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Eyeball fungi

Eyeball fungi

Marty’s photo of the day #4553: I’m back in Montana after two performances of “Around the World in 50 Minutes” on two Davidson-Davie Community College campuses (in North Carolina). Both shows went great and both drew way more people than the college expected, so it was happiness all around. After yesterday’s show, I drove straight […]

The pig cobra

The pig cobra

Marty’s photo of the day #4417: The following short excerpt is from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. For this adventure, Deb and I are on the island of Borneo, and Stephen is our guide from the Dusun Segama tribe: Eventually we rose to our feet and started toward the […]

Gifts for the Iban headman

Gifts for the Iban headman

Marty’s photo of the day #4400: When my wife, Deb, and I explore remote regions of the world, we always bring gifts for the indigenous people. When in the Amazon Rainforest, we bring the children T-shirts, sugar-free gum, bubbles, and harmonicas. In this photo, Deb is presenting a gift to the headman of an Iban […]

From the island of Borneo

From the island of Borneo

Marty’s photo of the day #3874: I generally do not post photos of plants or animals that I haven’t identified. I am making the exception today. I photographed this alien-looking flower while backpacking with the Iban tribe on the island of Borneo. I am pretty sure, however, that if you touch the flower, it will […]

How’s the war?

How’s the war?

Marty’s photo of the day #3564: This excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, tells the story: Our adventure began on Friday, April 11, 2003, when we landed at Kuching Airport. Our guide, Bayang, picked us up with the Borneo Adventure van. He was a muscular, round-faced man in […]

Nanga Sumpa

Nanga Sumpa

Marty’s photo of the day #3551: For anyone who has read my latest book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, this is Nanga Sumpa, the Iban longhouse that Deb and I raced the flooding deep-canyon river to get to. In Borneo, entire tribes live in a single longhouse, and when […]

Our feet tell the story

Our feet tell the story

Marty’s photo of the day #3539: For those who have read my just released sixth book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, this photo says a lot. I took it the day after Deb’s and my backpacking trip on the mountainous island of Borneo with the Iban tribe. When torrential […]

Defying death in Borneo

Defying death in Borneo

Marty’s photo of the day #3525: One of the chapters in my newly published sixth book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, follows Deb and me on a death-defying backpacking trip in Borneo with the Iban, a tribe once famous for headhunting. Here’s an excerpt from that chapter. Johnathan was […]

The end of navigable water

The end of navigable water

Marty’s photo of the day #3437: For those who have read my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, or have seen my college show, Around the World in 90 Minutes, this is the navigable end of the Batang AI River in Borneo. Here, Deb and I would get out of our […]

Apparently, it’s edible

Apparently, it’s edible

Marty’s photo of the day #2932: Yes, I know what you thought the instant you saw this. But it’s called “eyeball fungi.” I photographed it while backpacking with the Iban tribe on the island of Borneo. The Iban I was with at the time said that the fungi was edible, and I could try it […]

From the deep dark rainforest of Borneo

From the deep dark rainforest of Borneo

Marty’s photo of the day #2909: While working on my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, Deb and I were only the third outsiders to backpack with the Iban (a reformed headhunting tribe) across a special section of Borneo’s rainforest. You can read about our adventure in my book, so I […]

The feet tell the story

The feet tell the story

Marty’s photo of the day #2846: Why am I posting a photo of Deb’s and my feet? If you’ve read my first book, “Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents,” you know. We were only the third outsiders to ever hike deep into a section of Borneo’s rainforest. We lost our guide halfway through […]

The rain in Borneo . . .

The rain in Borneo . .  .

Marty’s photo of the day #2080: Deb’s and my first stop, before leaving on our Borneo backpacking trip with the Iban tribe, was the city of Kuching. This short excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, explains the scene: Hand in hand, we strolled across the street to the […]