Metro maps of India
Travel Newsletter: 21 July 2023. Europe’s Bitcoin micronation, Tokyo is the new Paris, Singapore passport, Uzbekistan by train, and more travel reads.
Greetings from Kuala Lumpur! I'm on my way to Indonesia, and KL is one of the best air hubs if you are going somewhere other than Bali or Jakarta.
While I'm in KL I will be checking out some places I haven't been by using one of the new transit lines. I'm also writing reports for Future Southeast Asia, so sign up there if you want to see all the new projects in KL.
Speaking of transit lines, this week I made a list of the metro maps of India. China and Japan get most of the media attention about metro systems in Asia, but India has been building out metro systems across the country. The Delhi metro has grown in size since I was last there, and I have taken the metro in Bengaluru and Kolkata. Chennai, Mumbai, Kochi, and Jaipur are places that I have visited that have added a metro line since my visit.
The addition of Kochi was a surprise, and another surprise I found out this week is that there will be direct flights from Kochi to Ho Chi Minh City next month. I loved my time in Kerala, so I am tempted to go back, but as I discuss in the links below, revisiting your favourite places gets harder as you continue to travel.
Anyway, check out all the different metro maps of India. Some of the maps depart from the usual metro design style.
Latest posts at Nomadic Notes
• Metro maps of India: High-resolution maps of every metro system in India
Travel reads
• I trekked an entire European country in three days
“Mountains, medieval castles, tiny towns, and nature preserves: what walking the Liechtenstein Trail is actually like.”
• Inside Liberland: Europe’s Bitcoin micronation
“Will a crypto-fuelled fantasy survive on the Danube?”
• How I survived a wedding in a jungle that tried to eat me alive
• Some thoughts on 19 years by
The internet-ancient Travelfish turns 19.
• Sweden’s Biosphere Trail: ‘Everything is clean and fresh and uncomplicated’
• Last exit to Springfield: How America’s coolest city made The Simpsons
• The Nightingale Olympic department store – Bangkok’s oldest shopping mall
• The 10 best U.S. cities for digital nomads—New York and Los Angeles didn’t make the cut
Tokyo
“It's simply the greatest city in the world. If you haven't been there, you need to go.”
One of my favourite cities, and one that I need to return to.
• After last train in Tokyo, a second city comes to life
Passport power
• Singapore passport replaces Japan’s as world’s most powerful according to the Henley Passport Index.
As a news curator, I try and find travel stories outside of the usual US,UK, CAN, AUS publications. Maybe we will see more Singaporean stories as they travel the world with their almighty red passport. Here are two such stories:
“This August, Jeremy See and his wife Sharleen’s Singapore-registered car will begin a 100-day trip across 23 countries with a S$110,000 budget.”
S'porean couple work as digital nomads around the world while waiting for BTO flat
At the other end of the passport list, Vietnam continues to fight its way up the rankings. Plenty of travel adventures to be had in Vietnam though, such as this man who bicycled around the country for 74 days (and lost 30 kilos in the process).
The balance of visiting old and new places
• Exploring Berlin by bicycle by Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll.
I met Dan and Audrey in Berlin several years ago (I dare not work out how long ago it was) and I said I will revisit them again in Berlin. The problem with travel is that the more places you visit, the more places you want to revisit (see Tokyo above). Every place you revisit is a new place you won’t visit. I’m cool with that, but I am just observing this travel truth.
Someone who is visiting new places is Trevor Warman:
Backpacking in Madagascar - Visiting the famous Avenue of the Baobabs
I better visit a new country soon!
Train travel
• Making a Silk Road journey through Uzbekistan entirely by train
• What I learned from taking a train across the US
• What would an Amtrak revival look like?
“The $75 billion plan to dramatically expand passenger rail service could transform US train travel — if states agree to get on board.”
• 5 US sleeper train routes for the ultimate slow travel journey
Air travel
After the last Tokyo train: Didn't know that Japanese ATM hours in the evening were curtailed. Big potential problem is a cash oriented society. Se also Netflix Midnight Diner. Recommended.