In the days before every backpacker wandered the streets of Saigon with a guidebook in hand, one turn-of-the-century French travel firm advertised Indochina as an adventure destination for European travelers.
The brochure below, published around 1910 by the Touring Club of France, describes Indochina’s top tourism destinations in both English and French. Covering Cambodia, Laos and all three regions of Vietnam, the modest guide touts the region as unpretentious, “free from the despotic enthusiasms of fashion”. When it comes to describing local people and customs, there's certainly some cringe-worthy language in here – cultural sensitivity wasn't exactly huge in 1910 – however the brochure also gushes over several tourist destinations that remain popular to this day, including the wonders of “Along Bay”, the Marble Mountains, Hue’s imperial monuments and Siem Reap's Angkor Wat.
Flip through the 1910 pamphlet below, courtesy of Flickr user manhhai:
[Photos via Flickr user manhhai]
