In which Lonely Planet responds

I sent an email to Lonely Planet about all the crime in Vang Vieng. They mention pickpocketing in their guides as an "annoyance happening by other tourists." So I wrote that it has escalated to way more than an annoyance and that I was definitely mugged by a Laos man, not another tourist. The response amused me, especially the part I put in bold:

Hi Emily

Thanks for taking the time to contact us and I'm sorry to ehar of your experience in Vang Vieng. It certainly sounds like it's changed since I was last there around five years ago.

I've forwarded your comments on to the commissioning editor of the guidebook so that they can be taken on board when it's next updated. They'll also ensure that your email is forwarded to the authors before they begin their research and between them they'll try and work out how better to highlight this issue in the next edition.

Readers' feedback is a great help to us in keeping our books relevant and up-to-date, which in turn helps out other travellers [sic] who use our guidebooks.

Thanks again Andrea.

Cheers

Simon

I totally appreciate that they wrote back and hope that they do warn people not to go to Vang Vieng with anything valuable. And maybe I shouldn't point out that the guy called me Andrea and misspelled travelers, but I wouldn't be TravelingEm if I didn't support the correct spelling!

And speaking of the name Andrea, that's one of my cousins names. She pronounces it "Ann-dree-ah." However, when she got married in the church she's been attending since childhood in small town Ohio, you know the kind of place where everyone knows your name, the priest called her "Ahn-dray-ah" throughout the whole wedding. Does this mean she's not actually married?