Footprint Laos Handbook (3rd Edition) [Paperback]

Joshua Eliot (Author), Jane Bickersteth (Author), Dinah Gardner (Author)

Book Description

Series: Footprint Laos Handbook | Publication Date: January 2003

Laos has been effectively cut off to the casual visitor since the 1960s. Embroiled in the conflict in Vietnam, divided by civil war, and then isolated by its economic and political policies, Laos only recently began to accept the concept of "independent" travel. Although few make it to this land-locked corner of Asia, its Theravada Buddist culture, pristine countryside, and French influence make it one of the great treasures of the region. Laos remains a truly unique and delightful country to visit. This comprehensive handbook contains extensive listings on all practical aspects of travel. It includes: full coverage of all the entry points from Thailand into Laos such as at Nong Khai on the Mekong River and via the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge; a comprehensive section on Bangkok in Thailand, the best place to obtain visas and the starting point for most trips to Laos; information on where to stay, where and what to eat; and details of festivals such as New Year, celebrated four times a year, and local festivals.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent guide." Marie Claire "Footprint Handbooks, the best of the best." Le Monde, Paris" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

Dear Fellow Traveller

Thank you for checking out the Laos Handbook. Footprint are an independent British publisher (based in Bath). We specialise in providing travellers with guidebooks that are second to none in terms of accuracy, recency and especially coverage. You will find that most of our guides are simply the most comprehensive available with in-depth information on history, culture and customs as well as practical travel information. Our major titles are updated ANNUALLY to ensure you have the best information to hand. If there are no reviews for this particular title we recommend you check out the reader reviews for the Peru and South American Handbooks which give a good flavour of how useful our guides are. You might like to know that we also publish Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia Handbooks and an extremely useful general guide to travelling: The Traveller's Handbook. Finally, whichever guidebook you choose, we would like to wish you an exciting, illuminating and above all enjoyabl! e trip.

Best wishes
Footprint --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Footprint Handbooks; 3rd edition (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1903471397
• ISBN-13: 978-1903471395
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 4.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,348,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #92 in Books > Travel > Asia > Laos

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Latest guidebook to Laos, August 6, 2001

By 

Andrew Rafuse (Victoria, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Footprint Laos Handbook : The Travel Guide (Paperback)

It is refreshing that a travel book plunges you into the details of getting you around and through country before providing the background information that may be on interest to the reader while en route. The authors have provided detailed maps of the major cities (four for Vientienne of different focus of detail), a suggested walking tour of Louang Prabang (along with illustrations of the types of house design to find there) and the names and addresses of many guest houses - especially important for Louang Prabang as the more modestly priced places tend to fill up quickly. The authors present a knowledgeable level of detail which makes the reader think that they have actually been to the places they describe. I have compared their maps of some of the smaller northern cities (such as Muang Sing) to those prepared by locals and there appears to be no major discrepancies. They are not totally comprehensive - they give no mention to the boat route to Louang Namtha from Huay Xai and short shrift to the boat route to Xieng Khok from Huay Xai - which is disappointing as Huay Xai is one of the major entry points to Laos. The map at the end is not particularly detailed and is missing some small but interesting towns. The strengths of this book far outweigh these minor flaws and I look forward to the next edition.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Information Can Be Organized Poorly, Glib review of some Laotian History, October 28, 2005

By 

Greg V. (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Footprint Laos Handbook (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

This book may or may not be the best guidebook of Laos. I did find it much less useful for navigating Laos than the Let's Go: Thailand book was for Thailand.

The biggest problem with the book is its organization within the major cities. Often, you'll read through the section on your city, then, later, remember something you wanted to do or see - only to be unable to find it, ultimately finding it tucked away in some other odd section of the book. It often has the feel of being written off-the-top of someone's head, without a lot of subsequent reorganization or editing.

Also, the provided historical information is often limited or outright false in a fairly significant way. For example, in reviewing the history of the Hmong in Laos, the book mentions that reports of the communists using chemical weapons against the pro-US Hmong (after the US pulled out of SE Asia at the end of the Vietnam War) has been proven to be false, that the "yellow rain" was actually from overpassing swarms of bees. While this explanation has been forwarded by the Laotian government, it is a laughable explanation that has been refuted by any sort of serious inquiry. The Hmong certainly were systematically repressed (and killed) at the end of the Vietnam War by the new communist government. This book makes it sound like this did not happen and that it was all a big misunderstanding. Granted, perhaps one should watch what they walk into Laos with. However, it would have been better to say nothing than to spread such misinformation.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Geography, bad politics....., November 30, 2006

By 

J. K. Langlois "pacificclipper" (Tokyo Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Laos, 4th (Footprint - Travel Guides) (Paperback)

Excellent guide that seems well researched and geared for the middle income tourist (very rare in guidebooks). Comprehesive and up to date prices and listings were evident throughout. Only shortcoming was a decidedly leftist bent in the book's extensive history and cultural sections that is overly sycophantic and apologetic to the the illegal Vietnamese invasion and its subsequent occupation/exploitation of the nation from the 1950s to 1980s. Also overt propaganda excusing the oppressive Prathet Lao attrocities is evident in its sprinkling throughout the book. As this is a trend in LP and Rough Guides as well, I suppose I cannot blame this young author too for falling into the "Khao san Road journalist" trap. But overall, outside of the naiive political bent, the book is very handy and almost as good as the Moon Handbooks used to be when they were written for the area.