A transcontinental train adventure from Brighton Pavilion to the India’s Taj Mahal
Like so many of life’s Big Things, this trip started with one simple question:
Can it be done?
It was sparked by the conversations in play around responsible travel. I dedicate my days to finding new and exciting ways to connect our clients to Asia – in my eyes, the most extraordinary region in the world – and I am driven to keep making those journeys more responsible, enjoyable and enlivening. It’s what I do, and I love it. As an industry innovator, and executive board member of Travel by BCorp, I see the huge need to devise more sustainable logistics whilst simultaneously honing the benefits that global travel can bring to everyone involved.
So, with Selective Asia’s routes at the front of my mind, I asked myself: could we travel from the UK to Asia without flying? Is it currently possible? What would that trip really look like? One question led to another, and before I knew it I was deciding destinations and calculating transport links and timings; imagining the details. 19 days became a month, became a sabbatical, and then two months, and suddenly I was looking at an epic journey.
The two parallel lines of motivation taking me forwards are an excitement about testing the practicalities of reaching one of my favourite southern-Asian cities without flying, and a need to reconnect with the sense of adventure I felt during my early travelling days. I’m longing to be inspired, get lost, take some risks. I can’t wait to take chances, be surprised, make mistakes, let others lead me; to experience travel that takes a road less trodden. I want to cut through the geopolitical news noise and make my own interpretations; to rediscover how I react in new circumstances. I want to be that traveller again.
Train travel offers so much to the individual. There’s something about crossing borders by land that hits different. You can feel the distances and the spaces in a way you just can’t by air. It’s tangible; visceral. You get a more gradual introduction to each place and culture, rather than landing at the eye of the storm.
It was non-negotiable for me to get the responsible travel aspects right. It’s hard to get a complete consensus on the figures, as there are so many variables in play, but even relatively conservative metrics suggest around a three-fold reduction in carbon output travelling by rail rather than plane. Rumbling along less-travelled paths also helps combat overtourism, and makes the economic benefits of travel more evenly spread. A no-brainer, on both counts.
This idea (though perhaps a little crazy!) brought back something I haven’t felt in quite a while, and made me realise how much I’ve missed it: the rush of stepping fully out of my comfort zone.
That’s a rare sensation for me these days, partly because I’ve stretched that comfort zone pretty far (I’m writing this having just returned from climbing Mount Ararat, and I’m never happier than when looking towards a summit!) But there’s something unbeatable about getting properly lost in the terrain and the moment, not knowing exactly what comes next, and it’s been a few years since I genuinely gave myself over to that spontaneity.
Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities don’t present themselves very often, and now feels like the right time to do it – to rediscover the magic with sustainability as the driving force. It’s Selective Asia’s 20th year (and, incidentally, my 50th), and what better time to look at things from a fresh angle?
So, here we are. A route, a rail pass and the road ahead. Starting in Brighton and ending at, arguably, Asia’s most iconic landmark – the Taj Mahal. Slow travel, by train. A chance to see the places in-between. An adventure, from western to eastern Europe, into western and southern Asia.
12880 km, 2 months, 13 borders and 39 trains.
Let’s go.