History of the "Lonely Planet Thailand" tour guide - interview

[Damrongsak]

Here's a CNN article interviewing Joe Cummings, author of many guide books and especially the one that popularized Thailand in the early 1980's.  https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/joe-cummings-lonely-planet-thailand/index.html

 

For better or worse, Joe's book certainly popularized Thailand.  Khao San road, Chaing Mai, the islands & etc. ...  I had to laugh at his assessment of Pattaya back then: I dismissed Pattaya in three paragraphs, concluding, "most non-tourists will find Pattaya lacking in good taste as well as culture and would do well to preclude it from their itineraries. Pattaya Beach is not much of a beach to begin with, and its biggest businesses, watersports and street sex, have driven prices for food and accommodation beyond Bangkok level."

 

Joe and I were in the same Peace Corps group 1977-79. We didn't see a whole lot of each each other due to our distant postings, but we had some fun during training.

 

 

[Robin]

Working in Singapore in the 80's.  The famous 'yellow book' got me around Malaysia and Thailand for the first time and I have never thought of living anywhere else since then.  met JC once in Bangkok and had the chance to congratulate him on his book.  LP are the best value travel guides ever written, nd nothing that follows will ever be better.

[Denim]

Any guidebook that goes beyond it's remit of printing useful factual information and starts pontificating about what is ' cool ' and what isn't should be thrown out with the trash.

 

In any case , with the internet , guidebooks should by now have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

[animatic]

3 hours ago, Denim said:

Any guidebook that goes beyond it's remit of printing useful factual information and starts pontificating about what is ' cool ' and what isn't should be thrown out with the trash.

 

In any case , with the internet , guidebooks should by now have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

I guess you never met Joe. If he thought that of Pattaya then, then I have little doubt it was like that. And besides Lonely Planet was there to help you find what was cool and what not to waste your time with. Was intentionally more than other ‘guide books’ did.

[Mac Mickmanus]

That was back then when there was a strict divide between sex tourists and young back-packers .

  The younger lot went to Thailand for the islands and the exotic location, the older lot went for the erotic location and they both viewed each other with equal amounts of disdain . 

[sanuk711]

After 6 years in Pattaya/BKK  I decided 15 years ago-to settle Issan , at that time the Lonely Planet, described Udon Thani , "as a place best viewed from your rear vision Mirror"....which I thought was a little hard at the time..

The book was ok, useful on pointing out some out of the way spots that others didn't--but you could view it then as a little bit P.C.

 

 

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by sanuk711

[Denim]

1 hour ago, animatic said:

I guess you never met Joe. If he thought that of Pattaya then, then I have little doubt it was like that. And besides Lonely Planet was there to help you find what was cool and what not to waste your time with. Was intentionally more than other ‘guide books’ did.

No but I met Tony and Maureen in Patpong !!  Right couple of hypocrites . As soon as they made a pile it was adious guest house hello fancy hotel ! My friend also ran into Tony crossing the border into Cambodia from Aranyaprathet.  Whilst others were negotiating a shared taxi onwards Tony nabbed one all to himself and departed.  But of course by then he had made his stash.

 

As for Pattaya I was there before Cummings and although there was some nightlife absolutely no way was it more expensive than Bangkok. 100 baht fan rooms easily available away from the beach.

Wasn't even a 2nd road then never mind a 3rd or Soi Bua Khao whatever.

[Darksidedude]

9 hours ago, Robin said:

Working in Singapore in the 80's.  The famous 'yellow book' got me around Malaysia and Thailand for the first time and I have never thought of living anywhere else since then.  met JC once in Bangkok and had the chance to congratulate him on his book.  LP are the best value travel guides ever written, nd nothing that follows will ever be better.

The books where the only reference to go by and were very helpful, i used them all the time.

 

Sadly now travel guides are a thing of the past with the internet age, and travel is so much easier these days, well pre covid that is

[MrJ2U]

Never a fan of "Lonely Planet" books.

 

Everything was to hippie -ish.

Doing your own exploring and finding your niche is the way to go.

[LomSak27]

6 hours ago, sanuk711 said:

I decided 15 years ago-to settle Issan , at that time the Lonely Planet, described Udon Thani , "as a place best viewed from your rear vision Mirror"....which I thought was a little hard at the time..

The 01 LP Thailand edition had 4 to 6 pages for Udorn Thani city. Plus more on day trips like how to visit Phu Phra Bat, etc. Sad to hear, five years later they deleted all that and said something about cars mirrors. 

It's always something. 

 

[LongTimeLurker]

2 hours ago, MrJ2U said:

Never a fan of "Lonely Planet" books.

 

Everything was to hippie -ish.

Doing your own exploring and finding your niche is the way to go.

I hitch hiked around Europe doing that.

 

Had a Michelin road map of Europe and each city I arrived in I headed to the main railway station where there was a Tourist Information counter to get a local city map and info on cheap hotels.

 

I used the Lonely Planet India guide which I found incredibly useful for tourist site information, but absolutely useless for accommodation, so much so that it was a lottery at most places. A story went around that Tony Wheeler had been shot in Columbia...............by someone that had used his India Guide!

 

It was certainly useful for meeting like-minded travellers as everywhere you went you'd meet someone carrying a copy and be able to trade personal experiences of places, so it was useful in that respect.

 

I used the Australia Guide but have never bothered with the Thailand, or any other places I've been to since I arrived here 26 years ago. I guess I outgrew the backpacker mentality, and of course now there's so much information available on a 'phone that I didn't have 30 years ago.

[MrJ2U]

28 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

I hitch hiked around Europe doing that.

 

Had a Michelin road map of Europe and each city I arrived in I headed to the main railway station where there was a Tourist Information counter to get a local city map and info on cheap hotels.

 

I used the Lonely Planet India guide which I found incredibly useful for tourist site information, but absolutely useless for accommodation, so much so that it was a lottery at most places. A story went around that Tony Wheeler had been shot in Columbia...............by someone that had used his India Guide!

 

It was certainly useful for meeting like-minded travellers as everywhere you went you'd meet someone carrying a copy and be able to trade personal experiences of places, so it was useful in that respect.

 

I used the Australia Guide but have never bothered with the Thailand, or any other places I've been to since I arrived here 26 years ago. I guess I outgrew the backpacker mentality, and of course now there's so much information available on a 'phone that I didn't have 30 years ago.

Its amazing what you can find on the internet for travel.

 

To bad we can't travel (safely) at the moment.

 

Stay safe!

 

[Andycoops]

I now live in Thailand and started coming here 30 years ago, at no time has Pattaya ever been more expensive than Bangkok in my experience.

[Stupooey]

15 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

I hitch hiked around Europe doing that.

 

Had a Michelin road map of Europe and each city I arrived in I headed to the main railway station where there was a Tourist Information counter to get a local city map and info on cheap hotels.

 

I used the Lonely Planet India guide which I found incredibly useful for tourist site information, but absolutely useless for accommodation, so much so that it was a lottery at most places. A story went around that Tony Wheeler had been shot in Columbia...............by someone that had used his India Guide!

 

It was certainly useful for meeting like-minded travellers as everywhere you went you'd meet someone carrying a copy and be able to trade personal experiences of places, so it was useful in that respect.

 

I used the Australia Guide but have never bothered with the Thailand, or any other places I've been to since I arrived here 26 years ago. I guess I outgrew the backpacker mentality, and of course now there's so much information available on a 'phone that I didn't have 30 years ago.

The problem with LP was that because their guidebooks were ubiquitous, their recommendations had an almost guaranteed stream of customers, which often resulted in prices rising and standards falling. Many years ago I joined my then gf, who had been travelling round India clutching her faithful LP, for a few weeks, and took with me the India Handbook. We found that for food and accommodation, the IH suggestions (plus personal recommendations) were much more reliable than LP.

[LongTimeLurker]

7 hours ago, Andycoops said:

I now live in Thailand and started coming here 30 years ago, at no time has Pattaya ever been more expensive than Bangkok in my experience.

I remember moving to Pattaya after living in Bangkok and finding that beer in a go-go was more expensive in Pattaya than in Bangkok.

 

But Pattaya had many beer bars which were not so prevalent in Bangkok.