Goodbye and good riddance to the Backtwatters Bible

The Lonely Planet books are the Starbucks of travel guides. They are everywhere, they're not very good and they make you want to kill yourself everytime you use one.

I wish I was a cunning linguist that could put into words all that is wrong with this book, and all that I hate about it. Essentially they are full of very poorly written incorrect information about every place they feature. They make good places sound bad, and bad places sound good. They also seem to think that all backpackers want to just hang out in backpacker bars and restaurants that will cacoon them from the world around them that they have invested so much time, money and energy getting to. The worst thing about the whole lonely planet phenonmon is that it gives every bar, restaurant, hotel, cafe, travel agent and transport company featured in the 'bible' a license to excell at being shit and inflate their prices. Essentially this is the only good thing about having one, that you know where not to go.

I failed to follow through with my threat to wipe my arse on every page of our SE Asia on a Shoestring and then send it back to the Lonely Planet's offices but we did manage to swap it in Saigon. We feel liberated.

Even a child knows that its shit!