Insight Guides

Regarding the Insight Guide I had picked up for the trip, I would like to mention a few words of warning. Although it is a great guide for all its lovely pictures and great cultural coverage, it was sadly lacking in the logistics department. For instance, when we went to the DMZ to have a look at North Korea, in my guide it just said to go on an organized tour, and gave no instructions on getting there. Yuko’s guide, from a Japanese series called CHIKYU NO ARUKIKATA, gave great instructions on how to get there, which train to take, etc. The lack of details (not a lot of details in the accomodation area also) like that didn’t bother me much since I always have Yuko’s guides to complement whatever I pick up (and she always gets guides from that series, which I find very nice, and wish I could understand Japanese enough to use them), but it might not be the best of guides for someone who is going at it alone. Also, I would have liked more info on Seoul, since it was the only area that I was visiting (except for the quick day trip to the DMZ). Since my guide covered all of Korea, it just couldn’t give me the coverage of the city that I really would have liked. That being said, since I have the luxury of Yuko’s guides to complement whatever I get, I could definitely see myself picking up another book in the Insight Guide series. Another series I’m really interested in is Eyewitness, which are just so beautiful to look at (I did New York a few years ago with the Eyewitness guide). They unfortunately didn’t have a book for Korea, but since I think our next trip (not counting Canada next month) might be in Thailand, I might give their book a try.

Oh, and I’ve also been wondering if there are any good French guides out there that I could maybe consider getting in the future. I can get them through Amazon France or FNAC, but the shipping tends to be expensive, so it’s much cheaper to get English guides through Amazon Japan.

Listening to “Batucada” from the album Towa Tei/Best/Korea by Towa Tei.