Summary of Dennis James's Songs of the Baka and Other Discoveries

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 I was 76 years old and Barbara was 70 when we went trekking in Papua New Guinea. We were tired and covered in sweat, and we should have been sipping Pernod at Les Deux Magots café on the Boulevard Saint-Germain or wandering through the back streets of the Trastevere in Rome.
#2 Papua New Guinea is a destination that is enticingly exotic but too difficult to get to and get around in. We put together a unique itinerary that involves three- to four-day treks in three zones of PNG, interspersed with one-day stays at Western-style hotels.
#3 We spend thirty cramped hours in aluminum tubes, plus six or seven hours of layovers in sterile, sprawling airports. Our flight from LA to Brisbane is in almost total darkness as the plane races ahead of the sunrise. We fly through several time zones and cross the international dateline.
#4 The Highlanders of New Guinea have never had contact with the outside world. They have lived in isolation for thirty thousand years, and they have developed their own language and culture.

Sujets

• Travel
• Essays
• Travelogues

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 25 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822548909
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Dennis James's Songs of the Baka and Other Discoveries
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I was 76 years old and Barbara was 70 when we went trekking in Papua New Guinea. We were tired and covered in sweat, and we should have been sipping Pernod at Les Deux Magots café on the Boulevard Saint-Germain or wandering through the back streets of the Trastevere in Rome.

#2

Papua New Guinea is a destination that is enticingly exotic but too difficult to get to and get around in. We put together a unique itinerary that involves three- to four-day treks in three zones of PNG, interspersed with one-day stays at Western-style hotels.

#3

We spend thirty cramped hours in aluminum tubes, plus six or seven hours of layovers in sterile, sprawling airports. Our flight from LA to Brisbane is in almost total darkness as the plane races ahead of the sunrise. We fly through several time zones and cross the international dateline.

#4

The Highlanders of New Guinea have never had contact with the outside world. They have lived in isolation for thirty thousand years, and they have developed their own language and culture.

#5

There are a few small airlines that provide internal transport. These planes function like the local buses in New York City, taking passengers from city to city. The roads that do exist are compromised by potholes.

#6

We landed in a small village in the Bismarck Range. We were greeted by a group of men and a boy in full tribal regalia, who led us up a path to the village. We were welcomed into the village as honorary elders.

#7

The men of the village have holes in their septum, a traditional rite of passage to adulthood. The holes remain unadorned unless they participate in a dance or another special occasion.

#8

The trail to Waim is up and down steep slopes with loose rocks, a baked coagulate of rotted plants and red clay the viscosity of heavy grease. It is hot and wet. Every step is a potential sliding fall into the muck.

#9

The village of Simbai was beautiful, and the locals were welcoming and practice the same attention to orderliness and appreciation of the natural beauty around them that we saw in the highlands.

#10

The conflict between development and preservation of a unique indigenous culture is something that we have encountered on several trips. We have seen villages populated only by older people, and cities filled with the young who have not been able to achieve their dreams.

#11

We spend a pleasant last night in Simbai after a good dinner, sitting around the warm fire. The next morning, Dickson says our flight to Mount Hagen has been canceled. We are instead flying to Wewak, a coastal town.

#12

The next day, we are driven to Pawgi, a town on the Middle Sepik River, where we pick up our guide, James Korgo, on the way. We travel downstream for an hour to Korogo, a village spread along the left bank of the Sepik River.

#13

The village of Palumbei is particularly interesting. It looks like a Hollywood set for the musical South Pacific, with coconut palms towering over a manicured village green the size of a soccer field.

#14

Traveling on the huge river is mesmerizing. It loops and almost doubles back on itself. The rain lasts for thirty minutes, and then it wanes.