- Paperback: 720 pages
- Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing, Moon Handbooks; 1 edition (Feb 28 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1566917840
- ISBN-13: 978-1566917841
- Product Dimensions: 18.5 x 14 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 658 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #447,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
"Moon Handbooks" aren't your average guides. For more than 30 years, these books have appealed to an eclectic group of travellers, from backpacking students to solo adventurers to families on vacation (and a budget). Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos are more accessible than ever before. For the first time in over three decades, it is possible to bicycle around Angkor Wat, motorcycle through hill tribe areas of North Vietnam, or cruise on a cargo boat through the Mekong Delta. Suggested travel strategies and lists of must-see sights provide you with real insights, so you can decide where you should go, stay, and eat-without hassles or regrets. Complete with maps, photographs, illustrations, and special emphasis on leading destinations such as the War Crimes Museum in Saigon, Vietnam's French-built mansions and tree-shaded boulevards in Hanoi, the Angkor Wat towers, and the unspoiled natural environment and traditional culture of Laos, "Moon Handbooks Vietnam, Cambodia, & Laos" has the tools you need to create your own unique trip.
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First Sentence
After a long history of fighting off foreign invaders, Indochina is welcoming a new invasion from abroad-camera-toting tourists. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
After a long history of fighting off foreign invaders, Indochina is welcoming a new invasion from abroad-camera-toting tourists. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Best,
By
This review is from: Moon Handbooks Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos (Paperback)
This is the best guide available. Moon travel beats the major competitor (the main travel-trail eye-sore creator) in almost all respects, but not all. Moreso than other travel guides, the Moon travel guide for Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia has tons and tons of recent political, social and economic history in addition to significant cultural notes that a visitor *must* be aware of. (i.e., what does a South East Asian smile mean?) The maps of the cities and provinces are excellent. the all-important overland border-crossings between 'Nam, Laos, and Cambo are cleary marked. This is one of the many reasons that Moon can't be beaten at the moment. This guide's overland itineraries are the best. Example: you want to go into China overland fron northern Vietnam. How can you get up to Kunnming, China? It tells ya. And, we learn, that the one way flight into Bangkok from Kunming is the same price as the one that flys from Hanoi. (This price equality of course must be verified). The information regarding the pricing and existence of certain establishments that cater to travelers is outdated. However, where to eat or sleep has never been an important part of a book anyhow, just the general information about the area in general and how to get there is all a visitor needs. Does someone need to read a guidebook to decide specifically where to eat? Where to specifically sleep? If it does for you, do everyone a favor: stay home. The underlying story that provides the "general-informational" foundation is enough. When we come through town, understandably we don't know much, but that is far better than knowing absolutely nothing at all, which is quite common now from my conversations with tourists, and especially now among "backpackers." The purpose of why backpacking started has been lost for most. By the way, it is a fact that the communist government censors this guidebook. I found that out trying to pick it up at the post office. Well worth having.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
2.9 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews) 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Outstanding Guidebook,
By David Stanley - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Vietnam Cambodia and Laos Handbook (Paperback)
I've been using Michael Buckley's Vietnam Handbook for two months now and have found it to be excellent. It's well organized with country introductions which told me almost everything I wanted to know. Michael's sidebars are intriguing and I especially appreciate the city walking tours which have led me to many hidden little places I might have missed otherwise. The maps are better than those in the other guidebooks because sites are labeled right on the maps themselves rather than coded in a key which is impossible to read in dim lighting (a fault with the Lonely Planet series). Michael has provided not only the usual city and country maps, but also detailed inner city maps and even maps of the individual temples around Angkor Wat. This book covers three countries and sure beats having to buy and lug around individual guides to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. I've found that the coverage better than adequate and certainly head and shoulders above the general Southeast Asia guides which are surprisingly sketchy about these countries. Indochina is changing so fast that much of the practical information in any guide is bound to be out of date before the book reaches the shelves and this 1998 edition does require updating, but so do all the other guides to the region. You usually end up getting that kind of information from other travelers anyway. Of the three countries included, the coverage of Cambodia is the weakest, obviously because that country is only now opening to independent travel. Next edition Michael needs to get to places like Kampong Cham, etc. Meanwhile I recommend this handbook highly over all its competitors.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Adequate only,
By S. Carr "simon" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Moon Handbooks Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (Paperback)
Adequate rather than good, this is no Lonely Planet guide. The structure covering three countries means a significant amount of flipping back and forth to locate information on the country you're currently in. The Siem Reap/Angkor Wat section is particularly confusing, with the practical (hotel, restaurant & general living) information interleaved with the descriptions of the temple complex.Although published in 2006, much of the political information did not appear to have been updated since approximately 2000. This book will not encourage me to buy Moon for any of my future travels 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Vietnam Cambodia and Laos Handbook (Paperback)
As a seasonal guide in Vietnam and Cambodia for each of the past seven years, many people ask me how they should prepare for their trip to the region. I always recommend this guide. My work requires extensive research and I read a lot of guidebooks and this one is the only one with any decent accuracy and thoroughness. I also think Buckley is simply a good writer. Aside from Tom Brosnahan's Turkey guidebook for Lonely Planet, I think it is perhaps the best written one out right now. And I find his particular humor makes light of what can be trying circumstances and boring details. By the way, the current edition has been updated with a lot of information from as recent as 1997 (about as recent as you can get in any guidebook of the area published in 1998 I am afraid). |
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