I don't know if it's just backpackers that read these books. Whatever book affluent people read is causing the ruination of the eternally placid Luang Phrabang. Travelling there recently felt like an old friend had died.

The kind of people who read LP and Rough Guide are adventurous travelers. They don't get their vacation clues from a Fodor guide or CondeNast (for $500 per day), or with guided tours. The nature of casual travel is that you read some paragraph that sends you to a place you want to be, whether crowded or deserted. And spending two weeks in a place like Tziscao, with the people who were children when the photo in LP Mexico was taken, will get you invitations to Mayan ruins that are not in any guidebook, to beaches not listed but passed on by room cleaners or the guy you met at a cafe..

The kind of people who read LP and Rough Guide are adventurous travelers. They don't get their vacation clues from a Fodor guide or CondeNast (for $500 per day), or with guided tours.

That is what I thought until I noticed that in the South they all ride in expensive tourist vans when public busses are much cheaper and more comfortable.

They are are more like Lemmings than "adventurous travelers".

Joe Cummings was accused of plagiarism when he wrote the guide to Burma.

Most verily.

Can you blame him - I sure have no desire to spend an extended amount of time in Burma when I could be somewhere else.

One of the most “Must Read” books on Kanchanaburi. From the front to the back page, laugh a minute.

Comprehensive and morish, where some reviews of late.

This book details the REAL “Kan” as it should be. No holds barred. "The Empire Strikes Back” so to speak, was yet another comment.

If you have found this book useful, please leave a comment on this page.

Yours truly,

Kan Win

Lonely Comet