I came across this interesting book, Mark Jenkins, editor, Worlds to Explore: Classic Tales of Travel & Adventure from National Geographic (Washington, National Geographic Society, 2006). It is a collection of articles in National Geographic Magazine, including Theodore Roosevelt on Africa in 1911, Edmund Hillary on Everest in 1954, and Anne Morrow Lindbergh on North Atlantic Flight in 1934, among other adventurers.
One article that caught my attention immediate was "Keeping House in Borneo" by Virginia Hamilton (a.k.a. Mrs. Gerrit Middelberg) in September 1945. She gives a great account of living in Borneo by someone who lived there full time. The beauty and challenges of the wildlife as well as the diversity of the plants.
One quote caused me to laugh: "Four inch centipedes were at home in the dampness under potted plants, making gardening not always pleasant. Wooly spiders and black scorpions sometimes found their way indoors. But when I found five young cobras in three days sunning themselves on the doorsill and realized tht the parents must be near by, I nearly moved out . . . "
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