This is a Book Review!

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.

Tags: Buddha,Digital,eBook,Gift,Guide,Photo,Travel
Categories: Thailand