Lonely Planet is known worldwide for publishing practical, reliable and no-nonsense travel information in their guidebooks and on their website. In other words, they have become experts at getting you down the road and seeing to it that you’re well-fed and well-entertained and have a decent roof over your head at night.
The LP list covers virtually every accessible corner of the civilized and in some of their more arcane travel titles uncivilized world, as well. Comprising currently 16 travel series, LP is the largest independent travel publishing house in the history of publishing both in number of units sold and in the variety and breadth of their products. These include not only travel guides but phrasebooks; walking, cycling and wildlife guides; city maps, road atlases and digital products.
For example, you can check Lonely Planet’s www.thorntree.lonelyplanet.com<http://www.thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/» for up-to-the-minute advice on what travelers are saying about Bali (and practically anywhere else, for that matter). LP itself admits that these traveler’s reports are unverified but fascinating.
Now this juggernaut of the travel publishing industry has left nothing undone in this, the 9th edition of their guide to Bali, bringing the full weight of their redoubtable resources to bear. The 369-page edition is in fact the result of the work of number of authors and contributors over a span of almost 20 years. The publisher himself, Tony Wheeler, first covered the island as part of his pioneering South-East Asia on a Shoestring in the mid-1970s. A last-minute update followed the outrageous Kuta bombing in October 2002 from which the island is now slowly but inexorably recovering.
This is a team effort involving both end users and professional travelers and editors. Hundreds of readers, using previous editions, wrote the editors with helpful hints, useful advice and true life anecdotes.
The definitive guide, plus a bonus chapter on Lombok, includes special full-color sections on Balinese arts & crafts, Balinese dance and top-end Luxurious Bali. In addition, there are special sections in the backmatter on the Indonesian language, a discussion and a working vocabulary for the Balinese language (low, polite and high forms), a glossary of general and culinary terms, as well as a metric conversion chart.
Eight color pages dispersed throughout the guide show the beauty of the island’s landscape, its electric culture and markets and a cross-section of tourist activities. Also included are suggested tips on finding the best bungalow-style hotels, mountain retreats and luxury resorts, the latest spots to surf, dive and snorkel, where to indulge in a pampering spa treatment or relaxing massage. Shopping tips on Bali’s exotic folk arts as well as its high fashion houses are also included.
On the practical side, Lonely Planet’s secret weapon has always been its outstanding cartgraphy. In this edition, there are 45 detailed maps of towns and regions, including such obscure locales as Amed on the island’s far east coast, offshore Nusa Penida, Toya Bungkah and the central mountains range, Negara and the Bali Barat National Park. Kilometer and mile bar scales, and cross references to area maps, make the smaller maps especially helpful. A four-color two-page spread map of Bali graces the first pages of the book.
Having lived in Tabanan for over a year, I put their map of Tabanan city, the regency capital, to the test. I found the post office in the wrong place and the Gedung Mario art center on the wrong side of the road but, hey, no one’s perfect (the map’s still useful).
Numerous user-friendly graphic, editorial and manufacturing details in LP guides have developed over years of reader feedback: ground plans for a typical Balinese family compound and village temple, shaded borders around legends to make them stand out easily against maps, italicized telephone and price information that contrasts with standard text, captioned illustrations, inclusion of website and email addresses, suggested highlights, walking tour and other specialized information boxes, telephone area codes under the town or area display type, and spine stitched for extra strength and durability are all standard out-of-the-box LP features.
These and other of LP’s high standards inspired a critic from The New York Times to write that Lonely Planet guides have been trusted companions for a generation of independent travelers. This is an accolade they have earned and the reason why you can’t go wrong traveling with this excellent guide.
Bali by Kate Daly and James Lyon, Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia 2003, ISBN 1-74059-346-4.
Available for Rp245,000 at Periplus Bookshops in the Bali Galeria in Kuta, Warung Made in Seminyak, Ngurah Rai Airport and in Gramedia bookstores in the Matahari in Kuta Square.
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Copyright@2003 PakBill
