Indonesian New Guinea: West Papua/Irian Jaya (Periplus Adventure Guides)

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: Really good, thorough guide
Review: Having Just returned from Western Papua I can say this is a really good guide. It was well researched, informative and definitely added to my enjoyment. A few of the points/suggestions seemed a bit out of date but aside from that I heartily recommend this book as a smart, sober, interesting guide. A must buy for anyone travelling to the Asmat.