Tea-time is a big deal in my family home. My mum and our neighbours used to team up to bake, steam or cook up a variety of delicious sweet and savoury afternoon snacks and delicacies. Us kids used to be the guinea pigs for experimental cookouts – we didn’t complain very much until we grew…
Category: Daily Prompt
New Start to an Abrupt End
Fifteen years ago, my cousin Patricia and I signed up for Mandarin language classes at the YMCA Kuala Lumpur. We were gung-ho about adding Mandarin to the list of our spoken languages – English, Malay, Malayalam and Tamil. However, our enthusiasm to learn this lingo that is widely used in Malaysia came to an abrupt…
Sunrise at 38,000 ft
I love red-eye flights. Once service is over and the lights are out, there is this sense of peace and solitude. The cabin is dark and you’re flying above a world that’s falling asleep, their dwellings marked by twinkling lights of the land mass beneath the clouds. But what I look forward to most is…
Dome in the Rough
The buttercream yellow facade of Psar Thmey stands out amidst the chaos of Phnom Penh
Explore: Down The Path Less Travelled
During my occasional outstation stints as a writer, I often had to go down paths less travelled, which led me to people and places I would otherwise have not taken the effort to explore on my own. Sometimes the people who know of these spots would rather not share their knowledge for fear of ruining the…
Identical: Piping Hot Sweet Treat
On a recent trip to Mentakab, a town in the state of Pahang, two hours away from Kuala Lumpur, we stumbled upon a roadside stall selling one of our favourite local tea-time snack – the ‘Akok’. This traditional cake is more commonly found in the east coast states of Kelantan and Terengganu in Peninsular Malaysia,…
Blush: A Balinese Sunset
The setting sun hides behind a cloud as she throws a beautiful blush pink hue across the sky as dusk falls, and the tide rolls in towards the sacred Tanah Lot temple in Bali, Indonesia. The temple is only accessible to visitors for a few hours in a day – during low tide and under…
Maria Dass the World 