Travelers' Tales Thailand: True Stories

Rating:
Summary: A somewhat disjointed collection of impressions
Review: There are a number of pieces in this book written by people who speak Thai and understand Thailand to some extent, but there are too many "first impressions" for my taste -- pieces written by people totally new to Thailand and therefore reporting well-known facts such as "tropical heat" and "incandescent peppers". It's a likeable book but I didn't really learn anything from it.

Rating:
Summary: Filled with happiness
Review: This book was filled with great tales of people who have been to Thailand. It was much better than any other travel book, I learned a lot about the history and places to go from other traveler's. I could not put this book down, it made me want to hop on a plane and go there to experience it all! This is a great supplement to any regular travel guide such as lonely planet or Frommer's etc...

Rating:
Summary: Filled with happiness
Review: This book was filled with great tales of people who have been to Thailand. It was much better than any other travel book, I learned a lot about the history and places to go from other traveler's. I could not put this book down, it made me want to hop on a plane and go there to experience it all! This is a great supplement to any regular travel guide such as lonely planet or Frommer's etc...

Rating:
Summary: Going to Thailand.... this book is a must.
Review: Travel is not about the destination but about experiencing new worlds. Few of us travel to see more museums, churches, temples (wats) or sights; but rather we travel to experience the zing & zang that life has to offer. Few countries are as exotic as Thailand and to make sense of this intriguing travel destination every suitcase heading for this country should have a copy of this book.

Thailand can beguile even the most seasoned traveler. The stories that O'Reilly has selected here capture the ethos of Thailand, and help you to understand the inner essence of the Thai culture: whether the story is about one of the estimated ½ million prostitutes (Love in a Duty-Free Zone), or the mind behind the neon orange garb of a Theravada Buddhist monk (A Mediator's Initiation), or the Thai food, that vacillates from the sweetness of coconut milk to the incendiary heat of the chilies (A Cooking School in Bangkok), all of this and more is covered in this text.

Regardless, where or why you visit Thailand you should have this book to read on the interminable flight to Bangkok. Add a great guide (Lonely Planet or Rough Guide) and the electrifying, mystery/thriller "Bangkok 8" by John Burdett (see my reviews) and you will be set. Highly recommended

Rating:
Summary: Greatest Travel Read
Review: Travelling to Thailand has been a dream for many years. This book transports you to Thailand and leads you by the hand through the beautiful, the delectible, and the heartbreaking, one vignette at a time. I can't imagine another format that can so faithfully portray a country. I often refer to this as the best travel book I've ever read.