Vietnam Cambodia Laos & the Greater Mekong (Multi Country Guide)
Editorial Reviews
Discover Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & the Greater MekongTake 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.
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item ?
Thailand (Country Guide)
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia Travel Map (Globetrotter Travel Map)
Myanmar (Burma) (Country Guide)
Cambodia (Country Guide)
Malaysia Singapore & Brunei (Country Guide)
Customer Reviews
Perfectly adequate for a short Southeast Asia tour ( 2009-11-24 )
We just returned from a three week trip to Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. We spent about 10 days in Thailand, one week in Laos, and only four days in Cambodia at Siem Reap visiting the Angkor Wat complex. As we only had time on this trip to hit the highlights, this book was just fine. We actually brought along the Lonely Planet Thailand book and for such a short trip, it was too big and definitely in the way. If you're really backpacking and traveling for many weeks or months through Southeast Asia, I wouldn't recommend this book (buy the individual country books), but for a standard vacation it was a great resource.
Good guide but bit disjointed ( 2009-10-15 )
Lonely Planet guides are very good but this one is a bit disjointed. Information on visas is located in a few different areas for the same country & is not very clear. Otherwise it is a very good guide.
Disappointing ( 2009-05-08 )
A guide book should be updated at least annually to ensure accuracy of it's information. Lonely planet has failed this task.
I just traveled (2009) to South East Asia, using this guide book. The prices in the book were outdated (double now), some restaurants are not there anymore, and many of the reviews are inaccurate now.
For such a famous brand, they should pay attention to their core concept..provide accurate up to date travel information.
The Worst LP I've used ( 2008-10-22 )
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
A decent starting point ( 2008-08-01 )
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.