Irreverent, informed and downright eclectic crime fiction and reportage from Southeast Asia and beyond
Check out the book trailer for Burmese Light, my new non fiction book with photographer Hans Kemp, published by Visionary World this month. Reviews: “Whether you are planning a visit or have recently traveled to Myanmar, Hans Kemp’s magnificent photographs combined with Tom Vater’s illuminating text create an unforgettable portrait of a truly remarkable country [...]
I’ve been interviewed by Editorial Xplora to promote Kathmandu, camino al infierno, the Spanish edition of my first novel The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu which has just been republished in paperback with Crime WavePress. Here’s the lowdown: Tom Vater, escritor y periodista experto en el Sur y Sureste Asiático, lleva viajando y viviendo durante más [...]
Currently on the road updating the 16th edition of Reise Know How Thailand. 14 days around the north, Chiang Mai, Pai, Mae Hong Son, Mae Sariang, Chiang Dao, Fang, Thaton, Mae Salong, Mae Sai, Chaing Saen, Chiang Kong, Nan, Phrae, Lampang, Chiang Rai and a few places that escape me now. Eating miles every day….
For all those armchair travelers who are worried about missing their creature comforts in exotic places…do not despair. Trekking in the Everest region between Lukla and Everest Base Camp , one passes shops like this one almost every thirty minutes, offering the same stuff that’s on your shelf of your local 7/11 or supermarket – [...]
As I am currently the Daily Telegraph’s Bangkok expert, I will be taking part in a live web chat on Southeast Asian travel destinations on Wednesday the 7th of December from 12.30-2pm. London time of course.
The trailer of Camera Camera (2009), a documentary film by Malcolm Murray, about the nature and effect of mass tourism in Laos, offers an intriguing glimpse of the Land of the Million Elephants and the million backpackers that travel through it. Who said the camera never lies, one might as oneself, as one looks at [...]
My review of Chris Taylor´s excellent novel Harvest Season is running in The Wall Street Journal this week. A thoughtful meditation on backpacker mayhem in Southern China, quite unlike Alex Garland´s The Beach. Read the full review here.
My AWSJ feature story on Kep, a seaside resort on Cambodia´s southeastern coast, is now available online. In the 1950s and 1960s, Kep-sur-Mer was a popular beach getaway for Cambodia´s elite, who built villas and modest palaces along the beach front and sipped cocktails to the sounds of Khmer Rock’n’Roll. In the 1970s the small [...]
The website Tripbase offer information for would-be travel writers, on the whole very sensible and useful for prospective scribes. The introduction -The harsh realities laid bare- is both sobering and spot-on: Travel writing is a tough and competitive business, a trade for which one needs to have plenty of persistence and low financial expectations – [...]