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

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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.

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. The 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.

We have occasionally travelled in a group with an expert guide when it was dangerous or difficult to travel to a certain country. 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”. 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. Such rookie mistakes could have been amusing anecdotes, had they not been formulated as faults in the system itself, with Rajesh taking no responsibility for her own failures.

We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. 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.This book left me feeling happy, grateful for a many splendored world and hopeful that some day in the not do distant future, my feet shall get busy again, travelling and exploring. 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.