About The “Expresso Kamuchea” Series

Tanja is a Barang who after visiting Cambodia several times in the early ’90s moved here permanently in 1998. Her background in animation led her from Germany to Holland and then to New York. Somewhere along the way she shifted her creative talents to cooking and has been a chef and entrepreneur since then, owning several guesthouses, restaurants, trekking and boat businesses.

Her blog entries begin in June 2005 while she is recovering from sun-blindness brought about by helping some unprepared trekkers on Bokor mountain. This explains the many typos in her initial postings (which I have intentionally left because of the color they add) including the subject title “Expresso Kamuchea”. The title is taken from the name of Gordon’s cafe which is still there and is/was a crossroads for the expat locals.

The blog was originally posted on beethoven.com, (a classical music streaming site, now defunct) after filling in the ‘about me’ section on the registration page, Tanja found herself getting inquiries about life in Cambodia. The posts became so popular the admins decided to give her her own thread. When I discovered they were being removed permanently I decided to download them in their entirety for posterity, some of the externally linked images are lost I’m afraid.

The cast of characters and accounts of daily situations that unfold are almost unbelievable, but they are real. This is the essence of what I had wanted to achieve with Cambodian Moments.

 

Thanks Tanja.

Click here for first installment.