Across Asia on the Cheap

Thursday, 2 May 2013

It’s coming up for its 40th birthday in October this year, the very first Lonely Planet guidebook resulted from the trip Maureen and I made across Asia in 1972. We drove an old Minivan from London to Afghanistan, sold it in Kabul and continued by whatever form of transport popped up. Eventually we hitched a ride down to Australia on a New Zealand yacht and arrived in Sydney right after Christmas that year.

A recent Smithsonian article by Tony Perrottet on the Top Ten Most Influential Travel Guides featured Across Asia on the list. I’m not going to think for a moment that we’re up there with Herodotus, Marco Polo or Mark Twain, or that the writing’s anywhere near as good as Freya Stark’s, Jack Kerouac’s or Bruce Chatwin’s, but it’s flattering to think we did have an influence on travel over the last 40 years.