Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo (1988) is a travel book by American writer Eric Hansen, about a seven-month, 4000 km long journey (of which 2300 km on foot) through the heartland of Borneo in 1982. Hansen became one of the few westerners to walk across the island. He did so largely with the aid of local Penan, who took him away from the rivers, the most used transportation routes in Borneo, to walk through the jungle. The journey started in Marudi in Sarawak, Malaysia, at the northwest coast of the island. When, after an illegal border-crossing, he eventually emerged near the east coast in Kalimantan, Indonesia, the confrontation with western civilisation gave him such a culture shock that he turned around for another crossing of the island.
Summary
Preparation Hansen had spent many years preparing for the journey, through research at the University of California, which also had a complete collection of the Sarawak Museum Journals from 1912 onwards. His aim was to cross the island, following old trade routes, collecting jungle products and medicinal plants of value, and exchanging these and western goods for what he needed. This was based on what he had learned during a visit six years earlier. But when he arrived it turned out he was completely unprepared and his source had not been to the highlands. The reason there were no passport checks there was that it was almost impossible to move through that uninhabited, wild, jungle-clad country. He had also learned Malay, which helped him a lot. There were many languages spoken in Borneo, but it turned out that a version of Malay called 'bahasa pasar' (a lingua franca) was spoken throughout the interior. He flew across Borneo several times to familiarise himself with the landscape. He had also taken along seemingly very detailed British military survey maps. But these turned out to be far too outdated and inaccurate. The few Malay, Indonesian, English and Dutch surveyors who had managed to reach the centre of the island had never agreed on their findings. According to Hansen:
Dr A. W. Nieuwenhuis, two associates and 110 porters and bodyguards had preceded me to succeed in crossing the island, but that had been in 1897, and it had taken them a year. Certainly some local people and perhaps even some westerners have crossed the island. There are many stories, but the point of my trip was not to be the first, or the fastest, or the straightest. The challenge was to do it alone, to make myself completely vulnerable, and to be changed by the environment. However, he could only carry enough food for 3 or 4 weeks, and he figured he needed 3 months for the crossing. So he had to take along tradable items to exchange for food and whatever else he would need on the way.
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