Are E-books the future of guidebooks?

One of my guiding principles of going on any kind of trip is to travel light. That means not carrying any more than absolutely necessary.

Contemplating a trip to several countries, one stiff deterrent to living up to this principle can be the number of guidebooks you find yourself tempted to schelp in your backpack.

The obvious solution to this conundrum is to download e-book versions* of several Lonely Planets. It turns out, Lonely Planet has already made it possible to do even better than that. You can buy and download only the chapters of your choice from the publisher's array of guidebooks.

TravelVice has penned an extremely thoughtful post on this topic, full of some creative options -- even for people who don't want to carry a notebook computer or PDA with them!

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* I noticed that various Lonely Planet books are presently not available for download onto an Amazon Kindle. LP probably figures they can make more money selling the electronic copies on their own website. Nevertheless, the Kindle offers a great way to carry your other reading material, especially on an extended trip.

Tourists sunbathe while refugees tortured

On Thailand's stunning Similan Islands, some tourists continued to sunbathe while refugees were tortured on the same beach. Phuket Wan reports:

Dozens of Rohingya refugees were beaten and detained for hours by the Thai Navy on an Andaman Sea tourist island, in scenes that unfolded in full view of foreign holidaymakers.

Photographs of the December 23 incident in the Similan Islands were captured by Hong Kong-based tourist Andrew Jones.

Mr Jones, whose name has been changed for the purposes of this article, described how guards armed with M-16 rifles forced the refugees to lie face down in the sand for at least two hours, then ''whipped'' them about the head with a strap if they tried to sit up or move. The refugees were naked to the waist and bound at their wrists.

Some tourists appeared oblivious to the scenes just metres away, continuing to snorkel and sunbathe. Others who were shocked by the treatment of the men and tried to photograph the incident had their cameras snatched away by angry guards, who deleted the images.

''Some of them [the refugees] were trying to sit up and looked like they were complaining, but they were answered with a whip on the back and head,'' said Mr Jones, a 23-year-old Australian student . . .

The article continues and includes incredible photos. See also here.

Three month waiver on visa fees for Thailand

The Bangkok Post reports:

Economic ministers have resolved to waive visa fees for tourists from all countries for three months to give the tourism industry a much-needed boost.

The decision was made yesterday at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, deputy government spokesman Puttipong Punnakan said.

The visa fee waiver will be forwarded to cabinet for approval on Jan 20.

No word on when it goes into effect. If you don't get a visa, and you come from a visa-waiver country, you only get a 30 day stay permit. This fee waver makes a Thai visa an especially good option. Also, consider that the government just reduced the length of stay permitted to those crossing into Thailand by land without a visa from visa-waiver countries to just 14 days! (Airport arrivals were still to get 30 days).