Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #308658 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 248 pages

Customer Reviews

simply brilliant
this guide book is almost too good to be true, where ever you are heading mark elliot has been there and drawn the map. its really like being given a set of hand drawn maps by a friend, and the best thing of all this guidebook is tiny compared to the weightier and weighteir tomes by lonely planet and rough guides.
basically each chapter deals with one of the south east asian countries giving you a few facts and then a compendium of hand drawn maps littered with useful symbols that once youve got used to them are quite simply amazing.

one of the great strengths of this book is the travel connections, detailed graphically its very easy to see how to get the bus/boat/train anywhere and even how to find the station or bus terminal, or indeed how to quickly get into town from there.

the book doesnt hold your hand to the degree the other books do, and so it gives you enough info on where to find a hostel, and a couple recomendations where needed, but things like finding food usually isnt too much of a challenge.

the guides to cambodia and laos are particuliarly strong, and in truth you just dont need another guide book for these areas, in fact following some of the maps here i ended up in much more out of the way and interesting places in both counties.

for thailand its useful to get another guidebook as really this is such a very big country with so much to do, this book is great for planning and transport, but is wel backed up by another guide, i personally found the rough guide thailand book a very good match. theres lots of tips in the graphic guide about what you need for thailand and the hows and wheres of aquiring extra guide books while on the road.

for malaysia again i used only this book, and found it suprisingly comprehensive, although here i followed again the books advice and used the various websites listed to get in depth knowledge for accomodation.

mr elliot uses a system of stars to highlight his highlights as it were, and on the whole id say i agreed with 2/3 of them which isnt bad as its all so very subjective, on occasion i would wonder quite what the attration was but each to their own.

an essential book for the independant traveller to se asia, and one which will endlessly enhance your trip, not to mention the fact it will slip in your pocket.

The Best Book About SE Asia!!
After using LP and Footprint ... this book is a revelation as I found myself not needing to read reems of information to get to the one bit I needed as the maps and keys are simple and the info in there is spot-on.
As an example, when we'd come into a town I'd open the book, straight to the necessary map, know where I wanted to go and was away before most others had worked out what page, what map, what key and then read 4 pages to find out what they wanted to know.
If you have any independent streak in you ... buy this book and enjoy Asia in amuch less restrictive way.
Excellent work ... I just wish there were more in this style for more countries.

Nice for independent travellers
We found this book have all the maps you need to find where you are when arriving in a strange place and to find a guest house for cheap. Its not heavy to carry so you can buy other guide for the country where you are if you want more info. But travel is easy in many places in SEAsia so just knowing where is the info office and bus stations and traveller areas is useful. We compared with Lonely Planet Southeast Asia on shoestring. In the end the maps look more professional (computer) in LP and there are reviews of hotels etc in text. In the "Graphic Guide" Trailblazer book it only tells you (by an icon) where the hostel is and maybe gives a comment. Or even says "guest house area" (or something like that) so you know where to look. That seems more scary but often the places in LP were full anyway as everyone else has the LP too! So, in the end the extra detail was not always helpful anyway. For best idea use any book then ask locals or other travellers for more info. For smaller villages not covered in LP Shoestring the Trailblazer book often does have little maps which is useful as it was often those places where people don't speak English. We didn't use the book in every place but Laos, Thailand and Yunnan (South China) the info was good. Our trip is quite short, but we liked the style which, like it says, is a sort of "treasure map" style. The alphabets also useful.