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| Richard Cloue, Peter John Jaban, Michel Viet, Robert Raymer, Laure Michel, and Bidayuh boat owner! |
Peter had expected it to float on the
river and was waiting to capture it, but instead, it sank. The river was too deep and too muddy to see. The Bidayuh cast his fishing net several
times but failed to catch it.
Meanwhile, Michel, in panic mode,
handed me his glasses and shirt and went into the river to see if he could
retrieve it himself. Although understandable, I thought it was a really bad idea….This
is where serious accidents happen; the river’s current was swift from the
recent rain and Michel was not young at age 68.
Luckily for Michel, Peter and the Bidayuh
made sure nothing untoward happened. Eventually,
all three of them returned to us, though saddened by the loss. Not only was the top-end drone gone (that
cost 700 Euros), they lost all that great footage on the river.
When I handed Michel his shirt and glasses,
he looked at me with startled surprise.
“I
thought I had lost them.”
As we were about to leave for Kampung
Git, there was some concern that there were too many of us to ride safely in
the longboat—although long it can be quite unsteady getting in and out. Again, I felt like an extra tire that wasn’t
supposed to be there. Once the six of us
settled in with all the gear, with Richard at the helm so he could get in some
river shots, we were fine.
Getting out though was another
matter; when Michel got out, the longboat rocked and I, in the midst of getting
up, landed on my back. I was just glad I
didn’t end up in the river.
With the light fading and time running
out, since they were scheduled for the pepper farm shooting the next few days,
this was their last chance to finish the Maugham shoot, so Richard had me sit
on some boulders, with the river and the longboat as a backdrop.
I talked about the characters in some
of Maugham’s stories, who came out here between the wars, adapting to life on
the lonely outposts alongside Borneo rivers, surrounded by jungle, feeling at
times euphoric, like a king among his far-reaching district, his domain, not seeing
another Westerner for months at a time. For some, this was the life; for others, they
buried their loneliness, their misery, and their unsuitability for the task (even their
incompetence) by getting drunk.
In the preface to
the Completed Short Stories, Vol. III Maugham wrote, “England was very far away
and when at long intervals they went back was increasingly strange to
them. Their real home, their intimate
friends, were in the land in which the better part of their lives was spent.”
As an expat, having
spent half of my life in Malaysia, I could relate.
While some of the
district officers and other expats went “native”, others took the opposite
extreme, dressing up for dinner every evening, even when dining alone in a
remote administrative outpost surrounded by the Borneo jungle, like Warburton
in “The Outstation” who felt, “When a
white man surrenders in the slightest degree to the influences that surround him
he very soon loses his self-respect, and when he loses his self-respect you may
be quite sure that the natives will soon cease to respect him.”
Regarding “Flotsam and Jetsam”,
Maugham wrote, “It was rather absurd, and somehow sinister to see the social
pretense in those poverty stricken surroundings on a Borneo River.”
Maugham himself admitted,
“I never felt entirely myself till I had put at least the channel between my
native country and me.”
Maugham also wrote in one
of his later novels, “I
want to see life and death, and the passions, the virtues and vices, of men
face to face, uncovered.”
Here in Maugham country, he found it and exposed it in his short stories.
Richard told me there was no more light
to film, but I was on a roll and wanted to keep talking, to finish answering
the questions that Laure had showed me earlier.
I suggested that, although they couldn’t see me, they could continue
filming for the dialogue, which they could then use as voice over for earlier
shots of me walking here and there in the jungle. Laure agreed so I continued to talk in the fading
light.
I had just finished, when suddenly, unexpectedly,
on the opposite side the river the jungle lit up red from a stunning
sunset. Excited, Richard asked me to stand
at the edge of the river, facing the sunset, while I talked about being in the
moment, feeling mesmerized yet also euphoric standing there in the silence in near-darkness,
alongside the upper Sarawak River…
I became this silhouette against the
river and the jungle amid this amazing afterglow of red. I also felt what those lonely district
officers must have felt when they witnessed the same beautiful sunset.
Later, I texted my wife to relate what
happened to Michel’s drone. When I
reached home, the boys were sad and expressed their concern for Michel, whom they
referred to as “master of the drone.”
 |
| "Master of the Drone" Michel Viet with Jason, Laure, and Justin |
“Did Michel cry?” Justin asked me.
I said, “No,” but I told them about
his gallant effort to save his missing drone at great personal risk to
himself.
I had suggested to Karen that perhaps
she could borrow or rent a drone for the pepper shots. She knew some people who had drones, and was
able to borrow one, so the filming continued on schedule….On Thursday evening,
after the pepper story was complete, Laure asked me to join them for drinks at
Grand Margherita and seafood at Top Spot.
It was fun seeing them again and hearing about the rest of the shoot.
But now it was time to say goodby, at least for now, to Somerset Maugham.
But now it was time to say goodby, at least for now, to Somerset Maugham.
Although I was not paid for my part in the filming and went into it fully understanding that, (though hoping some money might materialize), I was rewarded many times over by renewing some friendships, for the excitement the filming brought to my children (especially seeing a drone up close and in operation), for the opportunity to go upriver on a longboat (thanks, Karen!) and watching Peter cook this marvelous dinner in bamboo on a tiny pebbled beach at the edge of river.
For me, being able to break out of my routine, to take step back from writing
in isolation and realizing there’s a big world out there in my own
backyard—Borneo—felt awfully good.
The following days, as I reflected
back over those moments of being filmed talking about Somerset Maugham in three
distinct settings, I wasn’t so concerned about how I would come across, how
quotes could be misconstrued or even taken out of context to fit the
documentary’s or even the listening audience’s preconceived ideas about Maugham
or life here in Borneo...
Instead I thought of that sunset, the
vivid color of red glowing in the jungle.
For me, that was the perfect ending for a magical two days of filming
that literally came out of the blue.
—BorneoExpatWriter
Here's a link to the intro and excerpts, and to four reviews of Trois Autres Malaisie in eurasie.net, Malaisie.org, easyvoyage.com, and Petit Futé mag.
The ARTE TV report will be broadcasted on June 5th: http://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/071100-062-A/invitation-au-voyage. It will be available online until August 4th!
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