Amazon.com: Frommer's Vietnam, Including Angkor Wat (9780764596766): Charles Agar: Books

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Frommer's Vietnam, Including Angkor Wat [Paperback]

Charles Agar (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)


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Paperback, February 6, 2006 --  

Book Description

February 6, 2006
You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go—they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer's Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps, and exciting coverage of sports, shopping, and nightlife. You'd be lost without us!

Frommer’s Vietnam is an amazingly detailed guide that takes the reader through the country with practical information, late-breaking bargains, cultural insights, user-friendly maps, etiquette tips, a language glossary, advice for business travelers, and practical advice on planning the trip and getting around. This guide explores everything from the thriving expat nightlife in Ho Chi Minh City (once called Saigon) to a journey by boat into the Mekong Delta, past rice paddies and riverside pagodas. Unlike any of our leading competitors––including Lonely Planet and Rough Guide––Frommer’s Vietnam will feature excursions to Cambodia, including comprehensive coverage of Phnom Penh, Siem Riep, and the popular temples of Angkor Wat.

  • Companion podcast available on Frommers.com


Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

  • Complete coverage of Vietnam with practical information, cultural insights, and a language glossary, plus a full chapter on side trips to Cambodia.
  • Outspoken opinions on what's worth your time and what's not.
  • Exact prices, so you can plan the perfect trip whatever your budget.
  • Off-the-beaten-path experiences and undiscovered gems, plus new takes on top attractions.

Find great deals and book your trip at Frommers.com

About the Author

Each Frommer's guide is personally researched and thoroughly updated by a single author or small team. Our guides have a fun, intensely personal voice and a real person's judgments you can trust. Charles Agar has lived and traveled extensively throughout Asia. Besides his passion for writing, Charlie is an avid outdoorsman who has worked at a rock-climbing company in China and as a safety kayaker on the rivers of Nepal. He taught conversational English at the Aeon Corporation in Kokura, Japan, and was a volunteer English teacher and assistant at a Vippassana meditation retreat center in Thailand.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 502 pages
  • Publisher: Wiley Publishing; 1st edition (February 6, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0764596764
  • ISBN-13: 978-0764596766
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,286,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Clear Strengths and Weaknesses, February 13, 2009
By 
Z. Wu (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Like most of the Frommer series, this book is very strong on logistics. The details on transportation, hotels, travel bookings, vaccinations etc. are very strong. It also has a chapter on Angkor Wat which makes it very convenient to take as a single pocket guide for a trip that includes both Vietnam and Cambodia. The information on avoiding certain tourist traps and avoiding taxi frauds are invaluable.

The weakness of the book is that it is short on understanding the place and culture you are actually visiting. The author seems to have got most of the perspective from expats instead of local residents in the 2 countries. The comments on restaurants are littered with references to "this is a good expat spot" and it shows in the resulting quality of recommendations. This clearly does not help you get an authentic cultural experience.

Similarly, the discussions on the various places to visit are also slightly superficial. There are various mistakes. For example, the Quang Cong temple in Hoi An worships a Chinese general from 2000 years ago from the Han Dynasty, not from the Qing dynasty as indicated by the book. The descriptions of the various temples in Angkor Wat does not contain a detailed enough description to give you a feel for what to expect. It also have its share of grammatical errors / typos such as "losing site of...." and "Vietnamese gorillas attacking American troops in South Vietnam."

All in all, this is still a great guide for its practicality. To maximize your experience, you would need to supplement it with better books on the culture and the sites you are visiting.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars My Travel Guidebook of Choice, January 9, 2009
I'm a big fan of Frommer's guidebooks for several reason:

- It lays out several suggested itineraries from which you can build your own based on preference and time.

- No photos, which means that it relies more on good descriptive writings about the sights.

- A rating system that helps you make your selections and avoid tourist traps.

Frommer's Vietnam was key in helping me put together a full itinerary for a 2-week trip. I visited Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City, and the Mekong Delta. I wanted to see NEARLY everything in a relatively short visit. With Frommer's I was able to narrow down my selection, choose my means of transport and still be happy in knowing I was getting a good taste of Vietnam. The tidbits on history and local customs inserted throughout the books gave me more insights about the places that my tour guides sometimes failed to convey.

Tourism in Vietnam has exploded and because of that there are lots of competition for your money. The book has a good variety of listings for accommodations like any other guidebook, but I'd recommend reading travel forums like TripAdvisor to expand your options for hotels and such. I reserved one star because I found the book's ratings for restaurants as hit and miss, though I understand food is highly subjective.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Frommer's Vietnam, September 21, 2009
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My friend who has lived in HCM City all of her life said that she learned many new things about her city.
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
war museum, tropical garden, revolutionary museum, two dragons, diethelm travel, red piano, budget tourist cafes, hilltribe markets, helpful tour desk, backpacker district, hilltribe groups, backpacker area, motorbike taxi drivers, traveler cafes, prearranged visa, bia hoi, motorbike traffic, hilltribe people, room before checking, motorbike rentals, hilltribe villages, small health club, old market area, rented motorbike, rice whiskey
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Phnom Penh, Nha Trang, Old Quarter, Siem Reap, Hoan Kiem Lake, Lao Cai, Hoan Kiem District, Phu Quoc, Dien Bien Phu, Old Market, Halong Bay, Can Tho, Mekong Delta, Buon Ma Thuot, Phan Thiet, Dong Khoi, Vung Tau, Quy Nhon, Chau Doc, Sisowath Quay, Ninh Binh, Pham Ngu Lao, Hai Ba Trung, Vietnam Airlines, Angkor War
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