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Supposedly Redmond O'Hanlon has written better. But unless you are the kind of person who enjoys plowing their way through a tired, often confusing account written a man plodding through the jungle, I suggest you forget this one. If you are an ornithological aficionado or expert of any kind, this is no doubt a must read.
The best of the book begins on page two where a Major Malcolm explains the potential dangers that lie ahead for the men. Smythies wrote "Birds of Borneo." The author refers to both about every five pages. With the exception of the first two or three chapters and about 20% thereafter, this travelogue/jungle study is a real snooze.
If you are someone who likes knowing the Latin name for all species encountered on a trip through a jungle, you're in for a treat. Personally I'd try my luck with any number of other travelogue writers before trying another of his. It ends on page six.
Perhaps you are best reading only those pages in the library and then putting this back on the shelf.One thing you will learn for sure if you make it halfway is that Bertram E.
In the end they confess that they never believed they'd be able to complete the trip, O'Hanlon being too fat and Fenton immensely old. Batu Tiban. Redmond O'Hanlon is a naturalist by training (Oxford) and was for years the natural history editor for the Times Literary Supplement, so inevitably the book contains frequent passages describing the nature--especially bird life--that they encounter. Along the way the troupe comes across other ethnic groups--some of whom bear generations old grudges against the Iban--and engage in riotous celebrations with them.
This classic travel adventure recounts a 1983 trip into, well, the heart of Borneo by the author, Redmond O'Hanlon, his friend the poet James Fenton, and three local Iban guides. O'Hanlon observes the world around him with a keen eye for detail and writes it all down in fabulously engaging prose. The sympathetic Iban will have many a good laugh on account of the two clumsy Britons. The purpose of the trip is, ostensibly, to try to rediscover the Borneo Rhinoceros that is believed to be extinct.
The book includes much interesting information about the people who live in inland Borneo. His sense of humour and self-depreciating style, as well as openness and empathy guarantee that this travel memoir is a definite winner. The story evolves around the unlikely party's boat trip upriver from Kuching on South China Sea to Mt. The trip is at times dangerous, as they traverse rapids and face other natural challenges en route.
And the reader consumes it. I regard it as doubtful whenever book writers take a commercial advantage when they design their individual pictures of other people which they have not studied thoroughly. Better read Alexander von Humboldt`s South American journey. But not so much more.
The inhabitants of inner Borneo might be "primitive" in comparison with us, but their mind is not necessarily less civilized. But for anybody who wants to know how the proper rainforest and the people who live there is, I cannot recommend this book. The so called British humour. Here it is not always very entertaining if not flat. Such kind of reports may impress those who stayed at home, which is not at last due to the expectation of the reader. You do get some knowledge about the indigenous people and birds which both are not fit for cage-holding.
Respect. How the protagonists behave in the jungle is partly naïve or distressing, at least they see it as such. Poor natives. This is what makes a good author, make a lot out of less. But the reality has a different look. Nevertheless it is an astonishing performance to make money with such an eventless story, in which there is nothing spectacular found, neither inside nor outside, without deeper insight in the course of the wildlife and the ways of the wild people. The art of humour should be not to practise it at the cost of others.
What types of drifters and trampers populate our last virgin forests. For me the book was boring. Everybody who has visited primitive people and tried to get acquainted with their way of thinking has the opportunity to learn that they are not different to us and that in each one are the same capabilities that are found in our human race everywhere. Maybe my different experience in the inner of Borneo is owed to the fact that I was not in the same place, but I fear it would have impressed me even less.
I had to buy another of his books after reading this one. Made us want to visit Borneo, but not to visit Borneo (you'll understand if you read it). This was a great surprise. Borrowed it from a relative and found it was absolutely hilarious.
how do i go about getting the book i ordered. received above book; correct cover, but inside is another book by name of 'the glass key' by dashiell hammett. tried to contact you by various means, to no avail.original packaging long gone.
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