Letter from Seoul: Change will come as low cost effect takes hold
Just returned from Seoul – did you know, it may not have the fastest average Internet speed in the world (fourth after Hong Kong, Japan and Romania – Latvia was fifth) but it does have the highest high broadband penetration (10mbps) in the world, followed by Japan, Hong Kong and Latvia in that o [...]
Letter from Honolulu: Bringing back ancient ways to the islands
The last time I was in Honolulu, I joined a pilot friend on a ferry flight across the Pacific back to Hong Kong where I was living at the time.
We took about three weeks on a single-engine Piper Malibu to fly across the Pacific, from the Hawaiian island through Kiribati, Tahiti, Cook Islands, We [...]
Tea & Horse Caravan Trail, Pt 5: Spending time in Shangri-La
My first morning in Shangri-La and I have to admit, I didn’t wake up as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I had planned. I had been warned that I’d have a fitful night. The body needs time to adjust to the thin air and sure enough, I felt dehydrated all night, plus it was colder than I was used to [...]
Letter from Singapore: Tale of contrasting worlds
Every now and then, I feel an urge to write a letter from Singapore because when you travel a lot, you can sometimes forget what’s happening on hometurf, so couple of things got my attention this week.One, the announcement by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong about “Project Jewel” [...]
Tea & Horse Caravan Trail, Pt 4: Onwards to the first bend of the Yangtze, onto Shangri-La
I wake up with a sense of excitement. Never mind the rain, but today is the day I will finally get to see Shangri-La. It’s a place I’ve long wanted to visit, it being the home of Uttara, my friend, for the last 16 years.But first, we take a detour to Yuhu, the base of Joseph Rock, a self-made bo [...]
Letter from Auckland: If you are hungry for innovation, read on
This thing about innovation and entrepreneurship is catching.I was in Auckland over the weekend and was invited inside The Generator, a start-up sharing space in the city, where you pay less than $200 a month for access to hot desks, meeting rooms and function space. Coffee is free and good, as [...]
Tea & Horse Caravan Trail, Pt 3: On the road to Lijiang
Overnight rain has left Shaxi looking drenched and there’s mist in the mountains. It’s early morning but the students are already out, taking their painting classes. In one corner, a teacher marks their work.I watch as she comments on each piece and someone keeps tabs of the scores. The students [...]
Tea & Horse Caravan Trail, Pt 2: History, art and pasta collide in Shaxi
I wake up to the pattering of rain on my bedroom window. I rise from my bed of roses (the most colourful bedsheets I’ve ever slept on) to face Day 3 of my Tea and Horse Caravan Trail.We decide to have breakfast at Bakery 88 (breakfast at Landscape leaves much to be desired) and there, we meet anot [...]
Tea & Horse Caravan Trail, Pt 1: Kicking off in Dali
I’ve just returned from an amazing trip which took me on part of the ancient Tea and Horse Caravan Trail where merchants of old brought tea and horses on mules from southern Yunnan across the border to Tibet and India.In those days, it took them years to reach their destination. These days, where [...]
Thoughts from the adobe huts of Shaxi to Journeys with MAS
It is somewhat surreal that I should be spending the night in an adobe inn in the historic town of Shaxi, Yunnan, when just five days ago I was at the global Adobe Digital Marketing Symposium learning about how much marketing has changed.At the event in Singapore, there was a lot of talk about how t [...]
