Capturing the beauty of Borneo
HE MAY have spent some 20 years in Malaysia but travel writer David Bowden is still able to appreciate the beauty of this country. His 80-page book Enchanting Borneo captures the beauty of Sabah and Sarawak, and also Brunei and the Indonesian state of Kalimantan.
He has also added some text to describe the people and places, imparting just enough useful information for readers.
Bowden wrote his first book, My Backyard, 25 years ago. It was set in Australia and was aimed at encouraging children to be environmentally-conscious.
“My background is in environmental studies. I wrote My Backyard to encourage kids to look at their own backyards and look out for plants, animals and insects.”
Bowden was then a specialist teacher who taught environmental studies and geography Sydney. His job was to take children into the Australian bush for camping and hunting so that they can learn all about the environment.
When he joined national conservation trust, WWF, 20 years ago, one of his first jobs involved some work in Sabah where he visited places like Turtle Island and Mount Kinabalu.
“It was fantastic. My connection to Borneo goes back about 20 years. Not that I’m an expert on Borneo but I go there regularly.”
Bowden has since been based in Malaysia and lives here with his Malaysian wife and their daughter.
He said whenever he went travelling, he would take pictures, and previously as a teacher he would use his pictures to illustrate the lessons he taught.
“For example, when teaching geography, I would show my pupils pictures such as farmers growing rice.”
He said there was an occasion when a publisher wanted to print a geography textbook and needed pictures of rice farmers. Bowden offered his pictures and was paid for them.
“I thought that was cool. After a while, I was selling my photographs.”
Bowden later realised that he had a collection of photographs that he had taken during his travels and decided to use them for his travel stories.
Enchanting Borneo joins four other titles published by John Beaufoy – Enchanting Cambodia, Enchanting Laos, Enchanting Philippines and Enchanting Thailand.
The photographs in Enchanting Borneo were taken two or three years ago. Some of the pictures are also credited to other photographers.
John Beaufoy, who now has his own publishing house, used to work with New Holland Publishers which specialises in picture books on Malaysia.
It was at meeting with Bowden that the enchanting series idea was born. Bowden is currently working on Enchanting Malaysia and Enchanting Singapore.
He has written travel books before but it looks like Enchanting Borneo is the most popular.
Asked if it was the colourful pictures or simple text that people found appealing, he said: “When you go to a bookshop, what’s the first thing you look at? The pictures,of course. Then you look at the captions and make a quick glance through the text. If you like the sequence, you’ll buy the book.”
Bowden believes that this book is for people who wish to go to Borneo on a holiday and want to show their kids or grandkids where they went.
Essentially, he writes a generalised view about the people, places, culture, flora and fauna.
“It’s easier to write a book with 100,000 words than a book with 8,000 words which is what this is.”
On why the book only devotes four pages to Kalimantan, Bowden said: “This book is for tourists and people usually don’t travel to Kalimantan. People usually go to Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei, and then go to central Kalimantan.”
Bowden also feels it is a shame many Malaysians do not visit Sabah and Sarawak because there are some fabulous places there. “The people there and their cultures are distinctly different … Borneo has this incredible mystery about it.”
He said tourists come to Sabah and Sarawak to see their natural treasures.
“You don’t have to build anything in Sabah and Sarawak for tourism. You don’t have to create things. They are already there. Look at Singapore, they have to create attractions because there’s nothing there.”
Enchanting Borneo is available at all major bookstores.
Source: Sun Daily (by S. Indra Sathiabalan)
