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Into the Heart of Borneo
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price:
$12.95
Asia Trips Trips Price:
$10.36
Your Savings: $ 2.59 ( 20% )
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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Vintage
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.9830438
EAN: 9780394755403
ISBN: 0394755405
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: 1987-09-12
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 1987-09-12
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Reviews:
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The story of a 1983 journey to the center of Borneo, which no expedition had attempted since 1926. O'Hanlon, accompanied by friend and poet James Fenton and three native guides brings wit and humor to a dangerous journey.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: publishing/printing madness
Comment: 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. how do i go about getting the book i ordered???
Customer Rating:
Summary: Would I or would I not travel with these two?
Comment: Yes and no. Yes, because these two old British stuffies set off on this journey just the way most "inexperienced" travelers would -- by the seat of their pants. No, because I think I would like a better idea of cuisine before I went.
This charming narrative of two British amatuer travelers inspires humor and awe. Of course they get into all sorts of problems and handle them with dry wit. But they also give stunning and lyrical descriptions of the people and the places they visited.
This was a living travel adventure without a tour-guide in sight.
Best of all, our intrepid souls showed respect and genuine affection for the native peoples they met. I didn't see any bigotry in this book -- except that which they found in themselves and discarded with ease.
Readers should be warned that many of the descriptions of the cultures they visited are very vivid and weak stomachs may not enjoy the unflintching pictures the story evokes.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Humorous Travelogue into Jungle of Borneo
Comment: This twenty-five year old tale of two Brits being transported by their faithful guides into the deepest jungle of Borneo is amusing and interesting.
Redmond O'Hanlon and the smoking (as in smoking) James Fenton (improbably) the Queen's Poet Laureate embark on a journey to discover the highest mountain of Borneo and hopefully the white Rhino, possibly an island dweller and certainly unseen in decades.
O'Hanlon takes a whimsical approach to this travelogue. The stars are his faithful tribal guides and the locals he meets as he journeys up river and away from modern life. Particularly enjoyable are the village stops where he and his crew are (usually) met with feasts, libations, dance and the occasional memory from the local chieftain's female relatives. The clash of cultures provides many funny moments without slipping into condescation.
Although there is a lot of discussion of birds and waxing about the various properties of rushes, finches, yellow-bellied-sap-suckers and the like, the book is informative and interesting with the occasional chuckle thrown in. Altogether an enjoyable arm chair trip.
Customer Rating:
Summary: All Around Great Reading
Comment: If a book has Redmond O'Hanlon's name on it, buy it. While reading this book, when I wasn't laughing out loud (and I never laugh out loud) I was enthralled with the subject matter. I hate to compare writers, but think Paul Theroux (but not mean), David Quammen and throw in a little Tim Cahill for good measure and you come close to Redmond O'Hanlon. I've read a quite a few travelogues and Redmond O'Hanlon represents the very best of the genre.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Off to see the lizard.
Comment: Long before Bill Bryson set out to take his walk in the woods, London Times' literary reviewer, Redmond O'Hanlon, and his friend, poet James Fenton, trekked deep into the heart of Borneo in search of a rare, albino rhinoceros, accompanied by three Iban natives, Dana, Leon, and Inghai. Romping through jungles, traveling by river, and doing the seven-step disco in late-night villages, the two aging academics tried their best to avoid 1,700 different species of parasitic worms, snakes, wild-boar ticks, leeches, amoebic and bacillary dysentery, yellow and blackwater and dengue fevers, malaria, cholera, typhoid, rabies, hepatitis, tuberculosis and crocodiles. O'Hanlon writes with a naturalist's eye for detail, noting the various birds, insects, trees and critters he encountered along the way. Equal parts travelogue and memoir, and with a generous measure of Monty Python-like humor, INTO THE HEART OF BORNEO relives O'Hanlon's 1983 quest into "the heart of twilight, the home of 'old mankind'" (p. 129). For me, life couldn't be much better, sitting in a Boulder coffeehouse, reading about O'Hanlon's adventures in Borneo.G. Merritt
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