This book isn't a bad book by any means, but it's not really fit to use as a guidebook. The background sections are great and demonstrate a real love and deep knowledge of SE Asia, but the informational sections seem out of date in places.

A new edition might well fix all of this; Laos and Cambodia have been changing very quickly and information could get out-of-date very quickly. It's worth a look as a general backgrounder, but I wouldn't travel with it as my lone guide.


Good on food and descriptions, terrible on fact   September 18, 2003
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I've just returned from the area covered in this guidebook, and used this (or at least tried to) throughout our holiday. While cultural information or descriptions are wonderful, (particularly on food) we found that, without fail, the majority of facts are wildly incorrect. I've lost count of the number of prices quoted that were plain wrong (although entry/exit fees, many guesthouses and travel tended to be cheaper than quoted here). Within three days we bought a second hand Lonely Planet, and used the Moon book for architecture, history and food.

When was this last updated? Not in this century.


The Best! December 21, 2002   March 31, 2003
 4 out of 6 found this review helpful

This is the best guide available. Moon travel beats the major competitor (the main travel-trail eye-sore creator) in almost all respects, but not all.

More so than other travel guides, the Moon travel guide for Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia has tons and tons of recent political, social and economic history in addition to significant cultural notes that a visitor *must* be aware of. (i.e., what does a South East Asian smile mean?) The maps of the cities and provinces are excellent. the all-important overland border-crossings between 'Nam, Laos, and Cambo are clearly marked. This is one of the many reasons that Moon can't be beaten at the moment. This guide's overland itineraries are the best. Example: you want to go into China overland from northern Vietnam. How can you get up to Kunming, China? It tells ya. And, we learn, that the one-way flight into Bangkok from Kunming is the same price as the one that flies from Hanoi. (This price equality of course must be verified).

The information regarding the pricing and existence of certain establishments that cater to travelers is outdated. However, where to eat or sleep has never been an important part of a book anyhow, just the general information about the area in general and how to get there is all a visitor needs. Does someone need to read a guidebook to decide specifically where to eat? Where to specifically sleep? If it does for you, do everyone a favor: stay home.

The underlying story that provides the "general-informational" foundation is enough. When we come through town, understandably we don't know much, but that is far better than knowing absolutely nothing at all, which is quite common now from my conversations with tourists, and especially now among "backpackers." The purpose of why backpacking started has been lost for most.

By the way, it is a fact that the communist government censors this guidebook. I found that out trying to pick it up at the post office. Well worth having.

--Kenneth G. Johnson, Saigon


reviews posted by the author (buckeroo555@yahoo.com)   May 3, 2000
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

***** Reviewer: David Stanley, Canada, January 30, 2000

AN OUTSTANDING GUIDEBOOK

I've been using Michael Buckley's Vietnam Handbook for two months now and have found it to be excellent. It's well organized with country introductions which told me almost everything I wanted to know. Michael's sidebars are intriguing and I especially appreciate the city walking tours which have led me to many hidden little places I might have missed otherwise.

The maps are better than those in the other guidebooks because sites are labeled right on the maps themselves rather than coded in a key which is impossible to read in dim lighting... Michael has provided not only the usual city and country maps, but also detailed inner city maps and even maps of the individual temples around Angkor Wat.

This book covers three countries and sure beats having to buy and lug around individual guides to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. I've found that the coverage better than adequate and certainly head and shoulders above the general Southeast Asia guides which are surprisingly sketchy about these countries. Indochina is changing so fast that much of the practical information in any guide is bound to be out of date before the book reaches the shelves and this 1998 edition does require updating, but so do all the other guides to the region. You usually end up getting that kind of information from other travelers anyway. Of the three countries included, the coverage of Cambodia is the weakest, obviously because that country is only now opening to independent travel. Next edition Michael needs to get to places like Kampong Cham, etc. Meanwhile I recommend this handbook highly over all its competitors.

**** Reviewer: A reader from Boston, MA August 16, 1999 A good companion to other guides, esp. for sights and history. I used this guide for travel throughout Cambodia and in Saigon in the summer of 1999. I found it to be well-written and insightful, particularly about history, culture, and general observations about travel in the region. I found that I didn't rely on it so much for nitty-gritty details like accommodations or travel info (I used Let's Go: Southeast Asia for that) or for places to go out (I borrowed someone else's Lonely Planet for that). But I did come to rely on its clear modern history sections, its meticulous maps, and even its opening chapters on travel in the region. This guidebook is clearly thoughtfully and thoroughly researched. Although I wouldn't recommend traveling with it alone, I certainly was glad I brought it along.

**** Reviewer: A reader from San Francisco, California July 28, 1999

A MUST READ: As a seasonal guide in Vietnam and Cambodia for each of the past seven years, many people ask me how they should prepare for their trip to the region. I always recommend this guide. My work requires extensive research and I read a lot of guidebooks and this one is the only one with any decent accuracy and thoroughness. I also think Buckley is simply a good writer. Aside from Tom Brosnahan's Turkey guidebook for Lonely Planet, I think it is perhaps the best written one out right now. And I find his particular humor makes light of what can be trying circumstances and boring details. By the way, the current edition has been updated with a lot of information from as recent as 1997 (about as recent as you can get in any guidebook of the area published in 1998 I am afraid).