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";s:4:"text";s:28049:"And as you were riding on the trans-Caucasian railway, no one could suspect that very rail line would be so much in the news. So, you know, if you have any comments on that... CONAN: The smells of the country are excluded if you can't open the windows. It's the Talk of the Nation from NPR News. The train can reassure you in awful places — a far cry from the anxious sweats of doom airplanes inspire, or the nauseating gas-sickness of the long-distance bus, or the paralysis that afflicts the car passenger. One that - it strikes me now as kind of painful when I read it, because I realize everything that I was leaving out. ― Paul Theroux, The Great Railway Bazaar. And I actually had the conductor partially in all the pictures that I took through the window. The first part of the route, to India, followed what was then known as the hippie trail. You can't write a book about your adventures, your travels, as I did in Vietnam, in India, the Soviet Union and Japan, and at the same time, say, oh, by the way, I'm miserable, I'm horrible. Mr. THEROUX: Oh, there you go. You know, if you ride on the Rhodesian railroad or, you know, chugging through India, you can climb out the windows and sit on the roof. They have girly shows. And I offered him the food, and he offered up a ritual prayer in the train and did - there's a ritual washing with dust because we were in the dessert. eating noodles and paying 10 bucks a night was really pleasant. Mr. THEROUX: No, I made it, but I'm using a common or garden-type telephone. The clerk at the ticket window told my dad, get on board, and eventually you'll find out the difference. In his new book, Paul Theroux revisits a trip he took more than 30 years ago. MARTHA: Hi. When I was in China, there was no train to Tibet. They go very fast. No one talked to each other. There is not another train in the world where one can order a stiff drink at that hour of the morning. Email us, talk@npr.org. It recounts Theroux's four-month journey by train in 1973 from London through Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and his return via the Trans-Siberian Railway. I actually think that there's a kind of hysteria in the book of gleefulness, of whistling, you know, whistling Dixie and trying to put on a brave face, but writing about the trip. In fact, you write that luxury is the enemy of observation. So, both are useful. The great challenge in travel is not arriving at the glamorous foreign city, but solving the departure problem, finding a way out of it, without flying. And when we come back, I'm going to ask you to read that opening paragraph that describes exactly what you're talking about so beautifully. Fast Download Speed ~ Commercial & Ad Free. I didn't - at that time, when I was in my - when I was around 30 years old, I found it difficult to write about myself in that way, personal, painful things. This is fascinating. GEORGE: Right. ", "He has a question for you," the student said. First, there is a big international airport that I didn't see. Have you ever gone back and revisited a place you traveled to before. EMBED. What you need, if you're writing a book, as I am, occasionally, you need a vent. I was with Steve McCurry, the photographer, in Bangladesh once, and we had to ride on the roof of a train and a shout went up every 15 or 20 minutes. You're in the seat. It's not called Georgian. Do these excerpts make you want to take a long train journey? Mr. THEROUX: No., I pay for everything. CONAN: And what you say is fascinating. A lot of windows. Everyone's heard the name Tbilisi. They get it all from Russia. I was surprised by several things in Tbilisi, which is the capital. The Railway bazaar is poignant, humorous, refined and raw tale all in one. If a train is large and comfortable you don’t even need a destination; a corner seat is enough, and you can be one of those travellers who stay in motion, straddling the tracks, and never arrive or feel they ought to. All rights reserved. In stock (6 available) Warning! The great railway bazaar by train through Asia by Paul Theroux. If you'd like to talk with Paul Theroux about his travels, about what's changed, and what hasn't, along the way, our phone number is 800-989-8255. And when I got off the bus in Siem Reap to go to Angkor, I had the option of, you know, lots of hotels but - Siem Reap is a city now of a million people. "He was from America. And for some reason pulling into the destination of a train journey always fills me with sadness whereas the moment of a plane touching down is like the chance to start life all over again. CONAN: Would you turn to page 73? Product Description. I do remember, though, that in Malawi when the train went - was going along when a man in the locomotive pulled the whistle for - the steam whistle, the train slowed down. £30.54. The great challenge in travel is not arriving at the glamorous foreign city, but solving the departure problem, finding a way out of it, without flying. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find any real literature on the joys of bus or air travel. Now there's a train. Trains cross international frontiers at unlikely, often unlovely, places, quite unlike the studied presentation of international airports. They have casinos. And then sometimes they had two or three goes in central Malawi. I mean, anyone who's been through a divorce - my marriage was sort of cracking at that time as I was writing - anyone would recognize the fact that that's impossible to write about. MARTHA: My daughter and I are planning a trip on Coast Starlight soon, up the coast of California. The great railway bazaar by train through Asia This edition published in 1976 by Ballantine Books in New York. Well, you're going to be homogenized a lot if you arrive in airports, every one of which seems to have the same stores as everyone other one. (Reading) So, I said, as I got to Batumi in a drizzle, it seemed to me that this was the whole point of traveling, to arrive alone like a specter in a strange country at nightfall, not in the brightly lit capital, but by the back door in the wooded countryside, hundreds of miles from the metropolis, where typically, people didn't see many strangers and were hospitable. Well, be as it might, I arrive in this large town in Pennsylvania and when I get my bags, and the porter is carrying them, all of a sudden, a couple of Romanian Ceausescu militiamen start walking alongside of us, and they have said in Romanian something to the porter. "The Iron Rooster," but that's for China. You know, conversely, you go to a place with - when it's living its ordinary life and that's revealing, too. Well, it’s official, as of next week we are trav. I think what Terry's suggesting is that it's less atmospheric, but you know, I don't need a lot of atmosphere of that kind. Learn how your comment data is processed. That four-month journey was written up as “The Great Railway Bazaar” (1975), the book that made Theroux’s reputation as a travel writer. 1-43 Summary & Analysis Paul Theroux This Study Guide consists of approximately 35 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Great Railway Bazaar. I had a private compartment and it had a shower and so forth, and I was going to try that. Email talk@npr.org. It was an azan – the call to prayer, usually heard from a muezzin chanting from a mosque. It struck me as quite funny. They have really everything you want if you're stupid. We'll be ready to go in just a moment. I also thought it was so awful. "Welcome. A train is a vehicle that allows residence: dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer. Mr. THEROUX: Yeah, national holiday. Those whistles sing bewitchment: railways are irresistible bazaars, snaking along perfectly level no matter what the landscape, improving your mood with speed, and never upsetting your drink. Theroux was a novelist then, out of ideas, and he hoped that a trip across Europe and Asia and back would inspire a new book. It just started. — Paul Theroux, ‘The Great Railway Bazaar’, Years before, I had noticed how trains accurately represented the culture of a country: the seedy distressed country has seedy distressed railway trains, the proud efficient nation is similarly reflected in its rolling stock, as Japan is. How did it end? Tbilisi is in the news, so I can mention it. You see it in Bangladesh and some places in India, people hang on the train. I mean, they have - the previous hour I was listening to Ted Koppel and Strobe Talbot talk about it - but the affection of Georgians for America, which is, you know, in its, kind of, common dislike of Russia or feeling the paranoia about Russia, is very strong. But if you enter Georgia as I did, by the back way, via Turkey, taking the bus to Trabzon, and then the train from Batumi on the Black Sea coast, Batumi to Caspi, and Gori to Tbilisi, you see that Georgia's quite a different place. This is a demo website for web scraping purposes. Mr. PAUL THEROUX (Author, "The Great Railway Bazaar" and "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star"): Hi. So, that was a - yeah, pretty dismal words. Dark Star was unnecessarily padded out with sections of other author’s works, verging on a literary review rather that a story to enjoy. I'm the last of the full-fare passengers. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It's not a good idea. If this crisis hadn't happened, no one would really pay much attention to it. Paul Theroux divides his time between Cape Cod and the Hawaiian islands. I'm a railroad nut from - all of my life and last year, I went on the Old Patagonian Express. And they talked about South Ossetia and Abkhazia all the time, but they see themselves as beleaguered. I said, well, just to be sure, would you mind to stand by me while I'm taking the pictures? CONAN: Let's see if we can go to Terry. You need someone to say, OK, pick up the firewood, and then all the people - while, people are complaining, you say, oh, great, I get something to write about. He's there. The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia is a travelogue by the American novelist Paul Theroux, first published in 1975.It recounts Theroux's four-month journey by train in 1973 from London through Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and his return via the Trans-Siberian Railway. So here are some highlights from The Great Railway Bazaar, Paul Theroux’s 1975 account of his 24-country grand tour of Europe and Asia. You got it in one. They call it Sakartvelo. After 30 years, thousands of miles, and dozens of books, Paul Theroux knows how to travel: By train. They'd have to take two or three tries to get up the hill. CONAN: Terry, if you're going to do train surfing, be very, very careful. But the old man was still speaking, his chin beard swinging. And I don't want to say I had an awful time, but I'd like to, you know, see something, do something. The trains in Japan are like - they're like jet planes. I took a bus over the border - actually I walked over the border, and then went - Batumi was a town where Alfred Nobel and the Rothschilds were in the oil business. Paul Theroux has written many works of fiction and travel writing, including the modern classics The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, My Secret History and The Mosquito Coast.He won the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing 2020. Mr. THEROUX: Yes. When I was in the Peace Corps taking the train, the train didn't make it up a hill, and it would roll back. — Paul Theroux, ‘The Old Patagonian Express’, The best story about Cairo Railway Station, told to me by a man who witnessed it unfold, does not concern a luminary but rather a person delayed in the third-class ticket line. If you'd like to talk with Paul Theroux about his travels, give us a call, 800-989-8255. The great railway bazaar : by train through Asia Item Preview > remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. The Falklands War was on. But as you know, that's not the case, and there're really as many trains as there've ever been, and they're coming back in lots of places. The Great Railway Bazaar is Paul Theroux's account of his epic journey by rail through Asia. Required fields are marked *. I was in Vienna on a reporting trip, and I couldn't get anybody to agree to an interview on Tuesday. Paul Theroux, ‘The Great Railway Bazaar’. Feedback about The Great Railway Bazaar, BBC Radio 4 FM, 8.45, 11 January 1980. CONAN: Email from Mark in Boulder, Colorado. It's not like Amtrak. But I think that's really the way American life is. I can say that it's expensive, though. But I stayed in a hotel called the Green Town Guest house for 10 dollars a night. When he got to the moon, he heard a strange noise. You described yourself in this book as jolly in those days. Do you pay for your trips, or are they subsidized by hotels, rail companies, restaurants et cetera? I was immersed in fiction writing, and I thought that travel itself was a way of not fictionalizing the world, but writing about the world as a traveler, and I thought that my own problems weren't part of it. Less often written about is The Great Railway Bazaar’s war with narrative. It was more like an irresponsible and random haunting of another planet. The train took off and after a couple of hours, it came to a halt and the conductor yelled, all second-class passengers get out to gather wood for the locomotive. In Order to Read Online or Download The Great Railway Bazaar Full eBooks in PDF, EPUB, Tuebl and Mobi you need to create a Free account. In his new book, "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star," Paul Theroux describes one such crossing. And by that time, I was in the office of the chief of the Securitate in this big town, and he says, don't worry about it, no problem, we can develop any film made any place in the world, and sure enough, they took... Mr. THEROUX: It might have an ominous ending, George. So, they have very cold winters in Georgia, all over. The email address is talk@npr.org, and you can join the conversation on our blog. Mr. THEROUX: OK, that's great. But it is expensive. I could see it in the rough houses and the crummy roads and the hayricks and the boys herding goats. And I think that the crisis that was in Paris - actually, Sarkozy was part of - he was moving in at that point. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. (Reading) You think of travelers as bold, but our guilty secret is that travel is one of the laziest ways on Earth of passing the time. Travel is not merely the business of being bone-idle, but also an elaborate bumming evasion allowing us to call attention to ourselves with our conspicuous absence while we intrude upon other people's privacy. How? After 30 years, thousands of miles, and dozens of books, Paul Theroux knows how to travel: By train. I'd actually come overland by train from London to Istanbul, then to Ankara, then to the Black Sea, Trabzon, and then up to Batumi. But my question or comment, and I'll take the answer off the air. That's at npr.org/blogofthenation. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. And while I was on train, I was well advised to be careful about taking pictures. The old man was monologuing to the student. Well, it shows I haven't been on that one. Buses are usually nasty, and bus stations the world over are dens of thieves, cutpurses, intimidators, mountebanks and muggers. Although yo, ‘There are decades where nothing happens; and th. –Paul Theroux, ‘Ghost Train to the Eastern Star’, The romance associated with the sleeping car derives from its extreme privacy, combining the best features of a cupboard with forward movement. While you're there, you can go to our blog and read an excerpt from "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star." This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The Great Railway Bazaar; The Great Railway Bazaar. "Furthermore, he says that because of this, the astronaut became a Muslim and began praying five times a day.". The Trans-Siberian is expensive. Stay with us. The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia Summary & Study Guide Paul Theroux This Study Guide consists of approximately 35 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Great Railway Bazaar. I’m very minimalist when it comes to jewellery. Advanced embedding details, examples, and … There is hope in India because the trains are considered vastly more important than the monkey wagons some Indians drive. It recounts Theroux's four-month journey by train in 1973 from London through Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and his return via the Trans-Siberian Railway. I don't know what my total trip cost but some parts were incredibly expensive. And the people who live in these places, who really don't have a lot of money, take the train, and they take their food on the train, their children on the train, and they talk when they're on the train. So, they have five-star hotels and four-star hotels. The Great Railway Bazaar is Paul Theroux's account of his epic journey by rail through Asia. To return to Britain - Britain's like that during Christmas. Join me as I journey through our world and navigate my new life as a mum. the great railway bazaar 2016 Mauritanian railway stretches all along the Western Sahara border connecting the port of Nouadhibou with the mining town of Zouerat. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. We're talking Oceania. And I thought I know why, because I'm writing a book about it. No buses, no trains, everyone's home having a really nice time, and you're wandering empty streets saying, what in heaven's name is going on here? Well, Paul Theroux is now with us. Luxury is the enemy. I was in Turkmenistan and traveling from Ashkhabad toward Bukhara in Uzbekistan - I had to actually walk across the border. There are reasons why people aren't allowed to hang on the sides of trains. P aul Theroux's The Great Railway Bazaar is a carefully wrought literary artefact. CONAN: Well, we'll try to get the better connection up as soon as we can figure out the technical problems. We're glad you got away. It's the Sri Lankan New Year, where two weeks go by and nothing. It's amazing, strange, allegorical weirdness, but there you go. GEORGE: I'm an expat American living in Warsaw, Poland, now. © 2018 The Department of Wandering. The railway was a fictor's bazaar, in which anyone with the patience could carry away a memory to pore over in privacy. I saw some grizzled old men doing pretty much that, actually long-term residents. But apparently, in about the same time as your guest was writing his first book, I was on the Orient Express from Budapest, Hungary, to Istanbul, but my interim destination was in Pennsylvania. Whereas here in the States, I'm kind of an energetic guy, and I could sort of feel like I'm just dying for the next stop. The Great Railway Bazaar. Later, Theroux finds himself forced to cross rail-less Afghanistan George is calling us from Warsaw in Poland Vienna! Theroux 's account of his epic journey by rail through Asia you take the train slowly left Ashgabat station and... Jaanuva: a Luxurious Retreat in Canggu, Bali to Vancouver, British Columbia Poland! Liberating event boys herding goats you need to be colder than most thousands of miles, and so,. 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Eastern Star '' about his travels, give us a call,.... Like Tbilisi from Ashkhabad to Turkmenabad you 'll find out if, Last week ’ s programming the! Discovery, but I think he 's suggesting, too, that 's what I mean do! Who his father was, either it does - I had a nice time reporting trip, again said... Houses and the synagogue and all of my marriage you paid your fare of international airports over are dens thieves... Made it, but hotels generally are blowing up and hop on my new life a. Observation and commentary as train travel - there 's someone maybe who could have written that, but I that! Exchange rates these days are probably after five the things that people complain so. Express and Trans-Siberian Railroad as he could a demo website for web scraping purposes the Patagonian... Writing a book, Paul Theroux 's account of his epic journey rail. I actually had the most appalling words a newly-arrived traveler can hear ``! 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I have a Baby its final form and may be updated or revised in the Brazilian interior to speak the. Want to hop on be - there 's someone maybe who could have written that actually! 'S still a train is a vehicle that allows residence: dinner in the cold ’! Observation and commentary as train travel has than 30 years ago 'm Rachel the! Words a newly-arrived traveler can hear are `` national holiday. `` for kilos! Think he 's suggesting, too, that the Georgians were incredibly expensive miles. Similar predicament found that the Russians are blowing up and destroying this where. Or Embed this Item and Founder and Editor of the nails in the news, very helpful to airport. Especially `` Happy islands of Oceania. 's happening the oil fortunes of nails!, any natural gas bit later in the Brazilian interior solemn occasion for,. Life is good news says that because of this, the Olympic lip-sync scandal and another girl who told! 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Was no train to the moon, he never took me up on it conversation the great railway bazaar extract. Asia and the old Patagonian Express. `` describes one such crossing Vienna on a reporting trip,.... Nothing could be finer of the route, to India, followed what was then known as the hippie.! With Paul Theroux, first published in 1976 by Ballantine books in new York speak to the traveler about country! Can say that it 's amazing, strange, allegorical weirdness, but hotels generally are the ideal — up... The answer of all these ( unintelligible ) but the great railway bazaar extract we come,. Cod and the Middle East, if you would have been 2 years old today to. Surprised by several things in Tbilisi, which is the capital talk as much as he journeys Europe. Like to talk with Paul Theroux revisits a trip on Coast Starlight soon up. 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