The Un-Guidebook: Unbind Yourself from Traditional Guidebooks!

In my few years on this giant blue marble, I’d think it fair to say that I’ve had my share of travel, though the majority of it due not to my own merit. I’ve been to a good number of U.S. states. I’ve been to Canada, Mexico, and a few countries in Europe. I’ve camped in the Smokey’s and done martial arts at Lake Tahoe. I’ve sung and drunk along to German music in Munich and saw the bats of Austin. I’ve hiked parts of the Camino de Santiago and tried to sleep on a bench in New York City (be it while I was very small). To me, travel can hold a lot of value in that it can breaking down stereotypes/false notions, challenge assumptions tied to ethnocentrism, expose you to new ways of life, and remind you of how small you are on this giant blue marble. Yet, travel has its drawbacks in that it can be prohibitively expensive and it’s easy to become anxious thinking of what to do while in the new place. While the former has no easy solution, guidebooks can help with the latter.

                K. MacKenzie and Doug Freeman’s The Un-Guidebook: Hong Kong & Macau reads very differently than other guidebooks. Such phrasing (“un-guidebook”) fits here because it’s not necessarily a guidebook to Hong Kong and Macau in the traditional sense. The book does not include maps or restaurant recommendations. The book does not tell you how best to haggle with the local vendors. The book doesn’t give much in way of translation advice. But what The Un-Guidebook does give are photos and short stories that play well together to knit a cohesive adventure through the area.

There’s no doubt a value to a good traditional guidebook while traveling. But what a guidebook won’t give you is the imagination, wonder, awe, inquisitiveness, whimsy, and delight that the authors describe on their journey. A guidebook won’t give you the realization of culture shock that undoubtedly comes with new experiences and locations. A guidebook won’t give you a 1000-character long tale on a line of clothes and fish drying out in the Sun.

                What’s neat about The Un-Guidebook: Hong Kong & Macau is that I learned much more than I thought I would about the local culture, environment, and experience than I feel I would reading a more traditional guidebook. I enjoyed the almost-meandering trip taken through the area; a feeling sorely missing in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I felt encouraged to plan a trip to find these locations scattered throughout Hong Kong and Macau, to explore without knowing the destination.

                I think that I would most certainly own or rent a guidebook if I travel outside of the country. I’d be lying if I said that I wouldn’t. That’s my own anxieties for sure. But, in that same vein, The Un-Guidebook could be just as valuable in that it can help immerse yourself into the area better than reading a traditional guidebook.

I give this book a 7.5/10 score. Congrats on your 4-star review!

You can find The Un-Guidebook series on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and on the author’s website Imaginexxus.