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How has a town named after a female vampire ghost spawned an entire genre of kitschy horror films? Why did a quiet Swiss man choose to live rough in the rainforest with the semi-nomadic Penans - and what inner spirit drove him to fight a David vs. Goliath rebellion against timber tycoons and corrupt officials who were destroying the Penans's forest home? Has White-Brown colonialism been replaced by Brown-Brown arrogance? What's the story of the grandmother who spits at meddling ghosts (but only because they spit first)? Why did the first White Rajah of Borneo amass a vast harem of concubines? What happened when I tried to ride the tidal bore that almost killed Somerset Maugham? In what way was an illiterate Borneo teenager instrumental in helping Alfred Russel Wallace develop the theory of natural selection? How close are we to orangutans, "our poor cousins who look like they haven't done so well in life."
This is Borneo as you've probably never imagined, full of curious people, startling happenings, and unexpected moments of humanity and introspection, giddiness and solemnity, avarice and ambition.
About the author
Paul Spencer Sochaczewski has written 12 books and has had some 600 by-lined articles published in major international publications, including The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, CNN Traveller, Geographical, Reader's Digest, and Travel and Leisure.
Paul has lived and worked in some 80 countries. He served in the United States Peace Corps in Sarawak, Malaysia (on the island of Borneo), and subsequently lived in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Switzerland. While with WWF - World Wide Fund for Nature International, Paul created international campaigns to protect rainforests, wetlands, plants, and biological diversity.
He walks his hilly home course (Maison Blanche Golf Club, near Geneva, Switzerland) and carries his clubs. He has a lucky Ganesha charm. Several, in fact. Well, actually, a few hundred.
