Summer in Siam: Tales of Thai and Other Lands

“I walked out the door, a bit dazed. I had ten dollars and two not-quite diamonds, and it was summer in Siam.” John Borthwick’s first day in Thailand seemed far from auspicious — but it has been uphill from then on. Dropping him in the middle of everything from three-day tribal weddings, elephant polo follies and pristine islands to Pattaya’s bacchanalian nightlife, Thailand has kept John and his pen constantly on the move. One of Australia’s leading travel authors, John Borthwick has gathered here the best of his years of Thailand adventures, plus a swag of vivid tales from his wanderings in India, Xinjiang, the Himalayas, Borneo, Bali, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines.

John Borthwick, one of Australia’s leading travel writers, is sometimes found in Sydney, but equally often getting lost in Asia. Writer/photographer John is the author of a very large number of magazine and newspaper features on travel and cultures. He is almost certainly Australia’s “most awarded” travel writer, having received multiple awards from the Australian Society of Travel Writers and other bodies. In 2004 the government of Thailand presented him with the prestigious “Friend of Thailand” award for his writings about that country. He holds a PhD in travel literature and his extensive photographic work is represented by the Lonely Planet Images library. John’s books include 'Summer In Siam', 'Chasing Gauguin's Ghost' and 'The Circumference of the Knowable World', as well as the edited collections, 'The Road to Anywhere: Peter Pinney' and 'Off the Rails'.

Most helpful customer reviews

See all customer reviews...

Cheap Vacation Ideas: A Complete Guide in How to Plan

A family holiday is an opportunity to break with routine, to reconnect as a family unit, and to experience exciting new places and adventures. A child’s strongest memories of childhood revolve around vacations, so they are an important aspect of family life. Yet, the family vacation takes a great deal of planning and negotiation, to ensure you all enjoy the holiday of your dreams, and that you have prepared for every eventuality. Family vacations don’t have to cost a lot because you can spend your vacations by taking day trips, enjoying outdoor adventures, educating your children while traveling, and so on. At the same time, vacation destinations have become more flexible in catering the varying needs and desires of their clients at affordable rates. In this book, you’ll be guided on how you can plan for a simple family vacation. This includes choosing a place to stay, making your vacation less stressful with children, and more. At the same time, there are tips and ideas on saving money during your trip on food, activities, and souvenirs. Use this eBook to guide you in making the right choices to plan a fun, stress-free, and memorable trip with your family. This guide will help you balance your family’s need for adventure with safety and practicality, whether your dream vacation is a road trip, a camping adventure, a beach holiday or a plane trip to an exotic vacation. With some forward planning, you can stay relaxed and organized while you enjoy the vacation of a lifetime with your family.

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Great travel guide for those on a budget!
By Megi Dimi
Great travel guide for those on a budget! This book will certainly come in handy for especially for those who love to travel on a tight budget. Plenty of tips and strategies are provided on how to go about and spend your money wisely. These collection series is really worth reading and informative as well. I love to travel always and I can really use the learnings I got from reading these books. Just by planning your travel itinerary will surely help you on your budget because you can avoid unnecessary spending if you have already planned out everything. Awesome book and will certainly share this.

See all 1 customer reviews...

Summer of My Amazing Luck: A Novel

Lucy Von Alstyne sends fictitious letters to her friend Alicia, pretending to be the father of Alicia's twins, and the two welfare mothers and their five children set off on a journey to find him, facing along the way the complications of living in poverty and raising fatherless children.

Originally published in Canada in 1996, this light treat by the author of A Complicated Kindness and A Boy of Good Breeding sees 18-year-old single mother Lucy Van Alstyne join the nouveau poor on the dole in Winnipeg, Manitoba. At a public housing complex nicknamed Half-A-Life, mothering is the noblest calling and absent fathers are as relevant as orbiting "space junk." Lucy doesn't know which of "eight or nine" fleeting lovers fathered her infant son, Dillinger (named after John Dillinger, who Lucy insists is a lucky man and still alive); her fast friend Alicia fantasizes about reuniting with the fire-eating juggler who got her pregnant with twins during a one-night stand several years earlier. Lucy fabricates letters to Alicia from the fire-eater, and the two women and their five kids set off to search for him. The novel offers a humorous look at the absurdities of the Canadian welfare system while unwinding the intricacies of a sticky-sweet friendship. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Eighteen-year-old Lucy isn't sure who the father of her nine-month-old son, Dillinger, is: "Usually, I just enjoyed Dill without wondering how exactly he got here." Her closest friend is wild, dynamic Lish, a young mother who, like Lucy, lives on the dole in a Winnipeg housing project. In a voice that's vulnerable, observant, and deadly funny, Lucy describes a summer among the projects' eccentric residents: the hippies, who heal earaches with onions; the refugees of abusive and lost love; and open, bohemian Lish, who helps Lucy face her own sorrows and confusions. The author of A Complicated Kindness (2004) and A Boy of Good Breeding (2006) offers another memorable portrait of a struggling young person who finds unexpected resilience and peace: "That should be the mark of success . . . just a general feeling of happiness," says Lucy. While the vivid scenes don't add up to a cohesive whole, readers will return to the hilarious, heartbreaking dialogue and the poignant questions about finding love, making a life, and discovering how stories and secrets impact others. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

..".a comic take on what initially appears to be a most improbable topic for humour...it works."

Most helpful customer reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Miriam Toew's First Novel is an unlikely vehicle for humour
By A Customer
Summer of My Amazing Luck, Miriam Toew's first novel, tells the story of single mothers who inhabit the fictional "Have-A-Life"- (A.K.A."Half-A-Life") welfare project in downtown Winnipeg. Single mom's on welfare seems an unlikey basis for humour, but Summer of My Amazing Luck, shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Humour Prize in 1997, is gut-busting, laugh-out-loud hilarity. Told through the eyes of eighteen-year-old Lucy, who lives at "Half-a-Life" with her baby boy "Dillinger", we meet the Lucy's older, more worldly confident, the eccentric Lish, who's raising three young daughters, and is in deparate search for her one true love, a fire-eater from Colorado, the father of her twins.On the backdrop of Winnipeg's mosquito infested rainy season, Lucy and Lish try to make homes for their children, and find love and contentment in their own lives; we pity, admire and love them for it. Summer of My Amazing Luck is a wonderful book, and a tribute to mothers everywhere.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Single mothers' Canadian club
By D. P. Birkett
Lucy, the first person narrator, and Lish are unwed mothers living in public housing in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a place where Fargo is considered the warm south. Lucy does not know the father of her child because "if you eat a whole can of beans how can you tell which one gave you gas." There are so many unfathered children in the building that their version of the alphabet song is "ABCDEFGHIJKalimony please". Both Lucy and Lish have difficult relationships with conventional respectable unsupportive (in the emotional sense) fathers of their own. These relationships form a faint thread of a plot, although the novel is largely made up of the intersecting stories of the other mothers in the building.

I was reminded of Adrian Leblanc's serious non-fiction "Random Family." That's a great book but Toew's is better, and actually contains more information about the singles mother's predicament, and offers more insight into her motivation, as well as being hilariously funny..

Once again we have a great Canadian female writer. Why is Canada the only country where a list of the top five writers cannot be made up that is not predominantly female?

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Interesting. Everything but the kitchen sink included.
By A Customer
Two single mothers living hand-to-mouth grapple with their desires to be loved and accepted and the relentless search for meaning in life. Ranges from humorous to pathetic. Leaves the reader with understanding, pity, and possibly even admiration for the unlikely heroines.

See all 7 customer reviews...