1. ISBN13: 9781741045475
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Editorial Review :

Discover Bangladesh

Keep your eyes peeled for tigers as you cruise silently through the Sundarbans
Visit mist shrouded temples, then watch a game of cricket in the grounds of Puthia Palace
Strike a deal with a boatman and join in the crazed cacophany of life on Dhaka's Buriganga River
Duck as hoolock gibbons swing above your head in tropical Lawacharra National Park

In This Guide

The only guide with in-depth coverage of the entire country
Expanded hiking and national park content, including the best places to see tigers and other wildlife
Unbeatable cultural advice, with an expanded section on travel for women
Content updated daily - visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler insights

Customer Review :

Possibly the worst travel guide ever published by L.P.

This travel guide is possibly the worst one that Lonely Planet has ever produced. Apparently, the previous edition was a lot better, and since hotel and other such listings change more frequently than any publisher could keep up with anyway, it may be advisable to search out the earlier edition for its purported superior coverage of actual sites within the country.

The main problem is not that huge portions of the guide are out of date (inevitable due to publishing deadlines and due to the quick pace of change in South Asia), but that they were never correct to begin with. Maps are wrong in every possible sense: topologically; geometrically (positionally and locationally as well as in terms of actual distances); inconsistent scale; incorrect orientation, etc.

Also, major streets are unlabeled in many cases, but this is a somewhat moot point as there are hardly any street signs in Bangladesh, and as most streets do not form a grid pattern that is easily followed. For this reason, it would have been helpful to supply dual labeling in Bangla (several competitors do this for most of their maps). That would make it easier to question the locals, who rarely speak or read English.

I also personally find LP maps in general to be too difficult to use except when under strong lighting with a magnifying glass, or in a hotel room. Usually we are using the map while walking, in a moving vehicle, under poor lighting. The cross-referencing scheme and miniscule typeface are of no help there! Rough Guide and Moon have the right approach to legible maps that can be used under adverse conditions (Footprints are OK and sometimes very good, but are rarely to scale).

Everyone that I encountered in my one month in the country complained about this guide; not the least the locals, many of who were interviewed by the LP writer but ignored when the final edition was published. The only thing this guide has going for it is that it has accurate train connections (bus connections are a joke in the country and would be impossible to write up accurately; find a local and ask them where to go). Bus timings are also accurate; though some are now faster due to a few improved roads and some new bridges where ferries were once required.

Descriptions and directions for most of the major archeaological sites (which are on a par with the best that I have seen in Latin America and Southeast Asia, in spite of being relatively unknown), are not adequate and are in some cases quite wrong. But it is very cheap to hire a local guide for a day or more in each region (I mixed this approach with 100% independent travel, and it worked out quite well). Just don't depend on this guide as an aid for independent travel; think of it as an armchair companion to a semi-organised tour.

As one example of a deliberate omission (as evidenced by an interview with local tours and hotels), the one and only hotel that is close to the Dhaka airport was not included, even though it has many flexible pricing options even for transit passengers (the airport itself has few if any facilities) and even provides a free airport shuttle. This omission unfortunately pushes one towards the expensive Gulshan district upon arrival, which is a bit far and also not near any major sites in the capital (my detailed reports will be submitted to Lonely Planet's forum later on, and don't really belong in a book review).

That said, this was the best vacation of my life; mostly because the people of Bangladesh are the friendliest and most open I have ever encountered (and that is saying a lot). I felt like I was already home, everywhere I went. This is in fact a slogan of the country. It is a beautiful and lush country besides, even though mostly flat (except for the unbelievably gorgeous tea and pineapple plantations in the northeastern region of the country), but I think the guide could have done a better job of describing the culture and making a case for why one should visit the country.

It is unfortunate that there are currently no other travel guides to Bangladesh. Competition seems to improve most guides, and this pertains to ALL of the publishers. Bradt used to publish a guide but never bothered to update theirs since the 1992 edition. I doubt there's much of a market though, as I only encountered a small handful of tourists during my entire month in the country. Even more reason to visit now, before it is "discovered".

Rating :

Thin gruel for tourists

"Lonely Planet's" guide to Bangladesh is pretty thin --less than 200 pages -- for a country with a population of 150 million. Well, there's a reason for that. Bangladesh is hardly a tourist paradise.

Dhaka is probably the most crowded city in the world and, in fact, the biggest attraction of the city is the traffic -- which is horrendous. The numbers of rickshas is astonishing; they line up eight-across on some streets all jockeying for position with three-wheelers, cars, trucks, buses, hand-pulled carts, and the occasional herd of goats. Dhaka is worth visiting just for a ricksha ride and traffic jams that are simply unbelievable.

The country is pretty outside Dhaka: emerald green rice paddies, palm trees, and innumerable little villages. The city of Cox's Bazaar is the honeymooner's capital of Bangladesh. The beach here is advertised as the longest and widest in the world. What interested me was the fact that of thousands of people on the beach only a few boys were actually in bathing attire and in the water. Women may dip their toes in the surf but they don't dress for the occasion. The all-covering Shawar Camise with head-scarf is de riguer as female beachware -- as it is for everyplace else.

Despite a lack of major attractions, Bangladesh is not a bad place to visit and you won't encounter crowds of foreign tourists. Maybe you won't encounter any. "Lonely Planet" covers the country in good detail including history, culture, current politics, sidebars about interesting trivia, places to stay and eat, and books you might want to read. It's a good guide to a place that needs a guide.

Smallchief

Rating :

1. ISBN13: 9781841622934
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

Customer Review :

bangladesh travel guide review

This is a very well researched guidebook. The Dhaka section was very helpful for my frequent business visits to the capital - it very much helped me get out of the hotel and visit some of the accessible places and restaurants that I would not have known about. Thanks to the authors for making my trips to Dhaka so much more interesting and lively.

Rating :

Better than LP

Excelleng overall guide to Bangladesh. The section on Dhaka is great as are the background bits of information on the major cities. The maps arent as good as those in Lonely Planet, however the content is detailed and covers many interesting bits of information, that one would expect only expat long-timers to know.

Rating :

Thank goodness!

I can safely say this is the most authoritative travel guide I've seen to this country and if I had it with me in my early days of living there everything would have been WAY easier. If you're going to Bangladesh chances are you aren't just going for a weekend (though if that's the case Bradt will offer you ways to maximize your experience in ways other guides do not). This guide is essential if you have to/want to stay there for longer and will be your backpack companion all around the country.

The authors are excellent at helping you navigate the world of apartment renting (which believe me is no easy task) and all the little complications that go along with it (internet, gas, electricity, appliances, getting clean water). Their honest advise for dealing with problems from visas to cockroaches to etiquette during Ramadan to what to do and where to go if you get a dreaded bout of diarhhoea are all incredibly practical and clearly spoken from experience.

But do not fear, it isn't all stress! The guide shows you places that are hidden gems in a country marvelously unexplored by tourists. If you are traveling to the beaches of Cox's bazaar (longest beach in the world!) or the hills of Chittagong, Bradt knows where to go and how to get there. But even if you should find yourself bogged down in Bogra, as I once did in monsoon weather, Bradt miraculously knows how to help you find the back alleys and and gorgeous temples that otherwise only locals would seem to know.

If you are going to Bangladesh, get this book, and if you aren't, read this book and you'll be left thinking "why not?".

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Customer Review :

Passport, Wallet and Atlas

If you know where you want to go then I would agree with the above reviewer- a guidebook will tell you about nearby sites and how to get there and for that you can get by without an atlas. But for those who want to explore a particular region- how else are you going to plot an itinerary? This atlas is fully indexed by place, and also by beaches, capes & headlands, caves, forts, islands, mountians & passes, rivers, lakes, & bays, ruins and temples. And no matter how good a guidebook- only an atlas like this will assure you that you haven't missed anything of interest whereever you happen to be.

Map Scale is 4cm = 50K (1.5" = 31 miles)

For security reasons (I'm told) quality maps are not easy to find in India- and rarely for sale.



Rating :

Never used it....

The maps are better than what most Indians have ever seen in their lives, which is exactly why travellers don't need it. If you are taking public transport around the country, you get plenty of information about how to go where from LP India or from information at train stations, bus stations and other travellers. It simply isn't worth the excess weight (in a rucksack). If on the other hand you are cycling or have your own motorized vehicle, this would be irreplacable (so be careful who you show it to).

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Indispensable!

While working on an on-going university research project I have spent five years driving the back roads of India. This book has saved my sanity as well as my tires and axles. It is by far and away the most helpful road atlas available.

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Customer Review :

hilarious, but typical writing through a colonial prism

During the 1950s and 1960s there were several travel books written on India, whose tone were in general (many cases rightfully so) caustic. While Naipauls 'Area of Darkness' had the pain and disgust of seeing his country of origin in shambles, and Joseph Campbells 'Brahman and Baksheesh' had the disappointment of his lack of success in seeing theory in practice , one wonders about motives of Eric Newby in writing this book. Imagine the irony of a former member of a plundering army coming back, enjoying the hospitality of the same region, lamenting about how bad everything is. Throughout the book, he almost has nothing good to say about the culture, religion, beliefs or the traditions that make Ganges sacred to a billion people . The only people he warms up to are those of his own religion, and other natives who praise the Raj (perhaps he misses the Indian sense of hospitality to visitors , to make them feel at home, even if they dont actually mean it).
But the book is hilarious where it doesnt get condescending, probably belongs to a bygone colonial era, where trashing heathen beliefs would get you a book deal. I give it 3 stars for the pure spirit of adventure involved in the travel and for his devoted wife who puts up with lot of chaos in a foreign land.

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"In India it is possible to win every battle but the last one."

Eric Newby's above assertion reflects both the strengths and the weaknesses of this book. In the winter of 1963-64 Newby and his wife undertook a quirky 1200 mile voyage down the "mother road" of India, the sacred Ganges, traveling from the foothills of the Himalayas, to the Bay of Bengal, and in the process they dropped only 1000 feet in elevation. They traveled through the very heartland of India, the States that contained over a third of its population. Newby is unquestionably a great travel writer, and I concur with another Amazon reviewer that he is better than Chatwin and Thoreau. By undertaking such a journey, with his long-suffering wife, he places himself in an excellent position to describe the "wonder that was India." Still, I felt that his book, "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush" to have been a better book.

I traveled through India, the "rough way," i.e., by local trains and buses, for seven weeks, only seven years after Newby's trip. Newby's characterizations like the following resonated well: "For the inhabitants of India have a simple genius for concocting exasperating situations which, however long he may have lived in the country and however much he may have anticipated them, burst on the victim each time with pristine force. One of the pre-requisites of real exasperation is that there should be no one to vent one's anger on, and there was no one."

I thought it peculiar that in two of the epigraphs, for chapters 19 and 20, Newby is pushing the idea that cholera cannot survive in the Ganges, without real scientific proof. Furthermore, Newby's actual role in India, during the pre-Independence days of the Raj tints his outlook on the country. In the chapter entitled "Christmas at Kanpur" he tries to obtain accommodation at the Kanpur Club in the cantonment, and although he tells the episode of the refusal with some humor and irony, there is clearly that touch of annoyance that he was rejected despite the letter of introduction from Mr. Nehru. ( The retort from the club manager: "The Prime Minister is not a member of the Kanpur Club." )

Still, Newby's descriptive powers are strong, and I particularly liked the sections when he finally reached Calcutta. The book also contains numerous black and white pictures to aid the reader in seeing a country before it became a source for cheap IT workers and telemarketers. Could Newby have ever imagined it? India need not be a battle, if one is willing to adjust only 40% from one's worldview of how things ought to be. It is a challenge, and Newby made a most valid point on page 55 when he said: "We were in a fix, really the last of a succession of fixes, but the overcoming of insuperable difficulties is, of course, one of the unspoken reasons for traveling in remote places."

I only wish I had been along. And am thankful Newby took the time to share it with all of us. Overall, a good read, if one makes allowances for his Raj background.


Rating :

Humorous But Not Enlightening

I read this book after I'd spent a month in India and I found it LOL funny. There's no great insights here, no V.S. Naipual style reflection or analysis, it's just a tale of two Colonial-era Brits determined to travel the 1,200 mile length of the Ganges by boat in 1963/64. But if you're a westerner who's ever spent an extended period of time trying to get around inside of northern India, I suspect you'll find this book as amusing as I did. So in that sense it captures some of spirit of the place, though perhaps it's only amusing if you've experienced first-hand the chaos that is India. It's probably not a good choice if you're looking for a traveler's introduction to "modern" India.

Rating :

Not his best work

I am a long-time fan of Eric Newby since stumbling upon his 1956 book, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. I actually fell off the couch laughing. In addition to the adventures of the trip, Newby offers an inside look at Afghani geography, history and culture in a very readable form. Gently Down the Ganges, by comparison, I found monotonous and dreary, almost whiny. I strongly recommend Newby for his self-deprecating, dry "British Traveler" wit but cannot recommend Gently Down the Ganges as the best of Newby.

Rating :

Travel writing as it should be

This frequently hilarious account of the author's boat trip down the Ganges River has it all: bureaucracy, a prickly spousal travelling companion, bizarre Hindu cultists, and dry streambeds loaded with basketball-sized rocks. Oh yes, there is also the heartland of classical India's Hindu culture unrolling along the shore, with the author's slightly quaint but extremely well-informed interest in the military history of the Raj (as well as reminiscences of his own exploits there years before) thrown in for good measure and some trips down side streets. Newby is one of the great travel writers, I prefer him to Theroux or Chatwin, he is down-to-eart, funny, and endlessly game.

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More reviews...

Editorial Review :

Customer Review :

Touching a Chord

Touching a chord am a reader from Bangalore, India and have just finished reading GANGA by Julian Crandall Hollick, published by Random House.
It made absorbing reading and I would recommend it highly to anyone who is interested in India, its peopleand their beliefs, and who has more than a touristic interest in this country. Hollick has touched a chord in the minds of all those who wonder about the strong faith that the people in this country hold about this amazing river.


The first impression one gets on reading the "Ganga" is the author's sincerity. For us in India the feeling for Gangamata is part of our lives and our heritage.The divinity we ascribe to her only underlines the importance of the river in the history and geography, ancient myth and modern economic prosperity of millions of people.. To know that someone not from this country understands this in the same way is heartwarming. What is unique and most enjoyable reading is, the account of his interaction with the ordinary people he encountered on his travels down the river from source to the sea, the simple people with their down to earth philosophies and wisdom, their hospitality, and their abiding faith in Mother Ganga.
Hollick is also more pragmatic about the river,pointing out dangers to which our faith in the Goddess Ganga blinds us,-- such as the many dams, barrages which change her natural flow and the waste and muck we pollute her with. We seem to accept all this over-use of the water, and the man-made pollution as something the Goddess will take care of. There is the widespread belief that Ganga purifies anything that goes into her; the author does suggest a scientific reason for this.
Among the several stories about The Coming down to Earth of Ganga is one which says she was very reluctant to do so saying that she didn't want to pollute herself with the sins of humanity. Finally she was forced to obey Lord Shiva's command. I share the author's concern that our endless demands on her may result one day, in her withdrawing herself and her blessings from us...and return to her home at the feet of Lord Vishnu!!
Kanaka Kini
Bangalore
email
Rating :

Fireside Reading for the Winter

I recommend adding Ganga: A Journey Down the Ganga River to your stack of books for winter fireside reading. This book will take you to distant places without the hassles of modern travel. More than philosophical ruminations or an eco-travelogue this book is the engaging account of a dream realized. Tantilized by childhood stories of this great river, Crandall-Hollick goes to meet the river in person. He approaches the complex issues of the Ganga with respect and clarity. Traveling from the headwaters to the delta of the Ganga, he explores the relationship of the people who live on the banks of the river with the goddess who has abundantly blessed their lives with meaning. Reading this book I came to better understand that the people of India are not indifferent to the impact of people, pollution, and politics on the health of the river, but rather that they faithfully expect a divine solution to the complex issues that are beyond human capacity to solve.
I found the chapter on bacteriophages particularly interesting, especially with the current headlines about MRSA. Perhaps there is more to the story of Naaman being healed by washing seven times in the Jordan...Scientific study and religion may have much to contribute to each other's understanding of creation.
Crandall-Hollick has a deft touch with language. His descriptions of the river and the people are poetic in their accuracy. What he has seen and described is not limited by his expectations. Willing to learn and explore new ideas raised by his journey at the end of the book Crandall-Hollick raises some excellent questions on the role of economics in resolving the issues of continuing interaction of people and the river. From river bandits to temple priests many people depend on the river for life.
This book has an excellent index.
I recommend this book for winter reading not only to arm-chair eco-travelers, but also to the jaded cynical rationalist who is convinced that religion and science cannot work together to care for our planet.

Rating :

Un livre émouvant

Je tiens à vous faire savoir ce que j'ai ressenti en lisant GANGA.
Quand j'ai lu les dernières pages, des larmes d'émotion ont mouillé les pages. Ma femme et mes enfants me regardaient et m'ont demandé: mais qu'est-ce qui t'arrive ? Je ne le savais pas bien et j'ai essayé de leur expliquer. Il s'agit d'un récit sur une rivière avec son histoire, sa mythologie et ses problèmes; c'est un rapport scientifique qui se lit comme un roman policier; c'est une introduction à l'Hindouisme qui m'incite à apprendre plus sur ce sujet ; c'est la vie de tous les jours d'un groupe de personnes, qui ont choisi de travailler ensemble, avec ses drôlerie et ses réalités; c'est la vie, les croyances, les comportements, les destins de tout un peuple qui vit le long de cette rivière et de tous les autres qui se sentent concernés par elle. Et tout cela tisse un ensemble cohérent, d'émouvant, de désespérant mais non dénué d'espoir.
Je viens de recommencer la lecture; j'ai peur d'avoir manqué des choses, surtout au début du livre.

J'aimerais remercier l'auteur d'avoir écrit ce livre. Merci aussi à Martine, sa femme et compagne de l'avoir soutenue.

Paul Meierhans, Vaison-la-Romaine



Rating :

Ganga

I was surprised and disappointed that there were no pictures. I would not have bought the book had I known that before purchase. There was no "look inside" option for this book. Live and learn!

Rating :

Poisoned Purity: Chasing Ganga's Silent Spring

Julian Crandall Hollick, a journalist whose radio documentaries on sounds of India have gently woken me up on many days, has written a fabulous, conversational book that comprises a river's ecology, mythology, and, to a lesser extent, her economy. Ganga is the name of Hollick's book--simply Ganga and not the less euphonious, anglicized Ganges (note: this review is based on the Indian edition of Ganga; the American Island Press edition carries the subtitle "A Journey Down the Ganges River"). This is the river that invited Hollick to traverse her length, and she is the goddess who informs his story telling. Just as Ganga meanders through North India, Hollick weaves between the physical and the metaphysical to explore the conundrum of duality: Is Ganga a river, a goddess, or both? The answers come from Ganga's fantastical mythological beginnings and its very real and constrained present.

Rather than simply repeating the origin myth of how Mother Ganga's torrential heavenly descent to earth was contained by Lord Shiva's matted hair, Hollick tells the longer, more nuanced "once upon a time" tale about imperial King Sagar. This story bookends the author's own story which begins in the Himalayas and ends at Sagar Island in Bengal.

It is helpful to explore the Sagar story before proceeding with Hollick's. In the myth, Sagar performs a horse sacrifice in order to extend his kingdom. The horse wanders into a forest where Kapil rishi is meditating. Sagar's sixty thousand sons--all from one wife--give chase, but disturbed the rishi in the process; all sixty thousand are reduced to ashes. Months pass and Sagar's lone son from a second wife enters the same forest, but, unlike his brothers, Anshuman wisely waits for Kapil rishi to complete his meditation. Pointing to the ashes, the rishi tells Anshuman about his brothers' folly and suggests that only Mother Ganga can wash away their ashes and send their souls to heaven. Three generations of Sagar's sons and grandsons fail to induce Ganga to come down from heaven. Finally, his great-grandson, Bhagirath is able to please Ganga by standing on one leg for a thousand years, and the goddess consents to come to earth through the Himalayas, but only if Shiva will agree to keep her powerful waters in check by letting them run through his braided hair.

Before reaching the end of his cross-country journey from the Himalayan mouth of Ganga to Sagar Island south of Kolkata, Hollick regales the reader with many more stories based in Hindu mythology and the folk culture of villages. The ride on and along the river recalls Alex Frater's Chasing the Monsoon. Both books share a palpable, liquid passion for the chase and a storyteller's love for the elusive, watery object of the chase. But along the way, a second story about ecological degradation emerges: Ganga's flow is being strangled by India's insatiable thirst for hydro-electricity and agro-irrigation. Compounding the problem of concrete dams and massive waste are industrial pollution and residential sewage, which poison the Ganga jal water used as purifying nectar. This narrative echoes Rachel Carson's plea for protecting the earth's fragile ecosystems; indeed, in one passage Hollick footnotes Carson's title, Silent Spring, as "shorthand for environmental poisoning no one notices until the damage has been done."

How to reconcile the incontrovertible fact that Ganga's water is impure and the enduring belief that the goddess is pure? After a brief moment of darkness where he bemoans Indians' "private cleanliness [and] public squalor," the open-minded Hollick lets the reader hear from Indians (both celebrated and ordinary) who have little difficulty with any apparent dichotomy between the pure and impure: "We live as multi-faceted personalities and don't have a contradiction to resolve"; "As a scientifically-trained mind I want to protect the river. But my heart has an entirely different relationship to Ganga. The physical world and the world beyond the limits of our senses are two entirely different worlds"; "Ganga has a dual identity. If you consider her as river then she can be polluted and die. But if you consider her as goddess then she can never die .... There are no mass epidemics ..."

Hollick devotes a delightful chapter titled "The Mysterious Factor X" to get at the bottom of why there have been no pandemic cases of cholera, typhoid, or dysentery at any of the great bathing festivals along Ganga. Except to note that a company called Gangagen, based in Palo Alto and Bangalore, seems to have scientifically validated the counter-intuitive belief in Ganga's therapeutic value at the seemingly unhygienic Kumbh Melas, this review will leave the mystery of Factor X undisclosed.

The more troubling question that Hollick asks is whether Ganga will survive. With not a little sadness, he powerfully asserts that "the greatest danger to the river comes from the goddess herself ... The faith in the ability of goddess Ganga to cure herself leads to avoiding the life and death issues the river faces." Because there is a tragedy of the commons at work in and around Ganga, Hollick concludes his myth-infused book with realistic caution: "Destroy Ganga and you will therefore destroy the essence of India."

From: Rajesh C. Oza, India Currents

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