By Wanderer on Sunday, April 20, 2008 - 03:31 pm:

I just finished reading "Primal Shadows" - and quite a harrowing journey it was too!!! My parents lived in PNG in the mid to late 70s and I asked them about some of the more (seemingly) incredible incidents in the book and they said you were on the money in your depiction of PNG's unique social structure and ecosystems. I'm just curious... What kind of research did you do for this book? What inspired you to write it? Also, you've said in interviews that there are incidents that relate back to your own personal experience with PNG... which bits? (if that's not too personal a question) Oh, and by the way, I got a chuckle out of the "Pale Rider" reference in "Primal Shadows", where the pilot is rooting through all the "junk" on the floor of his chopper!!!

By richard on Sunday, April 20, 2008 - 06:46 pm:

As someone who was born in Papua/New guinea I would like to know the research you did for the book Alan? Primal shadows was a great read. Its been sitting on shelf unread till now.. Keep up the good holidaying Alan..

By adf on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 09:18 am:

I have made three trips to PNG, two of them each of six weeks duration. It is one of the most fascinating places left on the planet, and parts of it can be considered the most primitive (though that's all changing, of course). When I travel, it is almost always by myself. This allows me to meet and spend time with people I would otherwise pass by, and vice versa. Riding from Goroka down to Madang in a huge 4x4 with the man who at the time owned more "pokies" (poker gambling machines) than anyone else in the country, and making sure he had a gun for me as well as for himself (robberies on PNG highways are common) is not the sort of experience that is part of organized tours. Having the manager at Karawari in the central Sepik show me a heavy bracelet made from pure, rough-cast Mt. Kare gold is not part of the hotel routine. Walking the streets of Port Moresby is not the same as taking a bus tour. Especially when the biggest department store in town is invaded the day before by revenge-seeking highlanders who proceed to calmly hack to death a clerk (from the offending village) to satisfy a payback debt. The store is closed for day to, ahem, clean up. And so forth. Most important, having the time to sit and listen to expats, ex-kops, oil workers, and others tell me their stories, takes time. On a tour, the only stories you hear are from other tourists.

By adf on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 09:20 am:

And the spelling for "ex-cops" should have been "ex-kiaps"...not much opportunity to use Melanesian pidgin here in Arizona, so I'm a bit out of practice with that charming language.

By Wanderer on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 11:12 pm:

My dad was a "Kiap" in PNG during the 70s, so I know of what you speak.... and he has often regaled folks with "war stories" of his time over there... So yeah, I know what you mean...