Asian Travel Inside

This Guerrilla Guide travel package to South East Asia is the only one of its type in the world. The normal backpackers guides and the bland with lovely pictures travel guides which are the norm, and the business books with endless boring statistics, are mere surface glimpses of what are extremely complex societies. This author is able to deliver deep, highly informed knowledge obtained from long time absorption in the region, in a journalistic and reader-friendly style for a Western audience.

Regarded as an expert on South East Asia – where he has lived for much of the last 38 years – his copy has been powerful enough to have have been unofficially banned in more than one nation, due to targeting factual issues with insight and power. As an undercover journalist in the region, he used to go under the barbed wire into Cambodia with the Thai military when Pol Pot was in power, landmines both sides and gunfire in the background (photos confirm); he has ventured deep into Burma – south to north – under a Buddhist pass (conditions far worse than the West knows); and a series of published articles written under a pseudonym were powerful enough to help oust a prime minister in the region.

The author has lived his work and took calculated risks to get truly authentic inside stories, and even got lost in the Golden Triangle on one occasion. Scary stuff. In a remote monastery in Burma, not far from the Himalayas, the paranormal was witnessed. There to edit an English language book on Burmese Buddhism, perhaps they thought they’d show the author a few things. Reviews and events suggest this gives truth and power to the author’s prose?

This book has been gleaned from a long spell in the Orient, making this travel guide to culture shock original and in many respects breakthrough material for the West, the USA in particular.

Only 10% of US citizens have passports, and most use them for traditional vacations, usually not in the more far flung outposts of South East East and the Orient. When they do, they usually stay in protected resorts and guided tours. That is not travelling. As a result, even those who do venture farther outside the USA, predominately remain ignorant of the in-depth cultures of those nations. And since 9/11, never in history has the West so urgently needed knowledge of other nations’ cultures. As some very hard events confirm, nations and individuals are dangerously at risk without it. An ‘essential’ business and leisure travel guide, as the editor of Britain’s Publishing Weekly said in his review.

South East Asian Press Review:

“Your Essential Travel Guide to Culture Shock, South East Asia & The Orient’ is published by the IQ Inc people and is compiled and edited by Jake Anthony. Inscribed at the bottom of the cover is, `Never at any time in history, has the world so urgently needed knowledge of other nations’ cultures.’

The foreword states the obvious, in many ways there are aching chasms of difference between the Oriental East and the Occidental West; however, editor Jake Anthony then highlights those appealing factors in the East, such as the cultural diversity and polite natures, saying that it is difficult to imagine better holiday locations.

However, when the reader is someone contemplating business, or settling in the East, the aching chasms appear again. In an attempt to bridge those chasms, or at least forewarn, this book has been written.

The countries covered are Burma, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Make no mistake, this is not another of those “guides to…..” which will tell you the cheapest bus to get to XYZ, and where you and your backpack can doss down for less than $5 a day. This is much more of a serious attempt to unravel the knotted conundrum of working with the Asian mentalities.

There is an initial grounding given on the size of the area with some historical facts which have a bearing on today, and other pertinent items before getting into the nitty-gritty of visas, immigration, work permits, currency and getting around.

Following those general details, the book gets into `culture shock’ with each location. The Oriental `face’ concept is explained in depth, and how it can affect all business dealings, especially those with foreigners.

From there the book covers `Essential Business Dealings’ and `Understanding Local Customs’, knowledge of all of which can also spell success or failure. Even what you should do when receiving business cards is covered, and I must admit to being errant in that regard. I now know what to do.

Each country finishes with all of the public holidays, then trade fairs and some useful addresses and some contact telephone numbers. Again, this is extremely useful data – coming to Thailand for a business trip on the first week of May would be very frustrating, with public holidays on May 1, May 5 and May 7.

This should be compulsory reading for anyone doing business in S.E. Asia. Understanding when “yes” means “maybe” and when “maybe” means “no” will cut short many weeks of fruitful/fruitless endeavours.

Whilst many of the concepts/mores/customs are common, as many of the heritages are common, there are still appreciable differences between the countries and their inhabitants.

I found the book fascinating, and there is much to absorb. It was also interesting that all of the different countries have a word to describe the `big nosed, white faced smelly foreign devil’. Yes, that’s us folks! Definitely deserves a place on all business bookshelves.” Lang Reid, Pattaya Mail.

Rating: 5 / 5