Tell me how you first became interested in Orang-Pendek?

I was travelling in Sumatra as a journalist in 1989. I was climbing Mount Kerinci and heard of a legendary animal that I thought would add a bit of colour to my travel piece. Then I started meeting people who claimed to have seen something. At that stage I didn’t believe or not believe; I was trained as a journalist, which is a respectable profession, so I took a look into it.

Can you tell me about the first time you saw orang-pendek?

I saw it in the middle of September; I had been out here four months.