A journey around the Pacific Rim

Full Circle, Travels around the Pacific Rim By Michael Palin BBC Books, 1997 Hardback 320 pp 19.99

MELBOURNE (JP): At the launch and literary dinner of his book Full Circle on Nov. 11 in Melbourne, Michael Palin of the renowned British comedies Monty Python's Flying Circus, Ripping Yarns and A Fish Called Wanda, appeared as excited and surprised of life as he is in all his television appearances. Apart from Full Circle, Palin has also presented on television, Around the World in Eighty Days, and Pole to Pole.

Of the 600 guests of this dinner, only a handful were able to ask him questions and receive answers. It was not that Palin wanted it that way -- he was enjoying himself answering these questions -- but time was running out, and he still had to autograph the books his loyal fans had bought that evening.

One diner asked him what role his family and his childhood in Sheffield had in shaping his present life. The answer was honest and unpretentious, yet pleasingly revealing.

As a child in Sheffield, England, Palin said he had loved the idea of seeing the world, but he had had no idea that one day he would really be able to realize his dreams. So he read books about other countries and imagined traveling to them.

The desire to experience life beyond his immediate reality had also pushed him into pretending he was someone else, doing things that he otherwise would not have been doing. So it was natural that he became an actor.

When I began reading Full Circle and watching the accompanying video program, I realized that Palin's explanation was not merely a glib reply to an admirer's question. Throughout the whole trip circling the Pacific Rim, which took him to 19 countries over 245 days, Palin maintained a fresh curiosity about each place he visited. Through him, enhanced by his infectious sense of humor, the reader sees, feels, is amused and becomes stunned, scared, angry or annoyed.

His prose is delightfully irreverent yet personal, as if he were telling his wife, his mother or any member of his family about his experiences. The style makes you think he is talking directly to you without intentionally meaning to entertain you.

There are numerous little surprises. When he was in Yogyakarta, for instance, he made a phone call to the doctor who had performed an operation on his wife.

"Then he breaks off and asks me what the noise is in the background. 'It's something called a gamelan orchestra,' I begin, about to embark on a long explanation. 'I thought so!' he exclaims. 'The man who's teaching me to play the saxophone leads a gamelan orchestra.' 'In London?' 'Yes.' This unlikely piece of synchronicity is oddly comforting. Ridiculous, I know, but when I go back into the garden the music of Java reminds me of home."

Palin's reports are often made more intriguing with his casual reference to the historical background of a place. In Yogyakarta, he and his crew stayed in a hotel in Jalan Malioboro. Now, how many Indonesians are aware that Malioboro is not a Javanese word, mystical or otherwise? And it was not named after a cigarette. It is a Javanese version of the English name Marlborough, possibly for the Duke of Marlborough. Java was indeed briefly ruled by the British at the start of the nineteenth century.

I have occasionally been annoyed by some travel tales where in the depiction of the local mores, the writer's prejudices come through, especially when they are unmistakably patronizing.

While reading Full Circle, however, if there were any prejudicial or patronizing comments, they eluded me. It is undeniably irreverent, yet never condescending. If anything, Palin is always self-deprecating.

In Kaikoura, New Zealand he was invited to be the guest of honor at a Maori traditional ceremony.

"Two young men dressed in warpaint and carrying spears and shields, came out to issue the willigi, the Maori challenge. It is an exercise in controlled intimidation. They thrust their bodies towards me, waving their spears up and down, grunting, chanting, stamping the ground and pulling frightful faces. Apart from some of the London reviews of my play, I have never encountered such a display of naked hostility. (Or, in this case, semi-naked hostility)."

Palin's ability to perceive the absurd is one of his strong points. It highlights many events and scenes which, in the eyes of a less observant traveler, would be dull and insignificant. And he does not only follow the beaten paths. Many of his hosts, having known him from Monty Python, apparently did not hesitate to include him in unusual activities.

In the Northern Territory, Australia, he was invited to an extremely adrenaline-rushing adventure: camel mustering. Palin was armed with a lasso riding an open truck driven by a Australian bent on giving him the taste of being twirled heavenward then thrown back earthwards, still on the truck.

Full Circle is generously illustrated by beautiful photographs by Basil Pao. Even if you cannot afford the accompanying video, the book alone is worth every cent of its price. A must.

-- Dewi Anggraeni