Borneo: Travels Through a Lost Paradise

In a bid to escape mortgages, marriage and the mundane, two young Englishmen decide to trek through the primeval, disease-ridden jungles of Borneo, where, deep in the forest they are rewarded with evidence of black magic, head-hunting and primitive madness. But, confusingly, also there is Cambridge University, Handel€s Water Music and the BBC. Worse, hundreds of miles from anywhere, there€s still no getting away from Christmas . . .

€œWhat€s this?€ I ask doubtfully.
€œTuak,€ Dik says.
A nozzle with a valve sticks out one side of the ancient Chinese jar, which must hold twenty gallons of the ghastly-looking liquid.
€œYou want some?€
Now, I like my drink out of a bottle, and the food on my plate to keep still while I eat it, but I€ve heard about tuak - rice wine - too often to turn down at least a sip of the stuff. I peer again into the jar. A lump of rotting grey meat bobs sluggishly. You can almost hear the maggots chewing.
€œWhat meat is that?€ I ask.
€œBabi. Pork.€
I jump as something touches my boot. Looking down, I make out in the gloom a man lying flat out on the floor. He has one tooth and two glazed eyes.
€œMy father,€ says Dik, with a hint of pride. Chris looks over my shoulder at the inert form and grunts.
€œWow,€ he says. €œMust be good stuff. Go on, Pete, try it. Make a man of you, it will. Something needs to.€