The Pop Culture Travel Guide

SEA Field Trip: Guidebook Gets It Wrong

6/26/2008 at 3:30 PM
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We used Lonely Planet: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the Greater Mekong while traveling Southeast Asia. Here's where it led us astray.

Don't be fooled by the appealing photograph above: It's a mirage. What nut at Lonely Planet wrote that Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is "as iconic to Thailand as temples and palm trees"?

Liar! Sure, old women wearing wide-brimmed straw hats will paddle you around a canal filled with boats bearing fruits and knick-knacks, but the experience is hardly enjoyable when you're surrounded by disgruntled old Thais and overzealous middle-aged tourists on their second honeymoon.

Tour companies herd visitors in on buses, shuffle them onto boats, then paddle down the clogged canal. Thais in canoes hook onto passing boats, pulling them close to assess the goods, each filled with the same piles of poorly made Chinese imports. We've can think of at least one place that's more authentic: Epcot Center.

Related Stories:
· Bangkok Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Southeast Asia Field Trip [Jaunted]


1 Comment - Add Yours by ced138

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FishingThailand
Jaunted Member
Tourist Traps (none / 0)

Ah yes...the Thai's do a marvelous job of selling something as romantic when in truth it's a nightmare!

But Bangkok believe it or not has some of the best fishing in the world, and that is something very few tourists ever get to know about, because the Thai's don't realise it's a sellable commodity! Fishing Holidays in Thailand get people out of the tourist traps and into the real Thailand.

by FishingThailand on 7/16/2008 at 1:16 AM


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