The Real First White Rajah of Borneo
Posted on 28. Mar, 2024 by Paul Sochaczewski in Articles, Sultan and the Mermaid Queen
Real First White Rajah of Borneo" class="thumbnail" height="220" width="200" />I belong to a small group of people curious about the life and times of Alexander Hare. When we get together, we ponder an improbable question: How did an ambitious 19th-century slave-owner, harem-builder, and political arriviste become the First White Rajah of Borneo?
The bigger question: How does one become king or queen numero uno? More specifically, how might I become the first Supreme Leader With Wisdom Like Solomon Whose Eyes Spot Prey Like an Eagle and Whose Courage Rivals That of a Tiger of my own country?
Read More“Look Here, Sir, What a Curious Bird”
Posted on 07. Jul, 2023 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books
“Look Here, Sir, What a Curious Bird” Searching for Ali, Alfred Russel Wallace’s Faithful Companion Publishing details Publication: July 4, 2023 ISBN: Trade Paperback: 978-2-940573-41-7 ISBN: eBook: 978-2-94-573-42-4 310 pages Prices: Paperback: $18.95 eBook: $8.95 Note: The book is also available on order from independent booksellers Description For some 50 years, I […]
Read MoreA Conservation Notebook
Posted on 17. Jul, 2022 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books
A Conservation Notebook Ego-Greed, and Oh-So-Cute Orangutans — Tales From a Half-Century on the Environmental Front Lines Publishing details Publication: June 28, 2022 ISBN: Trade Paperback: 978-2-940573-39-4 ISBN: eBook: 978-2-940573-40-0 310 pages Prices: Paperback: $18.95 eBook: $8.95 Note: The book is also available on order from independent booksellers Description Are you optimistic about […]
Read MoreSearching for Ganesha
Posted on 21. Oct, 2021 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books
Searching for Ganesha Collecting Images of the Sweet-Loving, Elephant-Headed Hindu Deity Everybody Admires Publishing details ISBN: Paperback: 978-2-940573-37-0 ISBN: eBook: 978-2-940573-38-7 248 pages More than 200 full-color, museum-quality photos of Ganesha objects in Paul’s collection Prices: Paperback: $34.95 eBook: $9.99 A sample selection of pages from the book Description Across […]
Read MoreEarthLove: Chronicles of the Rainforest War
Posted on 18. Oct, 2020 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books
EarthLove Chronicles of the Rainforest War ISBN: 978-2-940573-35-6 Description There is a war to save the rainforests of Borneo. EarthLove chronicles the history of the global conservation movement and exposes battles pitting ego and greed versus noble intentions. Who has the power to stop the rape of the tropical rainforests? Rich, athletic, virile Senator Rod […]
Read MoreDead, but Still Kicking
Posted on 15. May, 2019 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books
Do you believe in spirits?
Paul Sochaczewski travels to Indonesia, Myanmar, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland to speak with mediums, shamans, and, yes, spirits of dead folks. In this innovative work of personal journalism, Sochaczewski—a self-described Agnostic Spiritualist—creates the Three Tenets of Spiritualism. He gets a personal mandate from Moses, speaks with Alfred Russel Wallace about his relationship with Charles Darwin, gets frustrated by conflicting messages given by Wallace’s assistant Ali, encounters a female vampire ghost who wants to follow him home (it’s his own fault), converses with nature spirits, and is invited on a date with the Mermaid Queen of Java.
Read MoreExceptional Encounters
Posted on 31. Jan, 2018 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books
Can an army of orangutan guerillas save the Indonesian rainforest? Why is China creating a retirement haven in the South China Sea for rich despots? What happened when the descendant of the over-sexed first White Rajah of Borneo returned to claim his throne? Did Filipino “love sorcerers” help swing a U.S. election? Can an American pilgrim find enlightenment through carnal escapades? How can Asia’s first “shaman university” repel attacks by rogue black-magic wizards? And why is Indonesia’s Mermaid Queen really angry and not going to take it anymore?
Read MoreAn Inordinate Fondness for Beetles
Posted on 23. Aug, 2012 by Paul Sochaczewski in An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles
While Alfred Russel Wallace is recognized as co-discoverer of the theory of natural selection (and was perhaps deliberately sidelined by Darwin) he was also an edgy social commentator and a voracious collector of “natural productions” – while in Asia he caught, skinned, and pickled 125,660 specimens including 212 new species of birds, 200 new species of ants, and 900 new species of beetles.
In the book Sochaczewski, who has lived and worked in Southeast Asia for more than 40 years, follows Wallace’s eight years of exploration in Southeast Asia, based on Wallace’s classic book The Malay Archipelago.
In An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles Sochaczewski has created an innovative form of storytelling, combining incisive biography and personal travelogue.
Read MoreDistant Greens
Posted on 14. May, 2012 by Paul Sochaczewski in Distant Greens
Distant Greens travels to the highest golf course in the world, where breathless Tibetan precepts come face to face with the oxymoron of Indian military intelligence. To a golf course in the Amazon rainforest, near the source of rubber, which revolutionized the game. To the Middle Kingdom, to examine claims that it was the Chinese, and not the Scots, who invented golf. And to a volcanic Indonesian course where the Mermaid Queen ensures that “her” sultan always has good weather when he plays.
Distant Greens also travels into the soul of golf, the rituals, the belief that a tetrachaidecohedron-dimple-pattern can make a difference. Why can throwing junk-shop 4-irons provide an insight into the soul? What does a Zen priest in Japan hope to teach his acolyte golfers? Why do people cheat? Why do golfers remember the bad shots instead of the good shots? And why is golf more important, to some folks, than sex?
Read MoreRedheads
Posted on 02. Apr, 2010 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books, Redheads
In this satirical eco-thriller…
In the middle of a Borneo rainforest a band of near-naked Penan tribesmen, encouraged by an equally clothes-challenged renegade Swiss shepherd, hesitantly blockade a logging truck, testing their commitment to protect their forest home.
Nearby, an orangutan researcher is threatened with being thrown out of her isolated study site unless she can reach a delicate compromise with the powerful minister of the environment.
Who has the answer to saving the world’s oldest forest – the marketing experts of the world’s largest nature conservation group or the earnest monkey-wrenchers? Can the timid Penan rise up to defend their home?
At the heart of Redheads fictional action lies the very real problem of rainforest destruction and the philosophical question of where the real boundaries lie between apes and humans. And just what is it about red silk underwear, anyway?
Read MoreShare Your Journey – Mastering Personal Writing
Posted on 07. Oct, 2015 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books, Share Your Journey
I’m pleased to announce the publication of a book I’ve been working on for twenty years: Share Your Journey: Mastering Personal Writing.
It contains the (surprisingly easy) techniques professional writers use to write personal memoirs and travel stories that connect with editors and readers.
This fun and well-illustrated handbook is filled with cartoons, music, and film references, as well as plenty of examples of good and bad writing. It’s based on the writing workshops I’ve run in some twenty countries.
Read MoreCurious Encounters of the Human Kind – Southeast Asia
Posted on 07. Oct, 2015 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books, Curious Encounters of the Human Kind
This is the fifth book in a five-book series of unusual (and true) personal travel tales.
What’s the attraction of coffee that’s been digested by a civet? Can 200-million-year-old fossilized freshwater shark dung bring you good luck? Why do boys like to make things go bang — hey, lemme try the AK-47!? Why is the belching and slovenly widow of Laos’s first president so possessive about the animal she considers her white elephant? How did Vietnam’s last elephant hunter, at the age of 90, get a lucrative sponsorship deal for a tonic that makes men more powerful? Did a love potion help a Filipino politician become governor? And what role did an absurdly-rich, secretive American businessman (who enjoyed deflowering virgins) have in creating Vietnam’s golf boom?
Read MoreCurious Encounters of the Human Kind – Borneo
Posted on 07. Oct, 2015 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books, Curious Encounters of the Human Kind
This is the fourth book in a five-book series of unusual (and true) personal travel tales.
How has a town named after a female vampire ghost spawned an entire genre of kitschy horror films? Why did a quiet Swiss man choose to live rough in the rainforest with the semi-nomadic Penans — and what inner spirit drove him to fight a David vs Goliath rebellion against timber tycoons and corrupt officials who were destroying the Penans’s home? Has White-Brown colonialism been replaced by Brown-Brown arrogance? What’s the story of the grandmother who spits at meddling ghosts (but only because they spit first)? Why did the first White Rajah of Borneo amass a vast harem of concubines? What happened when I tried to ride the tidal bore that almost killed Somerset Maugham? In what way was an illiterate Borneo teenager instrumental in helping Alfred Russel Wallace develop the theory of natural selection? How close are we to orangutans — “our poor cousins who look like they haven’t done so well in life” — and why do some rehabilitant orangutans go bi-polar?
Read MoreCurious Encounters of the Human Kind – Himalaya
Posted on 07. Oct, 2015 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books, Curious Encounters of the Human Kind
This is the third book in a five-book series of unusual (and true) personal travel tales..
What’s a girl to do when a Hindu god doesn’t return her mountain? Would you risk your life by hugging a tree? How do you find a nameless young girl you first met (for five minutes) twenty-six years earlier? For environmental consciousness should we trust the international-bureaucrats or a Bhutanese farmer? Does the Himalayan yeti illuminate the dark side of our souls? Why do we share a need with Tibetan refugees to “rid the land of demons”? How do “often frothy” phalluses protect Bhutanese villagers?
Read MoreCurious Encounters of the Human Kind – Indonesia
Posted on 07. Oct, 2015 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books, Curious Encounters of the Human Kind
This is the second book in a five-book series of unusual (and true) personal travel tales.
Why do prominent modern Indonesian sultans continue love affairs with the Mermaid Queen? Why is the island of Flores Ground Zero for Hobbit sightings? How does a Papuan hunter juggle the preachers and other do-gooders who want a piece of his soul? Why did a now-neglected spice cause historic mayhem among greedy Europeans? Why does it make good business sense to make friends with the dragon princess? Why is discovering a new species almost as good as sex? What is the allure of Waltzing Banana Island? Can an elderly village woman armed with just a broom and gumption kill giant mosquitoes ‘til they’re dead?
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