Travel writers, Thailand

[Bower]

Would anyone point me in the right direction of some good travel books re Thailand.
I dont mean guide books but travel writers of any era.

Many thanks

[jandajoy]

Google is quite good nowadays. You'll find it on your electric computer.

[Bower]

Google is quite good nowadays. You'll find it on your electric computer.

Thanks for your underwhelming advice, i will assume you have never read any that are woth recommending. I was under the impression you were a book fan ?

Perhaps other forum members have read some that they would say are worth spending good money on and reading ? They have an advantage on me in that many live in Thailand.

[sccrhound]

What are you looking for, historic, cultural, food, tourist sites,transportation?

[Bower]

What are you looking for, historic, cultural, food, tourist sites,transportation?

I like books written by people who have travelled around the country and their tales about the people,their culture, the transportation they used. Not just 21st century but 20th 19th 18th etc. Its good to try and replicate their journey or fill your head with the atmosphere when they travelled.

Thanks for asking.

[sccrhound]

What are you looking for, historic, cultural, food, tourist sites,transportation?

I like books written by people who have travelled around the country and their tales about the people,their culture, the transportation they used. Not just 21st century but 20th 19th 18th etc. Its good to try and replicate their journey or fill your head with the atmosphere when they travelled.

Thanks for asking.

This isn't what you are looking for, but considering your interests you might like this thread

https://teakdoor.com/famous-threads/3...to-thread.html (Siam, Thailand & Bangkok Old Photo Thread)

[sccrhound]

no knowledge but here are some links




Buddhist Memoir in Thailand: A Lay Foreign Woman

Off The Beaten Track magazine: travelogues / travel stories / travel reports

Amazon.com: Siam and the Siamese Travels in Thailand and Burma in 1904 (9789747534511): Lunet De Lajonquiere, J. H. Stape: Books

Amazon.com: Insight Guide Thailand (Insight Guides Thailand) (9781585732999): Scott Rutherford: Books

Amazon.com: Ancient Sukhothai: Thailand's Cultural Heritage (9789749863428): Dawn F. Rooney: Books

[Bower]

Many thanks for your effort much appreciated, cannot green you again just yet.
The picture thread is really interesting.

[sccrhound]

Many thanks for your effort much appreciated, cannot green you again just yet.
The picture thread is really interesting.

Yeah, I spent time over 4 or 5 nights going through every page. I love old photos.

[Lucywu2012]

I like these books,too. I think it's very interesting and I can know so many things from it!

[Thetyim]

I like books written by people who have travelled around the country and their tales about the people,their culture, the transportation they used.

Try books written by Steve Van Beek.

[Bettyboo]

I haven't found any topnotch books about Thailand.

But, classic localish ones are:
Burmese Days; Orwell.
The Quiet American; Greene.
The Malayan Trilogy; Burgess.

All are an excellent read.

[nidhogg]

I haven't found any topnotch books about Thailand.

But, classic localish ones are:
Burmese Days; Orwell.
The Quiet American; Greene.
The Malayan Trilogy; Burgess.

All are an excellent read.

^^ all those are briliant. I might add in Thereauxs St Jack for a taste of steamy singapore, and Pico Iyers Video nights in Kathmandu.

But Thai - only the Beach comes to mind, and I don't think I would recommend that....although its probably a YMMV kinda thing.

...not a travel book, but Michel Houellbecq book "Platform" is a great read..

[Boon Mee]

There's a full-of-himself Mod over at Thaivisa who claims to be a travel writer based in CM...

[Bettyboo]

^ There are plenty of travel writers based in and around CM, many are pretty poor... Look at the LP stuff for example; some good, lots bad and much ugliness too.

A proper published novel is very much more difficult to write than a little bit of two bob travel 'writing'...
(lots of very good travel writing out there too, but the classic days of Greene, etc, seem to have gone )

[Marmite the Dog]

Another Quiet American - Brett Dakin

Slithering South - Steve Van Beek

Take Me With You - Brad Newsham

[Bower]

Thanks for the tips, with tight baggage allowance, no room for dud books on holiday and at around £10.00 for a paperback its easy to waste good money on bad books.

[Bettyboo]

The Quiet American might be the best written of the lot (and thin 'n portable).

[pangsida]

Teo great travel books on Thailand...

1) Steve van Beek - Slithering South

2) and theres another one that the name escapes me, its about a young Canadian girl who spends a year in a Thai village.

[lometogo]

Google is quite good nowadays. You'll find it on your electric computer.

What a richard!

[pangsida]

"remembered"...

Dream of a thousand lives, by Karen Connelly

[taxexile]

"the ends of the earth" (a journey to the frontiers of anarchy, from togo to turkmenistan, from iran to cambodia.) 1996 by robert d. caplan

isbn 0-679-75123-8

THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is journalist Robert D. Kaplan’s fleshing-out of his controversial cover article published in the February, 1994, issue of ATLANTIC MONTHLY, “The Coming Anarchy.” At the same time, he goes several steps further, discussing and depicting his visits to parts of the world not treated in the article. In this urgently important book, Kaplan has realigned the intellectual and geographic landscape in such a way as to compel other journalists henceforward to refer to his work, whether they want to or not.
At the beginning of the book, Kaplan pauses only briefly to respond to his many critics. “In 1994, immediately after this article was published, I began a journey by land—roughly speaking—from Egypt to Cambodia: through the Near East, Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia,” he writes. “While ’The Coming Anarchy’ was being debated at home, I was already engaged in the mop-up operation. This mop-up operation did not so much disprove ’The Coming Anarchy’ as it showed me how culture, politics, geography, history and economics were inextricable. Rather than a grand theory, the best I could now hope for was a better appreciation of these interrelationships.”
The tone of diffidence and wisdom nicely highlights the contrast between Kaplan’s approach to understanding the world and those of many of his detractors, who too often write from cherished ideological positions rather than from experience. THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a genuine “must-read” book for anyone who would understand where the world is heading at the end of the twentieth century.
Sources for Further Study

Los Angeles Times Book Review. March 17, 1996, p. 1.

its actually a lot easier to read than the above review might make it sound.

i found it hard to put this book down, and have read it 3 or 4 times.


and if you can get your hands on either of these books by norman lewis, you wont be disappointed either.
A Dragon Apparent - Travels in Indo-China (Cape 1951; US: 1951 Scribner's)
Golden Earth - Travels in Burma (Cape 1952; US: 1952 Scribner's)

[Rural Surin]

What are you looking for, historic, cultural, food, tourist sites,transportation?

I like books written by people who have travelled around the country and their tales about the people,their culture, the transportation they used. Not just 21st century but 20th 19th 18th etc. Its good to try and replicate their journey or fill your head with the atmosphere when they travelled.

Thanks for asking.

The Siam Society has fantastic resources in these regards. As do the Chulalongkorn & Thammasat University Libraries. Online, there are hundreds of sources. Amongst the better online avenues are: Silkworm Books - Books on Thailand and mainland Southeast Asia and Orchid Press Publishing - Books on Asia - Services for the Bibliophile and White Lotus Press :: These include White Lotus Publications, agency titles, rare and out-of-print titles in English and other Western languages. We also have titles in the Thai language and www.digitalrarebook.com and Riverbook and Thaioldbooks.com - ?á

[Bower]

Many many thanks for all the help and suggestions.

[Rural Surin]

The Quiet American might be the best written of the lot (and thin 'n portable).

As in reference to period Vietnam, not Thailand. Though, a classically great read, nonetheless.