I haven’t been blogging here for a while

So sorry guys, everything just moved up 1 gear since mid Sept I’ve been on the road and been home only less than 20% of the time and did at least 100 hours in the air. Add to that I have to maintain my tech blogs here and here – you can find some updates there.

In fact I’ve had TONNES of things I wanted to blog here. But priority always goes to the tech blogs and I guess I want to take more time when I do write a post here. I’ve been wanting to write about my recent journeys and insights I’ve received while on the road. While I hope to talk about them more in details, here’s like a quick summary :

Indianapolis – Managed to catch up with some old friends and co-sojourners here. Never knew when I was gonna see them again and was soooo glad when I did. Also went to an NBA game and caught Larry Bird and Shaq (visiting with the Phoenix Suns). I sat next to the Mayor of the 12th largest city in America and briefly there, for a few hours in time, we were co-sojourners Managed to talk to his wife from Thailand as well.

North Carolina – Did a 10-hours drive from Indianapolis with some treasured co-sojourners and it felt like the end of the world with the big open highways and ….. no petrol. Yes, towards the end of the journey near Charlotte North Carolina, almost every petrol kiosk we went to was outta petrol. How harrowing. The thing I took away from that that experience was – we can drive the nicest cars (we were in a Lexus) but without petrol, it’s just a useless piece of metal on wheels. I blogged about this before actually. I made some wonderful friends in North Carolina which I suspect will be lifelong co-sojourners.

Seoul - Spent a short time in Seoul, and now I’m back in Seoul again to present at a conference. Will talk more about this later, hopefully!

Osaka – Always loved Japan, bought my Nintendo Wii, and had a great time with some clients there. Learnt lots and made some new friends. Definitely going back!

Moscow - Was definitely an eye-opener for me, especially to see one of the seven wonders of the world :

St. Basil’s Cathedral, Red Square, Moscow

Also made an important friend whom I suspect will be a co-sojourner for a long time to come too.

Samara – Although this city is only like 1,000 miles from Beijing. I was surprised to know that I was probably the only Chinese in this city. This is so unlike Moscow where mainland Chinese were all over the streets. Interestingly, Samara has one of the largest car factories in Russia for a brand called ‘Lada’. Talk about highways..

Dubai – I’ve never seen so much sand in my life! My time in Dubai was short but I touched based with a co-sojourner there who will only become closer to me in the journey ahead, especially after that meeting.

Hanoi – I was thrown into a meeting with some really important people there. I’m not sure why yet but for a brief moment in time at least, I was co-sojourners with some of the most powerful people in Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh – Similiar experience as Hanoi. I’ve been to Ho Chi Minh City before and blogged about it too.

Kuala Lumpur – I attended a regional business conference and they had this flag ceremony where I was invited to hold the Singaporean flag. Was an awesome feeling, a little hard to describe especially when surrounded by 30 other flags. National pride is definitely one of those feelings there!

At the same time the experience was very sobering as the conference was held in the midst of the economic downturn. Many great learnings and insights and of course rubbing shoulders with some of the very best businessmen (co-sojourners) around asia.

Chicago – I rushed back from KL and only spent like 4 hours in Singapore before rushing off to Chicago then to Indianapolis again (yes twice in a month). It’s especially meaningful to be in the jazzy city of Chicago DURING the US Elections itself since Chicago is Obama’s hometown. Some co-sojourners I met on the flight from Singapore to Chicago – we had a great time on the 20 hour flight.

Tokyo – was really interesting because I wasn’t supposed to be there. Only for transit from Chicago back to Singapore. Through some strange twist of events, I ended up staying in Tokyo for 1 night and made some precious friends. One of them whom I met was on the same flight with me not only from Tokyo to Singapore, but from Chicago to Tokyo, and also Dubai to Singapore like 2 weeks back! How freaky! Talk about co-sojourners on the highway of life!

Brunei – Although I knew I had a big invitation to speak at their inaugural National Technology Forum, I didn’t realise how big it was until I was swamped with media interviews from the time I landed. The conference was great and I blogged a little about the experience here.

So there, a quick summary and snapshot of my travelling so far. I actually reviewed quite a couple of gadgets for these travellings – Lenovo Thinkpad X200, Kohjinsha SX and SC Series, Canon Powershot A1000 IS, Canon S5 IS,  Canon EOS 1000D, and Gigabyte Netbook (currently reviewing). I also bought the iPod Touch from the states. I have TONNES of photos more which hopefully I can share with you.

After Seoul, I’ll be back in Singapore for a while to help organise the Singapore Arcade Showdown at Anime Festival Asia 08 before travelling again for India, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

Thanks again for being my co-sojourner. Each and every valuable reader here.

Signing off from Seoul.

I’ve been sleeping with the cutest babe..

Yes, it’s time to come clean coz I haven’t really introduced this co-sojourner to you all this while. It’s about time I introduce to you my closest and cutest babe whom I’ve been sleeping with all this while, way cuter than the one I met in Ximending Taipei last year :

Mistakes in life – Lessons from the highway.

I grew up in a culture where we are not so forgiving towards mistakes. A recent chat with an american-based venture capitalist (VC) confirmed this:

“I’ve realised that over here, when your startup fail and you lose money, people scream for blood.”

“But over in the US where I come from, when your startup fail and you go back to your VC, he’d say ‘common, you can do it, gimme one more startup to invest in!’”

What a strange contrast. Almost unimaginable to us here in this part of the world.

But then I thought of a parallel. Driving

Blessed Christmas and Happy Holidays!

2007 has been an eventful year for me indeed as I shifted back into high gear – traveled tonnes and took on more business portfolios. And 2008 is set to be even more crazy as my 1st half is almost fully booked and a few more portfolios are in discussions!

But most importantly 2007 marks the beginning of blogging and meeting precious co-sojourners on the highway of life like you.

Here’s wishing all my co-sojourners on this highway of life a Blessed Christmas and May 2008 be the most exciting part of your life’s journey and be your best ever yet!

This Xmas tree in front of Paragon was rather nice. For more pics on the Orchard lights and decorations, head on down to my other blog.

Conrad Hotel imprisoned a bunch of ‘bear-ly’ co-sojourners in a Xmas tree.

Happy Holidays

I met the cutest little babe in Taipei

Here’s a companion I found in the hottest area of Taipei called XiMenDing that’s not your everyday co-sojourner:

Aimless in life

Have you ever hopped into a car only to realise that you have no idea where you’re going only when you’re already on the highway?

Maybe you just trust the guy who’s driving you; but maybe it has also happened when you are the driver and halfway through you just have simply no idea where you’re going anymore?

Will you panick? Maybe not if you trust the driver – or if you are driving and you’re a pretty cool person who doesn’t panick easily.

Or have you just ever gone so far into one journey on the highway and then suddenly decided that you wanted to change course? Happened to me before.

Your mind would probably process faster than a Intel Core 2 Duo even as you frantically scan all the road signs zooming past for the nearest exit.

Or maybe sometimes, you just like to drive aimlessly. “Take me anywhere” to the driver cause you simply dunno where to go.

Sometimes, it’s just so much like life.

What is a co-sojourner?

“There’s something absolutely magical and beautiful about sharing something with someone you don’t know. And I don’t mean sharing a pen or a pencil, or something of that sort. I’m talking about sharing something intimate like an umbrella. “