You shake a Marlboro from that iconic red-and-white pack and, letting it dangle from your lips, you flick open your Zippo with practiced ease. Cupping the flame from imaginary wind, you light up, snap the lighter closed and inhale. The familiar flavor of cigarette smoke floods the senses and a few seconds after it hits your lungs you feel the nicotine sway your world, a welcome counterpoint to the mild burn that comes from inhaling smoke. After a second you exhale through your nostrils, blowing smoke like dragon and casually tap ash from the tip of your cigarette. You’re cool, you’re hip and you’re participating in a minor form of conspicuous consumption. You’re also taking around 13 years off you life, and even if you ash that dart right away you’ll still be at a greater risk of smoking-related disease 15 years later.

We all know that smoking isn’t good for us but did you know that half of all smokers will be killed by cigarettes? That’s five million a year at the moment, and they’ll probably die a painful, ignoble death. But that’s a long way away for most of us. In the short term you ladies may be distressed to learn that smoking causes wrinkles, due to poor circulation, and men may be upset to learn that they’re up to 60 percent more likely to suffer erectile dysfunction. Puffing a Cuban cigar may be a highly phallic act but it ain’t no good unless you’ve got trouser-material to match it. Think about that, Marlboro man.

The good news is that, at least in the West, there are as many ex-smokers as there are practicing smokers, so kicking the habit can’t be that hard. Also, there is a range of medications available today that can help make quitting less of an exercise in iron will versus chemical need. That said, there are many hard-smoking regions in the world where temptation abounds and smoking is on the rise. But the reasons for giving up smoking are legion: Smoking turns your teeth yellow, makes your clothes stink and pisses off your non-smoking buddies. Or look at giving up for the greater good; its estimated that out of every pack of darts sold in the USA in 1999, $3.45 was spent on medical care for smoking-related diseases and $3.73 went in lost productivity; that’s $7.18 for those who slept through maths class.

Travel and smoking go hand-in-hand. Even people who don’t usually smoke at home pick up the habit on the road, and why not? Smokes are cheap in part’s of the world and you tend to spend a lot of time at bus stations or in bars, both dens of combustion. However, the big change in environment that makes non-smokers want to experiment can also make it easier for a confirmed smoker to give up. Smoking is a habit so a change of scene can be a powerful tool in giving up. If you’re tramping around temples and markets all day, you may not even notice you haven’t had a smoke in three days. Of course this necessitates forgoing the duty-free carton at the airport, as smoking is all about temptation.

If you are keen to give up, its best to make a plan and set a ‘quit’ date. This gives you plenty of time to get ready. If you’re a heavy smoker, you’re not going to enjoy the next few days. On the big day you should throw out all of your fags, ashtrays, bongs, hookahs, pipes, rolling papers and what-have-you. After all, you’re never going to need them again. For the next few days you’re likely to feel the effects of withdrawal, like restlessness, irritation, and increased appetite. This is a good time to warn your spouse/partner/pets to be forgiving over the next few days, as well as an excellent opportunity to say exactly what you think of them. During this time you should also drink a lot of water, get some exercise and keep your hands busy. Avoid alcohol.

Its during the withdrawal stage that you can use gums, patches or inhalers for ‘nicotine replacement therapy’ to get you out of the habit of lighting up. The patches have a good success rate but are prescription only and in some parts of the world only available from hospitals. New developments include prescribing the anti-depressant Bupropion (Zyban) to avoid the jitters. However, side-effects include excitement or anxiety, insomnia and change of appetite or weight (sound familiar?). A nicotine vaccine is undergoing trials in the US which will employ the body’s immune system to eliminate nicotine, but that won’t even go for FDA approval before 2007.

In the meantime, probably the most important things that will help you stay off the tabs are taking each day as it comes, the support of friends and family, and a great deal of patience.

Can you make a good “publication” better? Yes you can, and this, the updated and upgraded ‘e-book’ CD from Yves Masure, previously called the Thailand Lexicon of Cultural History, but now re-titled as Thailand Digital Travel Guide and Lexicon, is better than before. For starters, the CD now gives you a choice of three languages – English, Dutch and French, as well as being more ‘user friendly’ with its internal links.

The CD is the result of much work by the author Yves Masure, who spent the last few years compiling the CD. Masure had previously spent ten years escorting international tour groups on travel adventures and treks throughout many areas of Thailand. On these tours he took his camera, and more than 1,000 selected images are included on this CD.

The Digital Travel Guide is arranged in electronic pages, with navigation as per the usual internet methods, complete with back and forward buttons and links to other parts of the CD.

Even though I had used and reviewed this a couple of years ago, in its previous form, it was still difficult to review as I would become so interested in some particular aspect that I would read it and then follow the links to further sections, and on and on!

The sections include Geography, with a map of Thailand and regional and provincial maps. Religion and Mythology are covered along with Architecture and Iconography. The topics are numerous – History and Monarchy, Art and Literature, Traditions and Utensils, Ethnology and Hill Tribes, Nature and Gastronomy, Cities and Places of Interest and Crafts and Skills.

The data is enormous, and for anyone with an interest in Thailand, the CD will open up new frontiers. For example, until I read the section on religion I had never heard of Totsachat. I quote, “In Thai tradition the last ten incarnations of the Buddha are the most important and are called Totsachat. They are often found depicted on murals and are part of the Jataka, a word from Sanskrit-Pali, in Thai known as chadok that represent one of the 550 incarnations that every soul has to take before he can be born as a buddha. Generally it stands for the 547 life stories of the Buddha, but in Burma three more were added for reasons of symmetry for mural painting.”

With over 3,000 entries, 76 provincial maps and over 3,500 terms, names and words, introductions on all types of Thai data, this ‘e-book’ is much more detailed than the usual guide books that try to be everything for every tourist. This Digital Travel Guide should be thought of as a reference book on Thailand, not as a ‘where to stay’ or ‘Thailand on 10 baht a day’ style of publication.

This e-book is superior to a printed book even if just in the fact that it contains so much data and photographs, and yet is so compact. Ideal to send overseas, to show just where and why we are here!

It should be available in Bookazine and all good bookstores, with an RRP of 799 baht, unchanged from its previous price.