AusTour 1: Lonely Planet

This bible of all things travel helped us plan this trip, from advice on attractions to recommendations on hostels. I can’t help but notice its incredible resemblance to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy from Douglas Adams’ novel of the same name. Replace ‘hitchhikers’ with ‘backpacker’s and ‘galaxy’ with ‘world’ and keep all the bits about towels and stuff and you’ve got exact replicas. The sometimes sarcastic and humorous descriptions hidden inside the countless pages of LP mirror some of the comedy that comes from the electronic system that is The Guide. Take this one for example from Sydney’s Pink House Backpackers (where we actually stayed): “Yep it’s a pink house. The relentless colour attack continues inside though spritely communal areas and across creaky floorboards.” It might be that you don’t see the humor in this until you actually see the pink house, but everything described there is 100% true. They don’t hold anything back either, from Newcastle: “your first stop should be the Queens Wharf Tower…it is 40.3m high, has 180 steps and is otherwise referred to by the locals as the ‘Giant Penis.’”
As the backpacker’s number one resource (at least to us it was), I’m surprised at this point that, like The Guide, it doesn’t boast the bright lettering of ‘Don’t Panic’ on the front.