I've lived in Singapore as an expatriate for a total of about 12 years over 4 decades. Ms. Perera has put together an accurate and easy to use book to learn the subtle intricacies of customs and etiquette in Singapore. I highly reccomend it.

This delightful book, filled with beautiful color photos and nicely-detailed maps, is an excellent introduction to the sights and culture of Singapore. While not really a typical travel guide (the directory in the back lists plenty of hotels and restaurants, but without reviews or much detail), it has plenty of information on what to see and do. Includes invaluable walking tours, as well as insights into the region's shopping, recreation, culture, history, food (great food!), and natural resources.

Having spent a lot of time visiting friends in Burma over a ten year span of time, and having been priviledged to travel more than the ordinary tourist, what Armour-Hileman writes about the Mon refugees escaping into Thailand, the torture and privations and suffering a so very real. She doesn't make light of these sufferings and is very accurate in presenting them to us.
having visited the magnificent Kingdom of Siam (Thailand) often as a "rest stop" on the way out of Burma, the author showed me an entirely new facet -- the underbelly -- of this lovely country and its proud People.
I found it difficult to put the book down and it will live for a long time in my mind and heart.

It was even more "sharp" after having read Paschal Khoo Thwe's book "from the land of green ghosts" which was marvelous and a must read for anyone interested in recent and present Burma!

Truly a wonderful book...more like 2 or 3 books in one. It traces the early life of Funston..worthy of a book on its own but none out there that I can find. if you like the adventurous explorer scholarly type this is the man. Kind of a Richard Burton character...no silly... not the actor.Then it traces the history of the rebel movement at the turn of the century with the focus on Aguinaldo's movements in Northern Luzon. And finally it traces the author and his merry band as they retrace the steps of Funston in his bid to capture Aguinaldo in the early 1980's. So, in short if you are a student of history...READ IT!. If you like adventure or war stories...READIT! if you like drama...READ IT! If you know someone in the philippines...READ IT! I really had no idea of what happened over there or what role the usa had played over there. I don't think it was even mentioned in school. A real eye opener. Uhh, can you tell i liked it?

The title of the book perfectly describes author's purpose: study the Dutch and Eurasian society in Indonesia. We live through the rough conditions of the early colonists under the stingy United East Indian Company (VOC), the lack of contacts between Dutch and Indonesian society, most of the relations being between non-Dutch mercenaries and local Indonesian people, the influence of Enlightenment on Batavia, the change with the bankrupcy of the VOC in 1800 and the British occupation. And then Dutch direct administration until 1942 which many Dutch and Eurasian remember as Tempo Doeloe, a magic era with European children being raised in a totally javanese world of music, gamelan, puppet theater, contacts with the refined Indonesian courts at their adulthood, a society obsessed by Dutch speaking as symbol of class and fear of indentity loss but mostly using Indonesian because the refined and ancient local society. This was not so dreamlike for the Indonesian (Dutch were nicknamed the Butchers of Asia). Anyway an excellent book on one of the longest Western presence in Asia that ended abruptly with the Japanese invasion in 1942 and Dutch final departure in 1949.

I just received this book from ABC News and was signed by the author. A section in the book includes a story about me and my fellow Marines during the Fall of Saigon. I read the whole book and enjoyed not having a bunch of stats and dates - just the words from the vietnam vets.

It's can make us @ students @ a person to know about what has happen behind the Southeast Asia and regional peace or ZOPFAN. And it's will must being showing for the youngers and the next generation.

A book assigned in many graduate courses on Southeast Asian history, "The land below the winds", gives the student an interesting look at day to day life in Southeast Asia from the arrival of the Western Europeans(1450-1680). Painstakingly researched, the book enjoys pointing out that in many ways the SE Asians had much more modern cultural practices than the "smelly" Europeans. Reid explores in each chapter seperate cultural criteria such as: physical well-bieng, material culture, social organization and lastly festivals and amusements. A myriad of topics are covered from sexual ambiguity and practices to military combat and diplomacy. Interesting tid bits abound and the book makes good reading for both the student and general reader. This is the best of the current offerings in the field and I highly recommend it.

I am just sixteen years old,but a big fish and marine life entusiast. I think this is one of the best books on tropical reef fishes ever written. When I received this book on the holidays,I was incredibly happy. Even though I recognized many of the species,there was some new and many new views of species I`d already knew. It covers all kinds of fish,from sharks to anemonfishes. And the colour of them are the most striking I`ve ever seen on animals. My favorite chapter is probably the first one,about sharks & rays. In second to it,there are the Scorpionfish and the Moray Eel chapter,although the angelfishes are the most beautifull fishes,the sharks are the coolest and most fascinating. At all,I will give it an high rate and I am a great fan of the author,Helmut Debelius,who has made many other great fish books which I also own,but this one is the best! But I would like if it was a little bit longer (a book of 450 pages would have been good)and have covered a little more about the behaviour of the fishes,and their reaction to divers,showing additional photos.