Origins
Rails Gone Vegan is a vegan-founded company that embraces slow travel, through food and cultural immersion and rail travel when possible. By slow travel, we mean emphasising an in depth exploration of each stop on our itineraries, over quick visits. This allows for deeper immersion in a region’s culture and not only for exploration – but also relaxation.
The company was born out of a love for understanding how plant based foods and cultures intertwine with each other. And that was combined with the passion for rail based travel – from public transit commuter to luxury.
Throughout her years of being vegan and travelling, she has gained a fond for rail travel. If there’s a way to get somewhere by train and if she has the time, she will seize the opportunity to take the train over the plane. Trains offer a different perspective – and many of the views from a train carriage’s windows are only accessible from the tracks. There’s something about watching the world roll by, whether slowly or lightening fast that has a tranquil feel that can’t be beat by a plane. Although trains are lovely, something Alexandra has noticed that is (seriously) lacking on many routes is the option of plant based food options. So with Alexandra’s love for food and cultural immersion and the rails, Rails Gone Vegan was born.
About The Founder
From living in Malaysia to time spent living in India and travelling throughout the Americas, Asia, and Europe, Alexandra has developed a deep curiosity about how vegan food and culture intersect.
She has been vegan for 10 years and when living throughout Asia and travelling elsewhere, Alexandra has found that foods that may seem vegan – well aren’t. This drove Alexandra to study deeper when travelling and understand how food and culture integrate. Why in Malaysia is tempeh at the street stall coated in anchovies – are there alternatives to this? Or why is cheese added to some dishes in Latin America when cows are not native to many regions there – and are there Indigenous plant based foods? Or why is it easy to eat vegetarian in India – but not vegan by default? Is there a religion in Japan that emphasises plant based eating in an era where modern temple cuisine has been influenced by meat? What’s the history and when did the shift occur? How does religion, culture, and traditions influence plant based diets in different parts of the world? And what’s the origin of plant based foods in multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious countries?
How We Scout And Build Our Trips
As we wish for our travellers to gain depth over breadth when experiencing our trips, locations are intentionally chosen. For this reason, we only choose locations we have held residency in, or have developed familiarity with via several long term visits and feel like a “second home”. On top of this – we require a recent scouting trip to a destination on our end before selling an itinerary. For our Malaysia trip, the founder spent a year writing the itinerary while conducting occasional day scouting trips to get a tourist’s perspective (yes really, we are detailed). As we prefer depth and current on-the-ground knowledge of our locations before selling an itinerary, we do not curate itineraries nor work with operators to countries we have limited knowledge in – even if we have visited before. For destinations we have built itineraries for, we ensure our operators are certified to operate in the destinations, and additionally have someone from Rails Gone Vegan travelling on the tour to ensure the itinerary is flowing as intended.
From those who are foodies, to those who appreciate learning about culture through a food-centric lens, to those that are interested in rail travel in un(familiar) territory, or for those who simply want to explore, our trips are curated with a detailed itinerary to do just that.
Intrigued?
Check out our Malaysia trip! Can’t make this one? Join our email list below to be alerted of new trips throughout Malaysia and a few select countries in the future.
