Jim Eagles: Vicarious adventures

Want to meet a real, live adventurer and travel writer? Eric Hansen, a man who fervently believes travel should be an adventure, will be one of the guests at this year's Auckland Readers' and Writers' Festival, which is being held on May 20-22.

Hansen is at the festival because he is a highly acclaimed travel writer. But it's clear he is a traveller first and a travel writer second. His wonderful first book, A Stranger in the Forest, tells of an extraordinary trek he made through the rainforests of Borneo with the nomadic Penan people.

At the time he had no thought of writing a book - "I'd never written anything," he says - but when the story of his journey spread he suddenly found publishers chasing him to write it.

The book received rave reviews when it appeared in 1988 and demonstrated that as well as having an adventurous spirit he was also a talented writer.

Since then Hansen seems to have done more adventuring than writing because he has produced just three more books. Orchid Fever paints an absorbing picture of the strange world of orchid trading. Motoring with Mohammed tells of journeys through Yemen. Both were hugely successful.

His latest book, a collection of tales from 30 years of travelling, is reviewed below.

* Further information on the writers' festival is on www.writersfestival.co.nz.

THE BIRD MAN AND THE LAP DANCER: Close encounters with strangers
by Eric Hansen
Methuen, $29.95

Eric Hansen is in pursuit of the most fascinating experiences the world has to offer. And he obviously doesn't care where his search takes him. After hearing about a biologist who has taken a party of strippers and lapdancers birdwatching he tracks down the biologist and the dancers to seek an explanation.

To discover the mystical effects of the kava ceremony on the Vanuatu island of Tanna he takes part - and is wiped out for two days. While trapped in Calcutta wrestling with the Indian bureaucracy he works at Mother Teresa's Home for the Dying Destitute. And to gain insights into the workings of Maldives society he becomes a dried-fish smuggler.

These and other extraordinary experiences are recalled in the nine vignettes of people and places which make up his latest book. Ironically, the about the birdman and the lapdancer is the weakest offering. It reads like a rather bad newspaper feature written off a tape recorder.

The best is his description of the time when a prawn boat he was crewing sought refuge from Cyclone Tracy at Thursday Island and he was so captivated by a night in the bar of the Grand Hotel he decided to jump ship and experience some more. It paints a marvellous picture of a colourful community and gives an insight into Hansen's approach to life.

Describing the night in the bar he recalls, "With the passage of time, it is difficult to pinpoint the highlight of that evening, but I would guess it was probably the sight of a man spitting his flaming dentures off the end of the wharf, as he tried to teach me how to blow fireballs with a mouthful of kerosene and a burning newspaper.

"The Grand Hotel had a dreamlike, otherworldly feel to it. The bar was a paradise of strangers and, judging from the bawdy, carnival-like activity that took place the first night, I recognised a rare opportunity.

"Seldom does one have the chance to enjoy the company of people who have so completely given themselves to the cultivation of the low life with such gusto. They had elevated this sort of behaviour to an art form and I wanted to be part of it."

It's that single-minded dedication to his self-imposed task of exploring the widest possible range of human experiences that makes his work so appealing.

Hansen describes the book as "the result of digging into my past in an archaeological sort of way; sifting through rubble and sediment to uncover my past and its meaning (one of the great luxuries of being a writer)".

Unfortunately, it is hard to avoid the view that, unlike his previous efforts, a couple of the stories are a little contrived, experiences sought out to write about, rather than being experiences enjoyed for their own sake and then written about as an afterthought. Nevertheless, it is still a fascinating read, a marvellous series of snapshots of the diversity of human life, and an inspiration to adventure.

ANT EGG SOUP: the adventures of a food tourist in Laos
By Natacha Du Pont De Bie
Sceptre, $29.99

What a splendid, sumptuous, stimulating, mouth-watering delight of a book. Sure, the likes of raw turkey blood, pig lung salad, frog stew or the ant egg soup that provides the book's title will not be everyone's cup of tea, but even if you don't want to try all the food, the story of Natacha Du Pont De Bie's journey through the unexplored byways of Laos and its cooking should get your travel buds tingling.

And, let's face it, half the fun of travelling is trying new things, even if you don't want to try them a second time.

De Bie loves food, especially Asian food, and loves travelling, especially meeting people and discovering new dishes, so for her the relatively unknown kitchens of Laos are simply paradise.

A story about some interesting regional dish, or a report of a wonderful cook in some remote village, is enough to send her travelling in pursuit hundreds of kilometres in an overloaded bus or ramshackle plane.

Not surprisingly, this enthusiasm is reciprocated by her Laotian quarry, who are delighted to welcome this charming foreigner into their homes, share their food, show her how to cook their dishes and offer unique insights into their lives.

The result is a wonderful series of stories from places such as the Plane of Jars, the old royal capital of Luang Prabang, the extraordinary market at Muang Sin where dozens of unique hill tribes gather to sell their wares, the waterfalls of Kung Si, the festival of the golden stupa in Vientiane, the aid workers in Salavan - where she finally catches up with ant egg soup - or the phallic shrine of wat Phu. And, as a bonus, after each chapter are detailed recipes for the dishes she discovered in each place.

Go on, give it a try - you might manage to overcome that silly prejudice against eating things like offal or insects, which, in other cultures, are delicacies.

A VISITOR'S GUIDE TO AUCKLAND REGIONAL PARKS
by Valerie Monk
New Holland, $24.95

Nice idea. The Auckland Regional Council has some wonderful parks that don't get used as much as they should. A book about them would go some way towards changing that. Unfortunately, this book is only a step in the right direction. It certainly explains where the parks are, how to get there and what you can do when you arrive. But much of the information provided is too generalised.

If you want to know something specific - for instance, I wanted to find about walking from Mangatangi Reservoir to Whakatiwai - you still have to ring the ARC.

Let's hope this is just a start and that coming up is a second edition which goes into much more practical detail. But I won't be buying it until then.