The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia by Jeremy Atiyah et al; Rough Guides, 2002; 1136 pp
The travel guide business is very competitive these days. Lonely Planet, which began life with Tony Wheeler's South-east Asia on a Shoestring, has done so well out of it that it has its own programs on television.
Rough Guides of the
Rough Guides began life as a typed handout banged out by founder Mark Ellingham who found himself dissatisfied with what he thought were the two ends of the spectrum, the staid, rather stuffy guides that concentrated on museums and the like and the cheapo-cheapo budget travel guides that were heavily into living off a plate of rice a day and a sniff of the sea breezes.
The Rough Guide South-east Asia handbook recently published its second edition. Covering eleven countries, this handsome book takes travellers to the region through places as varied as
Visually, it is an improvement on its predecessor with a user-friendly print face set out in double columns and with attractive sub-magenta bold print headings. The city and district maps are clear and well-designed. A colour photo lead-in of ‘36 Things Not To Miss’ is a bright and cheerful opener.
Meatier than Lonely Planet's own South-east Asia guide, this handbook has commentary on politics and history in each chapter as well as a very useful bibliography of books for the thoughtful traveller to read either before arrival or during their stay in a particular country.
Some of the political commentary may raise eyebrows. There is also a weighty little section on the music and culture of the country involved and in the case of
There is a useful little language guide where relevant; in the case of
The
David Jardine's
I can't take issue with his view of Ya-Udah Bistro on Jaksa for having best value fare in the area but when I went to look for Duta Makassar, another of his recommendations, at the corner of Wahid Hashim and Sabang it was nowhere to be found - it's at the other end of Sabang.
Try Waroeng Menteng on Wahid Hashim for its recommended ikan mas pepes (fish with spices wrapped in banana leaf and roasted), yes, but be prepared for a longish wait.
Nightlife is reasonably covered and the famous (infamous?) Tanamur disco merits a mention for its "lively clientele; mostly expats, pimps, prostitutes, ladyboys, junkies and the occasional traveller". This is unchanged from the first edition.
There's some savvy advice on riding the buses in
Alighting? Apparently, to call the attention of the driver or conductor you should "rap the overhead rail with a coin". More perhaps might have been made of the roughness of
The listings section is exhaustive and newcomers and old hands alike might be interested to know that the Central Post Office is good for the Internet. New one on me!
The West Java section fails to mention
The Sumatra coverage includes one or two little-visited places such as Karimun island in the Riau archipelago as well as the better-known destinations such as Bukittinggi and
Inter-island Pelni ferries receive due attention as they must. Many travellers to
As with all guide books, prices quoted have tended to be overtaken by events. There have been, as everybody knows, several utility and fuel price hikes in the past year since the research was done and Rough Guide cannot be blamed for getting the transport costs a little askew.
A recommended guide book with none of the early Lonely Planet philosophy of a rip-off awaiting you at every corner.
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