Paul Theroux · 1975 · rail

Paul Theroux's 1975 travel classic. In 1973 he set out from London to ride the great trains of Asia - the Orient Express to Istanbul, on through Iran and the Khyber Pass to India, down to Ceylon and across Burma, Thailand and Singapore, up through Vietnam to Japan - and home the long way, on the Trans-Siberian Express across the Soviet Union. A four-month loop by rail across two continents.

1. 1
   London

   Where Theroux boards the boat train, setting out to ride the fabled railways of Asia all the way to Japan and back, chronicling the trains as portraits of the lands they cross.

2. 2
   Istanbul

   Reached by the Orient Express through Europe, the threshold between continents where the European rail networks give way to the harder trains of Asia.

3. 3
   Tehran

   Across Turkey and into Iran under the Shah, riding on toward the subcontinent through a landscape of oil, empire and unease.

4. 4
   Delhi

   The heart of the Indian railways, where Theroux rides the Grand Trunk Express and the Frontier Mail among the crowds that make the trains a whole society in motion.

5. 5
   Madras

   South down the peninsula on the Grand Trunk and the Indian Ocean Mail, through a country Theroux covers more thoroughly than anywhere else on the trip - and out to the ferry at Rameswaram.

6. 6
   Ceylon

   Across the Palk Strait to Sri Lanka and the hill railway up to Kandy - a detour off the main line that the map has been leaving out, and one of the best passages in the book.

7. 7
   Calcutta

   Back across the strait and north-east through Bengal to a city he finds appalling and cannot stop looking at - the last stop in India before the border and the Burmese trains.

8. 8
   Rangoon

   Burma and the Mandalay Express to the great Gokteik Viaduct, the journey pressing east through Southeast Asia's heat and history.

9. 9
   Singapore

   The end of the southbound line, tip of the Malay Peninsula, before Theroux turns north again toward Vietnam and Japan.

10. 10
    Tokyo

    Japan's efficient railways, the far point of the loop, where after months of hard travel he boards a ship for the Soviet coast and the long way home.

11. 11
    Moscow

    The end of the Trans-Siberian Express after days across the whole width of the Soviet Union - the last great train before the journey home to London.