With apologies to

Oprah and Mr. PulitzerI thank my dear friend Erich Moraine for gifting me this book which, to the best of my knowledge, is pronounced Fake Tan. An interesting title for a "travel guide", don't you thing? (It is published by Chronicle Books...but I digress).

I had not heard of this country and, since I'd lived for a year in Thailand and traveled SE Asia, that got my attenae up. Then I looked at a map in this book to discover that the country contained some interesting names of cities, such as Bumpattabumpah and Sukkondat. Hmm.

The front cover opens and unfolds to show a portrait of the King and Queen which is said to have been painted "...on the occasion of their country's 25th unsuccessful Royal Coup attempt." It only gets funnier from there.

There are photos of folks identified as "contributors" along with little bios. One gal, with the title "Dr.", "...was in charge of prove reading this book." (No, I copied it just as it is in the book). Another gal, was reported as having written another book, Fine Dining in PHaic Tan, which "...won a Global Traveller award for 'Best Work of Fiction.' "

It goes on and on like this with pictures (some of places I recognize and which had different names when I was there...but I digress again) and helpful hints. An example is a tip about a certain area where a resturant might advertise having a string quartet. The book warns that "...this ensemble will traditionallly consists of a banjo, two ukeleles and a yo-yo."

Go broaden your mind and read a good book this winter. And...

Paddle safe...

DS