Books to Get You TherePrepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International
A few weeks ago an enterprising travel writer appeared at the Authors’ Lounge at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. He was there to autograph and promote his latest book, BAD LANDS. His name is Tony Wheeler. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, the publishing company that he and his wife Maurine founded certainly will. It’s Lonely Planet.
Lonely Planet is one series of guidebooks that doesn’t need an introduction. There’s hardly anyplace you visit around the world that you won't see travelers with Lonely Planet guides in hand, scanning the pages as they go along. Over the years in Weekly Travel Feature I have used and made reference to Lonely Planet guides numerous times, well aware that the series covers destinations around the world. But what I didn’t know was the vast volume of books that Lonely Planet publishes, other than guidebooks that is. At the Oriental I read a brochure that lists some 600 titles. That has to be some sort of record.
The day after Tony Wheeler’s book launch, I went to Bangkok’s largest bookstore and began my research on Lonely Planet books. I was overwhelmed by the selection, and I couldn’t help thinking about Tony Wheeler. Here was a man with a vision who knew what he wanted and, more important, he knew how to get it. We can call it perseverance. When I learned Tony was appearing at the Oriental I had to go and hear him talk and, sheepishly, I had to ask him a question. But first, let me go back a few years, to 1974. The place is Singapore.
That year I had just completed a guidebook on Malaysia for APA Press, which later became known as Insight Guides. This was the third guidebook in the series, the other two being BALI and SINGAPORE. The sales were good and the future for APA Press looked promising. Hans Hoefer, the founder and publisher, had some grand ideas. He wanted the guides to be up-market, sleek productions with excellent photographs that appeal to affluent travelers. At the time, I was considering joining Hans and his team, but it never happened. For those who might be interested, I wrote in detail about APA’s beginning years, and my reasons for dropping out, in my book AT HOME IN ASIA.
It was when Hans and his staff were putting the Malaysia book together that Tony Wheeler came knocking on the door one afternoon. Tony and his wife had jut completed a guidebook titled SOUTHEAST ASIA ON A SHOESTRING and Tony wanted to introduce himself. Tony’s idea of a guidebook, which he made clear, was the complete opposite from what Hans had in mind. Tony wanted to appeal to the backpacker, the average traveler on the road looking for a cheap way to travel. Hans aimed to capture the affluent traveler with money to spend. Hans wished Tony luck, and commented that backpackers travel on tight budgets and don’t constitute a good market. Jet set travellers were taking over the travel scene. Tony was, of course, looking to the future. His thoughts were in volume. He visualized the day when backpackers would become, with more and more available air travel, the dominant travellers. He was right. Tony left us that day and that was the last time I saw him, until he appeared at the Oriental. The question I wanted to ask him was did he remember that meeting with Hans Hoeffer and me. He remembered well. “It was back in 1972,” I said. ”No,” he replied, “It was 1974.” He remembered it very well for, as he said, it was one of many episodes where people thought he would never succeed. Instead of discouragement such remarks gave him encouragement.
I cannot comment on all the Lonely Planet books I saw at the book store but I will comment on one, a massive book titled THE TRAVEL BOOK: A Journey through every Country in the World. Finally, here is a masterpiece for the seasoned traveller as well as the armchair traveller who wants to look at the world in one glance. The 448-page tome is not a book that you can carry with you when you go travelling. It’s one you use to plan that next vacation trip, or one you use when you dream about making a trip.
This amazing travel book contains some 1200 images and 100,000 words, and covers 230 countries. Every country, large or small, is presented in an accessible A to Z format, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Two pages are devoted to each country, and each country has a pleasing mix of images and text. But, as the editor explains in the introduction, a few obstacles soon stood in the way before the book could ever make it to the printer. Mainly, it had to be determined–what is a country? Easily asked but not easily answered.
The editors turned to the United Nations' list of defined countries–all 192 of them. But the UN list does not include the foreign dependencies of countries, whether self-governing or crown colony. For a travel book to be complete it was necessary to feature some of these places due to their being ever-popular traveller hangouts, such as Bermuda and the many islands of French Polynesia.
Secondly, the travel book had to be just that, a travel book, and not an exhaustive reference book of the world. It had to view the world through the lens of the traveller, focusing on places to visit for their beauty, fascination or singularity.
The project had to be one of the biggest Lonely Planet had ever to face, and a genuine headache for the editors. “By sheer logistics,” wrote the editor, “the world is a breathtakingly big place, and to cover it all in one book is a big ambition.”
Furthermore, the book had to be based on traveller interest more than political correctness. What it had to do for some countries was to feature their component parts, as for example Great Britain–England, Scotland and Wales–as separate entities.
Then destinations like Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, which are all parts of China, have historic identities that separate them from their present-day political situation. Also Antarctica and Greenland are not countries, strictly speaking, but they are appealing to the adventure traveller.
At the end of the book, there are 12 bonus destinations that the editors couldn't bear to leave out, but could not justify as full entries. They were selected because they are fascinating and often beautiful, remote places that are fast gathering focus on the explorer's map. They are recommended by Lonely Planet’s founder, Tony Wheeler, for his recognition as Lonely Planet's best-travelled person.
In spite of the team’s dilemmas about what to include and what not to include, the structure and organization of the book was never in doubt. The introduction to the book calls it “egalitarianism,” giving equal weight to little nations as well as superpowers. It does this very well, but it also creates a sense of exhilaration and wonderment about the world we live in.
It’s quite obvious, with just two pages allotted for each country, it was impossible to cover everything, so they chose instead to evoke the spirit of the place by focusing on the senses, what might you expect to see, what might you hear people say in conversation or greeting, what kind of food or drink you can expect to taste, and what sort of music, books or film would help open up your imagination to each country. To quote the editors, “The book is much more about impressions than dry statistics.”
With photographs, the focus is on capturing the spirit of a place and its people; no picture-postcard views; people eating, walking, reading, praying, working, sleeping, laughing and living.
THE TRAVEL BOOK is a dream book as well as a travel book. And just imagine: every country in the world under one cover.
Next week we will take a look at the coming festivals in Thailand, for that is the best time to visit the kingdom. I am preparing the story based on the e-mail in the Q&A listed below.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q. Dear Mr. Stephens. My husband asked me to write to you requesting information about the coming festivals in Thailand, as we are planning to visit the country with our two teen-age children. We want to make it special for they will soon be going to college and this may be our last vacation together. Maggie Goh, Vancouver B.C.
A. Dear Mrs. Goh. I decided to answer your e-mail with a full report in my next week’s posting. I hope you don’t mind waiting. I will have the latest details on festivals for you as well as all readers. I might add, whatever festival you choose, I am sure it will be remembered by your children and you and your husband forever. Thank you for asking. –HS
Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)
Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited. | 
