The Jewel Hunter / / Chris Gooddie.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Gooddie, Chris,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2013]; ©2010
• Julkaisuvuosi: 2013
• Painos: Course Book
• Kieli: English
• Sarja: WILDGuides ; 57
• Ulkoasu: 1 online resource (344 p.) :; 137 color illus. 19 maps.

A tale of one man's obsession with rainforest jewels, this is the story of an impossible dream: a quest to see every one of the world's most elusive avian gems--a group of birds known as pittas--in a single year. Insightful, compelling, and laugh-out-loud funny, this is more than a book about birds. It's a true story detailing the lengths to which a man will go to escape his midlife crisis. A travelogue with a difference, it follows a journey from the suburban straitjacket of High Wycombe to the steamy, leech-infested rainforests of remotest Asia, Africa, and Australia. Dangerous situations, personal traumas, and logistical nightmares threaten The Jewel Hunter's progress. Will venomous snakes or razor-clawed bears intervene? Or will running out of fuel mid-Pacific ultimately sink the mission? The race is on. . . . If you've ever yearned to escape your day job, wondered what makes men tick, or simply puzzled over how to make a truly world-class cup of tea, this is a book for you.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Glossary -- Chapter 1. Quitting the Day Job. High Wycombe, UK -- Chapter 2. The Storm Before the Calm. Southern Thailand -- Chapter 3. Dry Country Blues. Central, Northern Thailand -- Chapter 4. Missing in Action. Luzon, The Philippines -- Chapter 5. Jeepneys and Jeopardy. Mindanao, The Philippines -- Chapter 6. The Swimming Pool Trail. Southern Vietnam -- Chapter 7. One Cup of Tea? Northeast India -- Chapter 8. Rusty's Return. Peninsular Malaysia -- Chapter 9. The Toktor Will See You Now. Southwest Sumatra -- Chapter 10. The Eight Colour Bird. Taiwan -- Chapter 11. Who's the Daddy? Sabah, Borneo -- Chapter 12. The Famous Five. Sabah, Borneo -- Chapter 13. The Heart of Darkness. Southwest Uganda -- Chapter 14. Mad Dogs and Englishman. Halmahera, Sulawesi, Peleng -- Chapter 15. The Mysterious Mr. Klau. Bali, Sumba, West Timor, Flores -- Chapter 16. Billabongs and Bowers. Northern Australia -- Chapter 17. Strange Days. Manus -- Chapter 18. Adrift in Time. The Solomon Islands -- Chapter 19. A Rare Bird Indeed. Sri Lanka -- Chapter 20. And the First Shall Be Last. Zambia -- Acknowledgements -- The Treasure Chest