Lunatic Express by Carl Hoffman This is a fascinating read about travel through countries with some of the world’s craziest and most dangerous transportation networks. Author Hoffman’s recollections of his journey are gripping, engaging, reflective and at times humorous.
He travels as locals would almost always in the lowest seating class – from the insanely crowded Mumbai trains where over 4,000 are killed annually due to train related accidents to the -40F temperatures experienced when he hopped a ride in an old 20 ton truck for 36 hours (on a dirt track) in the dead of winter in Mongolia. He purposely seeks out the world’s most dangerous airplanes, ferries, trains and buses. As a curious reporter, Hoffman wants to understand how nearly all of the world’s population by numbers, travel.
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