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

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The ensuing journey is one of constant movement and mayhem, as the pair strike up friendships and swap stories with the hilarious, irksome and ultimately endearing travellers they meet on board, all while taking in some of the earth's most breathtaking views. If there was one flaw though it is missing a map of her journeys and it would have been nice to have a list of the trains that she travelled on too. 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. I would love to go to different places so these kind of travel books are the only way for me to experience it.

Here, they do a big loop of the USA and Canada before flying back to China in time for a guided tour of North Korea. It is not always super fast, though some of the high-speed trains have made serious inroads into flying times, the main point of trains is to take the time to see the countries that you are passing through and absorb the culture in the places that you stop. Reading this book was like reading someone’s unfinished thoughts which float around from one subject to another, not finishing the previous point/ statement, with no conclusion.

No other mode of transport combined my two favorite pastimes: travelling the world and lying in bed. There is nothing wrong going on an escorted group trip, you meet a whole range of people whose number 1 aim is to explore just like you. 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. For a somewhat whirlwind tour MR gets beneath the superficial and goes for the essential qualities that characterize each nation they explore.

Our pseudo-busy, social media-driven lives had shortened our attention spans and tricked us into thinking we had no time for slowness and deliberation. I've been watching a YouTube traveler who goes to misrepresented countries (Indigo Traveller), and his travels aligned with some of Rajesh's experiences and really enhanced my reading of the book, especially in North Korea! 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. 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. A couple of hawkers started to work their way up the carriage, one selling fish cakes and noodles, the other dragging an ice bucket stacked with cans of Nescafe…A Dutch family swapped a few of their bananas for a couple of my Snickers bars and between us we were managing to forge a pretty decent meal.

It gives a serious case of wanderlust and what more can you ask for from a book that paints a beautiful picture about traveling? 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 have recommended the book to many of my friends and when I finish it, I had a bitter sweet feeling - happy that I read it all, but sad that it was over.

While she doesn't go into much detail about this aspect, I would read the book just for her insights and anecdotes about this time. For a book about traveling around the world in 80 days there was very little information included that showed they had actually travelled in 80 trains. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. I also read Monisha’s first book - Around India in 80 trains - which I throughly enjoyed so I was very excited to read her second book. Packing up her rucksack - and her fianc�, Jem - Monisha embarks on an unforgettable adventure that will take her from London's St Pancras station to the vast expanses of Russia and Mongolia, North Korea, Canada, Kazakhstan, and beyond.

Locked up inside an apartment in the urban sprawl of Mumbai in the middle of a pandemic, Monisha's book was nothing short of a lifeline, much like it's star character.There's not much evidence that she succeeded, though -- maybe a little, in Tibet -- so there's no great victory for journalism here. The young Uighurs were regularly stopped and asked to hand over their phones for examination, and CCTV cameras above mosques ensured they didn't try to enter to pray. In fact, travelling through Tibet and meeting Tibetans on a Chinese train, Rajesh is a little embarrassed by the profuse thanks she is given by Buddhists for “her” country’s protection of the Dalai Lama.