Where it's done best
When I want to learn something, I go where it's done best and stay until I can do it.
I'm visual, and all it takes is one image for me to decide on something. On the way to umrah as a child, by the Red Sea, I saw a man in all white on a nearly all-white horse, galloping along the sand. I decided then and there that I was going to ride horses. Polo took me to Midhurst, UK, and a handicap at Cowdray. Then Istanbul, to learn Turkish and horseback archery. A year later I was in Sokcho, the first rider to represent Singapore at the World Horseback Archery Championship.
Another photo: a man holding on to a strange contraption, on skis, on the Antarctic ice shelf. It looked elegant and daring, and I soon found out what it was called: kite skiing. I learnt to ski and to kite from zero. There were ski trips to Chamonix and Hokkaido and kiteboarding in Bintan every weekend, then polar training on Norway's Hardangervidda plateau with veteran guide Paul Landry. Eventually, I kite-skied in New Zealand.
Tonga began the same way, with an image of humpback whales. I couldn't swim, so I learnt to freedive first, then went to meet them.
Five rings of work
Expeditions, Office & School
- First woman to cross the Empty QuarterRub' al Khali, 2012
- Singapore's first representative, World Horseback Archery ChampionshipSokcho, South Korea, 2016
- Polo handicapCowdray Polo Club
- Vice President, Mensa Singapore2019, 2020. Editor of Menews, 2016. Spoke for Mensa at Straits Clan, 2019
- MSc Strategic StudiesS. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore