About

“Around the World in 80 Trains” is a travelogue by British journalist and writer Monisha Rajesh. Does the book hold up to the titular promise? Let’s find out!

The Journey

The book chronologically follows the couple on their journey around the world by train, although “the world” could be substituted by “Eurasia and North America” and “by train” by “as much by train as possible”. The author chose to narrate the book in a subjective first perspective, which allows her to quickly change focus between places, people and history. The narration choice also allows her to be an unreliable narrator, leaving out less interesting things in favour of stories that are not directly related to the journey at hand, for example historical backgrounds.

The journey starts in London, where the author and her fiance board the first train of many to come towards “the continent”. Sadly, the first part of the journey in Europe is also the weakest part of the book, the whole journey from England to Moscow via Southern Europe is reduced to complaints about being ripped of by a laundry service and how high-speed trains are not really representing the charm of train travel, even though the sheer diversity of routes and services possible for the route would beg to disagree.

The parts about Russia isn’t much more encouraging either, the whole experience on the Trans-Mongolian takes up less space than a day trip to a newly opened “Patriot Park” near Moscow where the couple fears for their lives for they are “brown” and brown people seem to be not welcome in Russia.

Once past China, the book seems to transform into a history lesson about Western prisoners of wars during WWII and their labour for the Japanese Imperial forces. While this topic may seem far-fetched, the author manages to describe it well in parallel with their current-day experiences on South-East Asian trains. Another complementary history lesson follows in Japan, this time with multiple interviews of atom bomb survivor families. Again, the historical details are well-weaved into the journey description and luckily for the reader many tropes common in Japan-related travel literature are avoided.

The North-American part is well-described, both in matter of nature as seen from the train windows as well as the people found travelling with them on the countless trains taken across the continent. Rail travel purists would point out how a train journey with multiple flights to cross the oceans wouldn’t be a train journey any more, but the casual nature of the book in this regard is a strength, it doesn’t bore the reader with rail vocabulary, that is left to other books and documentaries for the inclined.

Back across the Pacific, the best part of the book starts with a group meeting in Beijing for a ten-day train cruise across North Korea. The country presents a minefield for travel reporters, both ethically and stylistically: The author manages to strike a good balance between the different points of view and in describing the guides and fellow travellers. The same can be said about the following parts in Tibet and Xinjiang, where the author manages to be both critical of the Chinese government while not reducing the local population to victims without agency

After crossing the border to Kazakhstan, the book races to an end, skipping again the journey from Moscow to Northern Italy for a finale on the luxury Venice-Simplon Orient Express back to London.

The Good and the Bad

As already mentioned, the book has both weak and strong parts, with one major downside being that the book is fairly unbalanced, for example the description of a single overnight stay in Southern Japan is longer than the entirety of the experiences on Russian trains. It seems that the author has obvious preferences when looking back, but it would be nice to read more about her experiences in less-described parts of the journey.

A mixed bag is the fact that the book is a fairly casual travelogue, accessible to anyone interested without having to fear endless walls of text that only appeal to rail fans. It would however have been nice to include both a map of the journey as well as some basic details about the trains taken, especially for people who might want to find out more about a specific region or connection.

The author feels the need to mention her brownness multiple times thorough the book, but somehow manages to fall into the trap of sounding like a snobby upperclass Londoner when describing locals and fellow tourists, ahem travellerss in broad strokes with a generous helping of stereotypes. The author also seems to be woefully under-prepared in certain parts of the trip, which is both annoying and authentic, as anybody who has been on a long trip can say, sometimes it just feels nice to relax and enjoy some familiar cuisine in the comfortable environment of a hotel room.

The eBook version included a decently-sized array of photos that illustrate parts of the journey and give life to the descriptions of landscapes and people. It would have been nice to have more photos, maybe even some shots comparing the different trains taken, but an inclined reader can easily find internet collections of photos catering to whatever rail-related wishes one might have.

Summary

I started this book on a whim, both to compare with a similar trip I did as well as to gather ideas for further trips, and it certainly fulfilled both aims. While I had to pause on some more rough stretches, it ended up being an enjoyable read and I agreed with the thoughts of the author on the final stretch back home.

I would recommend this book to anybody interested in long-distance train journeys or even just interested in the kinds of people who do long-distance train journeys on their own volition.