Product Description

Discover Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & the Greater Mekong

Take a slow boat down the mighty Mekong past remote jungles, ancient temples and intriguing hill-tribe villages, p.23
Get up close and personal with wild elephants in Laos, p.285
Trek to secluded waterfalls through Khao Yai National Park in Thailand, p.156
Explore magnificent Angkorian temples without the crowds in Cambodia's Preah Vihear Province, p.223

In This Guide:

Full-color chapter on the region's ancient wonders, from majestic Angkor Wat to World Heritage-listed Lijiang.
Border crossings chapter to help plan your adventure, with info on which borders are open and a map with marked crossings.
Visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler insights.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #465583 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 524 pages

Review
For sheer global reach and dogged research, attention must be paid to Lonely Planet…' --Los Angeles Times, February 2, 2003

From the Publisher
Who We Are
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travelers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.

What We Do
* We offer travelers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
* When we update our guidebooks, we check every listing, in person, every time.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travelers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travelers; not clouded by any other motive.

What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.

Customer Reviews

Not impressed
Lonely Planet has really cornered the guidebooks market but in this case, I feel it's not deserved. I just got back from a trip to Vietnam (a destination I settled on after reading the book and gauging the amount of time I had) and all the information in there was outdated and inaccurate. I also had Rough Guides a friend gave me last minute and I much preferred it. The print says it was last updated a year or 2 ago and I understand that's the nature of the beast but it was still disappointing.

A decent starting point
I spent six weeks in May and June 2008 backpacking around Southeast Asia, and this was my primary guidebook. Overall, I found it to be helpful for the macro-level stuff: planning my itinerary, getting a general overview of each country's history, and budgeting.

I give it three stars, however, because although it's unreasonable to expect it to be as in-depth as the individual guidebooks for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, I often found that the authors omitted useful listings for lodging, places to eat, and sites that were included in other books.

If you plan on taking only one guidebook for VN, KH, and LA, this is a good choice. (Another option is Moon, but at the time of my trip it was even more out-of-date than the LP guide.) Just keep in mind that you'll want to refer to other guidebooks, which I found to be readily available from hostels, cafes, and other travelers in this well-traveled region.

The Worst LP I've used
First off, I almost always stick with Lonely Planet, been through 25 countries with them. now:

No info at all about Bangkok's domestic airport, other than one line about "domestic flights fly from, Don Mueng." As a book for backpackers and by backpackers shouldn't it at least give a little transit info about the hub of all the budget airlines in Thailand?!!?

And that was just my first day...

I struggled for three weeks trying to find info I needed (even the basics) which seem to be omitted for no reason other than replacing it with useless info.

I know the editor just combined small snippets of the single country books to make something sorta useful, but he succeeded at creating a pointless book which I lugged around in my bag and kept having to ask other travelers to borrow their LP Laos or LP Thailand.

My recommendation, by the single country guidebooks