Maj. John Dacey (above, center) poses among four new
friends in Sumatra, Indonesia. All of the men were armed
and interested in discussing guns. Amid a three-week tour
of the region, he and his guide and driver (Leo and Irwansyah,
below) had stopped to clean up after narrowly averting an
accident. An old man had pushed a child in front of their
truck hoping to collect on the resulting injuries. The
driver stopped in time, but not before fouling himself.
Dacey says the practice, though usually with animals
and not children as the intended victims, is common
throughout Sumatra as white travelers are perceived
to be wealthy and easy targets for extortion.

Adventurers throughout Hawaii
participated in our essay contest.
The following is a sample
of their work

By Stephanie Kendrick
Assistant Features Editor

FOR three weeks in October of 1997, U.S. Army Maj. John Dacey traveled the ravaged countryside of Sumatra, Indonesia.

"Everything was on fire everywhere I went," said Dacey. He was stationed in Malaysia at the time, and all of Indonesia was engulfed in wild fires.

Dacey won the grand prize in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin's "High Adventure" essay contest. His story exemplified the physical bravery, courage to help others and thirst for knowledge that characterized the winning entries.

As a Southeast Asian specialist in training with the Army Foreign Area Officer Program, Dacey was fulfilling one of the program requirements, to travel throughout his area of duty alone.

So he caught a ferry to Sumatra and hired a guide and a driver.

"I just went out and said, 'Let's go see what there is to see,' " he said.

The first night he asked his driver and guide where they wanted to go eat. They wanted to try the nicest place in town. The most expensive meal Dacey could find cost $15 each. He bought. "They couldn't stand it," he said.

From then on, his guide and driver picked the food. They ate whatever the roadside stands were selling. Menu items included rat and crocodile, but it all tasted just fine.

"I didn't eat anything bad. I didn't even get sick," said Dacey.

He started training for the Army Foreign Area Officer Program in 1994 and speaks Bahasa Indonesia, the national language.

It served him well on his adventure.

"For over three weeks I didn't see any other westerners. I didn't speak English for three weeks. I ate with my hands for three weeks," said Dacey.

At one point he met a 40-year-old man who had never seen a white man, except on television.

"I knew there were places like that left in the world, but I figured they were a lot more remote than where I was going," said Dacey.

And he had a chance to help fight the wild fires.

On Bangka Island, an old peasant man whose house was threatened by the fire flagged down Dacey's truck.

He gave Dacey and the driver spades and they built a fire break around the house. Then the old man told them they could leave.

His fields were burning, as were the fruit trees he and his family relied on for food, but the old man knew there was no way to save it all. He just wanted to save his house, said Dacey.

As a Southeast Asian specialist, Dacey's training will never really end. "It's my duty to keep current," he said.

And back in Hawaii, he does that largely by reading everything he can get his hands on. But the trip through Sumatra put a human face on part of the region.

In addition to tickets to the Hawaii premiere of the IMAX film "Everest," Dacey has won a Polynesian Cultural Center ambassador package for four, which will allow him to take his family to PCC for a day of food, entertainment and VIP treatment.

Polynesian Cultural Center donated annual passes for each contest participant. Another 28 essay writers also won tickets to the "Everest" premiere Friday and Saturday. A selection of their work follows.

Although the 50-word limit was a source of angst for many contest participants, it resulted in some carefully crafted and compelling prose.

We received many wonderful entries on topics ranging from sky diving to SCUBA diving, mountain climbing to windsurfing.

We would have loved to run them all, but here's a sampling, starting with Dacey's tale:

Grand prize adventure

Sumatra, Indonesia, Medan to Lampung, October 1997. Forest fires rage everywhere, visibility at 50m most days. Saving a peasant's home on Bangka Island. No English, no silverware, and no other westerners for more than three weeks. Eating cat, rat, frog, dog, turtle, crocodile, anything on the plate, an unforgettable adventure.

-- John Dacey, Moanalua

African adventure

In Kenya, surviving a charge by a big female elephant angered when we drove too close to her babies. My wife was screaming at me to reverse the car while leaning out the window taking photos. I found reverse gear seconds before a pair of tusks shattered our windshield.

-- Jeffrey Polovina, Kailua

Ocean adventures

Off the West side of the Big Island manta rays feed near shore at night. The shallow dive to them is one of our best adventures. Sitting on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean being dive bombed by those magnificent flying rays and petting their bellies as they pass by.

-- Maryanne Ross, Puunui

Kuumomi Ho has been in five surfski races. In October
of 1984, she was the only women in the Molokai-to-Oahu
surfski race, then got back in the water a week later to
steer an outrigger team in another Molokai-to-Oahu race.
The races have since been reorganized so the surfski races
are in May and the women's canoe races are in September.

Paddling from Molokai to Oahu in two separate races only seven days apart. One was alone in a surfski, the other in an outrigger canoe team. One adventure alone with my thoughts, the other adventure as the team captain. Different strategy, same course. Different challenges, same sore butt. Both fun!

-- Kuumomi Ho, Waikiki

Bear adventures

The grizzly ripped open the side of our tent, awakening us. As I went out the rip, he was standing nearby. I had him! Attacking with my axe, he turning into the woods with me in pursuit. After about 50 yards, I stopped as reality overtook my instincts. Lucky me!

-- Peter J. Barcia, Kailua

Three days on the treacherous Green River was quickly coming to an end. Fighting the exhilarating rapids only made us stronger. Our final rest had hoped to be peaceful. Yet peering through the brush no more than 50 yards away lurked an enormous black bear, ready to protect her cub.

-- Susan Cup Choy, Kailua

Mountain adventures

My greatest hiking adventure was accompanying a boy scout troupe: roping fully laden across raging rivers, huddling rain drenched waiting for a thundering waterfall to subside, rescuing someone who slipped off a mountainside trail, and being lulled asleep under rustling pines by the rushing Waipio river.

-- Wilma Namumnart, Kaimuki

Frances Mendes and her son John take in
the view from Mount Kaala.

Hiking Mount Kaala on the Waianae range, 4,046 feet high. Nine hikers challenged the mountain for 11 hours; endured washed out trails, almost losing one person who lost her footing, and a ladder made of plastic tubing and frayed rope. We finished stronger with a newfound respect for one another.

-- Frances J. Mendes, Mililani

Grueling adventures

101.3 miles of running in Colorado's San Juan Mountains ... 33,000-foot climb, 33,000-foot descent ... highest elevation 14,048 feet, average 11,200 ... raging cataracts, steep snowfields, violent weather, wild animals, precipitous cliffs ... 48-hour limit. In 1996, 91 started, 42 finished. I finished with 25 seconds to spare.

-- Richard Senelly, Honolulu

A pilot crashes on West Spanish Peck, towering 13,683. As part of a recovery team we recovered the body. Being frozen and twisted it took strength and endurance to move the body only a few yards. After several hours the helicopter arrived with a long rope and recovered the body.

-- David Holskil, Waianae

Big Island adventure

My adventure took me from shore to mountain, through forest and desert. Just out of high school, I was given an opportunity to explore the Big Isle with Hawaii Bound. It was a month of trail blazing. Our objective was to cover 10 miles a day carrying everything we needed.

-- Delphia Walsh, Pearl City

Llyod Jones, a friend of Eileen Root, delivers a baby
gift to Tenzing at her family shop in Namche Bazar in
the Himalayas during a 1997 visit. Meeting Tenzing
and eventually bringing her to Hawaii were the
subject of Root's High Adventure essay.

Friendly adventure

The adventure was not the 10 days of trekking, or waking in a tent covered with ice, but making a friend. Tenzing, a young Sherpa girl, eventually visited Hawaii and saw the ocean for the first time; just as I saw the Himalayas for the first time in her country.

-- Eileen Root, Kaneohe

Andrew Gomes shows off a salmon heavy with eggs.

Smelly adventure

In the summer of 1994, I processed Alaska salmon caviar, working 6 p.m. to noon. I kept a journal:

July 18 -- It's 1 p.m. I manage four hours of sleep. Maybe one day I'll write about things I do while up.
July 19 -- Not today.
July 20 -- My feet hurt.

-- Andrew Gomes, Kaimuki

Domestic adventures

Though these entries did not exactly follow the outdoor-adventure criteria, their humor deserved recognition:

A bloodcurdling cry of pain jolted me awake. Stirring, I sensed movement. Unseen forces gathered, pushing me towards the hot pale light. Resisting, I raised my head and beheld the countenance of a stranger. My screams of terror mingled with his pronouncement ... "Congratulations, it's a boy!"

-- Paul Ansberry, Kailua

Forty-five years after their wedding, the adventure
of marriage continues for Arthur and Dorothy Loo.

February 27, 1954. Nervously awaiting my bride at the altar, I heard the clanging of heavy iron gates clanging shut (like penitentiary doors reverberating in the night). I felt trapped. Dorothy saw to it that every exit was closed! My life's most amazing adventure had begun -- and gloriously continues.

-- Dr. Arthur W. Loo, Lihue

Looking for lessons in Sacred Falls tragedy The people who climb Mount Everest and pursue adventure travel, like those who entered our High Adventure contest, usually know the dangers involved in their expeditions and understand they are putting their lives at risk. Most outdoors enthusiasts minimize that risk through careful preparation, but there are some disasters no amount of preparation can prevent. In the case of the landslide that occurred Sunday at Sacred Falls, there was no way to predict crumbling rock would claim lives. And there was nothing the hikers could have done to protect themselves. We know more about the structure and habits of our planet now than we ever have. We know, for example, the islands in the Hawaiian chain have a history of violent landslides. But we do not know how to predict or prepare for disasters of this magnitude. A deceptively easy hike, Sacred Falls has been the scene of injury and death in the past. This tragedy should serve as a reminder to active people to know their destination and venture out prepared. The fact that hiking trails are much safer than highways is no consolation to the victims of Sunday's landslide and their families. Nature's power is awesome and unpredictable and should always be regarded with respect. Star-Bulletin staff

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