The Looney Planet Guide to Cambodia

The Looney Planet Guide to Cambodia is a collection of writings about my fellow barang (foreigners). The title came to me one day when I was talking to some friends who were on their way to Sihanoukville from Vietnam. They had just crossed the border and had called to ask me if I knew where to go to catch the train to Sihanoukville.

"There is no train service to Sihanoukville," I replied.

"Yes there is. It says so in our guidebook."

"There was one, but it hasn't run in over ten years. How old is your guidebook?"

"We just bought it. It's new."

"Did you buy it in Australia?" I asked, thinking it might be a long out-of-date edition reprinted in Vietnam.

"Yes. It's this year's edition."

"Well, it's wrong. There is no train. Why don't you hire a car and driver?"

It went on like this for some time. My friends are by no means unintelligent people, but like a lot of us, they assumed that if the travelers Bible says its true, then it must be true. Well, it wasn't. They ended up coming by bus and having a great time before continuing on to China. They didn't throw away their guidebooks, but they did learn a valuable lesson: don't believe everything you read or hear. In travel as in life, if you want the truth, you have to find it yourself.