No comments about Michelin Map No. 741 : Africa, North & West.

5 comments about Lonely Planet Best of Marrakesh (Lonely Planet Best of Series).

1. If you're going to buy one guide to Marrakesh, this has to be it. Combine Alison Bing's artful eye with her caring heart and her literate pen and you've got a handful right there in your hand. Alison is a great sleuth as she introduces you to hidden treasures even the locals don't know about. Most importantly, she's got a keen sense of the unique experiences that make Marrakesh such a wonderful alchemy of new and old, stylish and rustic.



2. We used tips from Alison Bing on a recent trip to Marrakesh and were thrilled with the results. She offers suggestions to explore this city that stimulate all of your senses. From her descriptions of the city, you gather that she not only visited and explored this city in great detail but she also met and came to understand its inhabitants.



3. After trying a few examples she gave, we quickly realized she had great taste, an eye for beauty, and really understood the wonders of foreign adventures. If she says do it - do it!



4. Alison Bing knows Marrakesh inside out. Following her foot steps off the beaten path - made for an incredible, fairytale journey. You can tell she's done her research and is passionate about sharing her explorations. Now only if we knew what part of the world she'll review next...We'd sign up in a heart beat!



5. If you buy this book, make sure to also buy another guidebook. And once you have that other book, you won't need this one.
   This book did not have enough detail; we were in Marrakesh for several days and this book had so little detail that we had to buy another guidebook--which was hard to find in English in Marrakesh. Once we finally found anther guidebook (Rough Guide Morocco, ~US$35) it had all this one contained & more. You will want a more detailed guidebook in Marrakesh since everything is in Arabic or French. Very, very little is in English.
   Also, the writer had a fun, flowery style that unfortunately did not leave room for information. Descriptions of Riads/hotels, restaurants, etc. came across as if the editor had removed key details to leave room for enthusiastic but non-descriptive language. We are big Lonely Planet fans but this book is Not Recommended.

No comments about Culture and Psychotherapy: A Guide to Clinical Practice.

2 comments about South Africa Map by ITMB (Travel Reference Map).

1. We found the map to be an excellent source for information for South Africa.



2. If you are headed to South Africa and need/want a map, don't bother with this one. It is really out of date. And by really, I mean it doesn't have the Katse Dam in Lesotho on it. The Katse Dam, according to wikipedia, was constructed in 1996, and full by 1997. That puts this map's last update at a minimum of ten years ago, or, in developing-country-years, approximately 1 million years ago. I'm pissed I wasted 8 bucks.

4 comments about First Footsteps in East Africa: Or an Exploration of Harar (Konemann Classics).

1. Sir Richard F Burton is one of the most famous of unread authors. Nearly everyone can tell you about his scandalous doings with native women, his marriage to an ultra-Catholic Englishwoman, and the latter's destruction of the author's private papers after his death.

   Ever since I read Fawn Brodie's excellent biography, THE DEVIL DRIVES, I have collected some 20 different Burton books and read most of them. If you make allowances for Burton's diabolical thoroughness (involved footnotes, appendices, foreign language quotes, tables, etc.) and his Victorian circumlocutions in dealing with taboo subjects, he is a truly wonderful read.

   Although FIRST FOOTSTEPS is not his most famous book, it is probably the best one to start with. The action is not only more focussed, but Burton did feel he needed quite so much of a scholarly carapace to report back to the scholarly organizations back in Britain. And it finishes up with a stirring postscript about an attack on Burton's camp by Somalis in which the author barely escaped with his life.

   Perhaps this is a book that Presidents Bush and Clinton should have read before committing U.S. troops to the region: Burton shows us that not much has changed in the region in 150 years. He was in constant danger, and survived only because his knowledge and guts were more than an a match for his enemies.

   This is an exciting book and deserves to be better known.




2. Perhaps it was my high expectations before starting, or Burton's unscrupulous and merciless exposition of topics dear to him, but while he seemed lost many times during his journey, he lost me every time he made some anecdotal observation on some obscure point, now lost in total oblivion, which is perhaps where Burton rescued it from in the 1850s. Perhaps he should have left it there.

   Perhaps this is too harsh. There were occasions leading to his visit to Harar, the forbidden city of Somali-land, where I indulged a hearty chuckle, but this only lasted long enough to bring me upright in my sleeping chair, formerly a reading chair. Not until he reached Harar did he seize my interest and full attention, yet as he was not permitted pen and paper while there, for 10 full days the description relies on his memory. In comparison to the journey there (the entire first volume, over 200 pages), he writes with exacting prose every time his wayfarers or guides resisted the mission, and every other sundry related to the journey.

   The descriptions of Harar, its culture, its people and Burton's condition are excellent, but unfortunately are too brief, almost marginal in a work that contends mainly with desert travels. I enjoyed hearing about the lions visiting camp, the difficulties on the route, and other jokes made against his guides, yet I thought I was about to absorb a more entertaining exposition on the forbidden city, rather than an exhausting diary of a mission that perpetuates in a cloud between the send-off and the return.

   Just to show that I paid attention, I noted with disapproval that Burton repeats twice the datum that "red pepper" is THE condiment of East Africa (I was satisfied on this particular the first time.) Prepare for a thick shell for a core subject Burton laid on too thinly.




3. The reviews of some of Richard Burton's books, as well as those of other 19th century explorers, strike me as hilarious. It's as if people expect that these books to be written in a style that would make for some blockbuster Hollywood movie. This is the REAL DEAL people! Burton didn't write this or other books with the idea in mind of entertaining 20th century couch potatoes starved for action. Apparently people's attention spans get seriously taxed when detailed observations about a country's people and culture are brought into play. When in fact, what could be more important in a first hand account of previously unexplored (at least by Europeans) regions? If you want action at every turn and tailor made story lines then stick with Tom Clancy novels or some such. Maybe faketion turns some would be adventurers on, but not me. This book is a truly incredible account of a larger than life adventure!



4. Richard Francis Burton is one of the great unknown figures in history. And what people do know unfortuantely are the scandals of his private life. This is an account of what should have been at the time an impossible trip. Burton should never have attempted it and the odds were against him surviving it.
   
   What you get in the book is an extraordinary document of travel into one of the blank areas on the map by a true renassanice man. Its a true adventure story about how far a man can go on a combination of intellect and raw courage. This book is Burton the adventurer and explorer at his best.

No comments about Cool Hotels: Africa/Middle East (Cool Hotels).

2 comments about Splendours of Morocco.

1. I have not been to Morrocco yet, but I feel like I have been with this book. It shows the wonders and mystique of this beautiful land...



2. While, yes, this book does present "the multiple colors of Morrocco", it does not include much architectural photography at all. Colorful cloths, scenic dunes, markets, individual objects, plates of food, landscapes, people in alleyways, in fact just about everything *but* architecture are shown.
   
   The photographs are vivid and striking, but given that the "sample" pages (Online Reader pages) viewed are almost ALL buildings and yet buildings are minimally presented in the book, I believe that Amazon has misportrayed the contents. I was disappointed.

No comments about Maroc. Les cites imperiales.

No comments about Travels in the Interior of Africa to the Sources of the Senegal and Gambia: Performed by Command of the French Government in the Year 1818 (1820) (Cass ... of African Studies. Travels and Narratives,).

3 comments about Cameroon: The Bradt Travel Guide.

1. This book describes Cameroon as the armpit of Africa. Seriously. It said that. At least 1/3 of the book is on all the different types of diseases one is sure to catch being there. It says that Cameroon is unique in that there is a type of malaria that will KILL you in 24 hours of the first symptom. This book scared me so much that I went to Egypt alone instead of going with my friends to Cameroon. There arent really any books just on Cameroon. Lonely Planet has one on West Africa which I should have gotten. My friends went and had a wonderful time. The book should have talked about the good things this country has- which as it turns out there are other things there that Malaria! Perhaps if I would of read a different book then I would have not canceled my flight to Cameroon.



2. I have just returned from 3 weeks in Cameroon and this book made the trip with me. My trip was not the usual tourist excursion, as I traveled with expat Cameroonians and lived exclusively with africans. I could go for days without seeing another european and when I did they were usually zipping past in a tour bus or in an NGO vehicle.
   
   First, the positives. The book is well organized and the local Cameroonians were usually impressed that someone would write so much about their country. The advice presented in the book is generally sound and the descriptions accurate. Douala is an "armpit": shrouded in smog during the dry season, scented by the smoke of burning garbage, and made all the more enjoyable by sweltering heat and oppressive humidity. On the basis of the positives, I would award the book 4 stars.
   
   The negatives? Much of the information regarding accommodations is quite dated. For instance, the description of the Skyline Hotel in Bamenda is at least five to seven years old. It has been years since the pool had water, the night club is closed, the hotel is frequently without electricity and is in a general state of disrepair and decay. Of course, this is merely symptomatic of the overall decay prevalent throughout Cameroon. Do not rely on the phone numbers listed for the hotels, as many may have changed. On the basis of the negatives I would award the book 2 stars.
   
   Overall, however, I can recommend the book as a serviceable resource for planning a trip and as a useful tool while in country.



3. I used this guide in Cameroon for one year while I was on a Fulbright grant from 05-06. I have to say that the guide was surprisingly accurate for about 90% of things I wanted to know: lodging, restaurants, and museums. I toured much of the country when my family visited, and it helped us immeasurably in our travels. I would take the sections regarding trails and nature sites (waterfalls, caves, etc.) with a grain of salt. We spent a day or two in Western Cameroon fruitlessly searching for some caves that the book mentioned. All in all a great guide, but hold out for the revised edition if you can!