A small insight into how things work in Japan
It’s been almost a month since we wrapped up WIT Japan and well, I feel ready now to share a little Japanese story.See, I now realize that when it comes to doing business in Japan, once you fit all the boxes – and you get past the starting gate – and that can take seven years or more – th [...]
Kissing the roses goodbye – a resort transforms
Since my last visit to Sampran Riverside in Thailand more than 20 years ago I had made a promise to return, but somehow that did not materialise. So when a weekend retreat was planned there after WITX-Women In Travel in Bangkok last month, I jumped at the opportunity. Situated about 30km west of B [...]
Tale of two trees at Sampran Riverside
While the Rose Garden has changed its name to Sampran Riverside, one thing has not changed – the love and respect for nature. These two videos tell the story of two trees - how the original pikul (bullet wood) tree which you could say gave birth to the Rose Garden was saved during the recent flood [...]
Rose Garden’s journey to Sampran Riverside: A travel story
On its 50th anniversary last month, the Rose Garden Resort & Spa in Thailand changed its name to Sampran Riverside.I guess for me and those who have grown up with it, it will always be the Rose Garden but for a new wave of travellers, which is who the third generation of the family business wan [...]
Goodbye, Phil
I didn’t quite make it as far north as Cape Reinga on this trip to New Zealand. But I wished I had. That’s because then I would have been able to bid farewell to an old friend, Phil Jackson, who left us on Sunday, May 13.Cape Reinga sits at the top end of the North Island of New Zealand. It is [...]
Australia, caught in twilight zone, looks to new sunshine from Asia
So here I am on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. I've been told that I brought the sun from Singapore although I didn't want to tell them that we too have had lots of rain in the tropics.But for today, the sun shone at the opening of the ATEC 2012 Symposium. The venue is the Coolum Resort & S [...]
Service moments that ought to be shared
I suppose we are so unused to good service these days – and I mean especially in big cities where 70% of us will live by 2020 or something like that – that when we encounter them, we are truly surprised.And so I must share these two unexpected service moments I had last week.The first was at ch [...]
Pinterest – or should it be called Finterest?
There was a certain irony to the fact that while the panelists on the webinar were discussing the rise of Pinterest and the descent ofTwitter, we, the audience, were busy posting our comments on Twitter.But such are the contradictions of social media and, perhaps, the logic of women?The webinar I [...]
Travelling with low expectations is good for the soul
The more I travel, the more I realise it’s good to lower your expectations. For example, I had a lousy flight on Singapore Airlines to Bangkok this evening. I was sandwiched in the middle seat, seated next to a Thai boy-girl who never stopped twitching while playing games on his-her iPad – a g [...]
The promise of Asia wrapped up in silk and low cost
As the Greek economic tragedy plays out (wait, will this have a happy ending?), and the US struggles with economic and foreign policies, all eyes are on Asia to deliver the promise of a better tomorrow for travel and tourism. Can Asia deliver? Yeoh Siew Hoon reports an ITB Berlin of blue skies.In H [...]
