Hi, I'm Lale Arakogli, and this is Women Who Travel.

We love talking about train travel on this podcast.

Glamorous, exciting, relaxing, and often nostalgic, when at its best, and let's be clear,

no two journeys are made equal, seeing the world by train

can beat all of those things and more, especially if you're on a sleeper train. After all,

what could be more exciting than going to sleep in one country and waking up in another?

Every single time, it doesn't matter how long it's been in between my travels.

I really feel it every time I get on board.

And I see something new out of the window or discover something fun about trains that I've never known before.

Today's guest is a friend of the podcast, Manisha Rajesh, who spoke to us almost a year ago about train journeys across India. She's written several books, including around the world

in 80 trains and epic train journeys, and she's currently well into the research for her next

book on sleeper trains. She has lots of practical advice about how to make the most

of the experience. I've just come back from Norway where I did the sleeper train during the

midnight sun. It's the strangest feeling because your circadian rhythms are completely thrown out

of whack. You're staring out of the window watching the sun,

not quite go down, but it's sort of orangey red, and then the sky gets these indigo sort of shards,

and then it just doesn't ever go dark. And with an hour, the sun starts to sort of take off again from behind the cloud, and it just, it's so odd to see. And at three o'clock in the morning,

you can see people on the edge of the fjords waist-deep

fishing, out on boats and hiking.

And you see all of this from the train window.

And again, I have that feeling of, this is why I do this, because I wouldn't see this

if I was flying.

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