Although it is so wonderful – to sit by the window and watch houses and trees, rivers and roads, cars and motorcycles, as well as unfamiliar people and their animals fly by outside. A train ride is always an adventure. Sometimes one that can only be seen in the movies. We decided: let art determine reality. And we came up with how to repeat the routes from various films.
"The Darjeeling Limited", 2007
Strange and beautiful, like everything by Wes Anderson, a drama about three American brothers traveling by train through India. They cross the entire country from west to east, from Mumbai to the city of Darjeeling in West Bengal, where the Himalayas begin, where a special variety of tea grows in the mountains, and where their mother lives.
Important point: all three are wealthy, so they can afford to travel across India on a luxurious train, the interior of which matches all the layman's notions of Eastern luxury. Otherwise, they would have to put up with the fact that trains in India often take much longer to reach their destination than promised, and rush around looking for a power outlet to charge their phones (since any device will run out of battery in 31 hours).
A train equivalent to the one shown in the film does not exist. So first you have to make a choice: repeat the route – or the style? If you want to travel through India in style, contact one of six companies where you can choose a route and buy a ticket for a train that, in addition to compartments (2-4 per car), also has a library, hammam, beauty salon, conference room, restaurant, and so on.
However, this will not be just a ticket, but a full-fledged tour lasting seven to ten days with sightseeing in various Indian cities. Agra and the Taj Mahal are mandatory; you will see Jaipur, Varanasi, Jodhpur, Udaipur depending on which tour you choose. On average, such a trip will cost you $800.
Those who, like the film's characters, want to travel by rail from Mumbai to Darjeeling will have to take a train to a place called New Jalpaiguri, which is 88 km from Darjeeling, or Siliguri, 80 km from the city. Information on schedules and ticket prices can be obtained from the official website of Indian Railways. When buying, choose a ticket of category AC2 (second class with air conditioning) or AC1 (first class with air conditioning).
To reach the coveted Darjeeling, you can either transfer to a car and drive another three and a half hours, or spend six hours on a narrow-gauge railway ride. The latter option is worth choosing for fearless lovers of scenic mountain views.
"Murder on the Orient Express", 1974
Who doesn't remember the stunning film adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel! The plot of this closed-room mystery unfolds on the Orient Express, traveling from Paris to Istanbul and stuck due to a snowstorm somewhere in the Balkans. The brilliant cast – Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York, Sean Connery, Jacqueline Bisset, Ingrid Bergman – ensured the film's incredible success, and Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar for it.
The Orient Express was the name of the train that ran between Paris and Istanbul from 1883 to 1977. Starting in 1977, it only went from Paris to Vienna, and in 2009 it was completely canceled. However, even today you can still buy a ticket for the Orient Express – since spring of this year, its service has resumed.
Now, once a year, a luxury class train runs on the Paris–Istanbul route. But this is no longer just the Orient Express, but the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, owned by a private company. A trip from Paris to Istanbul in an original 1920s–1930s carriage, in an Art Deco-style compartment, with first-class service, wine, treats, excursions, and entertainment, will cost approximately $10,000 and take six days.
During this time, passengers travel through Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The journey includes one overnight stay at a hotel in Budapest.
But there are no stops due to snowstorms or murders in the program for some reason.
"Shanghai Express", 1932
The most remarkable thing about this black-and-white melodrama by Josef von Sternberg is, of course, the director's muse Marlene Dietrich. In the film, she plays a prostitute nicknamed Shanghai Lily, who meets her former English fiancé on the train. In the plot, the train is seized by Chinese rebels: a similar story actually took place in 1923 on a train traveling from Beijing to Shanghai.
The film's crew never even came close to Shanghai: the film was shot at Paramount's Hollywood studio, and the Shanghai railway station was played by a train station in San Bernardino, California.
Maybe Marlene Dietrich didn't get to ride the "Shanghai Express" through China, but you certainly can. China has one of the most developed railway networks: you can travel by rail from any city to any major populated area, and it is the most convenient and safe mode of transportation.
Schedules and information in English can be obtained on the official website of China Railway, where you can also buy tickets. You will have to choose from four categories – soft sleeper (similar to our compartment car), hard sleeper (typical our second-class sleeper), soft seat, and hard seat. However, not every train has all four, and trains are also divided into categories. So what about the "Shanghai Express"?
Since 2011, a modern high-class train runs on the Beijing–Shanghai route, covering the distance of 1,318 km in four and a half hours.
"Doctor Zhivago", 1965
Boris Pasternak's novel has been adapted for the screen in the West twice: in 1965, Yuri and Lara were played by Omar Sharif and Julie Christie; in the 2002 television version, they were played by Keira Knightley and Scottish actor Hans Matheson. The novel was also adapted in Russia: in 2006, a mini-series came out with Oleg Menshikov and Chulpan Khamatova. Yuri's long, arduous, snowy journey to the Urals is one of the most impressive episodes. Perhaps it gives us the opportunity to see Russia through the eyes of filmmakers. This giant, strange, cold, white Russia.
Nothing could be simpler: buy a ticket from Moscow to Vladivostok. The train will depart from Yaroslavsky Station and will run for 6 days and 19 hours, and during that time you will cover all 9,298.2 km of the Trans-Siberian Railway, passing through the European part of Russia, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East – Yaroslavl or Nizhny Novgorod (depending on the direction), Kirov, Perm, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostok. Isn't that romantic?