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Reviews of the Rough Guide to Vietnam:
From Vietnam Adventures' Guide to Guidebooks Co-authors Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis obviously spent a lot of time researching the second edition of their book and it shows. This compact, well-written volume packs in details on virtually every aspect of travel in Vietnam. From the tip of the Mekong Delta to the mountainous Northwest, the authors cover every major destination and numerous other places you probably never knew existed. The book is divided into three parts. Basics is the usual rundown on everything from visas to health precautions, including an excellent summary of local transportation options and even tips for Internet access. The Guide is divided into seven chapters and features exhaustive, accurate and reasonably current listings for any place you might dream of traveling. The third section, Contexts, goes beyond the obligatory historical synopsis to include a rundown of the Vietnam's major religions, background on the indigeneous ethnic minorities and a discussion of environmental issues of interest to the traveler. A no-nonsense tone prevails throughout the book. The authors' prose is insightful and concise. Describing the tourist information infrastructure they write, "State-owned tourist offices - under the auspices of either Vietnamtourism or the local provincial organization - are in reality thinly disguised travel agencies, and their lacklustre and occasionally disdainful counter staff are reluctant to spend their time providing free information to independent travellers when there are tours to sell and cars to rent out." (pg. 23) Overall The Rough Guide to Vietnam is an accurate, well-researched and well-written book that will appeal to a broad cross-section of travelers. While backpackers may find it a little light on rock-bottom budget recommendations, other travelers will appreciate the exhaustive research and concise prose. Travelers who want to explore Vietnam on their own and prefer to get off the beaten path will find this guide invaluable.
From Destination Vietnam, July-Aug 1997 (First Edition) This new guidebook will make a great travel companion for anyone who decides to take it along with them. Vietnam: The Rough Guide is Rough Guide's first edition on Vietnam. It's not only well-written, but also had to have been very thoroughly researched to be so up-to-date. The book contains no photos*, making it less weighty than other guide-books of similar length. (Any efforts to lighten a pack is appreciated!) As a frequent traveler to Asia, I sometimes no longer carry a guidebook with me because I've been disappointed in recent years with the currency of information provided in "new editions" of travel guides. I'm not referring to accuracy in prices because they change so frequently in Southeast Asia. What I want from a new edition is information on what's happened over the last year or so that affects the foreign visitor in therms of, for example, where he/she is able to go or stay in such "up and coming"countries as Vietnam. Before deciding whether or not to buy a new guidebook, I scan it for guesthouses, visa information on border crossings/restrictions, maps, available forms of transportation and perhaps cultural highlights I hadn't come across before. Then I compare this information with older guidebooks and my own notes on Vietnam. I have to say that The Rough Guide excels in all of these categories. Actually, the first thing I looked up in this book was a guesthouse I had spotted in Hanoi last year whose name I thought I had written down in my journal. It turns out that I wrote down only the corner of the street where it was located, and I've been trying to remember the name of the place every since because I planned to rendezvous with a friend there later this year. When I opened this new guide, I turned to the map of accommodations in Hanoi and I found my guesthouse on the corner of Cau Go and Hang Be! This is the only new guidebook I've seen with this listing and with those of several others that were recommended to me by travelers I met in Vietnam in 1996. While some recently published guidebooks also indicate that the Hoi An Hotel is basically one's only choice when staying in Hoi An, The Rough Guide's suggestions include ten places in Hoi An now open to foreigners. There are, of course, other aspects of this book that make it an excellent and practical guidebook asidef from the up-to-date information on guesthouses. It's just a pet peeve of mine that I use the listings of new places to stay to make a quick judgement about the currency of a guide I'm thinking of buying. This book makes it easy for the traveler to access information because of the excellently conceived index. For example, you can look up Cambodia, Laos or China in the index and quickly find the pages on how to get to these countries via Vietnam, or you can look up "visas" and the index will refer you to these same pages because they also specify where in Vietnam to obtain visas to these neighbouring countries. In fact, I've had no trouble finding anything I wan to research by using this index. There is only one piece of oudated information I discovered in this book, but it concerns travel in China. On page 384, The Rough Guide indicates that railroad service between Hekou, China (right next to Lao Cai, Vietnam) and Kunming, China has been suspended until further notice because of a 1995 flood. Actually, at least as of April 1996, trains between Kunming and Hekou were operating because this is how I traveled to Vietnam from China. For major cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam: The Rough Guide has separate maps on accommodations, restaurants and other places of interest (such as foreign embassies, airline offices, markets, museums) and these maps are spread over several pages. I imagine the publisher's idea was not to clutter up one small map with too much information. Fortunately, they have eliminated any possible inconvenience of having maps sometimes several pages away from the text descrbing what's on the maps. In italics, directly underneath each heading of the text on "Hotels" or "Accommodations", the guide refers readers to the page they can find the corresponding maps. In almost every way, the authors have made this book user-friendly. There are boxes of text throughout The Rough Guide that highlight specific historical and cultural information. There is also an entire section toward the back of the bok entitled "Contexts" that contains more detailed information on history, religion, minority groups, environmental issues, language and books and films depicting Vietnam. The book seems to have something for every sort of traveler, ranging frorm information on water puppetry to ethnic minorities to bird watching (or "bird-spotting" as the authors call it) to bia hoi (draft beer) bars. On page 335, readers with more eclectic and adventurous tastes are informed where to eat dogmeat in Hanoi. I really like the phrasing they use; "Fido comes served up as stews, steaks, sausages or soups, and actually tastes pretty good." On my way to Halong Bay from Hanoi in 1994, I passed many restaurants serving dog ("con cho"), even one that had a big sign of a dog's head in the front, but I've never come across a guidebook that highlights restaurants serving dogmeat! All in all, Vietnam: The Rough Guide is a welcome addition to the growing number ot travel guides on Vietnam. Let's hope Rough Guides, Ltd. have books on Cambodia**, Myanmar and Laos in the works! Notes:
From Sydney Morning Herald, Feb 1997 (First Edition) Self-promotion isn't always suction-capped to hyperbole. This exceptional guide, touting itself as the "ultimate handbook to South-East Asia's most intriguing new travel destination"combines scrupulous research and a whipcrack ability to get to the point. If you buy only one guide to Vietnam, this should be it. The book endears itself by roundly condemning, on the second page, the "Hanoi or bust" attitude of so many travellers: the practice of all but ignoring the mesmerising culture and landscape of Vietnam in a frantic scramble to "do" the country in less than two weeks. It rightly advocates allowing a month to canvas this incredible country of 73 million, where ancient and recent history weigh so heavily. If you can spare only two weeks, you are advised to stick to one region. Part One - Basics does not waste words. Everything, from health to crime and harassment, is mandatory readint. Part Two - The Guide dissects the major regions in eight chapters: Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong Delta, the Southern and Central Highlands, the South Central Coast, the Central Provinces, Hanoi, Ha Long Bay and the Norhern Seaboard and the Far North. Boxes detail essential information on subjects such as onward travel to China, accommodation price codes, village ettiquette and buying your own food. You'll find chapters outlining Vietnam's history, religion and beliefs, ethnic composition, music and theatre, environmental issues and book and film recommendations. Read and see as much as you can of the Rough Guide's nominations. » I'd like to than Jan Dodd & Mark Lewis for their job in Vietnam's Guide which helped us in our trip around this country far from the overcowded LP sites. Their sense of to travel is close of ours and we enjoy both the country and the book itself.
» Thanks again for a wonderful Guide. It was a huge help!
» Your book was very useful. We found with help of your book a lot of nice hotels and restaurants, and the background information was very useful.
» I had a misconception ref the Rough Guides before, due to the name, and had never really purchased one, except the one for Vietnam. I enjoyed reading the facts about the country and the history, and will undoubtedly buy the guide for other countries in the future.
» Just wanted to that you for a very professional quide to Vietnam.
» My wife and I have been to Vietnam for 6 weeks in December and January. I'd like to say thank you for your most excellent guide - it's been invaluable to us.
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