A Life in Travel

Travel has been a part of Cyril’s life from the time he was born. His mother was a flight attendant, and Cyril thinks that he probably took his “first flight on a baby chair.” After the sidelining of his plans to become a professional tennis player, Cyril went on the more conventional academic route and had goals to work to earn money to travel. Fast forward to years later, the current President for Travel Partners of Expedia Group...

Danny has managed to combine his love for music and made it into a business which gives local musicians a platform to perform. His love for music has also brought him and his band, The Souls of Singapore, to different parts of the world. In this episode, Danny shares on his love for the blues, and the adventures that music has taken him on.

In this episode:

Being in the band, The Sou...

Two setbacks make the founding of a company for Rod. The founder of Viator, who subsequently sold the business to TripAdvisor, began the journey of creating Viator when he was fired from his job as the Vice President of Marketing. Rod then went on to create an online system for a client, but the project fell through. Thus, he set out on his own and based on that idea, Viator was born. In this episode, Rod shares the story of his jo...

The author of The Gift of Rain (2007) and The Garden of Evening Mists (2012), which were respectively longlisted and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, was in Cape Town during the recording of this episode due to worldwide lockdowns due to COVID-19. The hard pause to life as we know it has given him the space and time to focus on the writing of his third novel. While he enjoys his time in Cape Town, the Penang-born writer cannot...

While growing up in Hong Kong, journalist Sophie Cairns has always dreamt of becoming a China watcher. Her work at South China Morning Post and then at Reuters have brought her to Shanghai for the Beijing Olympics, and then to Paris. The life-changing moment of her father’s passing set her off to climb seven volcanoes to raise funds for cancer research, and she’s also written a book of her personal journey, Climbing the Seven Volca...

After five years into her banking job, Anqi caught the travel bug and fell in love with the sea. Her stints as a scuba diving instructor eventually brought her to Thailand where she discovered her love for freediving, which is breath-hold diving without any breathing apparatus. Last year, she set a new national record for Singapore at the CMAS 2019 World Freediving Championships in Honduras. Anqi’s love for the ocean also led her t...

CEO, Queen’s Road Capital
Even as a young boy growing up in California, Fritz Demopoulos thought like an entrepreneur, finding a way to make money from distributing flyers. That lesson in distribution may have been what started him on his journey towards building China’s first travel search engine, Qunar, with his two co-founders. And that wasn’t even their first startup together. Their exit in 2011 to Baidu drew attention to China...

Full Potential Labs, Sydney
Yes, travel changes lives, and sometimes not necessarily for the better. A young Claire Hatton, living in Singapore then, lost her husband Chris to the Bali bomb attack in 2002. From then on, Claire has lived with the adage that “nothing is to be taken for granted”. The tragedy set her off on an adventure where she took up photography, travelled the world and eventually ended up in Sydney, where she now ...

Owner, Nikoi/Cempedak Islands
In this episode, find out how a former banker found the real gold in beach sand, not bank notes. Andrew Dixon, born in Australia, was taking a holiday on an island in Indonesia when he and friends decided, why not build a holiday house for family and friends? Then more friends came and asked, why can’t we stay too? And so, he expanded it into an island resort open to everyone and 12 years later, he now ...

Owner, Splice Studios, Singapore
Kenn Delbridge has been in love with the art and science of sound since his early days in broadcasting and working with MTV. His studio is where ‘A Life in Travel’ is recorded and produced and, in this episode, we get behind the scenes of what makes a successful podcast as well as how travel has influenced his outlook on life and his profession.

An affinity with sound has followed Martin throughout his life; from the discovery of his love for the guitar following the passing of his father, to becoming a music producer today. The Managing Director of Meesta Production experiences the world through sound, and translates thoughts and emotions into lines of music. Tune into this episode to hear what the soundscapes of places like Berlin, Singapore, Tibet and Nepal sound like t...

Having achieved many firsts throughout her illustrious career, the woman who wears many hats is still to date, best known as the first woman and the first Singaporean to be appointed General Manager of Raffles Hotel in the city-state. This trailblazing hotelier who grew up in a family that went from rags to riches, and then to rags again, shares on what her childhood experiences taught her about life and her thoughts on the hospita...

A lawyer by training and an entrepreneur by nature, Loh Lik Peng saw an opportunity during the Asian Financial Crisis which spurred his first foray into the hospitality industry, as well as the F&B industry eventually. The founder of Unlisted Collection delves into how he came to open Singapore’s first urban boutique hotel before it became a trend, and the models that drive his businesses.

The hardcore music-loving man of Syrian-British mixed heritage is at home everywhere, and yet does not call any specific country home. The travel technology specialist and CEO of HotelsCombined shares on his dynamic background, his perspectives on travel as a service provider and as a leisure traveller himself, as well as his perspectives on technology.

One Kind House, the Airbnb experience run by the Soh family, is inspired by the sense of community and togetherness of kampung living. This father and daughter team share on the motivations behind establishing this experience, the things they learned along the way and their thoughts on travel.

Stephan’s love for adventure and the unconventional has chartered his life – from being a teenage deejay way before it was cool, to starting an online travel agency in South Africa before big players took interest in the continent. The founder and CEO of Travelstart shares on what drove him to migrate from Sweden to South Africa, inspirations from music and the motivation behind his persistent pursuit to impact the face of travel i...

After leaving her corporate job in 2008, Chef Shen launched into the Singapore F&B scene by setting up shop at a hawker centre to sell Nasi Lemak. With 11 years of experience and a slew of lessons learnt along the way, the Ownselfmakechef private home dining chef shares her guiding philosophy on food and interesting food facts in relation to the history of the world.

Founders of film production company Bananamana share on how they found their groove, and on how asking tough questions led them to discover what they truly love to do.