Russia and Belarus (Lonely Planet Country Guide)

1.- It seems that authors think that they are still living in "cold war times", and that Russia is the enemy. For example:

"The first stations are so deep because they were designed to double as bomb shelters (you'll notice the newer stations aren't as deep after it was realised you just couldn't dig down far enough to escape a hail of American nuclear bombs)". Incredible!

2.- It seems that author think that russians are "wild people", beeing american and british people the only civilized people in the world. For example:

"In Europe and America people travel in a train fully aware that it belongs either to a state or company and that their ticket grants them only temporary ocupation and certain restricted rights. In Russia people just take them over"

I think that we, thee readers of this book, are not interested in any kind of comparison between american/british culture and russian culture/facts.

There are many more examples of points 1 and 2 through the book.

More examples:

"When entering a row in a theatre, face the people you are passing in the same row. Transgressors will be grumbled at and females will probably get their bottoms pinched or slapped by oportunistic Russian guys". Of course, this wouldn't happen if the "guys" were american or british...

"When sitting on benches keep your feet on the ground. Anyone attempting sideways lounging or picturesque knee-hugging posses in risking death by babushka laser vision". Simply ignominious.


Russia and Belarus sorted   January 13, 2004
 19 out of 23 found this review helpful

This book is excellant it covers comprehensivly Russia and Belarus. It has great depth covering Siberia, the Russian Far East and the ural region as well as the population centers of Western Russia. There is a seperate lonely planet book covering exclusivly the Ukraine as well as it being in the Eastern Europe book.


Do go to Kiev, but not with this book   October 30, 2003
 5 out of 35 found this review helpful

Kiev is wonderful but for the Lonely Planet's latest edition the section on the Ukraine is missing- Ukraine is now in the East Europe Lonely Planet