Customer Reviews

Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Eric Hansen's a fantastic writer and an intrepid traveler. He doesn't actually travel the whole distance on foot (he does jump in river boats here and there) but that doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter if he made up the stories he narrates although I don't think he did. It's a great book. I finished Stranger in the Forest and I just picked up Motoring with Mohammed. I searched Amazon and noticed that he's only written a few travel books. I've very disappointed, I was hoping that he could provide me with at least a dozen wild and interesting travel tales.

Walking across Borneo? I mean, what?? Eric Hansen truly travels where few others would even want to. My favorite of his several very wonderful books will always be Motoring with Mohamed, but this one is a close followup.
An epic adventure through a world of extraordinary people, going about what they consider ordinary lives, Stranger in the Forest takes us step by step through the portals into an unimaginable world. Thank all the travel gods that Eric Hansen was the first white man that many of those living in these remote and inaccessible villages had ever seen. I can't imagine a better ambassador for a much-maligned America.
Excellent on all levels.

Panjamon is an older story of a similar journey told by an incredible storyteller,Jean Yves Domalain.

Eric Hansen has gone where few have traveled, and few have wanted to travel. His epic adventure is more than a guide to the region: it is a rare glimpse into an unimagined world. Despite National Geographic type articles, one would never have dreamed of this world of extraordinary people, going about what they consider ordinary lives. He did not just breeze into their country with an expedition mindset, guides and porters, al la the ordinary expedition management styles; rather he moved slowly and quietly, at a pace set by the people of the villages through which he passed. I felt priveleged to have been able to glimpse (albeit secondhandedly), his trip, and the lives of the very courageous people who not only live in Borneo; but have made a wonderful life for themselves, people who have a vast knowledge of the resources of their forests and the wildlife in them. From a modern worldview, these people may seem primitive; but he reveals them to be quite sophisticated within their world, and to have the character traits which lead to a good life in their world. It is one of the most appealing adventure stories I have ever read, written in a simple straightforward style, full of humor, pathos and intelligence. Excellent reading!

Eric does a fantastic job of allowing the reader to join him on his way across Borneo. I loved the personal transformation of being an outsider trying to use "normal" time and becoming a known-traveler realizing the unique beauties of another world (lands, people, cultures). It was a truly amazing self-discovery.

What a little beauty this is!

Nearly 20 years ago, a gangling, footloose American gets boozed with a bunch of Borneo river-dwellers, and finds himself bound in a gentle obsession.

Soon after, he takes off across the island of Borneo on foot armed with a quick schooling in tribal bartering systems and not much else. He has no visa, no valid passport, an unreliable map, and a few sentences of Bahasa Indonesian.

He can survive in the rainforest only as long as he maintains the trust of the people he meets, as guides, tutors, friends. He does far more than survive, and it is clear from the modesty, resilience and humor that comes through in his writing, that he was made for just this journey.

For months on end he immerses himself in a world of exquisite natural richness, among a people who are white-skinned in the permanent shade of the forest canopy, who have no tradition of stories of the moon or stars because they are almost never seen.

For weeks at a time he and his hunter guides are - in a Western sense - utterly "lost", moving apparently aimlessly through trackless bush. When Hansen asks one of his companions how they will find their way to their destination, the Penan hunter says simply: "We will follow our feelings." Without ever labouring it, Hansen has written a travel book that is deeply satisfying to the spirit, full of wonder and rich in humor. He also captures the moment at which an ancient, closed culture hears the first troubling thunder of global economics.

When finally he reaches the coast, Hansen is so depressed by "civilisation" that he does the sane thing - slipping back into the jungle to retrace his steps, all the way back to Sarawak.

So truly does he tell his story, I find myself missing him - wondering what he got up to when he finally returned to the US, what travels he might have done since. As I was finishing this book, I saw a travel brochure extolling Kuching, the Sarawak trading town that was Hansen's first step-off point. The glossy explained how easy it was nowadays to travel inland, with the interior "opened up by good logging roads".

Eric Hansen, lead the weeping.

Hansen provides not only an extremely personal account, but gives the reader an opportunity to experience the world and life learning that comes usually only from first hand travel experience. His book will be on my children's shelf long after I am gone.

I read this book when I was actually in Borneo where I spent over a year, visiting many of the places described in the book.
I found it plainly ridiculous!
The real Borneo is nothing like the "deepest- darkest" fantasy described in this book, nor was it even when those travels were supposedly taking place...
It is amazing that this book got such good marks from other readers and probably the best proof of how many lies one can get away with about places where most readers haven't been. :-)
A more realistic description of the same places on a similar trip could be read in "A Stroll Through Borneo" by James Barclay.