This book is a great disappointment. I have just returned from a visit to Bali and Jakarta and found this book to be almost totally useless. In fact because the book contains advertising from MCI and American Express I think that it could be possible that only establishments (retuarants and hotels/resorts who remunerate Foder's get mentioned in this book. Specifically the information on Hotels and restuarants in Bali is so skimpy as to be laughable. Also applies to restuarants in Jakarta. I got mich more information by searching the web. All in all, don't waaste your money on this book.

This Fodor's is on the smaller side, but so is the total land mass of the area being reviewed. It does an admirable job and is still a good guide even though a few years old now.

In planning my trip to Singapore, I found this book had everything I wanted to know. It gave an excellent overview of hotels and restaurants. I liked how it focused on the different areas of downtown Singapore and the background/history section was great.

I've heard that Jim Taylor is one of the nicest guys in the small circle of veteran Western scholars of Thai Buddhism. Along with Peter Jackson, Donald Swearer, Louis Gabaude, Santikaro Bhikkhu, and Stanley Tambiah, Taylor has made a vocation of Thai Studies. Forest Monks and the Nation-State is Taylor's great work, and it is no understatement to say that it has few peers in rigor or style.

Taylor traces the complex interplay between the state and the sangha in the Lao-influenced region of Northeastern Thailand during what may be loosely called the "modernization period" - that is, the period in which the state was using the sangha as an instrument of national consolidation. The story pulsates and oscillates between discussions of reform in the Thai metropole and intimate descriptions of the lives of wandering forest ascetics, whose charisma was co-opted by the state as a part of it's self-conscious formation. Taylor discusses the charisma and routinization processes around well-known Northeastern monks, portraying in vivid detail the ways in which communities, landscapes, and the teaching of the dhamma was changed over time alongside transformations to the Thai countryside and local relationships with Bangkok.

Rather than relying exclusively on the broad strokes of theory and a few scattered historical references and interviews, Taylor has painstakingly gathered mountains of material in order to provide one of the most comprehensive, balanced, and multifaceted social-scientific studies I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Taylor's understanding of the culture, language, and social context of his work is profound; I found him to be a major influence on my own thought as I did fieldwork in another part of Thailand.

As an ethnographic writer, Taylor has few peers. His learned, erudite style and rich vocabulary are academic models for writers in any discipline; yet his sympathy for his informants and deep understanding of the particulars of their inner, spiritual world is as intact as it is with any other writer. Taylor has achieved the extremely difficult task of balancing a systems perspective, on cultural change over a large geographic region and a substantial chunk of time, and a perspective that does not do symbolic violence to the dhamma of his monk-informants, by reducing it to something to be merely classified and catalogued as irrational, emic "remainder."

It was Taylor, along with Michael Taussig, who convinced me to quit anthropology. If work like this is possible, then I could aspire to no more than a series of footnotes to their towering achievements. As a book to inspire awe in scientists of all stripes, though, I can think of no finer example than this book.

As a Westerner who has done a lot of meditation in Thailand over the last 18 years, I've been curious to know the history of meditation in Thailand. I've also wondered about the Tudong or wondering monks whom I've occasionally seen here. This book explains it all. It is also very inspirational for serious meditators and might even inspire people who are curious about meditation.

As far as I can tell (having spent about a year in Thai monasteries), Kamala is right on the button in everything she writes. My only complaint about the book is that the footnotes are in the back instead of at the bottom of the page.

This book should deserves a wide audience.

As an Anthropology student at the Australian National University, Taylor spent two years in South Vietnam (92-94), then returned to this country in 95, 98, and 99. Faced with a unique southern identity, he decided to define the "idea of the South".

North and South Vietnam despite decades of postwar communist control are two completely different countries from the political, social, economical, and even musical aspects. In the first decade after the 1975 fall of Saigon, the communists controlled everything down to the toothpaste the Vietnamese used. Faced with poverty and income loss, southerners began to peddle their cherished belongings to the black market in order to survive. While goods in state stores were scarce, everything was available on the black market. Goods and money sent home from overseas Vietnamese swelled this illicit economy. As a result, the southern economy rebounded. A southern reformist, Nguyen Van Linh spearheaded the doi moi (renovation) policy officially moving the country to free market economy. The "modern" South thus replaced the "backward" North.

This unique southern free enterprise spirit did not sit well with Hanoi, which did everything to undermine it and ironically to profit from it at the same time. "Corruption, abuses of power, and administrative incompetence" became the hallmarks of communist Vietnam. However, the free southern spirit traced back to the pionering spirit of the South Vietnamese who settled in the Mekong delta some four centuries ago, lives on. If Saigon lost the war in 1975, it won the peace a decade later. Despite acknowledging past "errors", the communists still refused to release their grip on power.

The author is to be congratulated for his most interesting study and his keen observations of the South Vietnamese mind.

Kevin, as always, is a master story teller. This book blends that mastery with a sound knowledge of the subject matter evidencing lots of research. Brings a few tears, but well worth reading.....

While many Americans have their opinions about the Vietnam War, few have taken the time to examine the forces at play in this event as thoroughly and insightfully as Professor Lomperis has in this book. The true genius of "From People's War to People's Rule" lies in his exploration of the war, not as a single isolated chapter in American history, but as a link in an ongoing chain of insurgencies that plagued the tumultuous political terrain of the Cold War. By looking at revolutions and other Cold War insurrections in countries such as China, Greece and Peru, Dr. Lomperis sheds a clear, luminous ray of light on the poltical forces at play, not only in Vietnam, but in the world that surrounded Vietnam. Amidst a sea of confused and conflicting views about Vietnam, this book offers what most Americans can barely imagine - a clear, comprehensive view of a tenuous time that manages to strike a chord of truth among a mass of misinformation. For anyone interested in sorting out the lessons of Vietnam, this book is a must-read.

This guide is one of the best guide books. It has everything you need to know before going to Asia. From currency, weather, attractions, shopping, beaches, bargain accomodations to the best local dining experience. I liked the various highlights that were given for each city in asia. This way if you are pressed for time while traveling, you can pick out the sites that were listed. Very helpful with the information provided for getting arounfd the city. It lists various modes of transportation, and the approximate costs. A must have if you are traveling to asia.

An incredibly beautiful read. Beekman managed to cover an amazing array of topics in the dutch east indies without leaving out pertinent points about life during the dutch colonisation. From a miraculous sea adventure of an early explorer to the meticulous descriptions of tropical plants by a blind naturalist, this book mixes adventure, romance and history delighfully. All the authors are well-chosen and well-represented.

Despite all her troubles, Indonesia has always, and will always be beautiful.