The Greenland Seal Hunter: Travel Tales From Distant Places

by TAN WEE CHENG

Tan Wee Cheng, Singapore  weecheng.com

Click here for the book's Facebook page 

Obtainable online from the following sources:

Amazon.com

Select Books, Singapore

Direct from the publisher, Marshall Cavendish Asia

Information from the Publisher:

Title The Greenland Seal Hunter: Travel Tales From Distant Places
ISBN 9812328904
Imprint Times Editions by Marshall Cavendish

Author(s) Tan Wee Cheng

Specifications 198 mm X 130 mm, 240 pp, Limp, 200 gms
Publication Date Sep-2004
Target Audience Travel Readers
Price (US) US$ 11.50


In this compelling travel memoir, intrepid adventurer Tan Wee Cheng writes about his travel experiences as he journeys through various distant lands. From passing through war-torn countries to joining Greenland’s Inuit people on a seal hunt to visiting the Royal Salt Mines of Wieliczka in Poland and even taking a 9,000-km journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway across the Taiga, Wee Cheng has been there. Leaving the creature comforts of his London home, Wee Cheng describes his journeys through lands with corrupt policemen, Cypriot gangsters and a host of other dangers, risking life and limb. Readers share the thrills with Wee Cheng as he recounts some of his more unusual journeys through lands that many people don’t know about and may never visit. Forget the package tour and venture into the unknown from the comfort of your armchair.

About the Author
Singaporean by birth, Tan Wee Cheng is a self-confessed travel junkie who has visited over a hundred countries in the last decade. He has a weak spot for controversial places and has a tendency to get into minor troubles, such as getting arrested by corrupt police in Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and the rebel state of Transdniestria (Moldova). He has survived road accidents in Albania, floods in Ecuador, mugging incidents in Jerusalem, St Petersburg and Bucharest, and almost got into a fight with a Cypriot gangster. Wee Cheng has worked in the finance sector as an auditor in Singapore and an investment banker in London. He is now back in Singapore, working for a statutory board. These days he spends his leisure time planning more travels, working on his travel website, photographing local temple ceremonies and having endless slices of good old kaya toast.

 

Review by the TODAY newspaper on 20 January 2004

also found in pdf, jpg and the newspaper site ;

by IS Magazine on 11 March 2005 ;

by Berita Harian on 23 April 2005  - screenshot here ;

by NTUC Lifestyle Magazine May 2005 issue ;


He avoids many comfort zones, but this travel author is still ...

Travelling easy
Thursday • January 20, 2005

David Chew
david.chew@newstoday.com.sg  
 
TRAVELLING is actually very easy, most people just have to overcome their fears and get out of their comfort zones," said Tan Wee Cheng, travel writer who just published his first book, The Greenland Seal Hunter.
 
Containing but a fraction of his travel experiences, the book covers his visits to nearly 20 countries. Tan, a policy analyst with a statutory board, has travelled to more than 100 countries.
 
"Contrary to belief, one doesn't need to know the language of the place," he said. "English, for example, is spoken everywhere, with the Internet and media so pervasive everywhere, there will always be someone who can speak English in any part of the world, and learning 20 of the most common words of any language really isn't very difficult."
 
"Of course one can always point and gesture," said the 35-year-old with a laugh.
 
It was after his post-graduate studies at the London Business School that Tan was bit the travel bug. In 1993, he backpacked in western Europe and found that, contrary to his beliefs, it was easy to travel. From there, he "conquered" East Europe, the Middle East and beyond.
"Initially, I wanted to travel because I wanted to visit all these places I read about in books. When I found out it was so easy to travel, I just did more and more of it," he said.
 
Tan then began to plan his trips based on two points on a map, "from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, for example", he said.
 
Tan has been chronicling his travel tales since 1995, and has a website which he updates regularly and an email list to which he sends daily updates from various cyber cafés on his travels.
 
And this is where Tan drops a little known fact about Internet cafes around the world.
"Ironically, in poorer countries it's easier to find one than in more developed countries! In developed countries, everyone has their computer at home, so Internet cafes aren't popular," said Tan.
 
He hopes his book will inspire others to travel and see more of the world. Just take calculated risks is his advice.
 
"Once, in Colombia, I was in Leticia and the President there announced the end of a ceasefire, which I watched on TV in a café. Minutes later, I went into a cyber cafe to surf the Internet and there was no power in the city as the guerrillas had taken over the power stations. Soon, tanks and Jeeps were rolling out on the streets."
 
"That was quite impressive, but it was only at that point that it dawned on me I might be in danger so I started to walk back to my hotel," said Tan.
 
Another bit of advice is to keep your details on a Web-based server. "I scan in the details page of my passport and keep it in a Web-based account somewhere," he said. "You never know when it might come in handy."
 
The Greenland Seal Hunter, is out in major bookstores at $17.50. Tan's travel website is at http://weecheng.com.

 

Review by IS Magazine on 11 March 2005 [Click Here]

Review by NTUC Lifestyle Magazine May 2005 issue [Click Here] ;

Review by the Singapore Malay newspaper Berita Harian on 23 April 2005:

http://cyberita.asia1.com.sg/rencana/story/0,3617,53817,00.html  

TINTA KEMBARA 100 NEGARA

Oleh
Dewani Abbas

Buku kembara
Tajuk: The Greenland Seal Hunter - Travel Tales From Distant Places
Penulis: Tan Wee Cheng
Penerbit: Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Ltd
Harga: $17.50 (sebelum GST)

SAYA tidak tahu perkataan 'kayak' berasal daripada bahasa orang Inuit, dulunya dipanggil orang Eskimo yang tinggal di Greenland.

Melalui buku Encik Tan Wee Cheng yang telah menjelajah ke negara pulau gergasi di Kutub Utara yang diselaputi salji sepanjang tahun itu, barulah saya tahu.

Sungguh bertuah Encik Tan kerana dapat melihat sendiri bentuk kayak yang digunakan orang Inuit untuk menangkap anjing laut bagi santapan harian.

Lebih bertuah lagi kerana beliau berpeluang tinggal serumah dengan sebuah keluarga Inuit.

Kisah pengembaraan yang dicatatkan Encik Tan, 35 tahun, dalam bukunya, The Greenland Seal Hunter - Travel Tales From Distant Places memang menarik.

Berbeza daripada beberapa buku pengembaraan yang telah saya baca atau singkap, buku Encik Tan disampaikan dengan gaya bercerita lengkap dengan dialognya sekali.

Seronok membacanya kerana ia memuatkan banyak fakta menarik tentang tempat-tempat yang dilawatinya, pengalaman luar biasa (seperti dijejaki polis korup di Moscow) serta persepsinya yang biasanya dibuat daripada sudut ekonomi, memandangkan Encik Tan ialah lulusan perakaunan dari Universiti Teknologi Nanyang (NTU).

Justeru itu, kita akan mengetahui betapa susahnya hidup orang Inuit di Greenland yang berteduh di bawah pemerintah Denmark dan menerima bantuan kebajikan.

Sehingga 80 peratus daripada mereka hidup setakat cukup makan dengan memburu binatang, seperti nenek moyang mereka beribu-ribu tahun lalu.

Pengalaman-pengalaman unik seperti ini mendorong beliau tidak berhenti melancong sejak beliau tamat pengajian di universiti lebih 10 tahun lalu.

Dalam tempoh itu beliau telah meneroka ke lebih 100 negara dan mencatatkan semua pengalamannya dalam bukunya itu.

'Setiap ada kesempatan, saya melancong. Saya gunakan cuti kerja saya, tapi saya ambil yang bersambung dengan cuti umum supaya saya dapat jimatkan cuti. Apabila saya pertama kali melancong ke seluruh Eropah saya melancong dengan beberapa kawan, tapi sesudah itu saya melancong sendiri.

'Tapi saya bukan jenis pelancong backpacker yang boleh tidur sebarangan. Anda boleh kata saya pelancong berdikari yang separuh formal. Saya masih cari keselesaan dari segi penginapan, tapi itu bukan bererti saya pilih hotel lima bintang,' katanya dalam satu pertemuan baru-baru ini sebelum berangkat ke Bali, destinasi pelancongan beliau seterusnya.

Encik Tan, penganalisis dasar kanan di Penguasa Kewangan Singapura (MAS), memberitahu beliau pernah mengambil cuti setahun tiga tahun lalu untuk menjelajah seorang diri ke Amerika Selatan dan kemudian sambung ke Eropah, Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, China, Laos, Vietnam, Kemboja dan Thailand - melalui perjalanan darat.

Pengalaman paling tidak dapat dilupainya ialah tatkala dijemput meraikan sama perkahwinan sepasang pengantin Mongolia.

'Bagi saya inilah yang menjadikan sesuatu pengembaraan saya sangat menarik - penduduknya, budaya, adat resam dan warna-warni kehidupan mereka.

'Tapi susah saya nak katakan manakah tempat yang paling menarik yang saya telah lawati kerana semuanya sangat menarik,' kata Encik Tan yang telah membelanjakan kira-kira $40,000 untuk hobinya itu.

Negara-negara idaman yang ingin dikunjunginya selepas ini, katanya, ialah Afrika Timur yang meliputi Tanzania, Kenya dan Uganda, Ogos ini dan pasti ia tidak akan berakhir di situ.

Nampaknya akan muncul sebuah lagi buku kembaranya.

 

Nota: Buku Encik Tan boleh dibeli di kedai-kedai buku utama di sini.