4 comments about Adventure Armenia: Hiking and Rock Climbing.

1. Armenia - land of amazing mountains and plateaus and ancient culture...Are you interested in seeing old monasteries and churches or shepherds moving their flocks across the mountain face that you will be climbing? Come to Armenia and bring this guide-book with you.
   
   Hiking in Armenia is an adventure. Eco-tourism is new and the land and mountains are still untouched. The Adventure Armenia guidebook is a perfect way to explore and experience a way of life that is vanishing in many parts of the world. About the book: I have found both the directions and options (once on the hike) incredibly accurate. I tested the book out five weeks ago on a hike to Mt. Hattis. We found our destination with no difficulty, had an interesting chat with a old woman at the shrine (start of the hike), and found ourselves in good company with shepherds and their flocks of sheep and goats. The shepherds were curious about us and often stopped us to ask what time it was (more for conversation, of course). We had spectacular views of Mt. Ararat and Mt. Aragats and were the only people on the mountain (other than the shepherds). The book itself is light-weight and provides one with plenty of pictures, recommendations, and practical advice about Armenia and getting around in Armenia.
   
   I would highly recommend it to anyone coming to Armenia or living in Armenia that would like to see more of the country and experience first-hand the beauty of the country and its ancient sites.



2. This is one of the most user-friendly hiking guides I've ever used...it's laid out well, provides great resource information, the descriptions are clear and overall it makes what can be a difficult area to access very accessible. It's without a doubt made my time in the country more enjoyable and interesting.



3. As a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in Armenia, I have found this guide to be extremely useful. I have used the guide on many occasions for myself and to introduce Armenians to the outdoors. It is offers an excellent introduction to the environmental issues currently surrounding Armenia, current and valuable resource list, and the most current topo hiking maps. It is by no means a complete guide but has some of the more popular areas to hike, some focusing around the Tufenkian hotels (Jeffery is the nephew of the famous carpet producer James Tufankian). Future editions will have more hikes, especially in the northwest section. The climbing section is small but offers some of the best areas to climb. If you are coming to Armenia to hike or climb, then you MUST own this guide.



4. I have lived in Armenia for over a year, and this is by far the most useful guide book on the market. Not only is it a great hiking guide, but it also provides all sorts of useful information about the country and region in a very accessible format. The authors have done a great job selecting hikes from a variety of regions and with varying skill levels. Unlike most guides about Armenia, the directions are up-to-date and easy to follow - a notable accomplishment given the generally poor signage in the country. Even if you aren't planning to hike, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone planning to venture beyond the city limits of Yerevan. It points you to all the best sights. Another bonus is the size - perfect for slipping in a pack or even a pocket.

No comments about Beijing Then and Now (Then & Now Thunder Bay).

5 comments about Nancy Chandler's Map of Chiang Mai.

1. I am definitely glad we purchased this map of Chiang Mai before our trip. We used it help plan our itinerary and we used it frequently while in Chiang Mai. Nancy does a great job of telling local secrets and best options to choose from. It is very well done, up to date, very colorful, and I am 100% satisfied with the map. It is a little different than what I am used to, but it was a nice change. Thank you for the great product.



2. I was thrilled to buy this map and receive a small booklet with it. The 76 page booklet is an index that is packed full of lists:
   'Accommodations - Hotels and Guesthouses' (a list of over 300 places to stay!)
   'Sightseeing - In and Around Chiang Mai' (with advice, sights, river cruises, Wats, Buddhist studies, schools, elephant camps, etc.)
   'Shopping' (lists of markets, malls, Thai antiques, art, textiles, etc.)
   'Dining' (lists of Chinese, French, fusion, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Muslim, Vegetarian, Vietnamese, and of course Thai)
   'Entertainment' (Backpacker faves, clubs, breweries, cabaret, sports, music, quiz nights and a pub crawl guide)
   'Living' (list of churches, cinemas, consulates, hospitals, alternative medicine, international schools, Thai language and massage schools, Vets, libraries, supermarkets, organic produce and wine)
   'Sports' (gyms, archery, badminton, bowling, boxing, cycling, fishing, flying, golf, jogging, rockclimbing, swimming, tennis and yoga) and
   'Transportation' (information about airlines, railway stations, river travel, bus stations, car rentals, roads, highways and districts)
   The items listed offer the addresses, phone numbers and sometimes little notes from Chandler about them.
   The map is large, colorful and fun to read. Chandler has included most of the items from the index on the map.
   I have found both the map and the index to be very useful in planning my first trip to Chiang Mai. I look forward to using it!



3. I bought this map for an upcoming trip to Chiang Mai. It is a "fun" map due to the graphics and comments. It also is legible and it appears to be very usable. I'll report back after my trip -- assuming I can remember to do so.
   
   It also came with a booklet of additional information to help locate places on the map. Nice touch.
   
   Addendum April 23, 2008:
   
   I remembered to add to this review after completing my trip to Chiang Mai and am pleased to do so because this map was a real help in my travels.
   
   I used this map extensively for a five day stay in Chiang Mai and it was extremely useful in helping me navigate the city, including the Night Bazaar, Warorot market, and pretty much everything else, including a couple out of city outings.
   
   Considering that the map is dated 2006, it was still remarkably up to date -- probably because many places marked are sucessful businesses.
   
   Wandering about Chiang Mai there is a lot to be discovered and this map can help you do it. It was much more helpful than the maps included in Lonely Planet Laos, especially with the included booklet I mentioned above -- that let me find places not mentioned in the guidebook and often not individually shown on this map.
   
   This is not a review of the city -- every city has its pluses and minuses, yet I wandered about day and night without negative incident.



4. Best of its kind ! After 12 trips to Chiang Mai, we have worn out three of Nancy's maps.



5. Nancy Chandler has created some adorable little Richard Scary illustrations to accompany her admittedly very subjective take on the Northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. It will definitely help you get your bearings straight (not that that is too difficult) and get you excited to go and shop at all of the "amazing" places "charming" Chiang Mai has to offer. There is only one problem.
   
   Almost everything sold in Chiang Mai is complete GARBAGE, and Nancy Chandler's map is a key contributor to masking this depressing fact. The "night bazaar" 'is filled with junk stand after junk stand of the worst mass-produced knock-offs, chintzy "Statues" and ultra-tacky 70s art. The few nice shops that are around town charge a PREMIUM for anything that is halfway decent and honestly, is nothing that you couldn't find in a good boutique in the states. This is to say nothing about the squalid Chinese day market about which Chandler rants and raves. The stalls on the map marked "posters" for instance are just lame mass-produced wall hangings like you'd find in an MSG-infested Manhattan Chinese takeout joint. Chiang Mai is also filthy and probably serves best for those wanting a launching pad for getting out into the country or getting drunk in one of its many bars.
   
   The town certainly does have a bit of its own funky feel (prostitutes, overpriced bookstores, stinking klongs) but nothing like one would be lead to believe looking at this misleading map. I can see how it could have at one time been a charming town, or might be in the future with its attractive river and surrounding hills. But don't be fooled about the Chiang Mai of 2008. Chandler is something of a propagandist.

5 comments about Wild East: Travels in the New Mongolia.

1. This was a disappointing book due to the poor quality of the writing and the lack of deep analysis. However, there is not much available on Mongolia. This does provide some history and glimpses of life in the remote country and is worth a read until better books are published.



2. I found Wild East to be an eye-opener. I had a naive impression that everyone in Mongolia lived in tents on the steppe. I was surprised to find out that it is a country with a vibrant city life. I also didn't realise there is a lively free press, pop bands, and even night clubs. I get the sense that many westerners view a place like Mongolia through rose coloured glasses (the noble herdsman under the blue sky). That life seems very hard and it is no surprise that many people aspire to move to the city and get their hands on modern consumer goods.
   
   I really enjoyed this book and it has given me the desire to go visit Mongolia and see for myself this fascinating country. I highly recommend Wild East.



3. I prefer to read a travel book that provides helpful information on destinations without too much personal bias. To my disappointment, I find plenty in this book that shows the author's close-mindedness and the lack of respect for local hospitality and culture. One example, when the author describes the Mongolian hospitality and the cheese that they offered him, his comments in the book were "...Who first discovered that you could make from milk a dried curd with the consistency of rock and the smell of vomit - and then eat it?". I wouldn't mind realistic descriptions of the places and things, but I find the author's attitude less appealing.



4. What makes this book so interesting is that it doesn't fall into the cliched sterotypes of Mongolia most loved by foreignors. Mongolia in the 1990s underwent dramatic and painful social, political and economic changes. Those changes have ebbed from the collapse of the country's economy in the early 1990s (and the initial abandonment of the cities for the nomadic way of life), to the later collapse of the rural economy and the drift back towards the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. To make the claim that the capital doesn't reflect the 'real Mongolia' is not only arrogant, it is wrong. It is like saying Beijing doesn't relfect the 'real China'.
   
   The fact remains that the majority of the country's population lives in the capital. People have moved to the capital for the same reasons people gravitate to cities around the world: they seek opportunity and a chance to improve their lives. Wildeast engages with the ups and downs of this world; the shattered dreams and the wild fantasies: and it does use humour to do this. The country sits at the centre of the debates around globalisation and modernisation. It asks us to question what is development and who does it benefit.
   
   Its author edited the country's only independent English language newspaper - a newspaper whose majority staff are Mongolian. Few foreignors have seen Mongolia up close like this, or shared the confidences of its people.
   
   Ulaanbaatar has much to offer the visitor who opens their eyes. They will see a vibrant democratic political scene, nightlife teeming with young people and pop bands, an expanding restaurant scene, and a burgeoning business community. It is also a capital with shocking poverty surrounded by slums, and a nomadic way of life in crisis.
   
   It is the work of a journalist, but it is also the work of a writer who as a result of her role as a journalist, had unusual access to all aspects of Mongolian society, not just hanging out with herders on the steppe.
   
   I found the book to be a great read and it stands out in the crowded world of travel writing. It does not purport to be a guidebook (for that I would recommend Lonely Planet), but it does shine a light on all the facets of Mongolian life that most visitors to the country would otherwise find hard to penetrate in their short visit.



5. This book loosely opens a debate about globalisation and uses some of the information gathered from Jills time in Mongolia to back this up, with historical references and general information about the country.
   
   The implied suggestion is that nothing much happens in Mongolia outside UB with the book focussing mainly on things going on in and around UB, which I think distorts the picture of Mongolia as UB is actually pretty much like any other city. I believe that this book could have been written about a lot of places in the world from the viewpoint of a city dweller.
   
   The thing that I believe makes Mongolia so interesting (and probably unique) is why the population movement is actually away from the city and back to the land. It's this fact that gets most people travelling there - to see and experience how Mongolians live and how they follow their traditions out in the steppes - can the nomadic lifestyle really be better than the western way of life?
   
   It is understandable that the bias is towards UB as Jill spent most of her time there, but yes for the people who want to know about what happens outside UB it's a shame that more time was not spent gaining or relating some real insights into Mongolian lives outside the city.
   
   On the plus side, I'd say the book is a good read and quite entertaining and to be fair to the author that's probably all she had in mind when writing it - however the book does offer a narrow picture of one aspect of Mongolian life (living in UB) that is experienced by a minority of the country's population, as the majority (over 70% of the population) live outside UB (factual sources: CIA factbook & world gazetteer [both 2006]).
   
   Consequently that means this book is hardly a definitive or accurate guide to Mongolia, so I'd suggest you read around the subject if you ever plan to go there.
   
   Thats just my opinion though - I'd happily recommend that you get a copy of the book and make your own mind up.

5 comments about The Carpet Wars: From Kabul to Baghdad: A Ten-Year Journey Along Ancient Trade Routes.

1. This is a great book! The author is not just riding the wave of interest surrounding the 9 11 incident. It looks at the Central Asian region form a very different point of view than any book I have read. The writing style is fast paced and easy to read, the author really knows this area of the world first hand. If you are interested in carpets you will find lots to interest you also. ( I don't know the first thing about carpets)

   If you read it you will enjoy it!




2. I finished this book about six weeks ago, and I can't stop thinking about it.
   So often travel literature-type books by westerners in these kinds of far-off places can be either too clever, cynical or condescending at one end of the scale, or, at the other end too reverent, with a reverence that seems to really be an I-hate-where-I-am-from complex. Both extremes can get tiring pretty quickly.
   The Carpet Wars was exactly in the middle, and it was fascinating. It was extremely informative about the history, politics, religion and, yes, even the carpets of the region from Pakistan to Iran. Carpets were merely the thread (so to speak) that held the several first-hand accounts of travels to the region.
   Kremmer is a master story teller, and very funny. Sometimes it was hard to tell what was more enjoyable, the story he was telling or the way he was telling it.
   His accounts of places with which he is very familiar are told in the rich tones of a deep affection. When he is in a new place, like Isfahan, the account is in the vivid colors of someone seeing something for the first time, creating some of the best travel essays I have ever read. Seven weeks ago, Isfahan was just an exotic name to me, now it's at the top of places I hope I can see before I die.
   Its hard to say what recommends this book more, the fact that it is throughly enjoyable, or deeply infomrative.
   I haven't read Mr. Kremmer's book about Laos, but it is probably pretty good. Books like The Carpet Wars don't stick with you so long by accident.



3. The Carpet Wars is a sampler of informal writing from Australian journalist (and avid carpet collector) Christopher Kremmer over ten years in Central Asia. Since most of it was written, and concerns events, before 9/11, when the area was not established in the West's cultural radar as it is today, it gives a view of the region that is uncluttered by hindsight reevaluations.

   Kremmer writes of his time in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikstan, Kashmir, and Iran, giving us colorful and non-journalistic slices of life from each region. He enlivens his writings with vivid character studies of those he met on his travels, from dignitaries like ill-fated Afghan dictator Mohammed Najibullah and legendary guerilla Ahmad Shah Massoud to various carpet dealers Kremmer got to know over his time in the region. Between these character sketches and Kremmer's anecdotes, he delivers measured doses of regional history and politics, and he imparts a surprising amount of information about his favorite hobby, the Asian carpet.

   The result is more than just some very entertaining travel writing. Kremmer's lively and discursive work also functions as an excellent introduction to the Central Asian economy and politics. Besides being for those who just like to read about travel in interesting foreign parts, The Carpet Wars will also be useful for non-scholars who want to have some idea how movements like the Taliban came to be, but want to take a spoonful of sugar with this medicine.

   (Kremmer's book also taught me that I'll never know enough to bargain effectively for an Asian carpet -- but his rueful and wry work also admits that there is a certain pleasure in being cheated.)




4. Hand-woven carpets are one of the few products that Central Asia has consistently exported to the rest of the world, and by which the rest of the world knows of central Asia. As such, a traversal of the routes and bazaars that comprise the carpet trade would take one through many of the important places in Central Asia. Likewise, dealing with those involved in the trade would give insight into the history, economics and culture of those living in this area. This then is the subject of this book.
   
   The author travels the bazaars and trade routes of Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Kashmir looking for carpets. While doing so, his interactions with the locals open up a whole world of history, culture, religion, food, and habits that are alien to those in the west. Whether it is how to barter over goods, or the proper way to greet an older woman, the stories told by Mr. Kremmer bring to life places that many of us will never visit, yet that comprises a large part of this world both spatially and historically.
   
   The author intersperses his accounts with character studies of the various individuals he meets, side stories to fill in local histories, and editorials that connect what he seens in these far-off places to what occurs in Washington D.C. and the stockmarkets of the West. Overall, a great travel book, a great history book, and a great story that is told. I highly recommend this book.



5. This is one of those books that purports to be about something, and at some levels is actually about something pretty much unrelated. The next most important industry after oil in the Middle East is carpets. The author, Kremmer, is a journalist who spent a decade travelling around the region, reporting on various events for Australian new agencies of one sort or another. This is his story of his love affair with carpets, which turns into a pretty serious study of their styles, manufacture, sale and trade, and of the significance of these items in Muslim culture. While the oil is irrelevant to Muslims, except in terms of the money it generates, carpets can tell a lot about the heritage of the Muslim world.
   
   For the most part, this is interesting, and there's a lot to learn about Muslims and carpets. Only towards the end of the book does the author begin to veer into actual politics, and then, of course, he turns out to think that American policy in the Middle East is too agressive (this was late in the Clinton years...one shudders to think what his opinions are now). Thankfully, he at least hates Saddam Hussein and the mullahs who run Iran (journalists typically don't like governments that restrict freedom of the press, regardless of whatever else they do).
   
   This one proviso aside, there's a lot of intersting material here, and the book is well-written, the characters drawn interestingly, and the settings well-rendered. I would recommend this book.

No comments about The Rough Guide to Kerala.

No comments about Laminated Dubai Map by Borch.

No comments about China Wall Map First Edition (Periplus Wall Maps).

2 comments about On Horseback through Asia Minor.

1. Who in their right mind would voluntarily undertake an expedition on horseback thru Asia Minor in winter...Frederick Burnaby did in the year 1876, a time of intrigue in the Ottoman Empire and Russia where the forces that shaped WWI and 20th century alliances took root. This is an opportunity to travel back into time and traverse Asia Minor prior to the invention of the automobile. You will meet people from all classes and cultures; Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Persian and more. Burnaby tells of his trip with dry humor and with a suprisingly enlightened view of women, considering the times. This is a good read and worth the price of the book. For adventure travelers with time and money on their hands, retracing Burnaby's route on horseback would be a challenge even today.



2. This book is a joy for the armchair traveler. It takes you back to a place and a time, to a Turkish winter in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. Burnaby's style is immediate, and compellingly readable. He lets you feel the mud, the cold, the mood of the times -- and the exotic east. It's great stuff. Crossing Anatolia by horseback in the winter, trying to track down rumors then circulating in Europe of anti-Armenian sentiment among the Turks, Burnaby finds the rumors to be baseless. But through every step of his wild goose chase, while we follow him through village after village, Burnaby describes in colorful detail the environment, and the people he meets. The first three-quarters of this book read like fiction, like a good, rollicking adventure story. It doesn't have a crisis near the end, like an adventure novel would, but Burnaby's story is all the better for being true.

3 comments about Insight Guide China (Insight Guides China).

1. After comparing this book on China to other books on China I purchased this book. I visited 4 cities in China and found this book extreenly helpful. The background and history sections enlightened me. This information provided me with greater insight. The sections on specific places in China provided great detail. The readability, maps and color pictures enhance its value as a resource on China. I found the section on travel tips an indespensible aid.



2. Leaving for China in June 2001, so will know how well this book covered the details. But, of all the books I've looked through, this one was by far the best for general information. Excellent pictures and text, with really well laid out maps. Items of interest are noted in the text and on the map with a circled number, so it is really easy to find items on the map. Much more than just a 'travel guide' this book would be an excellent introduction to China, Chinese culture, history, and peoples, even for people not going. Highly recommended.



3. Pretty pictures and a nice overview of sites here but not much in the way of practical information. Best for deciding where to go but not for planning logistics.