A Cobra Hijacked My Camera Bag! Snakes and Stories from Taiwan
Thanks, again, for letting me plug my stuff here with shameless abandon
In other news, after eight and a half years in Borneo, I'm moving back to Taiwan next Sunday. Our kids have finished high school here in Sarawak and are off into the world; and I'm looking forward to new discoveries in my old home; discoveries that life in Borneo taught me about. The birds, the bugs, the orchids of Taiwan - I never really noticed those in my 30 years on that island; all I ever saw was snakes, snakes, and more snakes. But the splendors of Borneo do something to one's evolution as a nature lover - you may arrive as a specialist (snakes and carnivorous plants, in my case), but you will leave as a generalist. People still call me "the snake guy", but I've become so much more. Through the lens of Borneo's natural treasures (including Gekko monarchus in my aircon and Periplaneta australasiae under my fridge) I even learned to appreciate the fauna and flora in that boring little country in Central Europe where I hail from. You know, the one that has three snake species.
Bidding goodbye to one of the world's hottest biodiversity hotspots, here are some memories of that long and strange trip. Furthermore (and you're probably sick of hearing about, but never seeing it) as I've been "promicrastinizing" for years now, there's a second book coming up which chronicles our eight years in the rainforest - The Snake in the Monkey Cup - An Amateur Naturalist in Borneo. Already 75k words of 110k done. Got the cover art, too. Probably publishing next year. Or something. I still have to slowly re-adapt to a country without proper durians; and then there are those Formosan orchids and migrant birds and jewel beetles that need looking at
Cheers, and in the meantime, buy my book!
Hans
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