Travelogue set in China and South East Asia (fill up with ‘colour and fragrance’)

8th August 2014

Fragrant Heart by Miranda Emmerson, travelogue set in China and South East Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand).

Miranda Emmerson and her partner Chris take a 9 month break away from Wales, rent out their house and set off for China and South East Asia.

It is always a tricky to get a good balance in a personal reflective journey-cum-travelogue but Miranda has achieved a good balance in sharing her own emotional journey through relationship difficulties, and contemplations about future motherhood. This book has soul and LOTS of food. It is a very readable and for the most part a thoroughly engrossing book about their experiences in South East Asia in the Year of the Rat, 2008. It is definitely a travelogue I would read before embarking on a visit to the region.

First stop is Beijing, where they take an apartment at Guon Mei Di Yi Cheng (translated as Number One Best Champion City) and get a feel of this buzzing metropolis, the modern skyline, the smog and the hutongs. Having ignored her first piece of advice, that if you are a vegetarian, well, don’t go to China – she is permanently trying to sidestep the cow innards, the tripe, the liver eel hot soup and other meaty delicacies. At the end of each chapter she features a couple of recipes from the region which seem pretty do-able in a Western kitchen.

From there it is over to Vietnam and the frenetic roads of Hanoi, then up to Ha Long Bay and down to Hue and HMC and a dawning realisation that the food is full of the freshest ingredients and in many ways very different to the cuisine of China, with a whiff of French flair. Exploits up the Mekong River take the couple to Cambodia, and on to Siem Riep for Angkor Wat, where they relish the dawn over the ruins (and Miranda loses her hat to a monkey). Malaysia has a stunning history due to its location and she explains the cultural influences from all around the world, which is fascinating. Buzzing Bangkok is the final destination before they head home via Colombo – and even there, having lugged their Korean Tennis Game to many of the beaches they have visited a(nd been thwarted at every turn) they still don’t get to play it, as alas it is already in transit in their checked baggage.

It is hard to describe the charm and personal insight that the author offers as she observes and ingests (both metaphorically and physically) all that she experiences. For her travelling was indeed, what she called, an exploration of love. There are a choice amount of snippets about the history, whether that fact that China produces more beer than anywhere else or that Vietnam is home to 54 ethnic groups. I am now dying to visit Yangshuo (where she tasted ‘perfection’ in the dishes she ate) and Guilan where the karst mountains are a fabulous feature, to Suzhou, the Venice of the Orient. Taste the wonderful dishes that she describes with relish, peppered with star anise, lemongrass, coriander (you will end up smelling the gorgeous aromas and salivating…)

You see, by reading this book you will undoubtedly gain some inspiration for your own itinerary, and that essentially is part of the TripFiction remit – finding wonderful books that will offer just an extra edge for itinerary planning or enable you to revisit places you have been.

You can connect with the author via her website and on Twitter. And you can find out more about Fragrant Heart and buy it here.  We would also love to see you over on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest and when we have some interesting photos we can sometimes be found over on Instagram too.

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