FASCINATING TRAVEL

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 256, 25 July 1936, Page 23

FASCINATING TRAVEL

A Journey In The East Indies “Bali and Angkor,” by Geoffrey Gover (London: Michael Joseph). In 1935 the author made a journey which included Sumatra, Java. Ban and Indo-China, the Malay States and Siam. On his own admission he travelled much as other tourists travel, and saw little that others could not see. yet he has written a delightful book about his travels —a book sufficiently full of first-hand information to be" of use to students of the countries he visited, yet of such vivid interest as to appeal to the general reader.

For the most part. Mr. Gover coniines himself to describing what he saw —or allowing his camera to do it most beautifully (“Bali and Angkor” has 41 excellent reproductions of photographs, most of which the author took himself)—but he writes of the people of the island of Bali, the Balinese, at some length, because he had the opportunity of coming! into contact with these natives. In all the countries he visited Mr. Gover paid particular attention to the evidences of art and religion among the natives, and his observations on these subjects are worthy of note. Between the two main sections of the book Mr. Gover allows himself an “Interlude” in which to describe two episodes which occurred travelling from Batavia to Saigon. In these two short sketches the author shows that he has ability for writing of a very different genres that he is a writer, moreover, with a keen sense of the dramatic.

“Bali anil Angkor” is. in every respect. a notable addition to the works of travel which have appeared this year.