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

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There’s three or four I still think about, a Tibetan nun from Xinjiang Province in China. She was very fun, there was three of us at this point, we were working and she just appeared with a big beaming smile and started jabbering at me. I had no idea what she was staying, she was so animated and laughing, it turned out she wanted to know if I was Indian, I’m a British Indian. She wanted to thank me as the Dalai Lama lives in India, and she wanted to thank me as India has looked after him. 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!

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

Sitting in a cafe in Milan, I scanned the list of trains we’d already taken. Every time I bent down to write, the sound of mopeds distracted me, as young women with legs like Bambi put-putted past in sandals and summer dresses, revving over the cobbles like something out of a Dior advert.it now dawned on me why long distance train travel held such appeal. No other mode of travel combined my two favourite pastimes: travelling the world and lying in bed. p116

Around the World in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh, review: a

The trans-Mongolian express! You spend nine days on board, the change in landscapes is amazing! Starting in Moscow in the summer, with no snow you go through four days of leafless beech trees and occasional forests. 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? For Rajesh, the romance of train travel does indeed live on, “in the passengers who would always tell their story to strangers, offer advice, share their food, and give up their seats”. Unexpected acts of kindness and generosity of spirit create a unique sense of community, “like we are a train family”, as one traveller tells her in Thailand. Travelling on US trains is very eye-opening, you also learn a lot about the economy, life and politics. The US has such a large divide in class and wealth and it’s an amazing way to learn about it!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.’ Unapproved journalists are not allowed to enter [North Korea] and newspapers regularly preyed upon foolish couples and American students willing to ham up tales of their visit for a tidy fee..." 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. 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.” But it was better to come and leave disappointed, than not to have come and be disappointed, imagining I'd missed something being disappointed about. p273