By ANGELA CROMPTON
The Marlborough Express
Marlborough will always be a place of treasured memories for Cambodian couple Phirum and Sokphal Keo.
Blenheim was their home from 1987 until 2006, but now they are back in Cambodia, determined to help rebuild it after the "killing fields" days of the Pol Pot regime.
Speaking in Blenheim last week before flying to Dunedin on the last leg of a three-week holiday, Mr and Mrs Keo said they originally came to New Zealand as refugees. Mr Keo arrived in 1979 after stowing away in a Red Cross plane; his wife in 1980 after fleeing Cambodia on foot to Thailand with her family.
Their first New Zealand base was Dunedin and it was at an English language class at the polytechnic where they met and fell in love. Marrying and moving to Blenheim, they ran a takeaway business on Grove Rd and raised two children, Patrick and Emily. Both are now grown and living in Wellington and it was Emily's graduation from Victoria University that brought them back to New Zealand this time.
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