Espresso with The Headhunters - A Journey Through the Jungles of Borneo

Review by Philip Blazdell

I was really looking forward to reading this book. It promised to be a real boy's own adventure. The blurb on the back of the book grabbed me: Having cast aside his Armani jeans and bought up all the jungle equipment he could find, John Wassner sets off to experience and explore the wilds of Borneo, one of the last relatively unknown places on earth. His only concern: whether he would be able to find a decent cup of espresso in the jungle. Who could not be attracted by such a premise?

However, Wassner clearly isn't Eric Hanson (Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo) or Redmond O'Hanlon (Into the Heart of Borneo) and his clumsy, almost pedantic, style, makes this book hard going. Wassner, however, clearly has some good ideas and an interesting slant on things but his poor depth of characterisation (hardly any of the locals in the book appear anything more than shadowy two-dimensional figures), inability to describe with any degree of panache the stunning scenery through which he is passing (things are invariably, 'awesome' or 'stunning') and general lack of emotion in the text clearly limit the scope of this book.

Two sections stand out as being typical of this book faults. About half-way through the book, after trekking through the jungle for what seems like days (barely any mention of the flora or fauna) the author comes across a Dutch Man, who is riding his bike through the jungle. Clearly this is something both interesting and remarkable. However, instead of fleshing out the Dutch man and telling his story a little he is dismissed as, 'cycling from Holland,' and left to wander the remainder of the text as some literary loose-end.

Towards the end of the book the author attends a head-hunting festival. Clearly this should be something which is both memorable and exciting to describe but the author approaches it with such a degree of pedestrian normality that you might think that he is describing a trip to the local supermarket. The author is keen to continually remind the poor reader that he has taken a year to plan this trip but he seems to have spent little of this time reading up on local culture or legends which could have him piece together the festival in to a more palatable form. One can't help but feel that Wassner may be one of the last writers to observe such important cultural events first-hand and this makes his lumpy descriptions even more frustrating.

However, there are some redeeming features of this book. Wassner is a pretty inoffensive traveller. He is polite, respectful and generally forgiving of people's foibles. What he lacks in writing ability he compensates by a gentle self-effacing charm which is hard to dislike. Overall, this isn't a bad book but, with a little more effort, it could have been a truly great one.

• Espresso with The Headhunters - A Journey Through the Jungles of Borneo by John Wassner