4 comments about The Falklands & South Georgia Island (Regional Guide).

1. I'm a fan of the Lonely Planet (LP) series, both for armchair travel and for actual travel. This is one of the most obscure destinations covered by LP, and has the added distinction of being written by LP founder Tony Wheeler. However, it is a mystery to me why a successful entrepreneur would want to go back to the drudgery of collecting information for this book.
   
   These 200 pages cover the Falklands in infinite detail. Every remote sheep farm that has a room for rent is described in detail, most of which are accessible only by non-scheduled plane. Keep in mind that the Falklands have only 3500 people, and only one place that could be described as a town or village, which means that this guide has a greater pages-per-capita ratio than any other LP guide (except perhaps Antarctica). There is a large emphasis on wildlife, with 17 pages describing varieties of birds. Also, 18 pages are dedicated to the even more remote South Georgia Island (pop. 10), accessible only by ship. As in all LP guides, there is background on the history and economy, excellent maps, and (in these more recent guides) many color photos.



2. An interesting, if brief, guided tour of what has to be one of the most remote tourist destinations on the planet. The Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)are a British Colony in the South Atlantic, a few hundred miles off the South American coast, that are also claimed by Argentina---in 1982 the two countries fought a war over the islands. Points of interest are noted, and an overview of the land, the people (population only 2500, with about 80% living in the capital city of Port Stanley), the history, and the wildlife is provided. Included are about 30 pages on South Georgia, a remarkably picturesque, but largely uninhabited island even further out in the Atlantic. My only complaint was the lack of photographs of the Falkland countryside. It would have been nice to get a feel for the terrain---m.p.



3. We are planning a trip to the Falklands soon, and I have searched every available publication for information. Suffice to say, such information is in short supply. I was ecstatic when I found this book. If you are planning a trip to the Falklands and/or South Georgia, this is the only book you need. Its information is both varied and comprehensive. Of special interest to us was the section detailing every location to view each type of penguin found in the Falklands.



4. The Lonely Planet guidebook series is known for combining travel tips with cultural and historical education, and the Falkland Islands guide is no exception. The detail of this book is outstanding, and the stories it describes are very interesting as well - these little islands have played a larger role in world affairs than the uninformed would ever expect.
   
   If you are buying this in conjunction with the Antarctica book, please note that this book is much smaller - but given the relative size of each landmass, the difference makes sense.

No comments about A Traveller's History of New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands (Traveller's Histories Series).

5 comments about Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney-Hobart Race.

1. I finished this book on a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles...with one disaster after another occurring in this massive storm, the writer keeps the reader actively turning pages throughout the book. You would not believe the bravery of everyone involved, from the actual racing teams to the rescue teams, not one person was left unphased by this experience.

   I am not an active sailor now, but with some experience in racing with a crew on sailboats, I found the account of this true story gripping.

   Certainly, a fun book to read, even if you are not into sailing. It may even convince you to never go open ocean sailing!




2. Rob Mundle is journalist and it shows. But behind the bonhomie and parochialism of the yachting scene insider there's an immediacy to this narrative, a rawness to the action and a fire in these heroics that combine to make Fatal Storm an inspiring read. There's something wild about this story, something that makes it different to Fastnet Force 10. There are moments in Fatal Storm when the sailors reading it will be afraid.



3. This is such a riveting story that it would be hard to write a bad book about it. Mundle is a fine writer, and the book is easy to read and a real page turner.
   As a story teller though, he could use some improvement. For example, one of the yachts is capsized by a giant wave and a man thrown overboard. What happens to him? Will he drown in the stormy waters of Bass Straight? Or is he rescued? We turn the page to find... a quote from the man in question describing what was going through his head as he fell from the yacht. So he lives! Full marks for thorough research, zero for sustaining the tension of the story.
   
   Another caveat for non boating readers. Mundle makes no attempt to explain any of the yachting jargon used throughout the book, so if you are a non boating person like myself, I would recommend reading with a copy of Wikipedia or the full Oxford dictionary by your side so you can understand terms like storm sail, jib, cockpit and many others that are used throughout the book. This will enhance your enjoyment of the book no end.
   
   All in all a great read.



4. The Southern Ocean---that landless sweep of sea that girds the lower third of our planet and isolates Antarctica---is notorious for its evil weather. Huge rollers, unchecked by any landmass, roil around the circumference of the Earth, making this area one of the most daunting, hazardous and challenging for any mariner.
   
   Once yearly on Boxing Day, the 630-mile Sydney-to-Hobart Yacht Race crosses a small portion of the Southern Ocean. One of the three great sport sailing events (along with the Fastnet and the Newport-to-Bermuda) the Sydney-to-Hobart has always had its fickle aspect, but never more so than 1998 when the entire regatta found itself trapped in an unforecasted cyclonic "bomb"---a small and unseasonable but virulent hurricane that produced 80 knot winds and steep hundred foot waves in the relatively narrow Bass Strait.
   
   Although only six sailors died, most of the fleet was battered into kindling by the waves, tall as buildings, heavier, and with much more velocity. Author Rob Mundle, an experienced distance ocean sailor, does a fine job of reportage as he tracks and traces the fates of the various participants, including the Sea-Rescue parajumpers who leapt into the darkness of the angry ocean to save the hapless crews of the shattered boats.
   
   FATAL STORM is well written and avoids becoming bogged down in too much nautical technospeak making it a good adventure story for the armchair enthusiast. The one drawback of FATAL STORM is that Mundle assumes the reader's relative familiarity with the meteorology, landforms, and idiosyncrasies of Australia's natural environment. For those of us not "Down Under" this makes FATAL STORM slightly more difficult to decode than it needs to be.



5. I picked up with book without knowing the details of the race or even that there was such a race between Sydney and Hobart. But within pages I could not put it down. The book is a must for any sailer, kayaker or power boater. It tells the tales of the spirit of sport combined with an under estimation of what mother nature can produce.

5 comments about Island of Bali.

1. This is by far the best book available if you want to know about the people of Bali - their unique lifestyle, religion, customs and beliefs. Written in the 1930's, it still holds true today. The classic black and white photos are worth the price alone. The Balinese people still live a magical life that is difficult for a westerner to comprehend, unless you read a book like this.



2. This book is the essential book about Bali. I read it 26 years ago when I first went to Bali and it still ranks as thee book about Bali. If you wish to learn about the Balinese people, their culture and religion and beliefs I highly recommend this book. jim



3. I must confess this book is thick but hey!!! It's well worth reading about for those who want to understand a little about Balinese culture as well as it's lovely people. I found it very interesting since it covered almost everything about Bali, however the book was written before World War II and well I still think it's great to have a book that is still resourceful. Even though so much has changed with Bali over the decades this book will never die surely. This is a must and is essential for those who want to have a better understanding of Bali back before World War II and they can still relate it to the present. Nothing much has changed but a few things have altered. It was like stepping back in time when I read this book... I hope everyone will enjoy the book as much as I do too... great book to have...



4. If you only read one book on Bali, read this one. Believe me, I'm Balinese.

   Miguel Covarrubias, and his wife Rose,who were Mexican, went to Bali twice, once in 1930 for several months and again in 1933 again for several months. The first time they stayed in Denpasar, the capital, and the second time in Ubud, where I live.

   They stayed with Walter Spies in Ubud,who was an extraordinary German, who had been living there for years, and who totally absorbed Balinese culture. My mother worked for him. He taught the Covarrubias's a lot.

   They then wrote their book. It is regarded as the bible and all subsequent books owe a lot to it. Some things have changed, of course, but only on the surface. We are very traditional, especially in the Ubud area. The book is an excellent introduction to our rich culture.

   The book discusses family and village life, rice farming, our Bali-Hindu religion, ceremonies, history, drama, art and dance.

   It's very readable and the photographs and line drawings are great.




5. Mexican painter Miguel Covarrubias set sail for Bali in 1931 on an optimistic personal quest to discover, absorb, and chronicle Bali's traditional living culture. Buy into the romance and seduction of Covarrubias-driven by a feverish imagination-- inexorably pulled towards and teased by the lure of Bali, half a world away. Travel back sixty-four years in time to Bali's unspoiled natural vistas-a happy, peaceful. pristine retreat standing apart from a West mired in crippling economic depression and poised on the precipice of World War II. As a fellow artist on an island with three million artists-in-residence (creativity is considered both a religious and a natural activity on Bali), Covarrubias penetrated deeply into the spirit of the dance, theatre, music, decorative arts, and pastimes of Bali.
   Embellished by 114 half-tone photos and 90 drawings by the author and other Balinese artists, this essential, still-relevant classic consists of twelve chapters on the Balinese people and their civilization in the 1930s. Accompanied by painter Walter Spies, Bali's most famous expatriate resident, they roamed the countryside together with eyes, ears, and canvasses wide open, observing the local life. Covarrubias's most notable writing describes the organization of the traditional Balinese village: the markets, social order, etiquette, language, caste system, the banjar, law and justice, the courts, the subak, rice culture, and the distribution of labor. This intimate, insider's foray into every nook and cranny of his own paradise produced key chapters on everyday family life in Bali: the house, cooking, costume and adornment, childbirth, childhood, adolescence, sexual customs, and marriage.
   Covarrubias explored the place of the artist in Balinese life and the development and evolution of Balinese art, crafts, sculpture, and architecture. Drama and dance are important components of Balinese life: they come alive through the village orchestras, musical instruments, classical Legong, and the ancient shadow plays. Island of Bali unveils material on priests and religion, temples and feasts, offerings and exorcisms, the Balinese calendar, and the original Bali Aga people. Written from a day when primary forests reigned supreme and witch doctors wielded terrifying power, Covarrubias delves into the cult of the Barong and Rangda, black and white magic, folk medicine, the sacrifice of widows, and death and cremation. The Balinese still lead a magical, mystical, harmonious life that is difficult for Westerners to understand unless they read a profound work like Covarrubias's Island of Bali. With an artist's sensibility and a Bali-lover's eye, Covarrubias paints a complex nirvana with words and easel in this great literary achievement.

4 comments about The Dive Sites of Cozumel, Cancun and the Mayan Riviera : Comprehensive Coverage of Diving and Snorkeling.

1. The dive sites of COZUMEL AND THE YUCATAN, the comprehensive coverage of diving and snorkeling by Lawson Wood is a decent generalist travel guide covering the history, climate, maps, travel tips, basics of diving and snorkeling, brief rating of selected dive sites, nice photos and descriptions of underwater marine environment and animals, ..etc...Four regions are covered: Cancun, Isla Mujeres and Isla Contoy, Cozumel, the Caribbean coast (Cenote dive sites described)in 176 pages. There is some basic travel info(places to eat, stay, and play) however, no reviews are provided to base a decision...lots of phone numbers though.

   The book rates dive sites by the following factors: Location, Access, Dive Conditions, Min. Depth, Max. Depth, Average Visibility, Basic description of what you may see at the dive site. There are 55 dive sites rated for Cozumel, 14 for Cancun, 12 for Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres, and 72 along the Caribbean Coast. Each review is about 120 - 150 words.

   Page 3 of this book acknowledges all the organizations used for the info in this book and the photograph equipment used for the underwater pictures...a good source of contacts.

   This book is great if you are thinking about traveling and diving for the first time to the Yucatan and want to know what to expect when you get there. Advanced divers looking for more dive site descriptions and dive maps may be disappointed...therefore 4 stars for a GENERAL Travel guide and dive guide together.




2. This is a good book for someone visiting the Quintanna Roo Coast and Cozumel who is going to use commercial dive operators for most of their diving. For the true adventurer however it is not really adequate. Why? Well say you need to find a reef on your ocean kayak and you are without a dive guide. This book will not really help you find that reef because it does not go into exact reef location detail, it just says like 100 yards off beach X. Well those beaches in Cozumel are long white strips of sand and are prettty much indistinguishable from one another. Also, no information on where to camp on Cozumel and on the Quintanna Roo Coast. It does however have good reef descriptions, general travel info and helpfull advice for tourists.



3. This book is very nicely arranged and designed. The writing is clear and concise and well thought out. The sections on the marine environments and diver safety were great. Not so great were directions getting to some of the dive locations. The author may have visited most of the dive sites on a dive boat and never attempted to reach the locations by car. We are snokelers and tried unsuccessfully to reach some of described locations on the Mexican Riviera. The map of the Mexican Riviera was not good. The scale was off by an order of magnitude. A few of the roads listed in the book on the map were not actually there. Some of the actual roads were not on the map. Most roads going from Highway 307 toward the shore are hotel private property. We repeatedly got turned around by uniformed personnel at hotel gates and had to give up reaching dive sites. It might be useful in future editions to tell how to get to a location by car. Giving GPS coordinates would be good too. This is a good book for planning a diving trip to the Yucatan area. But not so great once you get there.



4. This is the 3rd dive travel book I have purchased writen by Lawson Wood. He covers all the information you will need to plan a dive trip to Cozumel, Cancun and the Mayan Riviera. Besides the 160 dive and snorkel sites there is a brief history of the area and lots of travel tips. If you are a diver you will like the dive site discriptions and underwater photography. This is one of the best books of its kind on diving in the Mayan Riviera area.

No comments about Going to Live in Australia, 2nd edition - Your practical guide to living and working in Oz.

2 comments about Australian Language & Culture (Language Reference).

1. This book is a lot of fun! Our Australian friends really do talk like this.



2. This is an interesting book for someone who has not been to Australia. Although there are variations between Aussie English and Standard Australian English, visitors will mostly encounter SAE. "Aussie" English is used in informal settings and is useful to know - but it is not as common as this book would suggest. The Australian accent may be difficult for some visitors and the use of works describing local peculiarities (beer's, local areas, etc) may seem strange at first. The section on Aboriginal languages is extremely good and gives an accurate introduction to this unique field. However, again be aware that the majority of Australians have no knowledge of Aboriginal languages and very few white Australians actually speak an Aboriginal language. The Anangu languages of the central Australian Outback are spoken by people living in communities in areas that require a permit to visit. You will hear these languages in communities that are attached to visitor centers or by Aboriginal guides to these areas. But do not assume that because book devotes half its content to Aboriginal languages that you will hear these in every day speech. Overall a good introduction to Australian "culture" and speech, but too much emphasize for a book of this kind on Aboriginal languages.

No comments about Fodor's See It Australia, 3rd Edition (Fodor's See It).

No comments about The Rough Guide to Fiji 1 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).

No comments about Top 10 Sydney (EYEWITNESS TOP 10 TRAVEL GUIDE).