I think the first Paul Theroux book I read was The Great Railway Bazaar about 10 years ago. It was an inspiring book-it made me want to travel more. Over the years I occasionally read some of his other books like Saint Jack, My Secret History, My Other Life, and Kowloon Tong. As good as those books are, I think Theroux really shines in his travel writing. Ghost Train To The Eastern Star is a sort of revisiting of his first publishing triumph-the subtitle is "On The Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar." It was interesting to learn that the book caused a major rift in his marriage that took him some time to recover from since he had left his wife and two young sons alone for along period of time and she took up with another man. In the beginning while in London he confronts some past memories and remarks that he was able to survive in England because he wasn't an Anglophile. It turns out the trip he originally planned didn't turn out the way he had thought it would, for example he wasn't able to visit in Cambodia since it was being ruled by Pol Pot and the People's Liberation Army at the time. And on this trip he felt it was better to avoid Pakistan and Afghanistan due to the war and xenophobia.
I like the fact that Theroux is a traveler who isn't afraid to pull any punches. He writes about his experiences truthfully with the good and the bad. He makes judgments about people, places, and things based on his own experience and observations. He travels alone so that he has to confront people and be social-I suspect his curiosity would drive him to do so anyway. He is always looking for the local's perspective on the respective country he is visiting. He likes to check out red light districts and pornography to get a feeling of what the people are really like. He likes to read while traveling and usually chooses books that illuminate the travel experience. I like to do this as well. He reads Philip Short's book Pol Pot, and I read Henry Shawcross' book Sideshow, while in Cambodia. We both read Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War in Vietnam. I also like the fact that he searches out literary acquaintances like Orhan Pamuk in Istanbul, Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka, Haruki Murakmai in Tokyo, and Pico Iyer in Kyoto.
I guess the sections I found most interesting were the places I have been or am interested in going to. He didn't spend much time in eastern Europe, but he makes Istanbul sound very enticing as if I didn't need more enticement to go there. I've already decided that if I go to Kyrgyzstan again I will go via Istanbul. His descriptions of Central Asia in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were similar to that of Kyrgyzstan. However, Turkmenistan is an entity all itself. India sounds overwhelming and Theroux seems to think so as well--the closest I've been is Bangladesh, but I still think I should go sometime. He is also sceptical about the "Indian Miracle Economy." He is dismayed by Myanmar. The rest of SE Asia seems to have been more to his liking. I have made many visits to SE Asia and he seems to appreciate the mellow people and charms of the region as much as I do. Singapore is of special interest to him because early in his career he taught there for a couple of years in the 60s before they refused to renew his contract. I also remember that his descriptions of Japan were some of the more racy bits in The Great Railway Bazaar. The Trans-Siberian Express also interests me, but I'm not sure his description has sold me quite yet.
I think Theroux has inspired me to do more travel by train. I have always enjoyed it. I traveled many miles backpacking through Europe the summer of 1992 on a Eurorail pass. One of my great travel experiences was taking a sleeper from Ho Chi Mihn to Hue in 2000. I always enjoy taking the shinkansen in Japan-this year I took it to Kobe and will go to Nagoya soon as well. I am planning to attend a conference in Cambodia and I was hoping to visit a Japanese friend in Laos and now I'm thinking of taking a train to the Laos boarder (unfortunately no trains in Laos) from Bangkok this time around. I haven't done it before, but I'm looking forward to the experience.
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