Meh, when I did SE Asia the last place you wanted to stay was anyplace mentioned in the Lonely Planet books. Overpriced and didn't care about quality because they knew the next batch of people who couldn't look around for a second because "it's not in the guidebook!" would come through and pay the inflated prices for nothing much. Luckily said places advertise like nothing else so not hard to avoid them.

I really have a hard time believing this guy would be so naive as to order a "mushroom pizza" in that part of the world and not know what was going to happen.

It would be fun doing that. Getting caught up in the heat of the moment,

ASIA Tour? They signed a poster and I had it framed.

If you can still go to a bar in Pakistan and buy hash hits for a nickel for the bong on the bar, I'm in.

all the guidebook says is "Mostly Harmless"?

FTA: Beth has since moved to Australia, and we are getting married in Minneapolis in January next year.

Good for them, but I hope he and his Australian friends know what the weather is like in Minneapolis in January.

I have a 50 year old camping / wilderness survival book but this sounds slightly more enjoyable.

I got the Lonely Planet city guide when I was in Bangkok, but other than the maps and directions to museums, it was pretty much useless.

Not to mention that it said not to take motorcycle taxis because the traffic was too dangerous, and well, where's the fun in that? It's by far the easiest way to get around other than the sky train.

Jake Havechek: If you can still go to a bar in Pakistan and buy hash hits for a nickel for the bong on the bar, I'm in.

sure, as long as you are not an american
for that, they will first sell you the crappy hash and then call the religious police

Andromeda: Meh, when I did SE Asia the last place you wanted to stay was anyplace mentioned in the Lonely Planet books. Overpriced and didn't care about quality because they knew the next batch of people who couldn't look around for a second because "it's not in the guidebook!" would come through and pay the inflated prices for nothing much. Luckily said places advertise like nothing else so not hard to avoid them.

That's why you look around on your own, of course, but also grab a guidebook that's not Lonely Planet. A few years back I backpacked around China for several months armed with a copy of Let's Go! China instead of the super-obligatory LP. Let's Go has kind of a reputation as being the short-bus of guidebooks, aimed at college freshmen cruising around western Europe. (Indeed, I remember some LP-toting Eurotrash backpacker girl openly sneering at my guidebook. Biatch.) In four months I never ran across another person with a copy.

But it plus an open mind led me to tons of awesome places off the beaten path that nobody went to, simply because they weren't in the All-Holy Lonely Planet Bible.

It's not like the 80s when Frommer's and Lonely Planet were the only games in town...Moon, Rough Guides, and Bradt all make good budget-oriented guidebooks to tons of places, and they all have the advantage of being Not Lonely Planet.