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

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You talk a lot about the difficulties in travelling in areas that aren’t diverse or as accepting of other cultures, did that affect how you travelled, and how do you feel we can break down the barriers in travel? Rajesh [is] a rare rising star of the genre . She has a simple and easy style, she sees everything and listens to everyone, she's funny when she wants to be and serious when she needs to be, and she keeps the whole thing barrelling along like a wonderful dinner party conversation (Marcus Berkmann Daily Mail) The book consists of 15 chapters which chronicle the journeys of Monisha and Jem across the globe. They travel in a leisurely manner, with substantial breaks en route. Starting from their base in London, they travel across France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Lithuania and Latvia; until they reach Moscow, where they board the legendary Trans-Siberian Express. They pass through Mongolia and eventually reach Beijing. Now they turn south, and travel across Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, till they reach the ‘Death Railway’ built by Allied prisoners of war under the supervision of the Japanese Army. Next, they visit Japan, where they meet survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On a different note, they also travel on bullet trains and stay in a very modern hotel serviced by robots. No way, I’m not letting this woman fleece us. Tell her she can keep our crap. In fact, it would probably cost less than that to replace it all at H&M.’ She glimpses an enthralling swirl of cultures and landscapes on a journey filled with memorable brief encounters: “Trains are rolling libraries of information, and all it takes is to reach out to passengers to bind together their tales.”

Monisha Rajesh: Around the world in 80 trains — Dure Magazine Monisha Rajesh: Around the world in 80 trains — Dure Magazine

A silk sleeping sheet, it’s great in the winter to keep the cold out and in the summer it keeps you cool. A silk sheet also bundles down into fist size! Your latest book “Around the world in 80 trains” has recently won the Nat Geo book of the year, how did you go about planning such an awesome journey? Bring a few toiletries, definitely toilet roll, a flannel and always take a small hand soap. It’s funny, I always bring hand sanitiser with me everywhere now!Second, why do books put photo sections mid-sentence. It's a chapter book, surely you could put them between chapters? we set off in search of anything ancient [in Ulaanbaatar], finding a couple of scrappy Buddhist monasteries, subdued during Soviet rule. It took us a couple of hours in the National Museum of Mongolian History, looking at armor, costumes and jewelry, to gain any sense of the city's old culture..." When Monisha Rajesh announced plans to circumnavigate the globe in eighty train journeys, she was met with wide-eyed disbelief. But it wasn't long before she was carefully plotting a route that would cover 45,000 miles - almost twice the circumference of the earth - coasting along the world's most remarkable railways; from the cloud-skimming heights of Tibet's Qinghai railway to silk-sheeted splendour on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Pulling out her phone, she began speaking into her Google Translate app before showing me the screen, which now read: What would you like to do? Would you like your car to smell like the pope?’ I asked, finding a collection of car fresheners that purported to smell like different saints.

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

So, Monisha is no Paul Theroux, that is a high bar, but this is an engaging enough travelogue. There is a little bit of history thrown in at certain places like Japan and Thailand which really do add to the book. I especially liked the chapter on North Korea. I had no idea that the guided tour allowed such travel by train in that country. Karen, a Canadian, explained a few things that we would never have learnt about. She joined us for dinner, she was lovely, she gave us so much history of Canadian trains. I never knew that Chinese people built the railways as slaves. Also that if anyone comes from the trees they can flag down the train and the train will legally have to stop for them. Book Genre: Adventure, Autobiography, Biography, Biography Memoir, British Literature, European Literature, Memoir, Nonfiction, Railways, Trains, Travel, Travelogue I haven’t done a lot of train travel in the UK they’re a bit crap! I think some of the UK trains are some of the worse in the world, they’re prohibitively expensive.From the cloud-skimming heights of Tibet's Qinghai railway to silk-sheeted splendour on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Around the World in 80 Trains is a celebration of the glory of train travel and a witty and irreverent look at the world. The trains in Japan are so quiet, there’s very little energy on Japanese trains. They’re very mindful of other people, and they’re very clean and too perfect, a little dull to be honest. On this trip, accompanied by her terrific partner, she brings her warmth and intelligence to each situation they encounter. I am not sure I could muster her patience and humour. Fitfully entertaining but superficial, Rajesh's memoir never quite lives up to its potential. While she technically does travel "around" the world, she never goes anywhere near South America, Africa, or Australia. She also glosses over long stretches of the trip she did take, and it's unclear if she needed more space or just didn't talk to anyone interesting along the way. I am a big fan of rail travel, especially when everything goes smoothly; the freedom of being able to move about, being able to read, work, chat and people watch. However, I have only ever taken the train in Europe and, although I have travelled further afield, I have never used the rail services. So, I sat outside to read Around the World in 80 Trains in the beautiful spring sunshine, ready to be a sunbed explorer, something thrust on me by the coronavirus pandemic.

Rail travel: Around the world in 80 trains - Telegraph

I can’t get my head around train travel in the UK, the service is terrible, there are always delays. On my recent trip up to the Lake District for the price, all I got was a chocolate bar and a dry sandwich. It’s infuriating that European trains are amazing, British trains have a lot of catching up to do. Rajesh and her boyfriend Jem set out from London to travel around the world visiting many diverse places, including France, Italy and other European countries, Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, China, Mongolia, Tibet, Canada, the USA, North Korea and Kazakhstan. Along the way Rajesh describes the interesting encounters she has with the people they meet. As a fan of travel memoirs, I enjoyed this book and feel inspired to try some train travel myself. having not read Around India in 80 Trains, I would have like to hear more about how the author developed this passion for railways. Also, I found it puzzling that South America and Africa were neglected. Are there future books in the making? If so, I hope she includes a map for the next adventure. Read more I came to admire Rajesh’s turn of phrase and her stylistic prowess (her time as a sub-editor for The Week magazine must have come in handy). She doesn’t mince her words when asserting that “the French cared for nothing else when it came to meal times”, or when describing a deserted transit stop in France where “... we shared a Coke and paced the cool empty station, listening to the squeak of our footsteps and admiring the domed roof, the interior of which was engraved with four partly clothed women...” Having travelled extensively in rural France, I was able to recognise the place immediately.Another thing I did, there were several events that I wanted to cover. It was the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing and the 70th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean “Worker’s Party of Korea” (the ruling party of North Korea). So for certain dates, I had to be in certain countries. For the North Korean stint, I had to be there at a certain time because they do the train tour once a year. Around the World in 80 trains is about the author's journey as she sets out to cover 45,000 miles across the World. Monisha records her journey through this book as she explains in detail about the various trains that she took, the food that each place had to offer, the sleeping arrangements, the people and struggles of adjusting to new culture though it was for few days. Monisha and her fiance set off from London and cover Moscow, Asian countries, America, Canada, Kazakhstan and many others. My favourite part was their experience at Moscow which was terrifying to even read. I also thoroughly enjoyed how she explained the sceneries that she witnessed through the windows. One can almost imagine the hues spread across the skies and smell the food that she devoured over the course of her journey. As another reviewer has observed, I was uncomfortable with how often the writer’s experience was conveyed in judgemental terms. Monisha Rajesh has chosen one of the best ways of seeing the world. Never too fast, never too slow, her journey does what trains do best. Getting to the heart of things. Prepare for a very fine ride

Around the World in 80 Trains Around the World in 80 Trains

I too found the author to be quite judgemental about how people travel (and it is because if this, that I didn’t warm to the author). This was a 7 month trip, where they fell ill and lost weight which is no fun. Railbookers (020 3327 2467 ; railbookers.com) Independent rail specialists which, in addition to putting together itineraries, can also arrange accommodation along the way.Belmond (0845 0772 222; belmond.com) Upmarket tours by private trains such as the Northern Belle and British Pullman. With the coronavirus pandemic meaning many people in the UK will staycation this year, do you have any recommendations for train travel in the UK? Leaning out of doorways, perching on steps and sleeping in the odd linen cupboard, I covered the length and breadth of the country in four months and was drawn into its warm embrace by the whole railway family – from her royal highness the Deccan Queen and the sleek and chic Durontos, to the puffing and panting toy trains and thundering Rajdhanis. I hung from the badly behaved Mumbai commuters, had sweet dreams in the Indian Maharaja’s double bed, and witnessed orthopaedic surgery on the world’s first hospital train. The book really gets into gear in N. Korea and China, and captures so much of the romance of train travel including the numerous little epiphanies about oneself while touching the edge of inner stillness in a moving train. Blessedly, not too much of that too.