Asia: Planning Tools

Make sure you are adequately protected against illness with this chart covering every country.

Very nice map in PDF form which allows you to zoom in on any area for greater detail.

Way back in the dark pre-Internet, limited-air-travel world of 1975, the way to get from Europe to Asia was by train. A young and ambitious writer named Paul Theroux made his literary mark by taking the 28,000-mile intercontinental journey via rail from London to Tokyo and back home again. His book, The Great Railway Bazaar, became a travel-lit classic. Thirty years later, an older, wiser, and even less sanguine Theroux decided to retrace his steps. The result is Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, a fascinating account of the places you vaguely knew existed (Tbilisi), probably won't ever go to (Bangalore), but definitely should know something about (Mandalay). Get on board Theroux's fast-moving travelogue, which features some of the most astute commentary on our distorted notions of time, space, and each other in the age of jet speed, broadband connections, and cultural extinction. --Lauren Nemroff

Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid explore the peoples who live in the less familiar regions of China - Tibet, the Silk Road, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan and Guizhou - areas that are culturally distinct, with their own history and their own unique culinary traditions.

Delicious, lethal, hallucinogenic and medicinal, fruits have led nations to war, fueled dictatorships and lured people into new worlds. An expedition through the fascinating world of fruit, The Fruit Hunters is the engrossing story of some of Earth's most desired foods.

If you want the best way to determine the weather you are likely to encounter when traveling in any country in Asia, this is definitely the source to consult. Perhaps the best planning resource of its kind. Contains complete data for more than 16,000 locations, including for each month: average temperature, average high and low temperatures, highest and lowest recorded temperatures, average precipitation, average number of days above 90F (32C) and below freezing.