The Eurostar -- The other Orient Express -- The ferry to Besiktas -- Night train to Ankara -- Night train to Tbilisi -- Night train to Baku : the Trans-Caucasian -- Night train from Ashgabat to Mary -- Night train to Tashkent -- The Shan-e Punjab Express to Delhi -- Night train to Jodhpur : the Mandore Express -- Night train to Jaipur -- Night train to Mumbai : the "Superfast" Express -- Night train to Bangalore : the Udyan Express -- The Shatabdi Express to Chennai -- The Coastal Line to Galle and Hambantota -- The slow train to Kandy -- Ghost train to Mandalay -- The train to Pyin-Oo-Lwin -- Night train to Nong Khai -- Night train to Hat Yai Junction : Special Express -- Night train to Singapore : the Lankawi Express -- The slow train to the Eastern Star -- The boat Sontepheap to Phnom Penh -- The Mekong Express -- Night train to Hue -- The day train to Hanoi -- Tokyo Andaguraundo -- Night train to Hokkaido : Hayate Super Express -- The Limited Express : Sarobetsu to Wakkanai -- Night train to Kyoto : the Twilight Express -- The Trans-Siberian Express -- Night train to Berlin and beyond.

In Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Theroux recreates an epic journey he took thirty years ago, a giant loop by train (mostly) through Eastern Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, China, Japan, and Siberia. In short, he traverses all of Asia top to bottom, and end to end. In the three decades since he first travelled this route, Asia has undergone phenomenal change. The Soviet Union has collapsed, China has risen, India booms, Burma slowly smothers, and Vietnam prospers despite the havoc unleashed upon it the last time Theroux passed through. He witnesses all this and more in a 25,000 mile journey, travelling as the locals do, by train, car, bus, and foot, providing his penetrating observations on the changes these countries have undergone.--From publisher description.