ride and arriving at my hotel was a case of find the power point and mess around to get the internet to work. But now I am here. I have a huge room with a kitchen and washing machine in a 'Residence' hotel which is more like a Quest or Meriton in Australia.
So this was a procedural update with just the facts. Knight Rider is on TV so thats a plus.
One last photo of my beloved stream!
With my train not leaving until 1:30pm I had heaps of time for a long walk around Gwangju in the morning. Here is a view from a convenient overpass.
Here is the outside of the GwangjuSongJeong station. They like to do it as one word. It is the main bullet train station in Gwangju.
A unique opportunity to photograph the track geometric inspection car. I kind of thought these were obsolete, bullet trains are effectively all doing this all the time, measuring the distance between the tracks, temperature, height, wear etc by analyzing data from the train wheels. I read a whole thing about it in relation to the Chinese network.
Here comes my train. They are all the same train.
I had to change in Osong and then a short ride back to Daejeon. I think there is a different Daejeon station on the line I was on, but that station is not connected to the subway, so a change of bullet trains is more convenient.
And finally, my very well equipped hotel room. It has a kitchen, a pull out kitchen bench, 3 different desk areas, and a washer dryer. As I mentioned, it is designed for business people that might be working here longer term. Now to find out where I am exactly, I am staying in a different part of Daejeon to the last time I was here.