Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-Mile Adventure

Product Information

Indeed, the scale of the endeavour – 80 trains of distinctly variable comfort, reliability and safety, travelling some 45,000 miles – would be enough to daunt even the most hardy adventurer. The author is a journalist and her fiancé at the time, now husband, jacked in his job to accompany her. There's not much evidence that she succeeded, though -- maybe a little, in Tibet -- so there's no great victory for journalism here. You know when you’re travelling and you get stuck talking to that obnoxious person at the backpackers/pub/tour bus who tells you all about how they get absorbed in the culture and they’re not a tourist and it’s all about the authenticity and experience the real (country? In a previous book the author spent three months hopping on and off trains on a 25,000-mile odyssey around India; this time she broadens her horizons and travels round the world.

With their attempt to be spontaneous, their journey gets off to a rocky start of fines and fees that makes her writing about Europe decidedly gloomy. As other reviewers have noted too, she complains about the state of the trains when she could clearly afford better - if you don't like it, don't do it; if you want to do it, don't bitch about it.I like Monisha’s witty writing style, which gives the book a fun and laid back feel to it and differentiates it from the usual guide books and serious travel books. Packing up her rucksack - and her fiance, Jem - Monisha Rajesh embarks on an unforgettable adventure that takes her from London's St Pancras station to the vast expanses of Russia and Mongolia, North Korea, Canada, Kazakhstan, and beyond.

This was Rajesh’s second epic train adventure, as she had previously travelled alone around India (also in 80 trains). So used to the carpet of crisps and cans of Carling on British trains, I couldn't imagine anyone collecting their own rubbish, let alone being grateful for someone else's.After flying to Vancouver they head east to Toronto, travelling 2,775 miles on The Canadian, “the most efficient way to absorb the vastness of the world’s second-largest country in one sitting”. This is a really effective means of injecting the historical detail without it reading like a Wikipedia summary. What frustrated me the most is that she thought she was going to be killed in her hotel in Canada because she’s of Indian heritage and instead it was the bang of the AC.

Rajesh is determined to like the older, rougher trains the best and she does romanticise the lack of facilities, the delays and the smells. I was often afraid that I'd lose the will to continue reading it till the end but I managed to wrap this up in a week's time.WINNER OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER AWARD FOR BEST TRAVEL BOOKSHORTLISTED FOR THE STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD’Monisha Rajesh has chosen one of the best ways of seeing the world. I liked it for the updates on conditions in Tibet, Sinkiang, North Korea, as well as a look - albeit fleeting - on life in the hinterland of Russia and the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan, as well as an interesting look at life today in Mongolia.

They travel back and forth across the world, travelling through America, Canada, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and even a ventured into North Korea to see the public face of the dystopian state. We loved it, so I was I especially intrigued by this travel narrative in which Rajesh and her boyfriend attempt to see the majority of the world only via train.

I understand this gets into a lot of philosophical sticky wickets about privilege and what it really means to travel and experience other cultures, etc. Overall, I enjoyed Rajesh’s candid assessment of each train and her sense of humour, as well as the friendships she and Jem made along the way. In a particularly fascinating chapter, Rajesh and Jem follow the route of the Death Railway through Thailand (it originally continued into Myanmar but that section no longer exists). Like any form of travel it can be dangerous but will also provide experiences that you will look back on with happiness for the rest of your life. Some chapters were good, I did enjoy reading about Japan for example but I was still hoping to get more train facts, considering it’s about train travel.