Packing up her rucksack – and her fiancé, Jem – Monisha embarks on an unforgettable seven-month-long 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. It’s an easy read and covers a lot of ground, especially in North Asia, including a long section on North Korea. Beginning at the Eurostar terminal they were across to the continent in record time, ready for their onward journey to Moscow.

Packing up her rucksack – and her fiancé, 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. We have occasionally travelled in a group with an expert guide when it was dangerous or difficult to travel to a certain country. as well as wonderful descriptions of cities, mountains, rivers, sunsets as she passes through the landscape on the seemingly endless journey.I found it fascinating but I was disappointed with the journey on the Trans Siberian train which I would love to do but now I'm not too sure, as the author didn't sell it to me. 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. The impression is that modern life has seeped into every last, once obscure corner of the Earth: Everyone has iPhones and tablets, everyone is wearing Nikes or Adidas, everyone seems to be on the same wavelength materially despite cultural and linguistic differences. was essentially “Around Asia with a brief chapter on North America, a complete gloss over Europe, and never venturing into Africa, Central or S America. Prepare for a very fine ride' Michael PalinFrom 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.

It feels like a title that has been added as a marketing tool, although they so go on 80 trains - not that we hear about many of them.

Then she dismisses the entire continent of Europe and the first 15 trains of her journey in one chapter and tells us how painfully dull and mundane it all was. elevation with no time to adjusting to altitude – this is frankly, dangerous, and on top of that, the author has been complaining in her book about the bad symptoms. I like that Rajesh is aware of the problematic nature of travelling to a dictatorship and enjoying its state-sanctioned hospitality. 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. Monisha offers a wonderfully vivid account of life, history and culture in a book that will make you laugh out loud - and reflect on what it means to be a global citizen - as you whirl around the world in its pages.

Despite Rajesh’s gripes about some of my favourite places in the world to take trains, this book succeeding in rekindling my love for rail travel and my very real wish to do more of it. Publication dates are subject to change (although this is an extremely uncommon occurrence overall). after Pol Pot captured Phnom Penh in 1975, the trains played accomplice to his genocidal regime, enabling the evacuation and relocation to the countryside of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians forced into hard labor that led to their starvation and eventual massacre. Prepare for a very fine ride’ Michael PalinFrom 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 America are all largely alike aside from the people on them, so that is what Rajesh concentrates on for a chapter, and entertainingly so. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Although observing that “most people drawn to the Amtrak trains were unhinged to varying degrees”, she concludes “Americans who have never ridden on their railways have no idea what they are missing. 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 is such a snob about older-is-better that she is predisposed to hate Japan’s clean, fast, punctual trains.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Monisha has already travelled the triangle of India by train but this is going round the whole world. It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance. Reviewing the trains they mention does not add up and maybe an appendix with a map or some form of record of which trains and time spent would add some context since they did not travel everywhere and the choice of route was at times confusing as they circled around to visit sights that the author then hardly mentions. Secondly, I wouldn’t trust recommendations from a person who openly says she went to Tibet, through 0 elevation to 5k elevation on the train to 3.But thankfully, their European leg is covered in one short chapter and the book became much more enjoyable for me as they crossed into Russia. Some of her conversations were interesting, which was another redemption point, but this is the last book you should pick up if you're trying to satiate your wanderlust.