Top 100 Celebrated Travel Books of all Time

http://www.worldhum.com/features/lists/the-100-most-celebrated-travel-books-list-20100427/

Lists: The definitive list of travel books that travel writers, editors, bloggers and readers love best.

http://www.worldhum.com/features/lists/the-100-most-celebrated-travel-books-list-20100427/ has a wonderful list of the best 100 travel books of all time. Something has happened to my old, familiar way to make hot links, but each book on the list appears to have it's own individual link. If you would like to click around at some books, you'll need to do a copy and paste with all the garbage that starts his message. I hate it when this happens...


How did we come up with our list? We scoured the web and dug up every “best travel books” list we could find, from writers, bloggers and publications like Salon, Conde Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler and Transitions Abroad. (Naturally, we consulted our own top 30 list, too). Then we pulled out the books that were cited most often and added a few bestsellers.

You’ll find that a few books don’t fit the most rigid definition of travel memoir; we didn’t want our list to be too narrow or fussy. Rather, we wanted it to be broad and inclusive. Also, although we numbered the books from 1 to 100, we didn’t rank them; they appear here in alphabetical order. (You can find the 10 most celebrated books here.) The lists we drew from are noted below the book titles. The numbers in brackets after each book title on the list correspond to the source lists on which that title appears; a dollar sign in brackets indicates that a book was included based on extremely high sales. (Read the fine print for more detail on how we determined the 100 most celebrated travel books of all time.)

1) A Dragon Apparent, by Norman Lewis (5, 7)
2) A House in Bali, by Colin McPhee (4, 11)
3) A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway (4, 6)
4) A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, by Eric Newby (1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15)
5) A Time of Gifts, by Patrick Leigh Fermor (1, 2, 7, 8, 12)
6) A Turn in the South, by V.S. Naipaul (1)
7) A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson ($)
8) A Winter in Arabia, by Freya Stark (5)
9) Among the Russians, by Colin Thubron (3, 7)
10) An Area of Darkness, by V.S. Naipaul (2, 7, 8)
11) Arabian Sands, by Wilfred Thesiger (1, 2, 3, 4)
12) Arctic Dreams, by Barry Lopez (4, 11)
13) The Art of Travel, by Alain de Botton (5, 12)
14) As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, by Laurie Lee (3, 5)
15) Baghdad Without a Map, by Tony Horwitz (1)
16) Balkan Ghosts, by Robert D. Kaplan (4, 6)
17) Beyond Euphrates, by Freya Stark (7)
18) The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer, by Eric Hansen (2)
19) Bitter Lemons of Cyprus, by Lawrence Durrell (2, 7)
20) Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West (2)
21) Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin (13)
22) Blue Highways, by William Least Heat-Moon (2, 4, 8, 11, 12, 13)
23) Brazilian Adventure, by Peter Fleming (4, 5, 8)
24) Chasing the Sea, by Tom Bissell (2)
25) City of Djinns, by William Dalrymple (1, 4)
26) Coasting, by Jonathan Raban (3)
27) Coming Into the Country, by John McPhee (4, 9, 10, 11)
28) Dark Star Safari, by Paul Theroux (2, 11)
29) Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey (4, 11, 12)
30) Down the Nile, by Rosemary Mahoney (2)
31) Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert ($)
32) The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, by Tom Wolfe (13)
33) Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing (2, 11)
34) Facing the Congo, by Jeffrey Tayler (1)
35) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson (2, 3, 6, 13)
36) Four Corners, by Kira Salak (6)
37) Full Circle, by Michael Palin (4, 11)
38) Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle, by Dervla Murphy (5)
39) Golden Earth, by Norman Lewis (1)
40) Great Plains, by Ian Frazier (2, 11)
41) The Great Railway Bazaar, by Paul Theroux (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
42) Holidays in Hell, by P.J. O’Rourke (12)
43) Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell (3, 4)
44) Hunting Mister Heartbreak, by Jonathan Raban (1, 7)
45) In a Sunburned Country, by Bill Bryson (1, 2, 4, 11, 14)
46) In Patagonia, by Bruce Chatwin (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
47) In Siberia, by Colin Thubron (4, 12)
48) In Trouble Again, by Redmond O’Hanlon (2, 4)
49) The Innocents Abroad, by Mark Twain (1, 2, 6)
50) Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer (6, 11)
51) Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer ($)
52) Iron and Silk, by Mark Salzman (2, 4)
53) Kon-Tiki, by Thor Heyerdahl (15)
54) The Lady and the Monk, by Pico Iyer (12)
55) Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain (2, 13)
56) The Log From the Sea of Cortez, by John Steinbeck (11)
57) The Long Walk, by Slavomir Rawicz (2, 11)
58) The Lost Continent, by Bill Bryson (4, 8, 12, 13)
59) Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, by Suketu Mehta (2, 6)
60) The Motorcycle Diaries, by Ernesto “Che” Guevara (14)
61) The Muses Are Heard, by Truman Capote (2)
62) No Mercy, by Redmond O’Hanlon (1, 2, 10, 12)
63) Notes From a Small Island, by Bill Bryson (3, 5)
64) Nothing to Declare, by Mary Morris (4, 8)
65) Old Glory, by Jonathan Raban (2, 4, 7)
66) The Old Patagonian Express, by Paul Theroux (4, 12)
67) Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen (4, 7, 11)
68) Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard (9, 12)
69) The Pillars of Hercules, by Paul Theroux (2, 11)
70) The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart (2, 11, 15)
71) Riding to the Tigris, by Freya Stark (1)
72) The Rings of Saturn, by W.G. Sebald (2, 15)
73) The River at the Center of the World, by Simon Winchester (4)
74) River Town, by Peter Hessler (1)
75) Road Fever, by Tim Cahill (1, 4, 12)
76) The Road to Oxiana, by Robert Byron (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7)
77) Roughing It, by Mark Twain (2, 4, 11, 13)
78) Sea and Sardinia, by D.H. Lawrence (2, 4)
79) Seven Years in Tibet, by Heinrich Harrer (4, 6, 11, 14)
80) The Sex Lives of Cannibals, by J. Maarten Troost (6, 12)
81) The Size of the World, by Jeff Greenwald (1, 6, 12)
82) Slowly Down the Ganges, by Eric Newby (2, 4)
83) The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiessen (1, 4, 9, 10, 11)
84) The Soccer War, by Ryszard Kapuscinski (1)
85) The Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin (1, 2, 4, 12)
86) Terra Incognita, by Sara Wheeler (4, 11)
87) Their Heads are Green and Their Hands are Blue, by Paul Bowles (2)
88) Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson (11)
89) Travels With Charley, by John Steinbeck (1, 3, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13)
90) Travels With Myself and Another, by Martha Gellhorn (2, 15)
91) Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, by Jan Morris (1, 5)
92) Two Towns in Provence, by M.F.K. Fisher (2, 4, 7, 10)
93) Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes (6)
94) Video Night in Kathmandu, by Pico Iyer (1, 4, 6, 10, 12)
95) West With the Night, by Beryl Markham (2, 4)
96) When the Going was Good, by Evelyn Waugh (1, 7)
97) The World of Venice, by Jan Morris (3)
98) The Worst Journey in the World, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (2, 5, 11)
99) Wrong About Japan, by Peter Carey (2)
100) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig (10, 13)

MORE: The 100 Most Celebrated Travel Books of All Time: By the Numbers | The Fine Print | Mapped | Five Great Covers

Source Lists
1) World Hum’s Top 30 Travel Books
2) Conde Nast Traveler’s 86 Greatest Travel Books of All Time
3) The Telegraph’s 20 Best Travel Books of All Time
4) National Geographic Traveler’s Ultimate Travel Library
5) The Times Online’s 20 Best Travel Books of the Past Century
6) Brave New Traveler’s 50 Greatest Travel Books of All Time
7) From Salon, Tom Swick’s Top 20 Travel Books of the 20th Century
8) The International Society of Travel Writers’ Top 10 Best Travel Books of the 20th Century
9) From Salon, Don George’s Favorite Travel Books
10) Salon’s Top 10 Travel Books of the 20th Century
11) NileGuide’s Top 50 Adventure Books of All Time
12) From Transitions Abroad, Top 10 Travel Books lists from a variety of travel writers: Jim Benning, Michael Shapiro, Rolf Potts, Ron Mader, Rory MacLean, Tim Leffel and Ayun Halliday.
13) Smithsonian’s Great Road Trips in American Literature
14) Nomadic Matt’s Best Travel Books
15) The Travel Bookshop’s Top 10 Travel Books

Doug Lansky Video:-- Dubious Achievements in Travel

The always hilarious Doug lansky put together the above video just to show how truley awful travel can be at times. The video also provides links to where you can purchase his book. Nice work, Doug.

The Most Unusual Hotel Promotions Video You will ever See

This clever video from the Penthouse Hotel in Pattaya has pole dancers, wedding girls, spa hookers, the kitchen chef who considers herself Lady Gaga, and even a brief look at a room. It's really brilliant, far superior to any hotel promotional video I've seen in the past.

Cheap Air Fares Around Asia

Attention anyone living and traveling around Asia. Matt Gross of the New York Times has posted an excellent, excellent article about finding the cheapest air fares within Asia. This is a must read and clip article that will save you tons of money.

Matt Gross the Frugal Traveler on Cheap Air Fares Within Asia

Visit the website above for hot links. Here's a small sample:

A trio of Web sites — WhichBudget.com, FlyBudget.com and FlyLowCostAirlines.org — aims to answer exactly these questions. They all do almost exactly the same thing: Enter one location (anywhere in the world, not just Asia), and they’ll tell you which low-cost carriers fly directly from there, and the various destinations. That’s it! It seems like a simple thing, but with low-cost carriers adding and deleting routes throughout the world, it’s not.

Instead, visit SkyScanner.net, Momondo.com or WeGo.com, all of which let you comparison-shop by route and price, and among airlines both low-cost and traditional. Even though the companies are scattered all over the world (SkyScanner in Scotland and Poland; Momondo in Denmark; WeGo in Singapore), they’re all fairly similar with regard to design and functionality. Indeed, they probably look a lot like the travel booking site you already use

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Best Travel Videos of 2009

Gadling and myself must have similar tastes in travel videos, since I've posted almost all of these videos on my blog over the last year. So it's a look back at the best travel videos of 2009. Enjoy! And Happy New Year.


Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

Frequent Flyer from Gabriel Leigh on Vimeo.

Artificial from Paul Bryan on Vimeo.

China's 60th Anniversary national day - timelapse and slow motion - 7D and 5DmkII from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

To Preah Vihear from Siem Reap

Another crazy Western journalist makes the challenging journey from Siem Reap to Preah Vihear. This time, it's The New York Times by Daniel Robinson. His descriptions of the temple itself aren't all that interesting, but great fun is had with his stories of the terrible roads, terrible hotels, and dismal cafes.

The best staging point for a visit to Preah Vihear Temple is Sra Em (also spelled Sa Em), 19 miles by road from the temple. Two years ago, it was a sleepy crossroads hamlet with a single grimy restaurant and one rundown guesthouse. These days, in the wake of the area’s military buildup, it feels like a Gold Rush boomtown, with haphazardly parked four-wheel-drives instead of tethered horses; karaoke bars sporting pink fluorescent lamps and colored lights, instead of saloons; and the gleanings of Cambodia’s recently doubled defense budget, instead of gold nuggets glinting in the stream. Armed men in camouflage uniforms abound.

Preah Vihear Temple Sra Em’s accommodation options are rudimentary, to put it politely. My room’s star amenity was a cold-water spigot for filling the plastic bucket used both to bathe and to flush, and below the cheap plastic mirror and its public access comb, dust bunnies had formed around the hair of guests past. Each time I returned to my room, I found a dead cricket, a new one every day, hinting, perhaps, at the presence of some sinister insecticide.

Preah Vihear Temple is, obviously, not quite ready for mainstream tourism. During the two days I spent at the temple in October, I saw only four other Westerners, including an unhappy German couple whose day trip from Angkor Wat had been rather more trying than expected, and perhaps 50 or so Cambodian tourists. But intrepid travelers who brave the diabolical (though improving) roads, substandard accommodations and alarming government travel advisories are richly rewarded.

For 40 generations, Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims have trekked to this temple, seeking to ascend toward the holy and the transcendent. Today, the awe-inspiring nature of this Angkorian masterpiece, accentuated by the challenges of getting there, confer on every trip the aura of a pilgrimage.

NAIL-BITING TAXI TRIPS AND A VOLCANO AT YOUR TABLE

GETTING THERE

With the visa-free crossing from Thailand closed for the foreseeable future, getting to Preah Vihear Temple requires battling Cambodia’s famously potholed roads, which are at their worst during the wet season (about June to October).

Share-taxis, which have no set schedule and depart when full, link Sra Em with Siem Reap via the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng ($7.50 a person; 130 miles; three hours) and with the provincial capital of Tbeng Meanchey ($6.50; 65 miles; two hours). The U.S. dollar is widely accepted.

The taxis, usually “jacked-up” Toyota Camrys, carry six or seven passengers in addition to the driver, so if you want the front seat to yourself you’ll have to pay two fares. Ante up six times the single fare and you’ve got yourself a private taxi.

From Sra Em, a ride to Kor Muy on the back of a motorbike will run about $3.75. Then the three-mile ride up the mountain to Preah Vihear Temple, on a concrete road whose gradients will impress even San Franciscans, is $5 by motorbike or $20 to $25 by four-wheel-drive pickup.

WHERE TO STAY

Glassless windows, sinkless bathrooms, towels with the absorptive capacity of a plastic bag, fans that run only when a generator is sputtering outside your window (usually from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.) and laissez-faire housekeeping are, alas, the norm in Sra Em’s guesthouses. I should have stayed at the 25-room Tuol Monysophon (855-99-620-757), which opened this year. A brown, barn-like structure topped with a red tile roof, it has basic rooms downstairs with private baths, mosquito nets and wood-plank floors, for $10; smaller upstairs rooms with shared facilities are $7.50. To get there from the triangular crossroads, head west (toward Anlong Veng) for 500 yards.

WHERE TO EAT

The Preah Vihear area’s best restaurant, hands down, is Sra Em’s Pkay Prek Restaurant (855-12-636-617), an unpretentious complex of open-air, fluorescent-lit pavilions with plenty of geckos. The specialty is phnom pleoung (hill of fire; $3.75), a meat and veggie feast you grill yourself at your table on an aluminum “volcano” suspended above glowing coals.

Denver's Newest Tourist Attraction -- Ganja Gourmet Cafe

Ganja Gourmet Cafe in Denver is on to a fabulous idea, and the owner will soon be a millionaire if he can quickly copyright the name and concept, and franchise the idea across the nation. Looks a very classy place, plus it's on Broadway, so can catch the streetcar back to your hotel after the meal. Remember, don't smoke and drive.

New Route from Issan to Angkor

Andrew Hicks at Thai Girl is a retired Brit married to a Thai Girl, who lives in Surin in Issan. Andrew recently visited Angkor via a new route which leads from Surin in Issan across the border, then about 100 kilometers south to Angkor. Andrew had great difficulty finding information about this almost unknown route, so I thought I'd post the details for those of you who want to avoid the long approach from Aranyaprathet.

To promote international friendship and cross border trade, a new route has now been developed from Chong Sanggam in Si Saket province with substantial Thai money being spent on good sealed roads. On Thailand’s Route 24 at Ban Lalom just west of Phusing the big blue signs now show the turn off to Angkok Wat. The road across the border on both sides is so new, it probably doesn’t appear on your map but it does exist and is well signed from Route 24.

Once in Cambodia the road is direct and fast and coming back and completing our circle we covered the fast road from Siem Reap to the border in exactly two hours. The only problem is that, unlike Chong Jom, the border crossing itself is totally undeveloped, a dusty road through the dry jungle with a few barriers, push carts and portakabins.

Using either entry point, you’ll have to be dropped at the border as leaving your vehicle there would be more than risky. You also ideally need to have booked a Cambodian car to meet you and to take you to Siem Reap, though I’m not sure about mobile phone coverage across the border. (My well-connected friend had booked a car and our 4WD arrived twenty four hours early just in case!)

We were charged 2,500 baht by Keo Sotheara for a comfortable return trip from Siem Reap to Chong Sanggam. He is near Chong Sanggam at Anlong Veng and speaks good English. His card shows (855) 1267-7544 (Cambodia phone) and 086-343-7091 (Thailand phone).

Alternatively Chan Sovan of Siem Reap is on 012-843992 or (855) 92-89-0005 (though another card says 374-374 prefixed either by 011 or 012 or 013 or 090. Confused? So am I!).

We used a nine seater mini-bus to take us round the temples and between the three of us paid US$25 per day for the vehicle. (Dee, our delightful driver was great value too.) See www.angkorguide.asia/phansy and rosphansy@gmail.com. (Email him perhaps and ask him to send a car to Chong Sanggam?) See also www.siemreaptaxidriver.webs.com. Sorry if I’m a bit vague on all this as I didn’t do the phoning for cars.

Alternatively, on crossing the border at Chong Jom, there could be some cars waiting for business or not far away. At Chong Sanggam it would also be possible to get someone to call a car from Anlong Veng (twenty minutes away), or even from Siem Reap. People are always friendly and helpful especially when it opens wallets.

One small thought… returning to Chong Sanggam by car, arrange to stop off at the exquisite small temple of Banteay Srei and also at Kabal Spean to see the ‘River of a Thousand Linggas’ as they are en route and well out of town. (For Banteay Srei, you’ll need to have bought an extra day on your temple access card, available at the main entry to the temple park. It’s US$20 per day, US$40 for three days and US$60 for seven days. It seems you can opt for the days not to be consecutive… six days running could cause total exhaustion.)

Chuck Thompson on the Hellholes of the World

Freelance travel writer Chuck Thompson first came to the attention of the public with his book about the realities of travel writing, Smile While You're Lying. I enjoyed and sympathized with his message that it's almost impossible to make a sensible living as a guidebook writer if you're expected to absolutely visit all the assigned destinations. His other advice is that travel should be full of adventure and risks, which I also support. So I gave his first book a big thumbs up, despite the howls of indignation from the travel writing community. Oh well.

And now Chuck has gone and done it again with his second book entitled To Hellholes and Back: Bribes, Lies, and the Art of Extreme Tourism. You can order it today at Amazon.

The National Geographic Blog offers up a fine interview with Chuck which sheds light on why he wrote the book, his opinion on so-called "dangerous" destinations, and the importance of getting off the road to find new experiences. He also points out that his former themes of being a travel writer are now less important and he's moving on to new subjects. He's a man to watch.

Christopher Elliott conducted the interview, which was also posted on Chris' blog a few days earlier.

What's the common thread between your designated 'hellholes'?

On the most basic level, they're all places that have earned extremely negative reputations with people who have never been there. Taken together, they represent the whole spread of traveler paranoia -- from crime, disease and bloodshed to standing in long lines in the Florida sun next to little Caitlins and Coopers waiting to get on the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. India's death-or-glory salesmen and promise of GI infections intimidated me personally, but as a global outsourcing hub and magnet for terrorists, it neatly packages the worst economic, cultural and political fears of modern America. So, a book covering these places seemed like it would have both personal meaning and universal relevance.

What's the point you were trying to make by visiting these places?

I didn't start off with any point in mind other than to confront some of my own biases and see what happened. I try to approach everything I write about with as agnostic a mindset as possible, which, sadly, is not much the fashion these days.

The predictable and perhaps natural way to go into a project like this is to assume that you'll come out at the other end with a cheery, hands-across-the-sea message of global brotherhood and a stern lesson about judging others from afar. But I went to these places willing to call a spade a spade. If my experience supported it, I was fully ready to say, "You know what? I was right. This place really does suck. This society is completely screwed up."

What I finished with was something in-between. The Congo and its ubiquitous AK-47s I never need to experience again. But I gained more respect for Miley Cyrus than I would have thought possible.

Of all these destinations, which one scared you the most?

Easily the Congo. For one, just the genuine threat of violence. I mean, there's a civil war going on there.

But more than that, the complete lack of information was alarming. It turns out virtually nobody goes to the Congo. Consequently, it's almost impossible to get an accurate idea about what's going on there, how to get around, and so on. Even the major guidebooks devoted to Africa include only a few perfunctory pages about the country. And all the Africans I spoke to said, "Do not go to Congo under any circumstance!"

For a while I thought I'd have to abort the trip. Then I found Henri, who got me through the country, but turned out to be an adventure in and of himself.

It seems as if you're saying as much about tourists -- specifically American tourists -- as you are about the destinations you visit. What are you trying to say?

My general point about American tourists is that by and large I think they're pretty polite and open-minded and no worse than any other travelers and not at all deserving of that old "ugly American" tag.

The larger thing I discovered while traveling for this book is that while everyone seems to love bitching about the Americanization of the world -- from McDonald's to Disney to gluttonous consumerism -- the reverse seems to be much more the case these days. The world is influencing America far more than America is influencing the world. And often not in a good way.

Political corruption essentially taken for granted. Religious intolerance. Municipal bankruptcy. Enfeebled currency. Military adventurism. Toothless media. In one section I used the dismal ascendancy of soccer in this country as a symbol for all of this social decay -- which I know will get a lot of people thinking I'm an ass in the same way that I angered Eric Clapton fans by dumping on him in Smile When You're Lying, but to me it's an apt and sort of funny metaphor.

You seem to have laid off criticizing travel writing in this book, for the most part. Do you feel as if you made your point in your last book, or do you still have something to say about travel writing? If so, what is it?

On Getting Arrested in the Philippines

Mindanao Bob at Live in the Philippines has a few warnings about getting arrested in The Philippines. Don't.

The thing is, as a foreigner here, you basically have no rights. A lot of Americans living here will tell me that he has this Constitutional right, or another, referring to the United States Constitution. Hey, Joe… sorry, but you left the US Constitution behind when you stepped off that plane in Manila! Sorry, but you are no longer covered by the US Constitution when you are not in the USA. Sure, the Philippine Constitution has many rights too… but in practice, you may or may not get those benefits!

I was reading an article online a few days ago. It was about a Japanese man who got accused of the crime of Illegal Recruiting here in the Philippines. According to the article, he had offered some Filipinos the ability to get a Visa to go to Japan, in exchange for money. Apparently, according to the article, he had friends at the Japanese Embassy who could help get these Visas.

He was charged with this crime in 2003, and had been held in the Bureau of Immigration Prison ever since. That is more than 6 years that he was imprisoned. Guess what? In 2008, they dropped the charges. Apparently, there must not have been enough evidence to take him to trial. So, he was held from 2003 until 2008 in prison, but had never been convicted of any crime, and eventually he was not even accused of any crime.

But, there is more. In 2008 when the charges against this man were dropped, he was not released from Prison. Why? Because now he was an “overstaying and undesirable alien.” In other words, his Visa had expired. Well, of course it had expired, he had been held in jail for more than 6 years! So, in the past week or so, this fellow was deported because he had overstayed his visa.

Maybe this man committed a crime, maybe not. I can’t say for sure. What I can say, though, is that he was never convicted of committing any crime, and eventually was not even accused of having done so. Yet, he was imprisoned for more than 6 years. It could happen to you or me too.

Many foreigners think that if they were to be accused, their Embassy will get them out of trouble. Sorry, Jack, it ain’t gonna happen. Your Embassy is there to come and check on you. They will make sure you are not being mistreated (in other words, they aren’t torturing you and that kind of thing), and if you are mistreated they will probably file a complaint. But, they certainly won’t make the Philippines change their laws to let you off. They won’t be able to speed up the system. They certainly won’t be able to insert American Constitutional rights into your case. No, none of that is going to happen, so don’t count on it.

So, do I lose any sleep over the possibility of being accused of some crime? Nope, none at all. But, when I think about the possibility of something like that happening, I certainly don’t feel all warm and fuzzy either.

This is one of the reasons why you want to behave in a respectful way here. Don’t make people lose face. Don’t embarrass people. Doing these kinds of things is only inviting people to falsely accuse you. Or, if you get mad and do something to project your anger, you may actually commit a crime that you don’t even know about. For example, did you know that a foreigner insulting a Filipino is a crime, and you can be deported for that? It is.

Be careful!

Thai Temples' Five Million Baht Toilets

Richard Barrow over at Thai-Blogs visits the famed, expensive temple toilets in Samut Prakan, which also happens to be the world headquarters of the Society for World Domination (i.e. Thai-Blogs). Five million baht toilets? What would the Buddha say?

Toilets in Thailand don't exactly have the best of reputations. They are often dirty, smelly and not well-looked after. They are also nearly always squat toilets. Now comes the news that the temple toilets at Wat Bang Phli Yai Nai in Samut Prakan have recently built a toilet block which rivals any in a five star hotel. The toilets are reported to have cost as much as 5 million baht.

As you enter the toilets, you will find a shoe rack outside for changing your shoes. You then enter through an automatic glass door. Inside it is all air-conditioned. The room is divided into six toilets for women and six for men. In addition there is a separate section with urinals for men. In the middle of the room there is a garden with plants and fountains.

ThaiVisa Founder Interview

Bangkok Dan at Absolutely Bangkok interviews the founder of ThaiVisa, Thailand's most popular online forum. George gets thrown some hardball questions, but responds well to the common criticism that his moderators are more Catholic than the Pope.

He’s an institution: George, founder and owner of Thaivisa.com, Thailand’s probably most popular website among foreigners with its unique forum. George is the brain behind the success, but success invites envy and jealousy, so not all you read about Thaivisa is milk and honey. I recently had a talk with George and here is what he says about Thailand today, Thaivisa’s sometimes debatable moderators, politics, etc.

George say, how did it all start with Thaivisa?

It was an accident! It started with an experiment with SEO (search engine optimization) in 2002, I wanted to see if a forum like this would be able to reach the top of search results without any cheating (it’s called “white-hat SEO”). As we only had myself and a few friends in the very beginning, we started to ask each other questions and answered each others topics. Most forums actually start this way, even if it does sound a little strange. At that time there were not many Thai related forums around and mostly they covered the bar scene, and we weren’t interested in that and wanted to offer something completely different. I invested a lot of baht in marketing the site during the first three to four years.

Thaivisa has some dream stats. Share some of the Google Analytics data.

We have around 35-45,000 unique visistors per day, and we are approaching 6 million page views per month. We grow approx 10-15% per month, but some months are more or less due to seasonal variations and how much we spend on marketing. Around 50% of our traffic is from within Thailand. Most of our revenue is reinvested in server infrastructure and online marketing.

You seem to be constantly online. You’re hooked! Can you ever take a day off from your site?

Well, I do try to take days off, but yes, I am hopelessly addicted. However, we have a great team on Thaivisa and I know that it’s in good hands. My normal working day is between 12 and 16 hours per day, a bit less on weekends or when traveling. I went to China for a week recently and had severe withdrawal symptoms. smile.gif I have promised myself to “get a life” soon though.

2010 Ko Phangan Full Moon Party Dates

Thai Pulse offers a list of the 2010 Ko Phangan Full Moon Parties, obtained from a can of "Shark" cola. Just like Red Bull.

Koh Pha-ngan's Full Moon Party experience is not all that different than what you see here on this can. Very much like that in fact.

This just released, on a bottle of “Shark” cola here in Thailand. Shark, if you haven’t had it is like Red Bull. Exactly like Red Bull and it’s even made in Austria, just like, “Red Bull”. Safe to say it’s RB.

Here are the 2010 Koh Pha-gnan Full moon party dates:

Saturday January 20
Sunday February 28
Tuesday March 30
Wednesday April 28
Thursday May 27
Saturday June 26
Monday July 26
Tuesday August 24
Thursday September 23
Saturday October 23
Sunday November 21
Tuesday December 21

Book your flight into Bangkok and head down to Koh Pha-ngan for the outrageous Full Moon Parties. There was rumor they were going to make them drug free – but, so far – that is JUST a rumor.

Private Island Resort in Cambodia

A private island resort has opened in Cambodia near Sihanoukville, owned and operated by Russian investors.

Steaming to Ayuthaya

Everybody loves an old steam engine train, and Thailand offers steam enthusiasts 4 opportunites each year to ride a steamer from Bangkok to Ayuthaya, with plenty of time for wonderful photos. The Bangkok Post has the details.

Taking the day off to travel from Bangkok to Ayutthaya by steam train makes for an impressive journey, packed with smiles and just a little chaos. The steam train operates only on special holidays (see below right), and for a few days a year the old engines are dusted off for the run between the present capital and the ancient capital.

The coming of the train - whooshing and whistling happily as it puffs up big bursts of steam - excites everyone on the platform. Only a few minutes before leaving on the day I made the trip, on Chulalongkorn Day, Oct 23, no one wanted to take a seat before snapping off a dozen or so photos of family and friends standing at the front of the train. Passengers of other trains did a double take when they saw the roaring antique engines belching out clouds of smoke and vapour over the station. Some children managed to get an invitation to climb up into the engineer's seat, with their parents close behind.

This trip used two steam locomotives, a Pacific 824 and 850, produced in Japan. The Pacific 824 has been in use since 1949, and the Pacific 850 since 1951. The two engines easily pulled the nine fully packed carriages.

At the last minute passengers rushed aboard and found that not only did the engines come from a bygone age, but so did the carriages. None of the old-fashioned wooden seats have numbers, so most passengers were in for an adventure just finding their seats. A Japanese family seated next to me found their window wouldn't open, and soon after a child nearby fell when his seat collapsed.

However, such problems are suddenly forgotten when the train makes its grand and noisy exit from the station, huffing, puffing and whistling along the tracks as it slowly picks up speed. Everyone is excited again, particularly the children. Passengers crane their necks out the windows to get a view of the black engines in motion.

As the train rolled down the track towards Ayutthaya, I noticed everyone was smiling. We felt like VIPs, with people along the way waving happily at us and many cars following alongside on the road, taking pictures.

Everyone was particularly excited when the train approached a bend, offering a glimpse of the locomotives.

Two hours after leaving Bangkok we arrived in Ayutthaya. Some passengers left at Bang Pa-in to visit the famous summer palace. Most stayed aboard to Ayutthaya Station to explore the ancient capital, which is now an historic park. Other attractions include the Royal Elephant Kraal, with its elephant show and rides.

The Million Toy Museum is a big hit with children, and adults often find it fascinating and perhaps nostalgic. Some toys are nearly 100 years old, and there are a variety of cooking utensils from a bygone era as well.

Hua Raw market, at the north eastern tip of Ayutthaya's old town, is a shopper's paradise with various local delicacies, particularly fish. And the souvenir most passengers would not miss is roti sai mai, sugar straw rolled with pastry, the famous Ayutthaya sweet.

In the evening, all the passengers arrived early at the railway station to see the trip's main attraction - the warm-up for the return journey back to Bangkok. The platform was once again full of steam, whistles and smiles.

The train moved slowly on the way back through the vast green rice fields, taking much longer than a car. But in this case, that's a good thing.

Chiang Mai Tourism Woes

Tourism may be down worldwide, but Thailand has been especially hard hit due to political problems, closures of international airports, double pricing scams, taxi ripoffs at the airport, and blatant discrimination against the tens of thousands of expats who call Thailand home. Chiang Mai has been trashed in the tourism field, with record low occupancy levels at the more expensive hotels, and increasing complaints about smog and traffic congestion. Will the upcoming high season be any better? The Bangkok Post looks at the current situation and hopes for the coming months.

Tourism operators in Chiang Mai are desperately hoping for promising business in the coming high season as room reservations by foreign tourists are still very low and trips by local travellers are not enough to offset them.

Reservations in Chiang Mai are still very low for the November-April period as some foreign tourists have delayed their decisions due to the lingering impact of the global recession.

However, the Thai Hotels Association's Northern Chapter expects more local tourists to travel to Chiang Mai when the weather gets cooler. They may plan their trips a week in advance and that should help the local operators to a certain degree by the end of this year.

Kanog Suvannavisutr, the association's president, said it projected an average high-season occupancy rate at 65% at most, compared with 67% in the same period last year. For the latest off-season (May-September), the rate dropped to 36%.

"Apart from the hotel oversupply problem, global economic problems, local political instability and the H1N1 flu are key factors dragging down Chiang Mai tourism," he added.

Mr Kanog said two-star hotels survived with some bookings because their rates were low, not more than 800 baht per night, and thus attracted local tourists and backpackers.

Four-star hotels with conference facilities are also getting some business because conferences are an important market for Chiang Mai. Their room rates are modest, at about 1,500 per night in the low season. The average occupancy of such four-star hotels wa 50%, which is very good for hotels in Chiang Mai.

Meanwhile, five-star hotels are in deep trouble because they cannot compete with four-star ones that offer room rates at almost half the price. Their occupancy is only 20% as a result.

Mr Kanog said hoteliers in Chiang Mai were also facing tough competition from apartments, which draw travellers during the high season, even though the law prohibits apartments from providing accommodation on a daily basis.

"Despite complaints made by hoteliers, apartments still accommodate guests on a daily basis. This is because the fine is small," Mr Kanog said.

In any case, operators hope that the economy will improve next year. The improvement should increase the purchasing power of tourists, especially foreign ones, and they should return to Chiang Mai, he said.

Will BBC Sell Lonely Planet?

As we all know, BBC Worldwide purchased most of Lonely Planet two years ago for a record sum. But things haven't gone smoothly given the economic collapse of the travel industry and hence the travel guidebook industry. The BBC pumped tons of money into the online LP venture, but that hasn't worked out, and LP has posted record losses of the last two years. And many people question whether BBC should be in the business of travel publishing.

Today it was announced that the sale option given to the Wheelers would be extended beyond the Oct. 31 deadline. Will LP be sold back to the Wheelers or put on the open market, where it would surely sell for far less than the BBC purchase price? The Times Online weighs in on the controversy.

It was bought amid a flurry of raised eyebrows and has sat uneasily in a global broadcasting and media stable ever since — and yesterday Lonely Planet was once again the subject of speculation, uncertainty and possibly even a little controversy.

The backpackers’ essential guides to, well, pretty much everywhere may, it seems, be heading back into the uncharted territory of the marketplace, barely two years after BBC Worldwide paid £90 million for the company.

As part of Lonely Planet takeover in October 2007, its founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler, who published their first guide — South East Asia on a Shoestring — 34 years ago, were left with a 25 per cent stake, valued at A$67.3 million before the credit crunch, which they could have sold to the BBC at any time before Saturday.

However, BBC insiders said yesterday that the Wheelers’ put option had been extended, triggering speculation that the broadcaster is preparing to offload the travel publisher, whose original purchase has so damaged its reputation.

Put options normally expire at a fixed date — in this case, October 31 — but the decision to extend its maturity reflects the fact that, according to insiders, the Wheelers want to remain involved in the business and that the situation was not clear-cut. The date of the new deadline was not revealed.

John Whittingdale, MP, who chairs the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, said that he was surprised by the decision to let the Wheelers have more time. “If the Wheelers are not interested in selling, then the BBC should just say: ‘Right, we won’t extend it.’ ”

Mr and Mrs Wheeler began writing the Lonely Planet guides in the 1970s, owning the majority of the company that sprung up over the years. But with retirement looming, the Britons, now based in Australia, chose to sell 75 per cent to Worldwide, the BBC’s commercial division, because they believed that the corporation shared their alternative values. The acquisition rapidly proved controversial for the BBC amid complaints that the licence-fee-backed broadcaster was over-expanding by buying into travel publishing. The Conservative Party has said that it believes the corporation should never have bought Lonely Planet in the first place.

Tony Elliott, the chairman of Time Out, the rival travel publisher, said that he believed the BBC was gearing up to sell the business when it completes a strategy review next year. “I have been told by reliable sources that the BBC will sell Lonely Planet, which is what we have been calling for from day one.”

A BBC spokesman declined to comment on the extension of the £37.7 million option, but indicated that there were no plans to sell the travel publisher. One of the principal objections to any sale is that it would inevitably attract a far lower price, given the collapse in valuations after the credit crunch.

Any sale would also be affected by the publisher’s worsening financial situation. Lonely Planet lost £3.3 million in the first full year of its ownership by BBC Worldwide, significantly worse than the £100,000 loss recorded in the previous year. Investment in the Lonely Planet website partly explained the descent deeper into the red, but the core books division saw its operating income tumble to £300,000 compared with £4.4 million for the six months in the previous year as the recession hit the global travel market.

Press Trip and Swag Bags for NYT Writer

Policies against free press trips are boasted about by The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and many other upscale magazines and newspapers. To keep ethics in line and avoid any suggestion of corruption. This policy effectively shuts out all freelancers, who often must accept freebies such as airfare and hotels to make any financial sense of writing the article.

So it's somewhat shocking that a recent press trip to Jamaica was attended by writers from The New York Times and Newsweek. Hypocrisy at it's finest.

Twitters can follow the comments thread at #twethics. Lots of good jokes about the "swag orgy" description in the original Finance Daily story (all press freebies should now be called "swag orgy.")

Gawker weighs in with a lively debate, plus details of the NYT contract for travel writer, both on staff and freelance. More funny comments!

Finance Daily has the following story.

In these lean times for journalists, the temptation to live large with an all-expenses-paid vacation and some high-grade swag is harder than ever to resist -- even if it means skirting the company ethics policy.

Writers for Newsweek and The New York Times (NYT) were among the 150 guests who enjoyed a free trip to Jamaica last weekend, courtesy of the consumer e-newsletter Thrillist and JetBlue (JBLU), among a host of other sponsors. Those guests received a round-trip flight from JFK International to Montego Bay and two nights at the Iberostar Rose Hall resort, where they had beachfront balcony rooms and personal butlers, and "overstuffed gift bags ... filled with T-shirts, sunglasses" and other goodies, according to this writeup of the weekend by one participant.

After learning that one of its reporters, Kurt Soller, had gone on the junket, The Washington Post Co. (WPO)'s Newsweek quickly concluded that his weekend in Jamaica violated the magazine's ethics guidelines. "We will be reimbursing Thrillist for the trip," a spokesman says.

The Times took a more lenient line on its writer, Mike Albo, a humorist and performer who writes the paper's "Critical Shopper" column every other Thursday. A Times spokeswoman said Albo "is a freelancer and was not on assignment for The Times, which he made clear to the organizers of the trip. So we do not see any violation of our rules." (Update: See below for the Times's revised statement.)

But a careful reading of the paper's stringent ethics policy suggests that Albo transgressed the spirit, if not the letter, of the guidelines. The policy expressly forbids accepting "free or discounted transportation and lodging" and "gifts, tickets, discounts, reimbursements or other benefits from individuals or organizations covered (or likely to be covered) by their newsroom." Those passages are directed at staffers, but further down, the policy decrees that freelancers "should accept the same ethical standards as staff members as a condition of their assignments for us. If they violate these standards, they should be denied further assignments."

Whether The Times officially frowns on such things, Albo himself seemed to know the junket was journalistically questionable. On Saturday, Albo Tweeted, "im in jamaica. pullin into giant city-resort. photogs taking our pics often. i wld feel gross abt all this if i wasnt so poor." (Albo didn't repond to email and phone messages.)

This isn't the first time Thrillist has corrupted the tender pink minds of Manhattan's media elite. Last year, it flew staffers for CNN, Fox News, the New York Post and the New York Daily News, among others, to Las Vegas for a similar bacchanal filled with free toiletries and consumer electronics. After a gentle scolding, the cable networks promised to reimburse the sponsors; the tabloids made no such redress.

Sky Lounges and Rooftop Bars in Singapore

CNNgo is a new collection of Asian websites with excellent commentary. Hope these guys and girls are being paid a fair wage; I've been offered jobs to write blogs about Asia, but the pay was dismal to say the least. I won't name names, but it's some of the big hitters in the publishing market, but I'm just not interested in $50 a post...

If you go to the original link, you find additional links and often photos taken from each of the following lounges and bars.

The CNNgo post on bars with a view suggests the following:

1. New Asia Bar
At 71 stories, Swissôtel The Stamford's New Asia Bar is the highest in Singapore, beholding a view worthy of that distinction. Located at the uppermost level of the hotel's Equinox entertainment complex, the resident DJs spin house, classic, new age, funk and top-40 tunes nightly.

Swissôtel The Stamford, Level 71, Equinox Complex, 2 Stamford Road, Singapore, tel +65 6837 3322. www.equinoxcomplex.com

2. The Straits Bar
The Straits Bar, located high upon Tower Club, offers an exquisite range of cocktails and liquors served amid awesome views of the Singapore harbor. During the day, it also offers an international lunch buffet.

Tower Club, 9 Raffles Place Penthouse (64th Floor), Republic Plaza Tower 1 Singapore, tel +65 6737 3388. www.tower-club.com.sg

3. Axis Bar
Don't miss out on Mandarin Oriental Singapore's Axis Bar. Oozing with style and attitude, it offers breathtaking views of Singapore's Marina Bay, especially at night. The bar also offers tapas, for those indifferent to the "eating is cheating" rule.

6 Raffles Blvd, Singapore, tel +65 6338 0066
www.mandarinoriental.com/singapore/dining/axis/

4. The Singapore Flyer
OK, so it's not really a watering hole, but the folks at the Singapore Flyer organize Moet and Chandon champagne flights (S$69 per person) accompanied by a platter of chocolate and strawberries. Gather a few mates, book a cabin and have a private 30-minute party while you enjoy a spectacular view of Singapore at night.

7 Raffles Ave, Singapore, tel +65 6333 1111. www.singaporeflyer.com

For those who can't make gate at these extravagent lounges, the correspondent for CNNgo suggests the following rooftop pubs, which I assume are less damaging to your wallet. Here's the link.

1. Breeze
The Bar: Breeze by name, breezy by nature. On this relaxing terrace you can make like Cleopatra, lounging on a plush daybed and drinking diva-friendly cosmolitos delivered by prompt, well-dressed attendants. Located atop the Scarlet Hotel, Breeze attracts a professional crowd that comes for the good range of beer, cocktails and Mediterranean-style tapas.

The View: The location in the heart of Chinatown provides a mesmerizing view of Central Business District skyscrapers and a maze of terra cotta tile-topped shop houses that stretch into the near distance.

The Scarlet Hotel, 33 Erskine Road, tel +65 6511 3326

2. KPO
The Bar: Atop the Killiney Road Post Office along Orchard Road, KPO cafe and bar has a sweet blend of teak flooring, glass walls and Zen water features -- calming for those special moments when all you want is a nice cold mug of French Kronenbourg 1664Premium Lager, Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc (served on tap) or anything in the way of a Chivas whisky cocktail. DJs spin electro tunes Wednesday through Saturday. Happy hours -- 40 percent off draft beers and house pours -- run from morning openings until 8pm.

The View: Orchard Road at its most frenetic, from the working offices of Winsland House to the consumer chaos of Plaza Singapura.

1 Killiney Road, tel +65 6733 3648

3. Loof
The Bar: Why 'Loof'? No, nothing to do with loofahs. It's an amusing play on 'roof' with an inverted 'r.' So, why not just roof? Because there isn't one at this bar on top of the Odeon Towers. Meant to create a "playful space that would capture the essence of the rooftop in a light-hearted dollop" (huh?), the eccentric, mismatched seating does at least convey a distinctly unpretentious vibe.

The View: The charms of CHIJMES from above, framed by Raffles City and Suntec City in the distance.

Odeon Towers (rooftop), 331 North Bridge Road, tel +65 6338 8035

4. Orgo
The Bar: The draw at this small retreat on the roof terrace of the Esplanade is impeccable Japanese mixologist Tomoyuki Kitazoe, who blends the bar's signature soursop calamansi martini and other exotic drinks. The space is especially nice when the weather is cool and windy, but little air-conditioned 'glass houses' have been erected for hot nights. And wimps.

The View: A straight shot across Marina Bay, with a nice angle of the Merlion. Orgo is on the fourth floor, so there's little chance of vertigo.

Esplanade-Theatres on the Bay, 1 Esplanade Drive, tel +65 9733 6911

5. Mr Punch Restaurant and Winebar
The Bar: Named after the English Punch and Judy puppet show, this bar connected to a toy museum bursts with a rainbow-hued display of paraphernalia. Mr. Punch's nostalgic bric-a-brac includes everything from tin plates and enamel posters -- Van Houten’s Gold Label Cocoa, anyone? -- to electric fans dating to the 1890s. Even better are the promotional one-for-one and three-for-two beers, mixers and margaritas on offer each month.

The View: From the small outdoor area you get a grand view of the Raffles Hotel in all its colonial glory. Across its roof are Raffles City and the financial district beyond.

Mint Museum of Toys, 26 Seah Street, Level 6, tel +65 6334 5155

Antartica vs. the USA

Antartica has a head start, but give global warming a few more years, and I'm sure we'll kick their butt.