Planet gersang a.k.a. Lonely Planet

Captain Planet, you the hero!

Sorry, guys. not going to blog bout Captain Planet.

It is planet 'gersang' a.k.a. Lonely Planet

When you get lonely and feel like going on a trip by yourself. 

Help yourself and grab one of these Lonely Planet. 

Although you still lonely wandering around, at least you won't be lost with the book!

My father, someone who involved in transportation industry hate people who with this book. Especially someone who smell like a rat, have not have a proper shower for days, kept defending the book and refuse to believe the reality.

Sad to say reality sucks!

By the time a book is published, most of the things written in the book are OUTDATED! One book may took almost 1 year to be published. Within a year, inflation happened. All price had increased. Buildings burned down, new road are built, war can happened in one year. Fyi, in Lonely Planet, there are maps, transportation, transportation fee, accommodation, the rates, etc. Remember they are only guides, not reality. Nothing and no one is going to stop living.

On an occasion, a tourist insisted to go to a hotel, which was burned down not long ago. So the taxi driver just took him to the place. When they reached there, the tourist just kept shouting at the driver for taking him to the wrong place.

This actually happened to us when we were in Thailand, going to cross border to Laos. We were in Chiang Saen, trying to get a trip to Chiang Khong. Chiang Khong is the border between Thai-Laos.

According to our outdated Lonely Planet, the tut tut trip would cost us around 50 Bath. The driver charge us 150 Bath. He told us usually it is 100 Bath. But now only 3 of us going there, so he charge us higher. After some bargaining, he charge us 500 Bath for 3 person. One of us refused to take it, saying the driver try to cheat us. According to our lonely planet, it is our only transportation to Chang Khong and it is 2 pm then. After some interrogation, finally she gave in and agreed with the price. So it is 133 Bath per pax.

At that time, I forgot the fact that she bought the book, Lonely Planet years ago. So this book is super outdated. I kept thinking about this incident. It only come to sense after I remember that she bought it years ago. No wonder the price stated in the book is so much different from reality.

Dear fellow backpackers, please remember Lonely Planet is just a book with outdated guide.

Conclusion is that my father hate me when I travel in a cheap style a.k.a. backpack.