Required reading

Herein, I think, is the chief attraction of railway travel. The speed is so easy, and the train disturbs so little the scenes through which it takes us, that our heart becomes full of the placidity and stillness of the country; and while the body is being borne forward in the flying chain of carriages, the thoughts alight, as the humour moves them, at unfrequented stations... -Robert Louis Stevenson

This was found in The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux, which contains many more train musings which i have read, and said I should write that down, but i couldn't stop reading, and have consequently lost those musings til a reread. This book is my preparation for my own cross continental railway journey, and thus far (from London to Bombay) is quite enjoyable. It has warned me not to be Dufilled (a term for a passenger whose train leaves with his luggage onboard but without him, one of the characters Theroux meets in Europe). The price of train travel seems to have changed dramatically (this book was published in 1975), though like with the musings, i am at a loss for exact numbers (i should keep post-its handy whilst reading). In any case it seemed cheap for traveling first class which includes sleeping accomodations and meals, though that could be because of the time and area. It was interesting reading about him traveling from Turkey to Iran to Afghanistan to Pakistan. Unfortunately, I think it was probably a much different, and probably more accessible, trip 30 years ago then it would be today. Theroux remarked that he had thought Amtrak was the worst railway in the world, but even it served hamburgers which was better than some of the food (or lack thereof) on the trains he has riden thus far. I hope my journey on Amtrak does not confirm his opinion, though whence i ride I shall only have VIARail to compare it to. And Theroux seems to be quite the worldwide train traveller, with The Old Patagonian Express going through the Americas, and Riding the Iron Rooster through China (which I have also acquired), and Dark Star Safari which involves some train and lots of other transportation from Cairo to Cape Town. I commence my own Railway Bazaar in 16 days. Before that I am off to the Emerald Isle in 2 days though!

Some trivia: Theroux was 34 when The Great Railway Bazaar was published. He went to UMass Amherst. He was in the Peace Corps in Malawi but got expelled for political reasons. Some of his fiction books have been controversial, supposedly involving people he knows, such as Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange. Theroux currently lives in Hawaii and keeps bees.