Category Archive

Years ago, backpacking in Cambodia I read a battered old copy of the Killing Fields (the book version of the film).

When I finished it I passed it on to a friend, eventually it went all around all our little group.

Later we all admitted  to shedding tears while reading it.  It is the single most moving novel I have ever read. 

From then on in - every beer sunk under Cambodian skies was accompanied with a toast to the book’s hero Dith Pran.

Years later when my parents visited me in Vietnam on their way to Cambodia I made sure that they too had a copy.

I have just read of Dith Pran’s death aged 65 in New York.  Considering his life story, the fact that he reached such an age is incredible in itself.

It’s not often I feel genuinely saddened at the death of someone I never met.  But Dith and his strength and loyalty to his friend Sydney Schanberg really touched me.  He inspired me and I am sure many thousands of others too.

Cheers Dith.

An emotional post over at Cikgu Tans, describe Kenny’s run up to Chinese New Year, here in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Kenny is a Chinese Malaysian PHD student studying in Newcastle with his young family.  His writing, in English is first rate and it’s fascinating to read of my home city from a foreign perspective.

Anyway, as Chinese New Year approaches he is understandably feeling home sick.

He writes:

Chinese New Year 2008 for my family in Newcastle (NCL) will be a quiet one and perhaps the coldest one. This will be my first time in my life not to celebrate CNY in Kuching with my parents and this will also be the first CNY for little Aidan. I wish I can be back at home to celebrate CNY together in Kuching so that I can bring my little Aidan to collect some AngPows and to show him to my relatives.

He adds:

I MISS HOME, I MISS MY PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, IN-LAWS, SIBLINGS, NIECES, NEPHEWS and OTHER RELATIVES, CLOSE FRIENDS etc.
I also miss my dog (Lucky), my terrapin (Ah Hock), my ….what else did I leave behind anyway…well. I guess I only have 2 pets.  I MISS LAKSA, KOLO MEE and KUEH CHAP.

ARRRAAHHHH. It’s turning me mad. I can just smell the aroma… I want laksa, I want laksa, I want laksa…..If only someone is selling the Sarawak Laksa paste in Newcastle…

Later in the comments section Vrouw says:

Yeah Tan, I am also very homesick. Kuching is the best but then again a lot of people want to get out of the place to overseas and us being overseas want the opposite. Yeah, I still have two laksa paste with me, you didnt bring some over meh???

So, the long and short of it Kenny and his lovely family don’t have Sarawak Laksa paste for Chinese New Year - it seems that being away from his family and home is the big problem but a little SLP might just soften the blow.

Any ideas from anywhere?  Can it be bought in Newcastle?  Any local restaurants selling it?  Is anyone living somewhere where it can be bought and can send it over?

All ideas welcome.  The big day is Thursday, with CNY celebrations on Sunday in Newcastle.  If we can find the paste then the sooner the better - even if it just means that Kenny and family have the paste to enjoy in the Year of the Rat.

Okay some pinging of Asian/Food Bloggers - please help if you can or spread the word.

Eating Asia, Masak Masak, Noodles and Rice, Chubby Hubby, Yummy Corner, Weird Meat, Noodlepie, Vkeong, A Whiff of Lemongrass, My Local Cuisine, Malaysia Best, Backstreet Gluttons, Eatinout, Malaysian Food Review, Kampungboy City Gal, My Sarawak, Kuchingfest, Sarawak Dot Com, Boy from Limbang, The Real Leng Luis, Mum Mum.

Pic and words from South of West.

“Kids in Kibera have a new game. They have fashioned their own cameras out of mud, baked hard in the sun, and run around “filming” the mob of journalists that gathers on a hill overlooking their slum each day.”

I’ve been tracking through the blog that that above is taken from.  Right now it’s only fuelling the wanderlust.  Africa has always scared me but I’m getting braver.  Who knows?

Hat tip to Noodlepie for the link (plus other interesting ones too)