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

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On each of the journeys, they engage with their fellow passengers teasing out stories from those travelling with them, sharing food and experiences and always hoping to make the connections to their next train. Her first book Around India in 80 Trains (2012) was named one of The Independent’s top ten books on India.

Then it’s homeward bound through northwest China, Kazakhstan and Russia, before heading through Poland and Germany to Italy, where they catch the the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, travelling in well-earned luxury to London. It wasn't easy to get into at first, as she tended to skip around a bit, it wasn't exactly sequential, but once you get used to her style, it is really interesting and becomes a page-turner. In a few hours we would be back in the smog and grind of Beijing, clogged with cars and angry people, and I wondered who really had the better lifestyle. Rajesh 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.To clarify, I don't care if she traveled third class, I care that she repeatedly complains about her decision. Rajesh's quick-fire writing is unflinchingly frank , with details packed in as tightly as passengers on Mumbai's commuter trains. 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. Publication dates are subject to change (although this is an extremely uncommon occurrence overall). 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.

There is a little bit of history thrown in at certain places like Japan and Thailand which really do add to the book. 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.It’s an easy read and covers a lot of ground, especially in North Asia, including a long section on North Korea.

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). Canadians don't take trains, they drive monster trucks from one province to the next, but that requires concentration on the road, and the need to stay awake. Monisha tells us how much she loves train travel, it's in her blood, she just has to drop everything and travel the world for 7 months by train. Though it took me a while to get into, I picked the book back up this week and couldn't put it down until I finished. 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.

Rajesh spends a lot of ink on the segments of the trip that pass through Russia, China, and North Korea. 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. Rajesh is not only blessed with an elegant style, but is witty and ever ready for a bit of self-deprecation. 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.