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Cultures, customs, and beliefs of the peoples around the world that I’ve met

Remembering Ma on Mother’s Day, May 11, 2014

Happy Mother’s Day to my family, friends, and colleagues Remembering you Ma for Mother’s Day!   Mother’s Day is coming soon and this year I have been thinking of my mom, Ma quite a bit. So I decided to take some of the stories of Ma from my cookbook, Flavors of Malaysia as a tribute to her. […]

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New York Times Travel Show

    Demo Presentation -Traditional Curry of Malaysia for New York Times Travel Show I will be doing a demo presentation at 11 am and book signing at 11:30 am at the New York Times Travel Show on Sunday, March 2nd at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. I will be talking about […]

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Happy Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year ! Gong Hee Fat Choy to my Chinese  friends and readers!   Wishing To all my Chinese friends and colleagues…Gong Hee Fatt Choy! A Very Happy New Year! Chinese New Year begins this year on January 31st…and it is the year of the horse! So if you are born in the years, […]

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Cartagena, Colombia- Part 1

Cartegena, Colombia-Part 1 It was my birthday week and I decided to go somewhere warm to celebrate. I have always wanted to go to Cartagena. My dreams of travel were inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s magical book, “Love in the Time of Cholera” which was set in this old port city on Columbia’s northeast Caribbean […]

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Cartagena, Colombia Part 2

Cartagena, Colombia- Part 2 Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, came to Cartagena in late April 1948 and created his literary masterpieces here. Cartagena became the muse for him as he unleashed his magical stories here. He became friends with the local poet Luis Carlos Lopez, and worked as a […]

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France: part 3: The Riviera, Burgundy and Paris

We then drove to the French Riviera, known locally as Cote Azur which portrays a totally different scene…passing by its beautiful coastline, beaches and the mansions of the wealthy. We came to our hotel located outside Nice, located on the Mediterranean coast and the capital. It had its glitter and glamour during the 18th and […]

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France: Part 2: Dordogne, Languedoc and Provence

We headed towards Bordeaux to spend the night. As we were came to Bordeaux, we drove around a roundabout with statues of pilgrims walking the pilgrimage road, Santiago de Compostela, one of the beginner routes that goes through Bordeaux into  Spain. Bordeaux was first settled by Celtics and later came under Roman rule but today is a thriving student […]

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France: Part 1: Normandy, Loire Valley, Atlantic Coast

Memories of my first visit to Paris come rushing back, whenever I encounter French art, wine or pastry. At the time, I was a grad student at the University of Reading in England, so my friends and I could not indulge in the finer luxuries that Paris had to offer. However, even on student’s budget […]

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Cape Town, South Africa-Part 1

Cape Town, South Africa-Part 1 My dream trip was about to come true. I have always been active in issues of social justice and starting in the 1980s I joined the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. I worked closely with the African National Congress in New York, pushing for sanctions against South Africa and […]

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Uganda-Kampala Area and Ugandan Wildlife-Part 1

Uganda-Kampala area and the Ugandan Wildlife Part 1 Africa is a continent that always held intrigue for me. We had visited Morocco few years back but that is a different Africa. I have always been waiting to see Sub-Saharan Africa, and the opportunity came last Xmas holidays when we decided to visit my daughter who […]

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