Meatier guide to explore Southeast Asia

Des Price, Contributor, Jakarta

The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia by Jeremy Atiyah et al; Rough Guides, 2002; 1136 pp

The travel guide business is very competitive these days. Lonely Planet, which began life with Tony Wheeler's South-east Asia on a Shoestring, has done so well out of it that it has its own programs on television.

Rough Guides of the UK, on the other hand, produces music CDs as well as its own huge range of guide books which include guides to various musical forms such as reggae, salsa and opera and also the Internet.

Rough Guides began life as a typed handout banged out by founder Mark Ellingham who found himself dissatisfied with what he thought were the two ends of the spectrum, the staid, rather stuffy guides that concentrated on museums and the like and the cheapo-cheapo budget travel guides that were heavily into living off a plate of rice a day and a sniff of the sea breezes.

The Rough Guide South-east Asia handbook recently published its second edition. Covering eleven countries, this handsome book takes travelers to the region through places as varied as Indonesia and Macau, Hong Kong and Laos.

Visually, it is an improvement on its predecessor with a user- friendly print face set out in double columns and with attractive sub-magenta bold print headings. The city and district maps are clear and well-designed. A color photo lead-in of "36 Things Not To Miss" is a bright and cheerful opener.

Meatier than Lonely Planet's own South-east Asia guide, this handbook has commentary on politics and history in each chapter as well as a very useful bibliography of books for the thoughtful traveler to read either before arrival or during their stay in a particular country.

Some of the political commentary may raise eyebrows. There is also a weighty little section on the music and culture of the country involved and in the case of Indonesia the writers have clearly got a grip on its many and varied musical and dance forms.

There is a useful little language guide where relevant; in the case of Singapore where English is all-pervasive such a guide is not necessary. Commentary on food is also generally very good although Indonesian readers may quibble at the suggestion that "after a while everything (in Indonesia) begins to taste the same".

The Indonesia chapter, like all the other national chapters, is an abbreviated form of the relevant single country handbook (due out this month). Among the writers are regular Jakarta Post contributor David Jardine who updated Jakarta, West Java and West Kalimantan and Surabaya-based Australian photographer Graeme Steel who covered East and Central Java for updating.

David Jardine's Jakarta includes, of course, the backpacker center, Jl. Jaksa, which is where most budget travelers head and broad coverage of losmen (inns), hotels, cafes and bars there as well as on neighboring Jl. Wahid Hashim and Jl. Sabang.

I can't take issue with his view of Ya-Udah Bistro on Jaksa for having best value fare in the area but when I went to look for Duta Makassar, another of his recommendations, at the corner of Wahid Hashim and Sabang it was nowhere to be found -- it's at the other end of Sabang.

Try Waroeng Menteng on Wahid Hashim for its recommended ikan mas pepes (fish with spices wrapped in banana leaf and roasted), yes, but be prepared for a longish wait.

Nightlife is reasonably covered and the famous (infamous?) Tanamur disco merits a mention for its "lively clientele; mostly expats, pimps, prostitutes, ladyboys, junkies and the occasional traveler". This is unchanged from the first edition.

There's some savvy advice on riding the buses in Jakarta.

Alighting? Apparently, to call the attention of the driver or conductor you should "rap the overhead rail with a coin". More perhaps might have been made of the roughness of Jakarta bus terminals but the public transport coverage does include all the relevant bus numbers.

The listings section is exhaustive and newcomers and old hands alike might be interested to know that the Central Post Office is good for the Internet. New one on me!

The West Java section fails to mention Cirebon but we can assume that Kota Udang (Shrimp City) will be in the Indonesia handbook. Otherwise, the coverage is comprehensive enough with a recommendation to visit the previously unsung mountain area south-west of Bandung and the area around Ciwidey, Gunung Patuha and Gunung Malabar in particular.

The Sumatra coverage includes one or two little-visited places such as Karimun island in the Riau archipelago as well as the better-known destinations such as Bukittinggi and Lake Toba.

Bali, of course, is fully covered. There is no reference to Oct. 12 as the book went to the printers beforehand.

Inter-island Pelni ferries receive due attention as they must. Many travelers to Indonesia get to use them at one time or another.

As with all guide books, prices quoted have tended to be overtaken by events. There have been, as everybody knows, several utility and fuel price hikes in the past year since the research was done and Rough Guide cannot be blamed for getting the transport costs a little askew.

A recommended guide book with none of the early Lonely Planet philosophy of a rip-off awaiting you at every corner.