Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Laos (3rd ed)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Contrary to what several other reviewers have posted, this is in fact a surprisingly thorough guidebook to a locale that's only in recent years been opened up to the public, particularly tourists.

There isn't a lot of material in English about Laos, and Cummings makes a good attempt at showing us the deep richness of Laos and the fascinating aspects of the culture.

He approaches Laos with respect, and not like some rampaging farang looking for a good time at the expense of the natives.

It's a guidebook that tries to honestly tell you something of the place.

Does it always succeed?

Perhaps not, but it's quite useful not only as a "guidebook" but a more condensed reference book about Laos, considering there are so few readable books about Lao culture, geography and society out there.

And having used it on my own month-long trip through Laos, it got me through things just fine. I also had a Let's Go guide, and between the two, I pitched Let's Go somewhere in Southeast Asia and still kept Cumming's book with me.

So I hope this review helps anyone thinking about this book.

I have recently completed a 12-month backpacking journey around the world, a trip that included Laos. In each of the 20-some countries I visited, the Lonely Planet I carried proved invaluable. However, after having read some of the other Amazon reviews of the LP Laos book before using it, I was expecting this particular guide-book to be worthless. But in fact, after using Cummings' book for nearly a month in Laos, I was pleasantly surprised to find it as useful as any other LP that I have used. Actually, expecting this guide-book to be useless, I brought along another Laos guide-book, which proved to be much less useful on the road when used side-by-side with the LP.
Not only did I find the accomodation and eating sections for popular locations as accurate and update as I would expect, but Cummings' did a fine job of briefly describing many off-the-beaten-track places, providing initial ideas for numerous adventures into the unknown.
And of course, as in any country to see the "real-thing", it is always rewarding to venture to places that you have not read about in a guide book. For this reason, I would certainly not criticize Cummings for not writing more.
All in all, in my opinion this book certainly meets the lofty standards set by Lonely Planet.
A bit of advice to would-be travelers: During my 12 months of diligently using Lonely Planet guides, I have been amazed by the travel-blunders made by fellow travelers who have carried travel guides, but have not used them. Some travelers perfer to do it "on their own", but I have seen numerous costly, time-consuming, and uncomfortable mistakes made that could have been easily avoided if they would have simply consulted the book in their hands. A little diligence goes a long ways.

After using the Thailand Lonely Planet guide (also written by Joe Cummings) extensively this summer (it was extremely helpful), I found the Laos guide really disappointing.

Laos is changing at an alarming rate and a lot of the information in this guide was out of date. Also, unlike the Thailand guide which is quite detailed, I found this book to be kind of skimpy. The maps aren't very good, a lot of towns weren't included, transportation details were no longer correct or not included, and because of the surge in tourism and high inflation rate, the prices listed were meaningless.

Until edition 4 of the Laos Lonely Planet guide is published, I would recommend buying The Rough Guide Laos which was published in January 2000 and was getting good reviews from other tourists.

The book is tops for content, but watch the maps! We went following it in the central coast, and were very surprised to spend three days hacking through the jungle looking for Nokai, becuase even the road it was supposed to be on didn't exist. The towns are mislabled as well, nokai and laksao, so it was tough to get locals to offer advice as we couldn't understand why they were having such troubles finding and explaining where we were ( and weren't!). In general, lao is growing so fast- you can take the number of guest houses listed in any town, and double it. Overall great-- Joe knows his stuff!!

What a difference a new edition makes. Lonely Planet's brand new guidebook, Laos 6th edition, released August 2007, is easily the best on the market. The traveller looking for comprehensive coverage in a guidebook need look no further. An extra 60 pages long, this title packs an impressive punch, with a good balance of exhaustive coverage of the key destinations along with sound information on the lesser known spots.

Quite simply, Australian co-authors Andrew Burke and Justine Vaisutis have put together what is the best English-language offline resource for travel in Laos. From a tourism perspective, Laos is a rapidly developing nation, especially in the major tourist centres where new accommodation options multiply at a seemingly ever-increasing rate, yet they've done a fine job of boiling down a snapshot of the country into a guide that will be more than enough for the most demanding traveller.

Matters get off to a good start -- a good, easy-to-read colour map (even if some of the roads look a tad sketchy), suggested itineraries and a completely rewritten history section by Professor Martin Stuart-Fox, author of A History of Laos (1997). This is followed by a pretty stock-standard introductory section -- the people, government and culture are all covered, though the government -- arguably the most repressive and certainly the most secretive in Southeast Asia after Burma -- gets off the hook pretty lightly.

What does stand out in the introduction is the generous space given to Laos and its natural environment -- particularly its budding eco-tourism industry. As Burke says in an upcoming interview with Travelfish.org, "If there's anywhere in Asia where eco-tourism can be a success, then it's Laos". There's an outstanding summary of all the main trekking opportunities in the country's NPAs -- this alone makes the book worth buying (or at least a quick use of the library photocopier).

At the other end of the book, the "Directory" section, covering everything from getting a flight to what you should have in a medical kit is informative and rather well organised. As with other Lonely Planet titles, I think it's a bit too lengthy and hand-holding in nature.

Listings
The guidebook's listings are comprehensive, not exhaustive -- if you expect every place on Don Dhet to be listed, prepare to be disappointed. Perhaps half the available options in Vang Vieng are listed, similarly so in Luang Prabang, but what are listed are the best, and these can be taken as representative of others in the offing. Burke and Vaisutis do a fine job of brushing away the slimy rambutans and spoiled sticky rice to leave you with a feast of the best options to choose from.

The accommodation listings are generally easy to digest, with one exception -- Luang Prabang. There, the listings have been divided up geographically into "Near the Mekong", "Historic Temple District", "Thanon Pha Mahapatsaman", "Ban Wat That" and "Elsewhere". This is confusing in a number of ways -- "Near the Mekong" and "Historic Temple District" could easily be taken to be the same area -- neither is marked on any of the maps of Luang Prabang -- nor is "Ban Wat That". "Thanon Pha Mahapatsaman" is a short strip of around 200m of road that carries just three accommodation listings, and "Elsewhere" is just vague and meaningless. All this for just 37 listings -- Luang Prabang isn't that big a place!

Where this guide does come into its own is regarding things to do -- and this is particularly the case with the Southern Laos section. While it tends to be motorcycle-focused, there are lots of good tips and suggested day-trips to week-long adventures you can undertake. Less of this type of material is suggested in the north, where the focus is more orientated towards trekking and the tried and tested destinations, but you'll find ample material within the book to point in the right direction.

Transport
One of the big issues people face in Laos is the time it takes to get from A to B. Over time the road network has improved considerably but it still takes a while to get around, so it's refreshing to see that most of the bus and songthaew travel information includes an estimated trip time.

Border information is outstanding. Every main international border has a boxed section containing detailed information on how to get to and from the various border crossings and what's particularly good is there's information on onwards travel as well.

Text and design
As always, the densely-packed text has been put through the Lonely Planet humour wringer, so don't expect too many Laugh Out Loud moments, but the facts are all there and that's what really matters. As with all the new Lonely Planet titles, there's more fact boxes scattered throughout the book than I'd like, but at least in this case they're mostly interesting or of some practical use.

Maps
With 61 maps you'll struggle to find yourself needing many more. Some -- the Wat Phu locale (p 267), Wat Xieng Thong (p 142) and Around Vang Vieng (p 124) -- seemed superfluous, but all the key spots are mapped out well.

I had two issues with the regional maps: they're difficult to read, and make frequent use of the "unsealed road" indicator. Some of these roads are really little more than foot-trails. Perhaps they need an extra map indicator for goat-tracks.

Photos
The guide contains a pretty good collection of pics. There's one of kids fooling around in the Nam Song at Vang Vieng (p 11) which really caught my eye, but it's a shame that given the weight the NPAs get in the text, there's only one photo taken in one -- and that of an easily visited waterfall. Having photos taken of the more remote (and beautiful) parks would have been a great means to showcase some of Laos' more challenging destinations. People aren't going to go if they don't know about it!

Conclusion
My gripes are minor and mainly focussed on the layout and in some cases organisation of the title. These are factors that will be minor inconveniences once you're on the road. Lonely Planet's Laos 6 really delivers the goods -- it isn't exhaustive (that's why it's called a guide), but it's succinct, accurate and very easy to use. Be you a first time visitor to Laos or a repeat visitor looking to get off the beaten track, you'll do well with this title in your backpack.

The friendly people at Lonely Planet sent me a complimentary copy of Laos 6, so even though I didn't pay any money for it, we'd suggest you do -- it's worth every kip.

Laos is an amazing place, almost without infrastructure, cars and factories. The Laotians are too poor even to have rich people. They sell roasted rats and crickets in the local markets. Joe Cummings does a great job desribing the history, culture and politics of the country, but ignore everything he says about places to stay and eat. Above all, don't take his words as the final truth. There is so much to see and experience that he misses. And whatever you do, make sure that you find a comfortable boat for that arduous journey up the Mekong.

The problem with this guide is that, even though things have changed since the last revision, the guidebook hasn't.

I would strongly recommend the Rough Guide and a curious spirit over the Lonely Planet guide to Laos, even the new 4th edition. Either way you're going to contend with some bad information, but at least with the Rough guide you won't have to put up with Cummings' writing. I'm sure he's a brilliant scholar, but there are other reasons people go on vacation besides research.

Don't miss Luangphabang and the villages up and down the Mekong, whatever you do. Beyond that, everything in Laos is hit-and-miss. Relax and enjoy it. I've never had so much fun on a vacation in my entire life, and it was cheap as dirt, too.

Lonely Planet has a bad habit of using grim Peace Corps Puritans to write their guides, and the one who wrote this one is even duller and more pedantic than most. He resolutely ignores all that might help you enjoy this wonderful country in favour of long disquisitions on Buddhist cornices. If you are touring Laos in order to learn more about the architecture of temples, this is your book. If you'd like to have a good time in Laos, look elsewhere.

Joe describes Laos as probably the most delightful country to visit in South-east Asia. He knows the country and the people as well as any writer and thus this is the definitive book to take with you. You will see many other travellers clutching it in their hand wherever you travel in the country.You will enjoy the book, the country and the people.

This book made traveling through Laos a fantastic experience. Though prices in the book can't keep up with increases, most of the information was very timely and accurate. Very useful as a reference guide and helped make our trip go smoothly.