The Rough Guide to Thailand (Paperback)

by Paul Gray (Author), Lucy Ridout (Author) "The fastest and most comfortable way of reaching Thailand is to fly nonstop from London to Bangkok with either Qantas, British Airways, EVA Airways or..." (more)
Key Phrases: Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Thanon Sukhumvit (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
INTRODUCTION

With over nine million foreigners flying into the country each year, Thailand has become Asia’s primary holiday destination. Yet despite this vast influx of tourists and their cash, Thailand’s cultural integrity remains largely undamaged – a country that adroitly avoided colonization has been able to absorb Western influences without wholly succumbing to them. Though the high-rises and neon lights occupy the foreground of the tourist picture, the typical Thai community is still the traditional farming village. Over fifty percent of Thais earn their living from the land, based around the staple, rice, which forms the foundation of the country’s unique and famously sophisticated cuisine.

Tourism has been just one factor in the country’s development which, once the deep-seated regional uncertainties surrounding the Vietnam War had faded, was free to proceed at an almost death-defying pace. Indeed Thailand enjoyed the fastest-expanding economy in the world, at an average of nine percent growth a year, until it overstretched itself in 1997, sparking a regional financial crisis – but already, with remarkable resilience, the economy’s growing again. Politics in Thailand, however, has not been able to keep pace. Coup d’étâts, which used to be the commonest method of changing government, seem to be a thing of the past, but despite a recently revised constitution and robust criticism from students, grass-roots activists and parts of the press, the malnourished democratic system is characterized by corruption and cronyism.

Through all the changes of the last half-century, the much-revered constitutional monarch, King Bhumibol, who sits at the pinnacle of an elaborate hierarchical system of deference covering the whole of Thai society, has lent a large measure of stability. Furthermore, over ninety percent of the population are still practising Theravada Buddhists, a unifying faith which colours all aspects of daily life – from the tiered temple rooftops that dominate every skyline, to the omnipresent saffron-robed monks and the packed calendar of festivals; it is still the norm for a Thai man to spend three months as a monk at some period during his life.

About the Author
Paul Gray has been a regular visitor to Thailand since teaching English for a year in 1987. He now works as a managing editor at the Rough Guides office in London. Lucy Ridout has spent most of the last decade travelling in and writing about Asia. She is also the co-author of the Rough Guides to Bali and Bangkok.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 844 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 4th edition (January 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858287197
• ISBN-13: 978-1858287195
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,609,789 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Guide except for the Bangkok section..., February 27, 2005

By	Allan M. Gathercoal "fdoamerica" (Norcross, GA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Thailand 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

I just returned from Thailand and I took four guides: Thomas Cook's, Lonely Planet, Let's Go, and this guide (see my reviews on the others guides, and do seriously consider Lonely Planet Islands & Beaches IF you are only going to spend time as a sun lizard).

`Thomas Cook Thailand' is a special niche guide, best suited for those with tour groups and `Let's Go Thailand' is the guide for those backpackers that are `on the cheap'. This leaves Rough Guide to face off with Lonely Planet and in some areas it is superior to L.P and in one big area it is not.

Rough Guide's restaurant recommendations are by far the best of any guide I reviewed; they are both reliable and informative, giving great descriptions and dish recommendations, "the grilled river prawns with chili, the matsaman curry and the delicious durian cheese-cake." The restaurant prices are listed as: Expensive, Moderate and Inexpensive.

The hotel accommodations recommendations are also descriptive, very reliable and most have either webpage addresses or email. Sadly, Rough Guide still uses the user 'unfriendly' price codes, instead of just saying in dollars (or Bahts) what the cost for the hotel is. Thus you need to memorize the table where the number 4=400-600B and 5=600-900B etc., then you can convert to either dollars or euros to get the price. Also, since the Guide is published in 2004 (thus the information is from 2003) you add 10-20% for inflation. Both Lonely Planet and Let's Go just tell you what the price is. "Duh".

The Guide has excellent information that tells you the nitty-gritty that prepairs you for your trip. It also has great history, religion (Buddhism of course), environmental and cultural sections. Not to be missed is the additional reading recommendations (six pages).

Where it bombs is BANGKOK. The Guide says that Bangkok is "sprawling, chaotic and exhausting" and that is exactly how I experienced the 115 pages that covered this mega-city. The layout is dysfunctional. It has no logical consistency between any two points. Bangkok is the home of 11 million people; it is huge and spreads out like greater Los Angeles. It needs to be broken down into regions and then sections and those need to be logically kept together. But, this guide will give you information on one area, like Thanon Sukhumvit, then 60 pages later the accommodations for that area, then 20 pages back will be the Thanon Sukhumvit map; but wait, the restaurants for that area... you guessed it, will be located some where else. Hello! Who laid this out? What herb, pray tell, were they using? So, if you plan to spend any significant time in Bangkok, then Lonely Planet is a better guide.

Maybe the 6th edition Rough Guide will improve the Bangkok section and hopefully increased the guides paltry index (8 pages for all of Thailand - Bangkok alone could be 8 pages) and make this an outstanding guide. Bangkok aside this is still a strongly recommended guide.

37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Rough Guide to Thailand, April 2, 2000

By	Lucy Warner "louwarner" (Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thailand 3: The Rough Guide, 3rd edition (Rough Guide Thailand) (Paperback)

Fed up with the traditional Lonely Planet I turned to the Rough Guide for an alternative view. While this guide gives detailed historical/background knowledge it severely lacks in the essentials, notably transport prices and detailed maps.�@There were just too many times when this book became a more of a frustration than a help. This book is best read before you go and left at home.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid travel guide, April 1, 2007

By	C. Georgi - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Thailand 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

Full of great and relevant information. Some prices have already gone up, despite how recently the book came out, but that's par for the course in Asia. It would have been nice if there were place names spelled out in Thai a bit more, so you could point them out to taxi drivers. They rarely spoke English and my pronunciation of the romanized Thai words wasn't up to snuff. It's also not as handy as a reference guide for looking up phone numbers or addresses to hotels, restaurants, etc. as say the Lonely Planet. It does provide a bit better context though and reads more comfortably. All in all, a good book. I bought it because it was so recent, but think I may go back to Lonely Planet for most future travel guides.