"A not so lonely planet"

machadinha

Ha lookie, LP responds: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/about/thomas_kohnstamm.cfm

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Reading tips, all picked up at IndiaMike : INDAX's A Comprehensive Guide To India / Dinoj Surendran's Desi Humor / ITHVC on Culture Shock & Travel Health / JetLag Travel Guides For the Undiscerning Traveller / India Travel Links

Ignite

Lol, Mach, I read the article.

I wonder how much the author's really get paid?

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I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.

ananda2193

He does also have a book coming out! That smells a little bit!

But I've always found the Moon Publications full of good info. Their Indonesia book that came out 20-25 years ago was the best travel book ever IMHO.

machadinha

A blogger collects some interesting angles from all sides btw: http://blog.joshuaberman.net/08-04/b...k-scandal.html. There's some very decent critiques of the guy's approach too.

I reckon if he were looking for publicity, he certainly got it. As some of the critics (fellow writers too) note: If he were so underpaid, why accept the job at all. Other travel writers do add their words of support though.

Ignite

" My books have been copied by Lonely Planet writers time and again … Today Lonely Planet updaters get no royalties and must sign away all rights, even moral rights. Thus it’s no surprise that the quality of Lonely Planet guides is so uneven."
David Stanley

Blog

I guess the only way to get to know a place before you visit it, is to try to find forums like India Mike and get info from real travellers, instead of getting info off of these stupid travel "guides."

machadinha

That remains to be seen, I'd suggest taking the advice here with a similar amount of salt. Although some auto- or cross-correction in case of outright nonsense will hopefully (but never guaranteedly) easily kick in on a forum like this.

Subjectivity and so on is far harder to make up for though, whether in guidebooks or on forums. Let's say both you and I sit down and write about our experiences and likes and dislikes of our favorite place, or even where to stay and eat or not, what best transport to take, how much time to spend anywhere. I imagine the results would be very different. Not to mention all we might both forget, but might interest (or repulse) a third (and fourth, etc.) party.

(Now imagine being the editor of you and I having to make sense of and streamline it all, and keeping your estimated audience in mind.)

I'm not a travel writer, but trying to keep a diary on the road I usually quickly give up as writing it all down, let alone eloquently or satisfactorily to oneself even, takes about 2-3 times the amount of time needed to experience it. Which irritates me personally. I'd rather go out there and be, instead of reflect. (Yes, funny, I know, as reflection is much of what this whole web and forum life is really about.) There's just some natural limitations to the whole writing process, and contrary to popular belief maybe it doesn't just come out of the blue.

PeakXV

LP is basically a budget travel guide written by a few budget minded' travel writers and edited by an 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' type staff with a tight budget and looming deadlines. But, as myopic and restricitng as that appears, it works well for the demographic it supplies.

IndiaMike has plugged-in Indians on-the-ground and experienced Indian travellers that often specialize in the many forms, classes, & disciplines of South Asia travel culture.... and love to discuss & dissect it all with a passion.

Really there isn't any comparison between these two information sources.

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We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started ...and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

machadinha

I think the two (not LP vs. IM, but guidebooks vs. travel forums/blogs whatever) are two very different approaches yes. They can't and in my view don't have to compete.

This reflects on the web in general in my view: It's the major players who always think of it in terms of commercial potential. But what we have here is a free exchange, the two just have very little to do with one another, and I doubt if they ever will. The web from its early days has just spiralled way beyond control of that, in what is really a very interesting modern development I think, seeing how most all of our other interactions are commercially valued and determined today.

(TT apparently having less appeal today to many has one wonder in that respect. And I can think of many other forums along those lines, it's not just them.)

I'd just suggest to refer that experience back to our real lives; after all, cyber-freedom is not freedom.

Or simply put and in a travel context perhaps: Never, ever, forget to ask that sympathetic-looking stranger on the street. Or just say hello. You may be in for a pleasant surprise.

Khandoma

Mach, that was a great article. Thanks for posting. Just an opinion here, and a bit of ranting too.
After my 1st trip to India I decided I could do without a guidebook. IM didn't exist then, but when I found you guys I just knew. So last october I put together a 40-page document with everything, from hotels to the Mumbai taxi tariff card to movie listings and left without a guidebook. Best trip I took in a long time.
On the other hand, I met two of the LP writers of the Turkey guide. Make no mistake, it's almost as heavy a book as the India one. I expected those guys to be semi-tourists and was very surprised. One is extremely knowledgeable on the country, speaks the language, lives there half of the year and has been keeping the best Turkey travel site there is for years now. The other showed up in the tiny (no, smaller than that) village I was celebrating Christmas in, kissed the lady guesthouse keeper on both cheeks and proceeded to help with the cooking.
My guess is, India and the fantasies that come with it attract a lot of people who think this is a dream holiday with an expense account. Other countries are a lot harder on the traveller - Turkey in wintertime, especially during Ramadan, is not for the dilettante, although I would advise any true traveller to give it a try.
As a writer, I'm blaming my fellow writers, but I'm also blaming publishers. When you pay sweeper's fees, you get sweeper's work.
My 2 Rs...

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Khandoma
Visit my India photo gallery on IndiaMike

bound4india

so did i just waste my money buying the LP books for india, tibet and nepal as well as the hindi phrase book ???

i'd like to think not, i don't plan to take the book with me, i just plan to use it as a guide, as that's what it is, a guide, and guides aren't always 100% in the know.

my gripe about the LP books are the lack of pics, i would have liked to have seen more pics for the amount of text in the book.