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| Author: China Williams
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Category: Book
List Price: $25.99
Buy New: $15.99
You Save: $10.00 (38%)
New (34) Used (8) from $15.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 6516
Media: Paperback
Edition: 14
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 988
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.6
ISBN: 1741047269
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.90454
EAN: 9781741047264
ASIN: 1741047269
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Lonely Planet- not with this many package tourists. February 17, 2006
47 out of 54 found this review helpful
"Nobody touches the Lonely Planet for budget travel advice," states the back cover of this book.
I just finished travelling around Southeast Asia with this as my primary guidebook. It includes the basics for getting around, eating, etc... but it really is just the basics. I have used other books from the lonely planet series in the past, and have found them good enough to continue using, at least until this volume. It has been 5 years since I was in this region last, and things have changed. Especially the guidebook, which was once a rich trove of off-the-beaten-path hints and tips. Increasingly, however, it seems that the Lonely Planet authors seem less interested in helping you find a unique experience and more interested in serving up a cookie-cutter, package tourist rehash. I have a couple grievances with this book:
-It insists on constantly pointing out little sidebars entitled "Splurge!" which indicate ways that the budget traveller can spend a great deal of money in one shot. Why this is in a travel guide called "shoestring" I couldn't tell you. Neither do the authors, but I suppose we can assume that backpackers are interested in spending $5 a night for a couple of months and then blowing $150 to stay in some posh hotel in Kuala Lumpur or racking up an additional $20 in credit card debt for an entirely forgettable dining experience in Bangkok. I just don't feel these are relevant to 99% of actual budget travellers, but they waste a lot of space that could be much better used on greater detail. But I will get to that in a minute.
-Another issue I have is the lack of actual information about actually moving from one place to the next cheaply. Cheap local transport is available in many of the places covered in the book. For some reason though, the book usually offers helpful advice like 'just take a cab,' or 'buses are so cheap, so don't bother with local transport.' As an independent traveler that actually enjoys saving money AND spending time with the locals (what's the purpose of traveling again?!?!), I regret the lack of information about local transport.
-The maps in the book, though better than some in past editions, leave much to be desired. Streets are incorrectly labeled or in the wrong place, intersections are vaguely marked, and occasionally they add a street that doesn't exist or remove a street that does. Worst of all, in a region that prides itself on an almost complete lack of road signage, not many good landmarks are given to orient oneself. There is little that is less fun on the road than standing in front of a train station, staring at one's new alien surroundings, being hassled by touts who are trying to steer you in the wrong direction while trying to find that cheap hostel you read about.
Look, if you want a run-of-the-mill book to complete a run-of-the-mill trip, by all means, you will find this book quite helpful. But if you are looking for that individual experience that is the beauty of independent travel, you might be best going with a different guide for this region.
By the way, the quote I wrote at the beginning should be viewed as a warning rather than an enticement
 Great to read but difficult to do so due to VERY SMALL print. January 27, 2006
9 out of 15 found this review helpful
I really like the Lonely Planet guides, and this one is very good regarding the amount of information it contains. My main complaint is the size of the type. Not only is it very small and difficult to read even with glasses on, but the paper is very thin so the words from the reverse page show through. I'd rather pay a couple of extra dollars and have higher quality paper. I also agree with other reviewers who felt that the Indonesia chapter could easily be eliminated, partly because it is difficult to due justice to that widespread country in a chapter.
typical shoestring guide August 24, 2005
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
This guide is really good value, although you notice easily that it covers a lot of countries. South East Asia is big, the book is limited in size and therefore detail is missing. I bought seperate guides for Laos and Cambodia and this benifited my trip greatly.
Also, the part about Bangkok doesn't show the best bits and doesn't quite warn you for the worst(sex tourism), either.
 Lonely Planet SE Asia August 15, 2005
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is another great issue from the dedicated researchers, writers and readers of the practical and economic guides for world travelers. The SE Asia book is written with particular care, insight, and affection. In addition to a wealth of information on the countries of SE Asia, the guide offers some of the best practical advice for living, traveling, and surviving in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and other countries I did not visit and thus cannot speak to. It was just as good as any of their guides to China or India I that I have used in the past.
Very good compilation of the escence of SE Asia June 27, 2005
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
No book can have a real big guide to travel SE Asia, or any continent. Too much information for just one book.
But this one has a great seleccion of sumarizzed info.
You can alwways criticize this kind of books as they try to cover too much, but for me, the selection of countries information, quantity and importance of data for each country, and Seleccion of cities, is great.
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