KTX

I'm usually of the mindset that the price of a product or service doesn't always allude to it's value. Cheap products are sometimes better than the high priced ones. For example, Totino's frozen pizzas are the best frozen pizzas around. Sure there's the 'rising' crust pizzas like Freshetta or Dijourno but they taste half as good as Totino's. The have actual tomato sauce (scoff!) instead of the tasty neon red tomato gel that is a signature of Totino's. You can't beat that - plus it's cheap as all get out!

Of course there's always the exceptions, such as eyebrow waxing. I've found that its worth the extra $5 to get it done at a salon instead of at a beauty college. Unless you don't mind looking like a confused vulcan for a few weeks, then it's a good deal.

Well, I've found something else that is worth the pretty penny you pay for it. The KTX. What's the KTX, you ask? It's only the coolest way to travel in all of the Korean penninsula. High speed rail! I know I've talked about the trains before, but this is different. It's quiet and smooth and fast. I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back to the 'slow' trains now. I might be ruined for life. It would be like eating velveeta after trying fresh mozzarella, like wearing Tevas after having Chacos, like watching ER after seeing House. It's not possible for me...unless I'm willing to endure some pain.

The trains have monitors on board that track its speed. We got up to 300 kph (186 mph) and it was as smooth as butter. Plus we got to Seoul in a fraction of the time it usually takes. I'm hooked! Why don't we have these in the States?

This is a picture of the 'slow' train. We couldn't even get a picture of the KTX - it went by so fast. ;)

This magazine looks like it's an English language magazine, right? It's not. A lot of the magazines here have English on the front covers but only Korean characters inside. I think it must look more sophisticated or fancy to people here if it has romanized letters on the cover.

If you think this looks like a staged photo...you're right. I finished my coffee before we got on the train.

This is the platform at one of the KTX stations. They all have Dunkin' Donuts franchises and convenience stores inside. On a side note...Dunkin' Donuts is really popular over here.