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The holiday-makers' favourite guidebook series is the best all-rounder (The Sunday Times Travel Magazine )
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The indispensible Rough Guide to Laos is the definitive guide to this fascinating Southeast Asian country, taking you from the remote mountainous north to the sleepy south. It's packed with detailed, lively reviews of accommodation and restaurants to suit all budgets, plus practical information on things like border crossings and road and river travel. With comprehensive research, accompanied by stunning photographs, The Rough Guide to Laos is your essential companion, whether you want to follow the well-trodden route along the Mekong, or blaze your own trail. The guide's authoritative background section provides essential information on Laos's often turbulent history and teaches you about the country's fascinating hill tribes and vibrant festivals. And with dozens of clear, accurate maps The Rough Guide to Laos gets you under the skin of this dynamic country.
Make the most of your trip with The Rough Guide to Laos.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The fourth edition of the Rough Guide to Laos (published in January 2011) is written by Jeff Cranmer and Steven Martin with additional contributions from Emma Gibbs and Steven Vickers. I had it with me on a recent trip to Laos during which I was able to check some of the information presented in it.
For the record: we travelled in the south of Laos, so my personal verification of the information presented in the book covers only the chapter about the south - plus the chapters with general information and historical background.
As far as I can tell, this guidebook is a reliable and useful tool for anyone who wants to visit this charming land-locked country (whose shape on the map looks a lot like Italy). Here are some of the many important points which are covered in the book:
1. Citizens of Asean (and Japan) can enter without a visa, but all other nationalities must have a visa to enter the country. Most nationalities can get the visa on arrival, but it must be paid in cash and with US dollars, and you must provide a passport-sized photo of yourself. The price of the visa depends on your nationality, it ranges from ca. 30 to ca. 40 US dollars (page 23).
2. There are several warnings about UXO, i.e. unexploded ordnance from "the secret war" which was a part of the second Indochina war (1954-1975). On pp. 152-153 the authors mention the UXO information centre in Phonsavan, which is run by MAG (Mines Advisory Group), a British organisation that has been helping to clear Laos's unexploded ordnance since 1994.
3. The authors also pay attention to environmental issues, such as deforestation and the problems related to hydro-electric dams (pages 302-303).
[The book does not mention the current and highly controversial project, the Xayaburi dam, which has been the subject of several articles in the Bangkok Post during 2011.]
4. In the section about the history of Laos there is a separate sidebar about "the secret war" and the Hmong, the tribal minority which was recruited by the CIA to fight the Pathet Lao resistance movement (page 279). The text includes a reference to the Hmong general Vang Pao (who was born in 1929 and who died in January 2011).
5. The chapter about the far south is detailed and informative. The text includes several maps of the area which support the text very well, for instance a map of the area around Pakse on page 235 and a map of Si Phan Don, the 4,000 islands, near the Cambodian border, on page 243. The map on pp. 238-239 shows the layout of the ancient Khmer temple Wat Phou, located a few km south west of Champasak. The map on page 240 shows the location of the Wat Phou lintels, while the sidebar on the next page helps you understand the decorations on these lintels.
I like this guidebook, but I have to mention a few points which bother me:
(a) The former special zone Xaisomboun, which is located ca. 50 km east of Vang Vieng, is shown on two maps (pp. 6 and 148), but it is never mentioned in the text. In this area the CIA built a "secret city" called Long Cheng, from where the Hmong and the CIA conducted their "secret war." Long Cheng is not mentioned, either.
[The special zone and the "secret city" are mentioned in Lonely Planet's guidebook about Laos. Here is a link to the seventh edition of this book which was published in December 2010: Laos (Lonely Planet Country Guides).]
(b) The price level for local transport in Pakse mentioned in the book seems to be unrealistically low. On page 231 the authors say: "Expect to pay 5,000 K for short inner-city journeys." But all tuk-tuk drivers demand at least 10,000 and often 20,000 for a short ride. You can bargain with them to get a lower price, but I do not think they will go anywhere for 5,000 K.
(c) The chapter on the far north includes a separate sidebar with information about how you can go sailing on the Mekong River (page 201). But the chapter on the far south does not say much about this topic. Specifically, it does not mention the two companies which arrange a cruise on the Mekong River in southern Laos, from Pakse to Si Phan Don. The first version runs for three days, while the second runs for five days. We tried the short version which was an interesting and enjoyable experience.
[Both cruises are mentioned in Lonely Planet's guidebook about Laos.]
Apart from these minor points I believe this guidebook is a reliable and useful tool for anyone who wants to visit Laos.
For the record: we travelled in the south of Laos, so my personal verification of the information presented in the book covers only the chapter about the south - plus the chapters with general information and historical background.
As far as I can tell, this guidebook is a reliable and useful tool for anyone who wants to visit this charming land-locked country (whose shape on the map looks a lot like Italy). Here are some of the many important points which are covered in the book:
1. Citizens of Asean (and Japan) can enter without a visa, but all other nationalities must have a visa to enter the country. Most nationalities can get the visa on arrival, but it must be paid in cash and with US dollars, and you must provide a passport-sized photo of yourself. The price of the visa depends on your nationality, it ranges from ca. 30 to ca. 40 US dollars (page 23).
2. There are several warnings about UXO, i.e. unexploded ordnance from "the secret war" which was a part of the second Indochina war (1954-1975). On pp. 152-153 the authors mention the UXO information centre in Phonsavan, which is run by MAG (Mines Advisory Group), a British organisation that has been helping to clear Laos's unexploded ordnance since 1994.
3. The authors also pay attention to environmental issues, such as deforestation and the problems related to hydro-electric dams (pages 302-303).
[The book does not mention the current and highly controversial project, the Xayaburi dam, which has been the subject of several articles in the Bangkok Post during 2011.]
4. In the section about the history of Laos there is a separate sidebar about "the secret war" and the Hmong, the tribal minority which was recruited by the CIA to fight the Pathet Lao resistance movement (page 279). The text includes a reference to the Hmong general Vang Pao (who was born in 1929 and who died in January 2011).
5. The chapter about the far south is detailed and informative. The text includes several maps of the area which support the text very well, for instance a map of the area around Pakse on page 235 and a map of Si Phan Don, the 4,000 islands, near the Cambodian border, on page 243. The map on pp. 238-239 shows the layout of the ancient Khmer temple Wat Phou, located a few km south west of Champasak. The map on page 240 shows the location of the Wat Phou lintels, while the sidebar on the next page helps you understand the decorations on these lintels.
I like this guidebook, but I have to mention a few points which bother me:
(a) The former special zone Xaisomboun, which is located ca. 50 km east of Vang Vieng, is shown on two maps (pp. 6 and 148), but it is never mentioned in the text. In this area the CIA built a "secret city" called Long Cheng, from where the Hmong and the CIA conducted their "secret war." Long Cheng is not mentioned, either.
[The special zone and the "secret city" are mentioned in Lonely Planet's guidebook about Laos. Here is a link to the seventh edition of this book which was published in December 2010: Laos (Lonely Planet Country Guides).]
(b) The price level for local transport in Pakse mentioned in the book seems to be unrealistically low. On page 231 the authors say: "Expect to pay 5,000 K for short inner-city journeys." But all tuk-tuk drivers demand at least 10,000 and often 20,000 for a short ride. You can bargain with them to get a lower price, but I do not think they will go anywhere for 5,000 K.
(c) The chapter on the far north includes a separate sidebar with information about how you can go sailing on the Mekong River (page 201). But the chapter on the far south does not say much about this topic. Specifically, it does not mention the two companies which arrange a cruise on the Mekong River in southern Laos, from Pakse to Si Phan Don. The first version runs for three days, while the second runs for five days. We tried the short version which was an interesting and enjoyable experience.
[Both cruises are mentioned in Lonely Planet's guidebook about Laos.]
Apart from these minor points I believe this guidebook is a reliable and useful tool for anyone who wants to visit Laos.
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