(Part 3) Best asian travel guides according to redditors
We found 341 Reddit comments discussing the best asian travel guides. We ranked the 142 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
Tibet is an autonomous region in China and Nepal is an independent country, so I don't think this was your question.
But let's back up a bit.
Tibet was pretty much a vassal state to the Chinese empire for most of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912). For all purposes, if you drew a map of China at that time, its lines would include Tibet (and what is today independent Mongolia, for that matter).
When the Qing government fell, the country broke apart into warlords. Because Europe was still demanding China pay them more silver for the privilege of being invaded and robbed blind from 1800–1900, the new republican government was a lame duck.
And then Japan invaded. And there was a civil war going on at the same time.
So basically, from 1912-1949, China lacked the ability to pull itself back together.
After the civil war, the communists came out on top. They pulled the territory back together, and by all accounts the first 10 years of communist rule were a bloody awesome time for China. People were optimistic about the future, proud to have the country back together and glad to see the Japanese gone. Even Tibet was down with it, and the Dalai Lama didn't seem to mind the communists at all.
The problem was that communist rule brought a big change. For the last 800 years, the Dalai Lama basically got to run the god damn show. His word was law, and he was the head of the theocratic government. And in this fashion, he ruled over a nation of people who were ripe with STDs, who died by the age of 40, who had no access to any form of medicine, and who had no hope of using education to improve their life situation.
Why? Because the only schools were monastic schools, which you could not get into unless you were selected, and the only you got selected was to be reborn until Buddha hands you the right raffle ticket. Or if a monk had a boner for you and thought you might make a singer (aka rape doll).
In Tibet, you were a slave who worked the lands owned by the monks and gave up the fruits of your labor to people with better karma... or you were a monk at the top of the food chain.
The communists decided this was fucked up, and started building schools and hospitals and sending doctors. They also told the Dalai Lama he sucked ass at running Tibet, and wanted to create a local government that would give Tibet preferential treatment while following the same top-down planning policies as the rest of the country (which would be a complete goddamn disaster from 1965-1979).
The Dalai Lama and his friends didn't like that, so they ran away to India with the help of the CIA.
And that pretty much brings us up to present day.
If you want to know why China wouldn't let Tibet split off and become a separate country, the only explanation I can give you is that it's pretty much the same reason the United State of America wouldn't let the south break away to form the Confederate States of Jesusland. On some level, there was a moral obligation to help the people, but more realistically it was about maintaining your territorial integrity, which in the case of China went back 800 years instead of 100.
For more Shangri-la–smashing images, check out The Timely Rain or The Making of Modern Tibet to learn how monks used to punish their runaway slaves (as late as the 1930s) by ripping out their eyes and tongues, mutilating their sexual organs or gutting them and leaving them to die on a freezing mountain because Buddhism teaches that you cannot directly take a life.
(Edited for clarity and useful links)
If you have the time, read Dos and Don'ts in Cambodia. It's a great answer to your question.
All that being said, Cambodia is changing rapidly. These traditions are not as strict as they were in the past, especially in Phnom Penh. Just don't be a jackass and you'll be fine.
He's effectively saying, "look at all the pretty scenery that me and my edgy mates are clever enough to enjoy without being in the least bit troubled by the fact this is place occupied territory enduring ongoing ethnic cleansing and dystopian repression. Everything is awesome in the far west lebensraum!"
He's nothing more than a modern day Philip Terry with a bloody GoPro.
>About two weeks in to my trip here, I wanted to branch out and try eating at different places every day. There are so many different food options, but I always noticed a Korean restaurant with a peculiar name as I was taken around the city of Phnom Penh.
> Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.
> Well, that's strange, I thought to myself. Maybe it is one of those gimmicky theme restaurants. I put it on my mental list of places to eat at.
> One night I forced Sey and Setha to go with me to the restaurant. Sey had no idea where it was so I was stuck with the strange situation of giving the person who lived in Phnom Penh his whole life directions to this place.
> We parked under a big sign with a smiling Korean lady in a hanbok (traditional Korean dress). There were a fair number of other Korean restaurants in city but none with nearly as interesting a name.
> We were directed to an entrance towards the back, and immediately alarm bells went off in my head. Every single restaurant and store in Cambodia has a door right by the road. In contrast, the path to the entrance to Pyongyang was a dimly lit side path and a little intimidating. However, it was no match for what awaited us inside.
> The doors were opened by two young Korean ladies and immediately the power of 100 florescent lights washed over us. The ladies welcomed us in Korean. I was completely thrown off-guard by what they were wearing: frilly colorful dresses that a little girl in the 50s might have worn. They matched their colorful outfit with shiny white shoes. Inside we could see about 7 waitresses, all between 18-23 years old, and all wearing a different brightly colored dress.
> The restaurant was huge for Cambodian standards, and could easily seat up to 150 people. There were about 6 patrons in there at 7 pm on a weekend night. We were directed to a table and a very cute waitress in a bright yellow dress came over and began to set our table. She asked us what we wanted to drink in Korean.
> Sey tried to talk to them in Khmer but none of the waitresses knew a lick of the local language. They knew a little English, so Sey left the ordering up to me. I flipped through the menu, thinking how bizarre this place was turning out. The walls had large pictures of fierce animals in the middle of a roar.
> It looked like a normal Korean menu with bibimbap, kalbi, bulgogi—when I turned the page and saw four different ways to order dog meat. That was unexpected. I might have been adventurous enough to order it but I was so off balance by the dress and the restaurant that I just ordered regular Korean food. The cute waitress in the yellow dress bounced behind a pair of swinging doors and out of our sight.
> Sey and Setha gave me a look that said what the hell did you get us in to? I tried to remain optimistic since I picked the place. Meanwhile, on the flat screen televisions were a karaoke version of some militaristic North Korean jingo. Karaoke videos are cheesy enough to begin with, but this video was downright strange. It felt like it came out from another era and another planet. I was trying to figure out what the song was about when another beautiful waitress in a pink dress came by to give us hot towels and banchan (side dishes). She was very pretty, but had a look on her face that said she did not tolerate any bullshit. She began to make small talk with me. I responded with my broken Korean.
> The conversation immediately took a weird turn and it started to feel like an interrogation. Sey and Setha were oblivious to her words and had no idea how uncomfortable Pink was making me.
> Pink: How long have you been here in Puh-noom Penh?
> Me: Uhh, about two weeks.
> Pink: Where did you come from?
> Me: Los Angeles.
> Pink: Are you full Korean?
> Me: Yes, as far as I know.
> Pink: Do you come from occupied Korea?
> Me: Huh?
> I was honestly confused by Pink's question. She kindly rephrased it for me.
> Pink: Which Korea do you come from?
> I felt a cold sweat fall from my brow when she asked that. What the hell kind of question was that? Sey and Setha continued to munch on some cucumber kimchee. I pretended that the limits to my Korean were reached and I couldn't understand her question.
> Me: American. I come from America.
> Pink gave me a look like she just stepped in dog shit and walked away without a word. Yellow bounced back to our table and smiled broadly. She tried to ask me some questions too but I so shaken that I just pretended not to understand.
> Me (in broken Korean): Me.. Only a little Korean language I can talk.
> Yellow didn't seem to mind and bounced away again behind the double swinging doors.
> The main entrance doors opened and six downright mean looking Cambodians came in. They all were dressed the same, in dark brown shirts and pants with no other identifying marks on their clothing. They took a quick look around and then wordlessly went through the double swinging doors. Sey finally matched me and looked uncomfortable.
> The men came back and sat at a table about 15 feet away from me. They didn't order anything and no waitresses came by to check up on them. They just sat there.
> Yellow came happily bouncing back with our food at this time. She mixed Setha's bibimbap order and set our kalbi and bulgogi down. And then Yellow just stood there at the edge of our table while we ate. There was complete silence for about a minute while we tried to eat and ignore the pretty Korean girl in the yellow dress just staring at us while we ate.
> Yellow: Is the food good?
> Me: Yes, everything is tasty!
> Yellow continued to stand there. I tried eating as Yellow looked at me with her huge pretty eyes, while feeling six pairs of eyes bore a hole in to my back, with a Korean military jingle was playing in the background. I couldn't taste the food, but I kept eating anyway. Yellow mercifully gave up in making conversation and walked away. I felt myself exhale.
> The kalbi and bulgogi were pretty bad but the bibimbap was tasty. I decided to get out of there as quickly as possible so I ate everything at lightning speed. I asked for the check, and after what felt like an eternity, Yellow brought it.
> $46. I paid with a $50 bill and was confronted with my next problem: What the hell do I tip? If it was a Cambodian restaurant I would have tipped $1 or $2 if I was extra generous. Sey, who thinks I over tip if I give anyone a dollar, told me to leave the $50 and just go. I suddenly felt like a $4 tip was inadequate, but I didn't want to freeze in indecision so I started to bolt out the door. Sey and Setha quickly followed me.
> I ignored the six pairs of eyes on me and saw a white couple coming in as we were leaving. I resisted the urge to yell, "RUN, BITCH, RUN! CALL FOR HELP!"
> We got to car without further incident and Sai almost ran over the parking attendant as we left in to the Phnom Penh night.
> Later, I learned that the former king of Cambodia, Sihanouk, was a huge friend to North Korea and Kim Il-Sung in particular. In fact, Kim Il-Sung built a huge mansion for Sihanouk to vacation in whenever he wanted. Sihanouk was even assigned North Korean bodyguards, which he kept for over 40 years. He only recently released them from duty in his current exile in Shanghai to return home to their families in North Korea.
> In return, he allowed North Korea to build a couple of restaurants in Cambodia.
And there's a link to his book.
Learn the sounds, then the tones, then basic words, then grammar.
I think would recommend getting the Berlitz Mandarin Chinese in 30 Days Book and CD. You should go to Barnes and Noble or another book store and look at it and the other books they have, just to make sure it would suit you.
I looked through it before, and it seems to be quite detailed.
An alternative would be to learn it through online resources, there's certainly no shortage of them. Perhaps glance at Chinese-Tools.com's introductory lessons.
Here's another site that will really help you at the beginning with the pronunciation and tones. It has flash-based audio, which means it plays quickly and easily. No mp3s and no fuss.
Some important points: You WILL need to find someone who is fluent to help you learn. Preferably a native Chinese person, but someone with many years of experience would probably work just fine. You just want to make sure you are on the right track and are avoiding any traditional mistakes (usually pronunciation-wise). It will also help a lot with grammar.
Also, I recommend paying a lot of attention to pronunciation in the beginning. Make sure you get it right. It was only a year after I began learning Chinese that I finally understood some of the nuanced differences between t, c, and z, and between x, q, j and sh, ch, and zh, and it made a HUGE difference in making myself understood (and listening).
(The short of it is t is normal, c is like ts in cats, z is like ds in cards; x, q, and j all end up taking on a subtle y sound--xiao is more like "she-yow" than "shaow", etc... This should all be very clear if you spend enough time on pronunciation, which I sort of didn't.)
Additionally, memorizing the most common radicals will turn learning characters from a tedious, difficult task into a relatively straightforward and relatively painless experience. I highly recommend you investigate them.
And finally, don't ever think you can take an English sentence, translate all the words into Chinese characters, hand it to a Chinese person and have them understand what you are trying to say. 99% of the time, it will not work. When I finally stopped trying to do that direct-translation thing is when my learning really started taking off. You're going to have to wholeheartedly adopt Chinese grammar if you want to be understood. The best way to do this is to listen to what others say and copy it as directly as you can. Change nouns if you need to.
Good luck! I hope some of what I've said is helpful to you.
Here's amazon links for everything
Italian made simple
Cortina or here for free
Bertliz Self Teacher
Teach Yourself Italian
Assimil
Nature Method Institute -free
http://www.amazon.com/Khmer-Empire-Cities-Sactuaries-Century/dp/9749863305
I wrote an ebook about that, check it out: 72 Ways to Learn Japanese
Culture Shock Singapore
https://www.amazon.com/CultureShock-Singapore-Cultureshock-Guides-Jackson-Nash/dp/9814677116/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539093555&sr=1-1&keywords=culture+shock+singapore&dpID=51XbfaLgVcL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
A few ideas:
It's actually a really good read with a lot of information. It completely changed my strategy for picking a girl in a bar.
However a better read is the sequel How I Got The Most Bang For My Buck in Thailand
You are arriving at a nice time of year. I recommend getting a guide such as this one, which will help you to navigate through all the red tape once you get here. Good luck with the move!
For free overview the wiki and wikivoyage articles should be good enough to print and bring along:
For books try these since they have kindle versions (note: I haven't read them):
For Indonesian travel on a wider perspective I can recommend this:
Also while in Jogja have a visit to the Ullen Sentalu museum too.
I came across a book on Goa. Thought this might help you when it comes to staying on budget but exploring the whole place.
http://www.amazon.com/Travel-Hack-Goa-Best-Book-ebook/dp/B00L2LLMMG
My wife just recently read this and absolutely adored it.
For Fukui's Sake: Two Years in Rural Japan
EDIT Wife reminds me that the book is in fact NON-FICTION, but it still a great read with a lot of insight. "All you would have to do would be call it fiction and the impact would be the same."
http://www.thai-language.com/
and try find a copy of the 'Bar Guide' it's big fun and very useful :D
http://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Thai-Bar-Guide-Mark-Reynolds-ebook/dp/B005EMM8EK
The story that the article introduces is in the book Country Driving by Peter Hessler. It's a really good book. It made me want to live in China along with other books like Iron & Silk by Mark Salzman and Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux.
> Some day in August 2005, Mike stumbled across my blog. Randomly. He was apparently googling for something but till today he refused to say what he was googling for ("I really forgot!"), which makes me highly suspicious that it is either something pervertic ("Is it normal to want to fuck horses?"), or something gay ("How to curl my hair like Pamela Anderson").
What she really means is : He was googling for: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Most-Bang-Your-Buck-Thailand-ebook/dp/B0058DX2EK
Edit: Also the pacing in this is god awful. It's pretty hard to read. Who is T
Seems the spirits make good coin for farangs too £352.63 for a book ?
[Thailand: Into the Spirit World] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thailand-Spirit-World-Marlene-Guelden/dp/9812041109/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376138910&sr=1-1)
This one
Or this one?