Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo Paperback - 2000

First line

IN AUGUST 1976 I was faced with a simple choice: to fly directly from Djakarta to Singapore or to go to Singapore by way of Kuching, Sarawak, on the island of Borneo.

From the jacket flap

Eric Hansen was the first westerner ever to walk across the island of Borneo. Completely cut off from the outside world for seven months, he traveled nearly 1,500 miles with small bands of nomadic hunters known as Penan. Beneath the rain forest canopy, they trekked through a hauntingly beautiful jungle where snakes and frogs fly, pigs climb trees, giant carnivorous plants eat mice, and mushrooms glow at night.
At once a modern classic of travel literature and a gripping adventure story, Stranger in the Forest provides a rare and intimate look at the vanishing way of life of one of the last surviving groups of rain forest dwellers. Hansen's absorbing, and often chilling, account of his exploits is tempered with the humor and humanity that prompted the Penan to take him into their world and to share their secrets.

Media reviews

"[A] book in the highest tradition of travel writing, encompassing grace, curiosity, and fear."--The Washington Post

"[A] gracefully written and passionate--account of a strange world made palpable, written with disarming modesty and rare sensitivity."--The New York Times Book Review

"One reads it and simply marvels."--Outside

Citations

• New York Times, 12/17/2000, Page 36