Vietnam (Country Guides) [Paperback]

My wife and I have just returned from a long trip, during which we spent a significant amount of time touring Vietnam from North to South. What a fabulous country! The people, the history, the sights, the food and everything else make this a rewarding and fulfilling place to visit. You have to go....
...however, I would not recommend you take this book with you!
Please understand though, this isn't a *bad* guidebook, it's just that it misses the mark in so many different ways and in a competitive market why choose a duff one? I've used Lonely Planet almost exclusively over the last 20 years as they are usually so good. This one, however, completely failed to live up to expectations. I'm sorry to say that this book was the biggest disappointment of my holiday and it therefore only gets 1 star from me.

Why is it so bad? Well, a number of things.
1. The format has changed recently - and I appreciate that trying to make changes to what people are used to is hard - but I really don't *get* change-for-the-sake-of-change, which is what we have here. Before we had a few helpful pages relating to planning your trip - suggested routes, yearly climate, festivals perhaps. Now we have a 'how to plan your holiday section' at the front which is a spoon-fed, idiots guide (Do you like temples, boys and girls? Well, let's go here then...); they've got rid of the time-zoned map of the world at the back, which was really useful when travelling and planning or if you wanted to show your new friend where you come from; sights now have little icons next to the title so you 'instantly' know if they are an 'LP top sight' (an 'eye' icon) or if it is free to enter (groundbreakingly, a 'FREE' icon) - rather than in previous editions where you were maliciously forced to waste precious pico-seconds of your holiday by reading the first line of the carefully researched text under the name of the sight in order to find out the opening times and entry costs; similarly there are new labels next to each sight to categorise it for you - and this is, again, rather silly because the number of categories is legion and they are all "bleedin' obvious" (in Dalat, for example, the Xuan Hong Lake is a `Lake'. Well, who'd've thought? And, the Dalat Flower Gardens are in fact - wait for it - `Gardens'. No! Never!) It's just a number of little things but I don't appreciate the book dumbing itself down and treating me like a moron.

2. In terms of content, I felt that some places lacked information - the thoroughness that I would expect from an 11th Edition was not there for places like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; I would also question some of the recommended bars, restaurants & cafes and similarly, I wondered why certain establishments were not included; some places - in particular Mui Ne - I felt were very hard done by, with only a cursory mention compared to what was there.

3. Use of language occasionally confused me. The book is clearly English, with English spellings and phraseology but then American idioms creep in. Why? Choose one and stick to it!

4. The book includes a section on Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor in Cambodia - another place on our travels. You might think this is very helpful - and indeed it is...up to a point. Lovely 3D-effect map of (some) of the temples and titbits of info but I'm afraid it falls into the category of 'enough information to be dangerous'. Sure it gives you a few recommendations for sleeping, eating and drinking in Siem Reap but there's no real depth there. And since you're going to another country, where's the equally helpful reference section about currency, health, dangers, tipping, language, etcetcetc?

5. But finally, my major gripe with this book is the maps. What's the point of a guide book without maps you can read?! A very good question I hear you say.
Firstly, the page is white, the streets are everso slightly grey and the `map pins' are in light blue. Brilliant! Moreover, since the pages are so thin that the text printed on the back of the page shines through, this makes the maps very difficult to read even in a good light and downright impossible at dawn, dusk or at night.
I suspect the reason they have done this is because Lonely Planets are being illegally copied and sold cheaply on the streets of Vietnam and other SE Asia towns and they (LP) are trying to hinder these pirates. I'm sorry for LP on this one and I don't know what to do about it. However, I do believe that if I buy a genuine, brand new LP guidebook, I should get maps that are readable.
The second thing about the maps is that there are some inaccuracies. Whichever LP you buy there will always be something not quite right on one or more of the maps - however, this seemed to be somewhat above average. Things change, and I know there has to be a cut-off date for a new edition of the book - but on top of not being able to work out where the streets are on the page, inaccurate mapping doesn't help.
Thirdly, I felt some of the maps were lacking. Using Mui Ne as an example again - they go on about the 'strip' along the beach and the location of places at various kilometre marks but the scale is so small that all these places are practically on top of each other. It would be more useful if they'd contrived to include kilometre markings as well.
And the final gripe about maps is that they've done another change-for-the-sake-of-change thing...for the last 20 years I've used LP maps where the place are listed by Place Name - Reference Number (the `Map Pin') - Grid Reference. Now it's Reference Number - Place Name - Grid Reference. It's amazing how annoying it is to have to keep flicking between the pages because you automatically read the Name first, then your eyes pick up a number of some sort and so you go to the map to try and find it. But you have only read the Grid Reference and failed to take in the Reference Number because it's not where you expected it to be and so you have to turn back. Sounds trivial? Try doing this several times a day, everyday, in a new, foreign place with a map that you can't actually work out where the streets are going at 35+degrees heat when you're tired or hungry or thirsty - trust me, it's annoying.

On the positive side, the new edition contains more photos - not many more, but a few. I know that previous editions have been lacking in colour photos and it's something that my wife has commented on. It doesn't bother me either way, but for those that like it, there are now a few more pretty pictures.

In summary, I would wholeheartedly recommend that you visit Vietnam! I would also recommend you visit Cambodia (we only visited Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor, just outside) but the place is amazing and we will be going back soon to explore the rest of the country.
BUT! I advise you not to buy this book. If this is the way all Lonely Planets are going I won't be buying any more of them. I'm willing to bet there's another guide book out there that credits you with some degree of intelligence, with maps you can read and a better section on Angkor.

11th edition published Feb 2012 - as good as ever with Lonely Planet and right up to date, useful pull out map included. Well packaged so arrived promptly and in pristine condition; and of course Amazon's excellent price.

Well, maybe a bit more special. The subject phrase, to the best of my knowledge, was first used by the Zionists, in their aspirations to create a Jewish homeland, and thereby form a country "like any other." Certainly from the American perspective, "Vietnam" has for far too long been an adjective, in front of the noun, "war." Yet, if it is a bit special, it is because it is one of the loveliest countries on earth. And I think this updated, 2012 Lonely Planet guide hit that note perfectly. The "war" is still there, but has faded into the deep background, of interest to those "of a certain age."

As I have said in reviews of other "Lonely Planet" guides, it remains the essential guide for those seeking to understand and see the country "off the tour." It is outdoors orientated, and thus the hiking and biking possibilities are prominently featured. Likewise featured are the budget accommodations and restaurants. Overall, the guide is attractively designed, and color-coded, with the country divided into eight regions. Most wonderfully, there is an emphasis on the numerous, recently created national parks. Another key reason to go is for the food, and the guide has an attractive section, with pictures, so much so, that you wonder why you eat any other cuisine. In terms of updated information, the border crossing posts into Laos and Cambodia are detailed. Also, as most know, Angkor Wat is not in Vietnam, but rather in neighboring Cambodia. The editors assumed that a tour of Vietnam, rightly, must include this one of a kind world heritage site, so they included a valuable section on it.

My first trip to Vietnam was an "all-expenses" paid one, back in 1968, of a year's duration. The emphasis was most definitely the rural areas; I never saw any of the cities. I did become utterly intrigued by the changing colors of green in one particular mountain in the Annamite Cordillera. The green was different every day, and varied within the day. Only much latter did I learn that Cezanne developed his own obsession with Mont St. Victoire in Provence. Linger long enough in the national parks to "smell the roses" and you might have a similar experience.

I went back to Vietnam three times, once each in 1994, '95 and '96. The changes from 1968 were, of course, dramatic. And I had my much older copy of the Lonely Planet guide that helped me "get by." The changes just between '94 and '96 were equally dramatic. I estimated that 80% of the traffic in Hanoi in '94 was bicycles, by '96, it was 80% motorbikes. And the Hanoi War museum was completely transformed, with the notable removal of the subject of atrocities. And now, in 2012, it's possible, per the guide, to stay at a $500 a night resort in Nha Trang.

By the `70's I had read Alistair Horne's brilliant history A Savage War Of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 (New York Review Books Classics), concerning the Algerian war, which is where the French military went after they lost in Indochina. He commenced the book with an epigraph by former British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, who was a Roman classic scholar. In reference to Sétif , Macmillan had called it "A Town of No Great Interest." Horne chose this as an ironic introduction to the war, since it was in Sétif that the first serious revolt against French rule occurred in 1945. Likewise, please consider An Khe. It didn't rate a mention in my `90's Lonely Planet guide, and still doesn't make the cut for the 2012 update. It is on Highway 19, roughly half way between Qui Nhon and Pleiku. Most people who know anything about the French war in Indochina assume that it ended with the fall of Dien Bien Phu on May 07, 1954. It didn't. In terms of futile deaths, and being the last soldier to die for a mistake, it was the deaths of 2000 French soldiers, part of Groupement Mobile 100, which occurred on June 24, 1954, 13 km west of An Khe that was the "last hurrah." As though a baton had been passed, it was also An Khe, from which the US First Air Cavalry Division operated, and engaged the North Vietnamese Army in the first major battle of the American war, in the Ia Drang valley, some 40 km away, in 1965. As you might suspect, I had my own personal involvement there, spending the "summer of love," 1969, not in San Francisco, but on a small hillock 11 km west of An Khe (the distance being dictated by the maximum range of fire for 105 mm artillery pieces... "interlocking fields of fire," and all that.) Lonely Planet mentions the devastation caused by Agent Orange twice, both to the landscape and the Vietnamese people. No compensation has ever been paid for this. Roughly 25 km to the west of An Khe is the Mang Yang pass, site of a massive defoliation effort, still evident today. I've uploaded a couple pictures of the area that I took in 1994. Though not in the guide, it is worth the visit, to complement the good times of the food, beaches, national parks, and the people who will still smile at the latest, much more friendly, invaders of the country. 5-stars.