Indonesia

I spent a lot of time in Indonesia from '94 - '97. When I first arrived, I had nothing but I found a previously-enjoyed '91 edition in a Bukittingi bookstore. What really set it apart from the "other" guidebook company was the entertaining and tremendously informative prose. It was obvious that Bill really knew Indonesia in depth - this was not just a book for directions and place to sleep, but an immersive experience to curl up with at night and really learn about where your future rambling should take you!I still have this book, and I do flip through it once in a while and reminisce......The only thing to ask now is: what has Bill been up to lately? The last edition is '95 - ancient history by guidebook standards!

This is the best, funniest and most consistent guide to Indonesia. I remember on my first visit to Indonesia back in 92, the Handbook was still banned under Indonesian law. One day my wife and I were visiting the great temple at Borobodur, central Java, and we noticed the local guide was carrying a strapping guidebook in his hand. I surreptitiously noted the title, and later visited a bookshop to check it out. I was in for a surprise - the 'official' guidebook was none other than the illegal Indonesia Handbook: different publisher, title and a pseudonymous author, but the same book alright. If you like that kind of approach to a small problem of censorship, then you'll love this book.

A Canadian friend got me to abandon my English teaching business in Madrid for the promise of an "oil patch" job in Indonesia in 1980. I can still hear him today "The first thing to get when you go through London, is get Dalton's Indonesian Handbook. Don't wait until Singapore or Jakarta - it's banned out there. So this young man did indeed go east. The job my friend assured would be waiting was nationalized in the few months the intervened between our vinos in Madrid. "I hope you didn't come all this way just to work for..." read his letter I picked up Post Restante in Penang. Undeterred I managed to find another and better oil patch job. I spent the next three years working out of Jakarta and Balikpapan - Kalimantan's Jewel in the Jungle.And I used the Indonesian Handbook extensively. Across Java, the lakes of Sumatra, Bali and Lombok and my favorite Indonesian destination: Tanta Toraja in central Sulawasi. (If you see just one thing on the archipelago, see Torajaland.) This backpacker, now a newly minted expatriate executive, always took the old black cover edition on his business trips.So why do I like Dalton's book - and the Handbook travel series in general? I really appreciate the concise yet detailed "briefs" of key subjects. One small example . During a visit to Yogakakarta, I became interested in batik. A quick read of Dalton's brief two page "primer" I learned the history, fabric and style types. And I leaned a half a dozen key Indonesian terms. When I hit the market I was amazed at how well I could get the vendors' attention. Novice bargaining by Westerners is typically based on price. Savvy Asian peddlers know this. They usually display or direct a foreigner's attention to inferior goods. Experienced market hunters will talk quality first. The Handbook's brief's quickly got me up to speed fast - and got me some great batik pieces at great prices.I often contrast the Moon Handbooks with more popular Lonely Planet series. Marketed as a "travel survival guide" that's exactly what LP guides are. But surviving is only the first phase in traveling. Perhaps that why the LP books have become the "backpackers bible." But if you are looking to do more than eat and sleep in Indonesia, give Dalton's Indonesian Handbook a try.

In 1977 I used the 1st edition of Indonesia Handbook (then called 'Indonesia, A Traveler's Notes') on a two-month backpacking trip around the archipelago. I sent Bill some reader feedback and we began corresponding. A year later I was ready to leave on a five-month trip around the Pacific and offered Bill some traveler's notes on the South Pacific for inclusion in his Indonesia guide as a kind of appendix. He answered 'no' and said a separate guide was in order, and that became the 1st edition of South Pacific Handbook published in 1979. Twenty years later my South Pacific Handbook is in its 7th edition and Bill is still over there in Southeast Asia doing what he was doing when we first got together. His handbook is a masterpiece to which all other guides to Indonesia are indebted and a copy should be on the shelf of anyone seriously interested in that great country.

I lived in Indonesia for three years and this was the ultimate guidebook--it is banned in Indonesia because of the insights into the politics. Excellent background on culture, has information on even the most remote places. Great armchair travel; even better used as a guidebook.