A Stroll Through Borneo

Barclay's book covers five month of travel in Borneo, in 1978. As he made his way from village to village, largely by his wits, Barclay got to experience the cultures and way of life of the various tribes, and the impact that the missionaries had on them. I am absolutely speculating, but it seems that in may of the places visited the missionaries were on the on the brink of effecting dramatic change, so this is one of many important books able to record some of the customs and behaviours of these people, who were obviously so in touch with their environment, before they were lost.

While Barclay shows no great love for the work the missionaries are doing, he remains neutral enough to them for the most part, likely he was aware that their cooperation could assist in his travel requirements. That is until near the end of his journey where he asks more of the obvious questions of those running the mission - and this makes it fairly obvious he doesn't believe the tribes are benefiting from the intrusion of the missionaries.

This aside, most of the book is dedicated to Barclay's travel - by boat, foot or small plane - through Sarawak and Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) mostly, but with a decent journey through Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) to Tarakan. Barclay seems to have the gift of befriending various people on his travels, many of whom offer to guide or host him as he makes his way around. He is quick to praise the hospitality of the long houses and most of the people he encounters - although he does point out the ethnic Malays, who fill most of the administrative roles, are the least helpful. He goes out of the way to point out how helpful the police and officials in Kalimantan are, in comparison to Malaysian Borneo (where the officials tried all ways to prevent him from travelling to the border) and only some quick thinking on his return to ‘civilisation' saved him from an interrogation.

While this was perhaps not the best written narrative, it was not overly repetitive. It touched on a lot of interesting aspects, describes a lot of interesting people and aspects of longhouse life. This was an enjoyable enough read to get 4 stars.

A quote I enjoyed. P87/88
The trading activity began to die down a little as night approached and a few mosquitoes began whining around. Tujok dipped his hand into his bag and produced a spray can with a net decorating the outside. He gave his arms and legs a spray and offered it around. Turning to me he offered the can saying, “Very good. Nyamok.” They were using it against mosquitoes but in inspecting the can more closely I read ‘Hairnet Spray'. I tried to explain that this was a hair net and not a mosquito net on the outside of the can. My phrasebook enabled me to get out that it was for using on hair, whereupon they all squirted their hair, plus a generous whoosh on to the hairs on my chest. I gave up, and for the rest of the trip Tujok was ‘setting' his arms, legs and hair which seemed to attract more mosquitoes than it repelled. He was always swatting and toward the end declared that his mosquito repellent was ‘no good'.