Finding Myself in Borneo: Sojourns in Sabah

Bronze 2020 Independent Publisher Book Award Best Regional Non-Fiction: Australia / New Zealand / Pacific RimWinner of New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards 2019 for non-regional Biography / Autobiography / MemoirWinner of Readers Favorite Awards 2019 in the travel book categoryFinding Myself in Borneo is an honest and buoyant chronicle of a young Canadian mans adventures during 1968-70 while teaching secondary school as a CUSO volunteer in Sabah Malaysia (North Borneo). Travel with Neill McKee on his unique journey through vibrant Asian cultures as he learns the craft of teaching the Malay language and local customs and gains many friends in his small community. He climbs the highest peak in Southeast Asia-Mount Kinabalu has a love affair and navigates Borneos backwaters to make his first of many documentary films. McKee travels by freighter to Indonesia where he discovers the scars of that countrys recent genocide a contrast to his hilarious motorcycle journeys in Sabah with his American Peace Corps buddy. They make a hallucinogenic discovery-North Borneo is indeed J. R. R. Tolkiens famed Middle-Earth of The Lord of the Rings! The enterprising duo establish the North Borneo Frodo Society an organization Tolkien joins. McKees second Sabah sojourn and other return trips offer the reader the opportunity to match the early anecdotes to what in fact happened to the land and people who touched his life and he theirs.