To Asia with Love: A Connoisseurs' Guide to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. [Paperback]

Kim Fay (Author)

Book Description

Series: To Asia with Love | Publication Date: April 1, 2004

Off the beaten path tips for adventuring, eating, shopping and sight seeing, from contributors who live, work, teach, write and travel there. Not your regular travel guidebook. ÒBooking your trip,Ó means how to find a boat to take you down the Mekong River, instead of where to get a cheap airline ticket. One chapter lists opportunities for giving back to the countries you visit.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is what makes To Asia With Love stand out from the crowd: its emphasis on helping readers to better understand a destination - rather than merely get lots of information about it - through the experiences of the contributors. - Review by Greg Lowe. --International Herald Tribune/ThaiDay

Most guidebooks are limited to only a couple or writers, and voices, but this one is a real choir...which really represents the polyglot traveller's world of today.

Having expats and travelers reveal their favorite getaways, festivals, shops and eating experiences makes this a unique entry in the library of travel lit. - Review by Blake Cheetah. --Farang Untamed Travel Magazine

About the Author

Seattle native Kim Fay fell in love with Southeast Asia when she traveled to Thailand in 1990. Journeys to Borneo, Singapore and Bali followed, and in 1995 she moved to Ho Chi Minh City, where she worked as an English teacher and travel writer until 1999. She now writes and edits for travel websites in L.A. She recently finished In Yellow Babylon, a novel about the looting of the Khmer temples, set in Indochina in 1925.

Julie FayÂ’s most recent trip to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam inspired her to return to school to study photography. Before pursuing this newfound passion, she majored in drama at university, worked for the Four Seasons Newport Beach and spent the last six years establishing a career in the film industry. She now resides in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: ThingsAsian Press (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971594031
• ISBN-13: 978-0971594036
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #563,154 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #19 in Books > Travel > Asia > Laos
  • #48 in Books > Travel > Asia > Cambodia
  • #54 in Books > Travel > Asia > Vietnam

More About the Author

Raised in Washington State, I now live in Los Angeles (having arrived by way of a four-year detour through Vietnam). I am the author of "Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam" and the creator and series editor of the To Asia With Love guidebooks. My debut novel, "The Map of Lost Memories," will be published by ​Ballantine Books/Random House in August 2012. I am represented by Alexandra Machinist of Janklow & Nesbit.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most delightful travel guides I've come across, November 1, 2004

By 

Shannon B Davis "Nepenthe" (Arlington, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Asia with Love: A Connoisseurs' Guide to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. (Paperback)

This guidebook makes an interesting proposition. Certainly I devoured all the information I could get before my trip to Southeast Asia, and the website associated with this publishing company (thingsasian.com) is one of them. This book presents itself as a series of anecdotes, sorted into topics that interest travellers. The food of Southeast Asia, the famous, infamous, and unknown sites, and the people and customers are all covered here in detail.

It is part of a new trend of guidebooks that, unlike the "yellow-pages" listings of a Let's Go or Lonely Planet, covers a few topics deeply. You may not be able to look up the closest place to buy stamps, but you will read this and become inspired about where you would like to go. And, unlike many other guidebooks, it's actually entertaining to read even if you are not visiting Southeast Asia. In fact, I read it a year after I returned from my trip. I enjoyed both reminiscing over my experiences and dreaming about future trips. Indeed, it was just like attending a party full of experienced travellers.

This is a beautiful book, with lush full-page pictures and textual illustrations. Although you cannot judge a book by its cover, I certainly enjoyed the aesthetics of this guide. Its small form factor also makes it a good candidate for travel. I would recommend it as a second book, as it doesn't cover every place in encyclopedic detail. Nor does it intend to. It's the kind of book you read as you plan your trip, or to while away a hot tropical day in a Southeast Asian hammock.

Each section includes stories, website links, tips, and references. Yes, there are restaurant recommendations here. I like the fact that each piece of information comes from a fellow traveller or expat, advice I can trust.

It also includes the essays of one of my favorite Internet writers, Andy Brouwer. I remember pouring over his website for hours. I'm glad that his writings will now be shared with the reading public. His essays are only some of the great writing in this book.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for Asia travelers who hate the tourist trail, August 3, 2004

By 

Blair Mastbaum (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: To Asia with Love: A Connoisseurs' Guide to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. (Paperback)

This lovely little gem of a book will make me feel like a local on the next trip to Southeast Asia, I'm sure of it. With so many secrets revealed, and so many off-the-beaten path ideas for how to spend days and experience the authentic cultures of Laos Cambodia and Vietnam, I'll never again feel like I'm missing out on the side of Asia that the ex-patriots get to see. And it's the ex-pats that I'm always jealous of when I'm traveling. Bravo to this editor and her interesting emsemble of in-the-know writers and to the photographer, for lovely images of this mysterious land, which despite being discovered by backpackers in the '70s, '80s and '90s, still holds many secrets. I hope there's a second edition in the works. After a couple trips, I'll have the first book's ideas down.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Explorers and Dreamers Alike, February 25, 2005

By 

K. Indresano - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Asia with Love: A Connoisseurs' Guide to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. (Paperback)

This new travel book is delicious. I just spent a rare and coveted quiet
breakfast in a cafe with the sole purpose of digging into some vicarious travel reading. Kim Fay has created a sound premise, and she makes good on her promise of offering serendipitous, expert information, as if it were, as she writes, whispered to you at a party filled with travelers wanting to show you the path less traveled. "To Asia with Love" offers a different take on travel guiding. It doesn't try to be authoritative and offer what the major guidebooks do; Kim herself suggests this one as an ideal complement to the guides that break down all the nuts and bolts and histories. I appreciate that her chapters are inclusive of all the countries and offer a refreshing mish mash that reminds me of the organic nature of traveling to faraway lands--where you follow your nose and some timely advice. It is indeed unlike most guidebooks which are very categorized and predictable. This book makes a great, dreamy read whether you are planning a trip or not. Needless to say, most readers will likely come to this book and then do whatever they can to get out there and explore.