After over thirty-years of searching, Ravuth at last feels hopeful. 
Recalling the last time he saw his parents and mischievous younger brother at his village, when the Khmer Rouge herded them off like animals, along with the rest of the villagers, he can only imagine what they have been through. 

This thrilling, unpredictable, yet sometimes hilarious quest, takes you from the fashionable London restaurant scene to the wild, untamed jungles of the Cardamom Mountains, where an English baker helps a Cambodian refugee searching for his missing family and an elusive plant, the source of an exquisite spice.

The Spice

Wai consists of a slight bow, with the palms pressed together in a prayer-like fashion. The higher the hands are held in relation to the face and the lower the bow, the more respect or reverence the giver of the wai is showing. 


Cambodian people are known as ‘Khmer.’ The Khmer Rouge, which literally translates as ‘Red Cambodian,’ was a title given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. Led by Pol Pot, they were the ruling party from1975-1979. The organisation (Angka) is remembered primarily for social engineering, which resulted in genocide in its attempts to implement social reforms and absolute self-sufficiency, which lead to famine, torture, and executions carried out by its cadres against anyone they considered subversive. 


Appendix