Reading, Tour guide: Eyewitness Travel China

Hong Kong

Over last few months I have seen a lot of tour guides. It seems like the format would be pretty cut and dried – they’re all about the same, no?  Well, mostly that's true - but in checking them out at bookstores there was always one series that stood out: the Eyewitness Guides: ‘the guides that show you what others only tell you’.

These books are beautiful. Several full-color photos and illustrations decorate every page. Printed on glossy paper these guides were always the first one I picked up at the bookstore - but I never bought one.  They were just too darn heavy and I knew if I bought them I would never be able to leave them behind when I left the country. I would end up lugging several pounds of guidebooks all over until I got back to California.

Guilin/Yangshuo

But this trip was a one off, starting in California, so I could use my favorite guide. It was a double-edged sword. The purpose of the guide in this project is to help me figure out how to spend the limited time I have in the country.  Every country has more to see than can be seen in a single visit, even if it is a month-long visit. You just can't see everything.

That is especially true of a country as large and diverse as China. You're going to miss things. I know we missed some great things in Turkey, but somehow knowing of those things only from black and white print, it was less painful than it would have been, seeing the great pictures of all the extraordinary sites you were going to have to blow off.

Shanghai

But you can't do everything. Maybe we saw the best? It was good, even if pretty common as China itineraries go.

We started in Hong Kong, the most modern and western of China’s cities.  From there we went to Guilin and Yangshuo, the scenic country side. Then Shanghai, the economic dynamo. Before Beijing we took the obligatory side trip to China's ancient past Xi’an. We may have missed a lot, but we saw a lot too.

Turkey: Tour guide, Frommer’s

Having now read a whole bunch of tour guides, I am beginning to look at them collectively in a different light. For me, their main purpose is to provide background, detail and then guidance as I plan my trip. And they do that, but they are also like the menu at a restaurant. They list all the possibilities and then you choose what you will have. But have you ever thought about the menu in reverse? Mostly it is a list of things you could have, but won’t. Guide books are beginning to depress me. They are lists of places I could visit, but won't.

For Turkey, I used Frommer’s, probably the most mainstream of all the many possibilities. Of the countries I have visited so far Turkey is the one about which I knew the least, going in. Some guidebooks target a niche.  Being quirky is their sales point. That works if the guide is adding to what you already know about a place. For me, knowing so little, I needed thorough and comprehensive. Frommer’s delivers.

The guide book describes six different regions, any of which would merit extended exploration. Given the nature of my project. It was kind of like Frommer was teasing me. Ankara, the capital, was a given and for the second city, Istanbul was the obvious choice. So that's it? No, that was impossible. We’d be missing so much. Turkey is such a large, diverse and beautiful country, two cities would not be enough. But then the question is: of the other four, which three do you leave out? We settled on Izmir and the opportunity to see the Aegean Coast and Ephesus, the ancient Greek ruins. I think it was a good choice but I can't help wondering about Bursa and Cappadocia and all the other things we missed.

Tour Guide: Lonely Planet, Cuba

I miss my tour guide. Sadly I left it on the counter in the hubbub of changing hotels at the beginning of the second part of of my stay in Cuba, my tour outside of Havana. Fortunately, by then I had already read it and for the most part it had already done its job. I have the overview and background I needed and I now have a living tour guide, Odalys.


Lonely Planet is a very good guide. As the cover will tell you, it has 105 maps and about 300 pages of all kinds of information; practical, historical, cultural and just plain fun. In fact it was so good that I found myself carrying it with me almost everywhere I went. Normally that would not be an issue, but in Havana there were at least two reasons to leave it at home. First it's a big book and I had no pocket to put it in. It was too hot to drag a coat or backpack so I had to carry it. And that was the second problem carrying a guidebook pretty much screams tourist and puts a huge target on you - and believe me, people zero in on that target.

Something to watch for...

Even so, the book was worth carrying. Its maps were far superior to the map I bought two CUCs from the tourist bureau. That map only had the things they wanted you to find (places to spend money) and street names were often obscured by symbols used to identify the highlights. Lonely Planet would show you the corner of the park where locals gathered to argue about baseball - a fascinating scene - they really do discuss passionately.

The book has a great and balanced overview of recent Cuban history and explanations of how things actually work in Cuba, something that is not always entirely clear without some explanation. It does well the thing which is probably a guides greatest utility it helps you avoid missing the little things you might otherwise not notice.

Tour guide: Germany for Dummies

After Canada, which feels like a second home, Germany is the country I think I know the best of the five countries I will visit. Over the years I have made several visits, some of them for rather extended periods of time. In 1979, my second visit was to spend a year in Germany, most of that time spent in what was then West Berlin. Over the years I have spent time in more than 10 German cities in each of Germany's four regions. I did not really need a tour guide to prepare for this visit.

But it is one of my project’s tasks and so I read one anyway. I decided to go with “Germany for Dummies” hoping for a less serious, more practical overview of “the next one” on the list.  The book does not disappoint. It presents a good summary of the things one ought to know about Germany, generally, and 
about its regions, cities and history.

Communist    < Electronics >    Capitalist

Germany, as a state, is a relatively young country although, of course, there have long been Germans. Before 1870, Germany was organized regionally into principalities and city-states. Its regional differences are relatively pronounced as a result.  “Germany for Dummies” takes that as its starting point and treats each region in its own right. This is particularly helpful for me as it is my intent to skip three of those four regions and focus on Berlin and the East. The last time I came this way, most of that territory was inaccessible to me. It is the part that has seen the most turbulent history and most dramatic change. How much, if any, of the old East Germany still remains? I hope to see.

Point Me in the Right Direction

The Tour Guide, Moscow and St. Petersburg in a Nutshell

You would think a week would be enough time to get to know a city. It seems like a long time, especially when you're traveling. I can't tell you how many times I've been on trips for two days here, two days there. The classic, "If this is Tuesday, it must Belgium.” I've been to Paris, but I don't think I know it.

The goal here is to do a lot more than see a city. That just scratches the surface. I hope to spend enough time in a place to begin to appreciate how its parts fit together.  Having lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for almost 40 years, I think I know it well enough to understand it. One of the things I understand is that it would take a lot more than two weeks to show a stranger what it takes to know San Francisco the way a local does. You have to leave some things out.

The question is what to do and what to skip. Not surprisingly, that same dilemma confronts me at each of my stops. The guidebook was supposed to help me sort that out.  For Russia, I chose Nelles Guide. It got great reviews online for its cultural perspective. Perfect, I thought, as I ordered one from Amazon. I had never heard of them, but a European perspective and copies in good condition for less than $10!  All good.

It is good. Just a little out of date. Published 1998. Still, it provides a great perspective. A snapshot of the country newly freed from the Soviet era, learning how to cope with the massive changes.  In 1998 they were having a lot of trouble figuring out what to do with all the relics of the Soviet past.  Ten years later, I am guessing they have come to terms.  I can't wait to see what those terms are.

It also confirmed my worst fears, two weeks is nowhere near enough. Moscow and St. Petersburg hold dozens of treasures.  The Hermitage alone deserves more than a day.  I'm already sad think of all we will miss, but at least now I think I know how to decide what to miss.  Just won't have time for that third church...