EdVallance's Guestbook



30th July 2010

interesting
I have a thought in my mind right now, it´s like a sensation of mystery when I read your blog. Places like those you visited are different but at the same time are exactly the same as any other place in the world. It is people who make the difference...
30th July 2010

Interesting as always
I thought your philosophy was to always accept an offer from a local when on the raoad, yet you refused a smoke;-) Now, if he had offered to share his vodka.....
21st July 2010

Welcome to Khabarovsk!
polny pizdets - only russian phrase... Who want to Khabarovsk city - welcome! You can live in my house with my small family. mail to senal@bk.ru
6th July 2010

:0)
ooohhh, refreshing summer! cool ...
6th July 2010
House in a village on the way to Tarusa

home
A home in Uttarakhand is really superb.
5th July 2010

Quite a contrast from your previous few blogs, and not a single mention of vodka!!
29th June 2010

your trip
Nice travel blog. i just recently returned from a trip to Armenia and was taken by both the stunning scenery and and friendliness of the people. I think that the best day i had was in Khndzoresk, just outside of Goris, it was a stunnig agricultural down with a nearby cave city.
From Blog: Armenia
22nd June 2010

Zelyonka
This stuff sounds amazing... I'm finding this journey quite addictive. Thank you for writing...
14th June 2010

Hi, Ed. Nice narrative as usual. Believe us it would a huge mistake if you're not considering writing a book about all your adventures already.
12th June 2010

Ed, I'm following your story and these are very amusing tales! Look forward to the next post. I've got the same fascinated feeling when reading "The Beach" by Alex Garland...
10th June 2010

Incredibly true
I can see that the narration in this post is genuine. I hope you had ventured further into Mangali and Taloctoc where I have lived as a teenager. You will find that not all of Tanudan is that violent. Tanudan is peaceful when all tribes have the peace pact of "bodong". I admire how you were able to give a deeper concept of Kalinga life, one which I was not able to do in my blog The Clamor of Kalinga. I hope you can go back to Taloctoc too. Happy traveling.
9th June 2010

The beautiful Tanudan Valley
I had a fantastic time in Tanudan in 1990. Must have spent about 4 weeks or so there in total visiting peace pact celebrations, funerals and so on. I thought the people were absolutely great. Certainly there were lots of guns around and politics in the air. But it semed to me that if you abandoned youself to the hospitality of the people who live there (didn't try to do your own thing / worry about a timetables etc) you got amazingly well looked after. I could however see, if things went wobbly, how paranoia could easily creep in! I've uploaded some photos, stories and tapes from my time Tanudan at www.kalinga.org.uk I turned some of them into a 'movie' on youtube.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE00vJs9FLw
9th June 2010

Happy for you
I'm glad you had a great time while you were there.. it would be a shame if you didn't have a good time there..
7th June 2010

The fish police etc ...
This has got to be one of the funniest blogs out. I especially like the description of the imaginary tear trickling down the cheek of one of the fish police, while he describes the exquisite swearing of a babushka he once knew.
7th June 2010

This little trip should be called the vodka diaries! You seem to have an inate ability to find adventure, fun and amazing people - which you document with such clariy (amazing considering the vodka!). I'm intersted to see where and how the vodka finds you next!!
6th June 2010

Too True, great read!
Such a good read that I have placed a link to it in my website: http://www.vanuatu-hotels.vu/destination_guide . Hope everybody that uses my site reads it. Please send me any other great insights on Vanuatu, and happy to link them. Tropical regards from Port Vila. John Nicholls Vanuatu Hotels
5th June 2010

hey! This was 2008, september. You're very lucky to have grown up there - the people of Fais are the friedliest, kindest most hospitable people I have ever met!
5th June 2010

one of the pictures below looks like a picture i saw in that movie "let the right one in"...
5th June 2010

at first i thought, NO WAAAY! Is this the author of the book i just read? "getting stoned with savages-trip thru the island of Fiji and Vanuatu"...LOL! But then going back to the top saw that the name's not J. Maarten Troost.. funny and interesting reading about other people's experiences..... especially when they're talking about a place where you grew up and know almost everybody...when was this? last year or year before?. water looks calm...were you there during the summer? hehehe! too many questions.... this part really cracked me up..."ours is the smallest village and everyone else says we're rubbish!" use to get angry when hearing this from the people from the other villages.. but not anymore.. everything has changed... last time i was there i got sun burn real bad and didn't bring any t-shirt/shirt..but on island almost everyone had shirts on.. LOL!
3rd June 2010

"The strange adventures of Eddy in Wonderland". . . Great writing as usual Eddy! Really makes me feel like I am there and meeting those people. I learn alot about Russia from these.
31st May 2010

Oh wow, Edward, your experience is absolutely unbelievable. What and where you have been in so far is very exotic even for me, a native Muscovite. All these drunk swearing men, kind passionate women, Chechen/Afghan veterans driven nuts and an overall image of an "everdying" rural town are so... well, iconic, if that's the word. I think you've been to the most stereotypical Russian town possible to get in and met the most stereotypical Russian people there! There's no denying the truth they say that Moscow isn't (real) Russia. I think you should consider writing a book, words can't describe how much I've enjoyed following your stories! Keep them coming!
31st May 2010

What a story, Ed!
You must have done a lot of good in your past to have kind people taking care of you! I remember your malaria episode, and now this drinking binge. ;-) Good stories, Ed, and I enjoyed reading them while at the same time thinking what luck you encounter in all your adventures. Safe travels!
30th May 2010

A bit of intro would be great
Sad story about broken dreams :( Ed, what was the driving force for this trip to Siberia? Why BAM? Why alone?
28th May 2010

Hello
I just stumbled across your blog....great writings!! I almost felt as I was there! Also....you're kind of cute! =)
27th May 2010

polny pizdec..
Brilliant and very typical train story. Nice wording! Be careful at siberian trains. It is getting really boring to spent several days in the train just watching taiga. So Russian men usually use time machine called Vodka to speed up the future ) And as always, Vodka connecting People! (not Nokia) :)) BTW I am going to fly to Manus from Rio, then go to some amazon indian settlemnts on way to Tabatinga and Iquitos. Do you know id Tefe is worth of stopping there? or it's better to fing some jungle trecks around Iquitos? and how many time should we reserve (from Manaus to Iquitos, meaning speed boats usage + some side walks/stops in jungle) Many thanks and good luck in Baikal region! Artem (I did a treck from Irkutsk to Barguzinsk Buryatia via Olkhon island, in 2006)

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