Phaic Tăn: Sunstroke on a Shoestring

Jetlag Travel Guides #2

by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Rob Sitch

From the authors of best-selling Molvana comes another hilarious send-up of the always-culturally sensitive travel guide. Whether you'd prefer to taste the Phaic Tanese dish guoman (a local duck delicacy whereby the bird is plucked, rolled in spices, and slowly roasted over hot coals before being brought to the table and killed), or go brown-water rafting on the mudslides of the heavily deforested jungles of the north, or gain insight into the unusual customs of the Phaic Tanese people (Phaic Tanese men will often touch a blonde-headed child because so doing is believed to bring gold, and will likewise touch the breasts of a blonde-headed woman because so doing is believed to bring pleasure), Jetlag's travel guide is the essential guide for the undiscerning traveler. A fascinating land of contrasts with one foot in the past and another striding determinedly forward, Phaic Tan truly is a nation going in circles.

Genres: Travel, Humor, Fiction, Comedy

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

Santo Luigi Cilauro is an Australian comedian, television and feature film producer, screenwriter, actor, author and cameraman who is also a co-founder of The D-Generation. Known as the weatherman in Frontline, he is also an author and former radio presenter on Triple M, and achieved worldwide fame with the viral video Elektronik Supersonik.

Reviews

[MaggyGray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Klar, die Klischees fallen hier wie Dampfhämmer, aber trotzdem ist dieses Buch immer und immer wieder lustig!

[Sharakael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely my favourite among the series, since it makes fun of South East Asian countries with which I'm familiar. One warning about this book: nothing is safe. Leave your Politically Correct thinking on the way in.

This book is sarcastic, witty, and above all morally wrong and it doesn't care about it. And yet, it still managed to look like a professional travel guide...

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

The inside cover sets the tone for an all-too-realistic tour of a fictional SE Asian land of charm and cruelty:
"Jetlag Travel would like to take this opportunity to thank the peace-loving and liberal-minded people of Phaic Tan, and, in particular, their Government whose wisdom and sound stewardship have rightly earned them the respect of the international community.
Now may our editorial staff and photographer be released?"

[Joshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 2 of 3 in this 'trilogy' of travel guide parodies, this time taking the reader to the South East Asian country of Phaic Tan.

And just like its predecessor this book also keeps up the perfect guise of a serious travel guide. The horrible state of the country and the ridiculous and rarely consistent (or logical) facts about Phaic Tan are presented in such a serious way that it can at times almost convince you that it is actually real.

In many ways, the book is an improvement to 'Molvania'. It is just slightly longer but enough to allow for greater detail and the introduction of four experts on certain topics whose 'tips' are sprinkled throughout the book makes for some of the best bits. The humor in general is largely similar to the one in 'Molvania' so if you enjoyed that, then this book is also for you.

I'd say definitely read this if you liked 'Molvania' and definitely stay away from it if you did not.

[Tracey Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

If this book doesn't make you laugh out loud, there is something wrong with you.

[Daren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Childish, silly and hilarious.

[Marcel Monpatron]

While it's commendable that the book keeps to the codes of an actual travel guide, it also makes it entirely too long for its own good. While there are some good natured, meta jokes, and my favourites ones, jabs about the insufferable critics who "wrote" it, it often crosses the line into plain gross and racist territory. I won't pretend I'm above crass humour, but in this case it feels more like poor editing and having far more space to fill than good material.

[Tuuli Hypén · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ei ihan yhtä hauska parodiamatkaopas kuin sisarteoksensa Molvania, vaikka luettavaa on enemmän. Absurdi huumori puree parhaiten oppaan alkupuolella.

Opus toimii enimmäkseen hyvin suomeksi käännettynä, mutta muutamissa kohdissa käännös kompuroi sen verran että olisin halunnut lukea tämän alkuperäiskielellä.

[Chris Cousins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as good as Molvanîa. Brilliant.

It is amazing how many times I see these books at book sales in the non-fiction travel section!

[Nigel Kotani · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my review of Molvania and deduct two stars because they used up their best ideas in that book, whereas this is a sequel. Still funny, but nothing like as funny as the original.

[Shane C · Rating 5 out of 5]

these book is so fantastic!!

[Cat. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another in the series of fake travel guides that are VERY similar in look and feel to Lonely Planet and Footprint. I read Molvanîa a few years ago, and it was funny primarily because I've been in countries similar to it. Phaic Tăn, being very southeast Asian in feel...not so much.

It's an amusing book. The authors have CLEARLY worked hard on putting it all together from translating Welcome as Qac and populating the map with funny locations, e.g. the capital city, Bumpattabumpah, and provinces with names like Pha Phlung and Thong On. And the pictures...oh, boy. They alone are worth the price of the book!

Like any travel guide, however, reading it from front to back cover is a challenge. There is a payoff in the index however, and this is the very first travel book I've ever seen that contains a list of local lucky numbers.

Take a look at the Jetlag Travel website for a clearer sense of what is going on here.

[Carolin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hier wird (Süd)Ostasien mächtig auf die Schippe genommen, es wimmelt nur so von Klischees und wir bekommen ein deutliches und amüsantes Bild davon vor Augen gehalten, wie wir "Westler" die Asiaten, ihre Länder, Könige, Traditionen und Speisen sehen. Immer wieder ganz lustig, aber kein Buch, das man von vorn bis hinten liest. Am besten haben mir die Kommentare "für den vorsichtigen Reisenden" gefallen :D

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review for Molvania. I find this series of fake travel guides quite hysterical, but I sometimes find the oddest things amusing.

Still, I'm so psyched to learn that there is now a third in the JetLag Travel Guide series--"San Sombrero: A Land of Carnivals, Cocktails, and Coups."

Very un-p.c. Very funny.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good idea, and for the first the 10 or so pages I was frequently laughing out loud. This was then followed over 200 pages which struggled to be filled with jokes (some of which were repeated), typos, and random use of bold to occasionally highlight their attempts at jokes, and sometimes random words.

[Federick Ngo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a spoof of sorts, of a fake SE Asian traveler's destination. Being SE AZN myself, reading this book was a somewhat uncomfortable experience. It's borderline offensive, but aren't those kinds of things always the funniest? It made the flight to the Phillipines a whole lot more bearable.

[Leonard Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second of the Jetlag travel guide parody books inevitably suffers from the fact that it's now a familiar form and loses some of the laughs that came from originality, but it's still got lots of funny bits.

[Mia Lafontaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read, but this is just a good coffee table book. You pick it up for a few laughs but there is no story here. Your travelling friends will also like picking it up for a few page flips when they come over. A bunch of conversation starters in there for sure.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The goofyness in Molvania was much more to my taste, maybe I need to get it in German to understand fully.

[Anne Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another hilarious edition of the series. I look forward to more.

[Laura K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. It's a phaic (Fake) travel guide. Everytime I pick it up I see something new in it.

[Loyd]

I've laughed out loud at every book in this "guidebook" series. It reminds me of a brew of McSweeney's, John Hodgman's, and Mark Leyner's and styles of humor, which is just fine with me.

[Adrian Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Number two in the series and just as funny. Loved it!

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A satirical take on travel guidebooks. Lent to me by a co-worker, this book kept me laughing the whole way through.

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

hilarious if you've travelled south east asia with a lonely planet. If you've done the same but in Europe, check out Molvania. From the comedians of Frontline.

[Michael Heath-Caldwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book spoof on travel. ISB taken by "Travels in Molvania"

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not quite as funny as San Sombrero, but I think a large part of that is the sameness of the jokes. Still, I did laugh aloud a few times.

[Sung Thanutvorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most truthful travel guidebook on this region that i have read! The section about royal family cracks me up.

[Jane O'B · Rating 5 out of 5]

sigh -- I just love this series. Wish I had written them!

[Nerissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very witty