The staples in my refrigerator are packets of apples and lemons. For my parents and grandparents these imported fruits were a luxury together with oranges and grapes. They loved it so by default we did too. But over the last few years I’ve developed a craving for local fruits (or exotic fruit if one is…
Author: Maria Dass The World
Freelance journalist and travelling storyteller
Hidden gem: Gua Musang’s 15th century temple
‘Tokong Swee Nyet’ in Kampug Pulai, Gua Musang, Kelantan has been a place of worship for Chinese settlers who moved to the area about 600-years ago. These settlers (mainly from the Hakka clan) were in search of fortune from gold deposits found in Sungai (river) Galas. Their descendants, who have over the centuries intermarried with…
Drive Thru: Central Spine Rd
One of my favourite drives – low traffic and amazing scenery! The partially opened Central Spine Road that will link Kuala Lipis in Pahang to Kuala Krai in Kelantan once it is completed. It currently terminates just outside Gua Musang town.
Xin Nian Kuai Le!
Wishing my Chinese friends, family and followers a Happy & Prosperous New Year! A special shout out to those born in the year of the pig. To everyone else in Malaysia and around this region – enjoy the holidays! Guan Yin temple, Raub, Pahang, Malaysia.
Fitzroy Summer Blooms
I’m more of a couch potato, eager to spend my weekends lazing on the sofa – trying to complete the final season of Breaking Bad and the Vikings. Though it was excruciating getting through the finals of ‘Once Upon A Time’ (one of those series which you kick yourself for wasting your life on!) I…
Shades of Syria in Victoria
I bought my first Syrian carpet in 2001, while on assignment in Aleppo. The burst of colourful textiles caught my eye as I was wandering around the rustic and historic neighbourhood of Al-Jdeida. Each carpet features different designs and colours which I was told represents the regions it is produced in. The ones in Damascus…
Andorra La Where?
Andorra La Vella? Andorra? Sounds familiar but where is it? That was the question we got from most people when we told them of our visit to our three night stop at this tiny nation of just over 78,000 people in the Pyrenees mountains. Andorra was off our radar. Like most people I had heard…
What’s Cookin’ @ Cook’s Cottage
The Cook family cottage, family home of renown English explorer and navigator Captain James Cook who discovered Australia during his expedition through the Pacific in the late 1700s, now stands in the grounds of the Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne Australia. No, the Cook family never moved to Australia. This cottage was originally located in Great…
Centuries Old Stopover
Apartmentos Abat Marcet (Cel.les Abat Marcet) has been housing pilgrims visiting Montserrat for centuries. It was refurbished in the 1960s and named Apartmentos Abat Marcet after the Abbot of Montserrat – Abbot Marcet (1912-1946). It is a simply furnished apartment with a kitchenette (including a fridge, stove, microwave and cutlery), bath and toilet, hall cum…
Evening Walk: Blackburn VIC
Blackburn is a quaint neighbourhoods about 20kms outside Melbourne. I believe it is a place that city folk seek solace away from the bustling capital of the state of Victoria. It was a pleasant walk through the quaint neighbourhood along and around Bindi Street where our family spent the recent holidays in a rented home….
Black Madonna of Catalonia
The Black Madonna of Montserrat (La Moreneta in Catalan which means the little dark skinned one) is the patron saint of Catalonia together with St Jordi (St George). The dark features of this statue currently at the Montserrat Basilica is courtesy of the pigment from wood it is carved out of – believed to have…
To A Pleasant 2019!🥂
I blinked and 2018 passed by me! Terence and I traveled to a total of six countries last year – starting with Qatar, followed by Hong Kong, Cambodia, Spain, Andorra and we ended the year in Melbourne, Australia – none of these were planned as of Jan 1, 2018. In between, we juggled work, major…
