Moon Handbooks: Bangkok (3rd Ed.)

Rating:
Summary: great cultural education but make time to visit Chiang Mai
Review: Carl Parkes provides a great cultural education and writes well about Thai history. You'll be informed and your table manners won't offend your Thai hosts (they use forks and spoons but not the way that we do). More photos and maps would be nice (the D-K guide to Thailand will fill those gaps). But the big shortcoming with the book is the subject itself: Bangkok. Sophisticated and curious travelers to Thailand always say that their favorite spot is Chiang Mai in the north! You've got to fly through Bangkok to get there so you still may want to carve out a week to see Bangkok and environs. But do try to get to the north (Parkes also wrote the Moon Thailand Handbook, which will be useful if you do decide to visit Chiang Mai).

Rating:
Summary: great cultural education but make time to visit Chiang Mai
Review: Carl Parkes provides a great cultural education and writes well about Thai history. You'll be informed and your table manners won't offend your Thai hosts (they use forks and spoons but not the way that we do). More photos and maps would be nice (the D-K guide to Thailand will fill those gaps). But the big shortcoming with the book is the subject itself: Bangkok. Sophisticated and curious travelers to Thailand always say that their favorite spot is Chiang Mai in the north! You've got to fly through Bangkok to get there so you still may want to carve out a week to see Bangkok and environs. But do try to get to the north (Parkes also wrote the Moon Thailand Handbook, which will be useful if you do decide to visit Chiang Mai).

Rating:
Summary: From a Bangkok expatriate
Review: I first picked up the initial edition of Bangkok Handbook in 1992. As I worked in Bangkok for 7 years in the 1980s and I was a bit curious as to how deep this guide would go. While most guide books cover all the basic sights and things to do they often fall short in really getting under the surface. This book did indeed have things to teach me. I ended up taking some of the walking tours myself and used the map of the river stops extensively.

I like my guides to give my some good historical and cultural information in a concise but insightful manner. Take Thai temples. First time visitors are typically struck by their stunning beauty. But what do all the architectural forms mean? What aspects of Buddhism are contained within their design? You could read whole volumes on this at your local university. The Handbook, however has a two page spread that will get you up to speed fast with an understanding of the basic terminology and historical usage. To my mind this is what separates the Handbook from the more popular Lonely Planet travel survival guides. These "backpacker bibles" may be very good at where to get the cheapest rooms and meals, but really fall short on what you are really seeing while you are there.

Bangkok is both heaven and hell. It's city of fabulous restaurants, fantastic shopping, pristine temples and frantic sex. It's polluted, noisy, smelly, ill-planned and hot, hot, hot. And It's traffic is world famous. We used to joke that you could do anything you wanted in Bangkok; you just couldn't get there. (Over the last few years with the advent of many new tollways and since Dec. 99 the overhead trains this has really abated.)

I've used Parkes book a lot - along with my reprint of the "1928 Guide to Bangkok" which is great for my historical expeditions. And I have found myself in Thailand every year since I've left in 1990.

Rating:
Summary: From a Bangkok expatriate
Review: I first picked up the initial edition of Bangkok Handbook in 1992. As I worked in Bangkok for 7 years in the 1980s and I was a bit curious as to how deep this guide would go. While most guide books cover all the basic sights and things to do they often fall short in really getting under the surface. This book did indeed have things to teach me. I ended up taking some of the walking tours myself and used the map of the river stops extensively.

I like my guides to give my some good historical and cultural information in a concise but insightful manner. Take Thai temples. First time visitors are typically struck by their stunning beauty. But what do all the architectural forms mean? What aspects of Buddhism are contained within their design? You could read whole volumes on this at your local university. The Handbook, however has a two page spread that will get you up to speed fast with an understanding of the basic terminology and historical usage. To my mind this is what separates the Handbook from the more popular Lonely Planet travel survival guides. These "backpacker bibles" may be very good at where to get the cheapest rooms and meals, but really fall short on what you are really seeing while you are there.

Bangkok is both heaven and hell. It's city of fabulous restaurants, fantastic shopping, pristine temples and frantic sex. It's polluted, noisy, smelly, ill-planned and hot, hot, hot. And It's traffic is world famous. We used to joke that you could do anything you wanted in Bangkok; you just couldn't get there. (Over the last few years with the advent of many new tollways and since Dec. 99 the overhead trains this has really abated.)

I've used Parkes book a lot - along with my reprint of the "1928 Guide to Bangkok" which is great for my historical expeditions. And I have found myself in Thailand every year since I've left in 1990.

Rating:
Summary: Very Informative
Review: This book not only got me around, but I learned a lot along the way.