Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-Mile Adventure Hardcover – March 26, 2019

Monisha Rajesh makes every country and their attractions sound so appealing. I would never even think about travelling to Tibet or North Korea. I would like to visit these countries because of her descriptive writing. There is the Potala palace in Tibet. This palace contains the Dalai Lama's throne. Tibet also has many butter sculptures made by monks. I think this would be interesting to see. I would love to see all of these things in person. I would love to visit Pyongyang to attend a film festival. I love eating new dishes. I would love to try the yak curry in Tibet. I would even try the cumin bread that is available on the silk road in Asia.I learned a lot about different trains. The fastest train in the world is in Beijing. The top speed of this train is 268 miles per hour. It would be an amazing experience for me to travel that fast. I learned there is a train called the Reunification Express in Vietnam. It goes from Hanoi to Saigon in Vietnam. I never even knew that train travel is available in Vietnam. I would love to ride on the Venice Orient Express. It travels through Italy and all of Europe . I would love to see the Dolomite mountains in Italy while riding on this train.The author even travelled to Japan and rode the bullet train. I would to ride on this fast train and eat delicious Japanese food. I even learned two Japanese words in this chapter of the book. I learned that sakura means cherry and that kodama means echo. I hope I can use these two words when conversing with another Japanese person. I am in love with the idea of travelling by train because of this book.

Its a fascinating book

I loved the idea of taking 80 trains around the world. The way she travelled around is not always how I would love to travel but it’s fun to read about. It’s about meeting quirky people, enjoying bad experiences, and seeing wild parts of the world from train windows and bad hotels.

First and foremost, I was thoroughly enticed with each unique train adventure. Around the World in 80 Trains provided a culturally interactive and observational foray into the lives of humans I would not be able to meet on my own. I also learned a lot about the circumstances and political conditions of various repressed people groups living in countries along the train routes. What a worthwhile read!

I enjoyed every page of it. I happened to travel on some of the routes described in the book and I share much of the feelings and considerations by the author.The focus is of course on the train experience but It's also a very interesting insight on different parts of the world, different cultures and different travel companions.Fun to read, pages go very fast with new and interesting experiences at any chapter.

What a lovely book. Makes me want to plan a train ride. The only thing that would have made this book better was to have included a map - even a rough one - that showed her travels.

The author certainly favors certain regions but overall a worthwile read, her stay in north korea is interesting. Its clear why trump would attracted to the Kim family dominance. The family creates a total myth and the cities are under used Disneyworlds. Their control has brainwashed the people to like being in prison like the Gaza strip.

Not a bad book. But the author definitely had a bias against America. The entire chapter was nothing but negativity and criticism. I was hoping for a book about travel. Not your political opinion.

I had read the authors previous book and hoped she had changed from a bit of a moaner to someone a little more mature and interesting but alas, I was disappointed.And I found her condescending. *Spoiler alert* - here is an excerpt from page 46 “Tour groups to my mind comprise people who lack the initiative to discover a new place, relying on parroted information that may or may not be true”.Tour groups generally consist of those, in my experience, who don’t have the money or the time to do the type of journeys that the author can!. I do tours myself, research before I go and find my limited leave usefully filled by the simple experience of travelling somewhere new and seeing things with my own eyes!. Initiative is wonderful but since other authors have written books about train travel eg Theroux then maybe the author child have shown a bit more ‘initiative’ and done something entirely different ?.I just don’t enjoy her books and if you do then great, I’m pleased you do but I just find that she never sounds very happy with things so ask myself why she bothers.Not an enjoyable read.

Admittedly I only got to page 60 but gave up in frustration. They had got half way down in Vietnam before I realised that from all the way from London I virtually knew or learned nothing about the countries or places they visited. Just conversations with passengers - which you suspect were made up to make it more interesting - and what the trains were like. Neither had been to Moscow before but the only description was a botched trip to some military park a big train ride away. And that was basically all you got as their experience of Moscow. Not for me

I love traveling but haven't been able to for the past 10 years. Reading this book made me feel as if I were on the journey with her and her fiancé Jem. Enjoyed this book very much. she describes the trains in a way normal people would explain it and not with technical details. The cities she visits are also described as a person talking to a friend and not as a Lonely Planet guide (thought she did mention it but in a good way). I love her interactions with various people she meets on the trains. This is not a moaning woman who does not get along with anyone. This is a woman who poured her heart and soul in the book, her thoughts are there, good or bad, very realistic, sometimes funny, sometimes serious, sometimes sad, but in overal a great book. I was sad I finished it. I am hoping to read more travel journals by Monisha in the future. Maybe a travel journal with Jem and Ariel. Would look forward to that. Not sure Monisha would read this, but please travel again and take your daughter too. Much love.

I absolutely loved the book! I took me two days so finish it as I couldn’t put it down once I started. 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.I feel like this book encapsulates two of the things I love most in life: travelling and reading. I was always fascinated to find out more about other countries and cultures and this book gave me a window into some of the most amazing counties around the globe.I like Monisha’s witty writing style, which gives the book a fun and laid back feel to it and differentiates it from the usual guide books and serious travel books.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.I really hope she writes another one. I will no doubt be buying that one too 🙂

I enjoy my train rides and reading this wonderful book made me want to go on all the train rides lovingly written about in this book! Monisha Rajesh gets it spot on - getting in the zone on long distance runs, the random meetings and friendships, the extremes of comfort (oh those toilets!) She even gets the totally annoying ‘seen it done it only much better than you’ guy! With do many adventures to pack into a journey it’s hard to pick out favourites but the steam train in Russia, the organised glory of Japan’s built trains (bliss) and the fabulously named Canadian and American trains stand out. Fun, thoughtful and informative in equal measure - a treat for train travel fans and armchair travellers alike!