Lonely Planet a book full of Bull Crap

Originally Posted by Merchant

I used their guides to Dubai, South Africa, and Trinidad recently. It's hard to compare, since the India book is bigger, more heavily invested in by LP, and I know India better than these other places.

But there is still the snide superiority. The Dubai book is consumed with warnings about Russian riffraff and prostitution and how you'll end up castrated if caught drinking and driving, which mirrors the emirates' own bias. The South Africa book is all about crime and wildlife, but crime and rumor of crime weigh heavily in South Africa, so it's tough to know if the case is overstated. I didn't notice anything out of proportion in the Trinidad book.

I think my biggest complaint about the LP franchise and the India book in particular is that it won't let these places change. It's not just a matter of staying up to date in terms of the hotels and restaurants but in presenting the culture, the infrastructure, and the economy. India has changed enormously in the last twenty years, especially very recently. No guidebook can keep track everything that is in flux, but the LP seems unwilling to re-examine the biases and assumptions that drove the creation of its backpacker guide in the early 1970s.

The other thing is that the traveler has changed. We in the west have access to extraordinary amounts of money for leisure travel. It's almost impossible to travel internationally without a credit card (paying cash for an airline ticket in the US will put you on the dreaded terrorist watch list). While many people go to India on a budget and stay in backpacker's lodges and cheap guest houses, the difference between those places and three-star accomodation is often the price of a double-whip cappuccino at home. There really is no need to travel like a pauper in India, unless you just want to (which is fine). My point is that the strata of society through which the average traveler (even the budget one) in India will move is increasingly middle class. You won't likely find yourself in the company of rogues, and all the attendant dangers the LP warns you about, unless you seek them out.

Here we all are on IM with our fancy computers and broadband connections. We worry about whether the Indian humidity will foul up our digital cameras, and whether or not we'll be able to burn CDs in Thanjavur. We worry about brands of hiking boots and pack safes, whether to install a local smart card on our mobile phones or just roam on the GSM network. Everybody here, regardless of country, is part of the technologically savvy, credit carrying, global elite.

The dangers and biases evident in the LP, at least as I read them, reflect the India and the traveler of long ago, when India was dark and dirty and the traveler had different needs and concerns.

I also don't like the way the LP is just traveler's research--rumor and irrational fear rule the day. Does the book really warn against Indian condoms, without knowing that the world's largest producer and distributor of condoms has a factory in India, so that your local trusted brand, bought at home, was made in India? Does it research reported incidents of crime against tourists, instead of just relying on heresay? Personal crime against foreigners in India is practically non-existent--but you won't get that impression from the book. And the water. I think it does say that tap water in the big cities is usually safe, so give them some credit there.

Anyway, there's another India out there, different from the one in the LP. The LP's India bears some resemblance to the real one, but it never loses an opportunity to taint your perceptions, play to your fears, and make unfounded claims that seem true but which will crumble under scrutiny.

Originally Posted by anonymous

The politically correct brigade in full howl. Also the English usage by the OP seems a bit surprising for an American female.

Originally Posted by Paagla Dashu

Mods should close this thread now.

Originally Posted by docgirl2005

LovlyIndia,

But every post in this forum..from what I have seen for the past 1 year (almost a year), has been decent and very realistic without being racially motivated at all..You came the wrong place, these people on this forum love India..the good and the bad of India....especially our foreign friends..and I sometimes trust them more with questions about India since some of them have been all over India more than I have... Chill out, relax yaar...dont fret my pet...dont worry be happy...lol