Skip to main content

Lonely ePlanet

Trains in Thailand are punctual, comfortable, cheap and serve reasonable food.
South east Asia on a shoestring, 1st edition, 1975
From our experience they got one out four right (cheap). My how things have changed in the 35 years and 15 editions since that first Lonely Planet book.


I've just finished reading Brian Thacker's light and enjoyable Tell Them to Get Lost, where the author attempts to use Lonely Planet's first edition of  South-East Asia on a Shoestring to guide him around the region. Staying in grimy guesthouses with sagging beds, stained sheets and little of the way of plumbing is not my idea of fun travel. Nor is a diet of booze, drugs, pizza and banana pancakes. You can tell I'm not a backpacker.

Neither are many of the Lonely Planet's readers any more, which is why they often now list hotels that are beyond our budget. Each to their own.

Independent travellers are blessed now with so many resources for planning their journeys. You can visit tourist organisation websites for guides to destinations and attractions, read blogs (like this one) and reviews for other peoples ideas and experiences, virtually visit a location through mapping tools, photos and even in some cases street views. Many destinations even have mobile phone apps to guide you around once you arrive and various portable internet options mean that you may be look up anything you need to know while on the move.


But I still like to take along a copy of the local Lonely Planet for those odd times you just need a hint on how to get from A to B, a map of city streets when you haven't been to the tourist office or got internet access, the opening hours of a museum, the location of a hospital, or just how to say "hello" in the local language it is reassuring to have a copy of the Lonely Planet handy. It's not a bible for your journey but more of a comfort item.

The problem is that Lonely Planets are often big and heavy, which is not so good when you are trying to pack light. So I'm giving the ebook versions a try on my mobile. Here's hopping the batteries still have power when I need them!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The little Jedi of Kinosaki Onsen

A long time ago in a land far, far away. That's what it felt like as we walked the streets of Kinosaki Onsen dressed in our yukatas, the clop-clop of wooden getas sounding in the air. In his robes Alex looked the spitting image of a young Jedi padawan, all that was missing was the lightsaber. Incidently, Padawan is a district of Kuching in Malaysia. The town was so far back in time that my 4G router couldn't get a signal, hence the lack of an update. Plus I was feeling a little under the weather. There can be few better places to rest than Kinosaki Onsen. We dragged our luggage on the Midosuji subway to Umeda, then barely caught the Ltd Exp Hamakaze in time. An older Japanese train it lacked a food service or vending machines, leading to big issues. Alex was hungry for breakfast. B and I had eaten slices of Kobe cheesecake for breakfast, but Alex didn't like it. As we raced past the huge Akashi bridge Alex was pleading for food and drink. The kind ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Springs, castles and the end of the line

I am never happy to stop before the end of the line. It irritates me to know that there is still somewhere unexplored lying ahead. So when I only got as far as Gujo Hachiman on the Nagaragawa Railway last year I knew I needed to return for more. Especially as this private third sector railway is, by its very nature, always at threat of closure due to low patronage. But did Gujo Hachiman deserve another visit? Sure it's a nice enough town, but had we missed out on enough last time to return? Mum's trip provided the excuse. I originally planned the Oito line, which wI'll be partly closed when the Shinkansen line is extended to Kanazawa. However, when I thought of special places in Japan that deserved to be shared Gujo Hachiman was at the top of the list. Before we could go anywhere Mum needed her coffee. There was a Tully's Coffee opposite the hotel entrance, so I parked her there while I booked our seat reservations. Mum got her fast train ride on a ...
4 comments
Read more

The Carlingford Line

We close the year and the decade with a local adventure to mark the closure of a railway line. On the January 5, 2020, the Carlingford Line from Clyde will close to be partially replaced by the Parramatta Light Rail. This is Sydney's quietest line, a single track branch for most of its length from the industrial centre of Clyde to the northwestern suburb of Carlingford. According to Wikipedia, power supply and signalling issues mean that only a single four car train can utilise the line at a time. Newer Sydney trains run in fixed eight car configurations. This will be the first and last time I traverse the Carlingford Line in its current configuration. The weather of the day is certainly appropriate for an ending, the brown smoke haze lending an apocalyptic air to proceedings. I drive to Padstow and catch the T8 line to Central, followed by the T1 towards Parramatta and Penrith. The historic homes of the Inner West give way to industrial complexes, rail storage yards and t...
4 comments
Read more