Through the Buffer State:

This book presents the recollections of the travels made by John MacGregor in Sarawak, Siam, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaya and Burma in 1895. It is a lively account by a medical doctor with a wide scope of interests, from contemporary political issues to the customs and the traditions of native peoples. The well-read author is on the look-out for the peculiar things one often finds in travelogs, in order to verify and to savor. The account excels in its colorful and often witty descriptions of encounters and events on the road to Singapore, Kuching, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Saigon, Malacca and Mandalay. It presents an accurate and lively picture of the people and the countries on the eve of rapid development.