New Guinea: Journey into the Stone Age (Passport's Regional Guides of Indonesia)

Rating:
Summary: The Only Guide to This Region
Review: Being the only guidebook to West Papua/Irian Jaya alone is a major merit of it. It also has well-researched background information and decent practical details on the major tourist attractions of this area.
However, ONLY the major tourist attractions (Jayapura/Baliem/Biak/Manokwari/Asmat) are covered in any detail, and even many of those descriptions are simply accounts of the author's own travels there, which seem to have taken place many, many years ago.
There is no description of plenty of other, relatively accessible and increasingly popular parts of Papua, some of which are actually covered in the Rough Guide to Indonesia.
But with coverage of this region in general guidebooks to Indonesia invariably limited in length, this book is certainly still worth buying by anyone who wants to spend more than just a week there.

Rating:
Summary: Superb!
Review: I found the book helpful, informative and the pictures to be breathtaking. It is a great combination of practical and aesthetic.

Rating:
Summary: By far the best travel guide for Irian/Papua
Review: This book has all the practical and background information -- and more -- that any backpacker or ecotourist would need to visit this mindblowing destination, truly one of the wildest, most exciting, and most remote places left on the planet (recently renamed Papua or West Papua). This place has it all -- some of the most pristine and richest rainforests anywhere, amazing and vibrant tribal cultures (some, like the Asmat and Dani are retain many of their traditional customs), loads of interesting, colorful, and strange critters (ex. Birds of Paradise), and some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. (Irian/Papua has the tallest mountains between the Himalayas and the Andes). Muller gives ample and well researched descriptions of the natural history, political background, and cultural context of Irian/Papua, as well as what any traveller will naturally want: practical tips on where to stay, what to do and see and how specifically to do it. There is also other essential stuff on recommended travel items, medical info, and other key stuff you'll want to have handy. There simply is no other book that gives so much background material as this one. For that matter, Muller's other guidebooks on Indonesia are similarly excellent. The Lonely Planet and Moon guidebooks to Indonesia are OK for other parts of the country, but very inadequate when it comes to Irian, so if you're headed there or thinking of going, this book is definitely the one you want. The pictures are also great, and will get you rearin' to go. I would have given it 5 stars, except for the fact that it doesn't have much info on several interesting parts of Irian -- but that's not Muller's fault, there are just some places that are just about impossible to get to. That said, there is more than enough data here on the obvious places (Baliem Valley, Jayapura, Biak, Asmat, Birds Head) that a first, second, or third time traveller to Irian/Papua will want or need.