Balancing the bad and good news and thinking about survival of the friendliest
How travel needs to form “cross-group friendships” to find our own vaccine
On one of my first assignments as a cub reporter in Penang, I was sent to cover a fire in a village. With my editor’s words ringing in my ears – “be objective, don’t get emotional, just get the facts” – I [...]
Groundhog Day on rewind; no one is in charge yet everyone is in it
Do you feel that at times you are a character in the movie “Groundhog Day”? In that 1993 movie, Bill Murray plays Phil, a weatherman, who finds himself trapped in a blizzard and forced to relive the same day over and over again until he makes the right choices.
One of
his quotes – “What [...]
Still and Stuck: What’s the one big thing Covid-19 challenged your thinking on? Here are some answers
“Nearly the
end of August and still,” sighed my hairdresser this week.
Yes, still.
Still stuck. Still masked. Still Zoom.
Since
March, I must have interviewed countless people from across the world, ran lots
of virtual events. And I sense a weariness settling in. It’s in the shoulders. [...]
Let’s talk about work, remote or otherwise, and its side effects
This whole remote work thing that’s still going on in
most parts of the world is producing lots of interesting outcomes, at least in
places where remote work is an option. As Joseph Tsai, executive vice chairman
of Alibaba
Group, observed at the Singapore Fintech Festival recently, “remote work [...]
The Millennial Traveller: A tribute to Karla and the beauty of slow travel
I imagine that travel for a dog is far less ambitious but far more fulfilling than for us humans. Dogs’ lives are far briefer than ours, more (technically) limited in what they can achieve, yet they are arguably superior in their ability to feel joy and contentment through the simplest of things. [...]
Milken talks vaccine, Alibaba’s Tsai talks remote work and travel; “massive digitisation of everything”
With so much bad news in travel I thought I’d tune into the Singapore Fintech Festival Global Launch event this week for a different perspective, and the most promising news came at the end from Mike Milken, chairman of the Milken Institute.
Saying things look promising and he wouldn’t be su [...]
Markets stumble, Traveloka raises, Ctrip’s private plans: Keep your eye on the horizon
One moment, I am speaking to Tien Thuy Tien, managing director of Asian Trails Vietnam, who’s at the Lak Tented Camp in the Central Highlands and she’s waxing lyrical about the scenic beauty and the elephant by the lake, and how locals like her were out travelling, and the next, Vietnam goes in [...]
O’ restless warriors, find your solace at home
One of the earliest literary pieces I read and that left a big impression on me was “Lady Precious Stream”, written by S.I. Hsing.
To cut a long play short – it was a Chinese play written in
English circa 1933 – it’s about the adventures of a restless warrior who, in
the end, after all [...]
Excuse me, did I see you on Zoom or was it for real? Re-learning the rituals of socialising again
Many, many years ago, I tore my calf muscle, had to have surgery, my right leg wrapped in a cast for almost six to eight weeks and after it was removed, I had to learn to walk all over again. Something I had taken for granted my entire life, the ability to put one foot after the other, I had to re [...]
We are all in the same boat but it appears to be different oceans
“Even in tiny Singapore, we have our own small ocean to explore. I've booked a boat trip to an outer island, no passport required. Where you are determines your outlook, but we need new eyes. Freedom, grab it when you can.”
The previous week, I got so excited I nearly fell off the high chair [...]
