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A Life in Travel

By: Yeoh Siew Hoon
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  • Summary

  • This podcast series celebrates travel as a way of life with stories of cool people doing cool stuff in a cool industry; folks who’ve built lives in travel and those whose lives have been changed by travel.
    Yeoh Siew Hoon
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Episodes
  • S2 Ep 11: Best of 2020

    S2 Ep 11: Best of 2020
    Dec 27 2020

    This special extended episode captures the best bits of Season 2 throughout 2020. This has it all – podcasting secrets, lost bamboo, crazy ideas that turn into successful businesses, a sea journey with a mysterious captain, climbing mountains in search of redemption, a bit of boogie-woogie and sitting next to Ol’ Blue Eyes on a flight.

    Happy listening. And watch out for Season 3 coming your way soon.

     

    Who’s the most interesting person you’ve sat next to on a flight?

    As part of this special episode of Season 2, we are inviting you to send in your stories on the most interesting person you’ve sat next to on a flight.

    Just submit an audio recording (no more than 2mins) to us, and the best story to be picked by us will win a two-night stay on Cempedak Private Island, off Bintan in Indonesia.

    You can either send the recorded audio file to us at podcast@alifeintravel.net, or use the voice recorded on our website. The latter option will auto-submit your recordings direct to us.

    Deadline for entries is January 31, 2021.
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    37 mins
  • 20. Cyril Ranque – Building a better world through travel

    20. Cyril Ranque – Building a better world through travel
    Sep 22 2020
    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 is firmly planted within the ecosystem of an industry he had loved since he was a child. In this episode: Staying cool and calm in the face of current challenges affecting the travel industry“The hardest thing was to do the right things for our customers and our partners in a time when everybody was going crazy, with all (the) cancellations and restrictions, etc. And as an OTA, we were kind of in the middle. So remaining cool and calm, and trying to see through the clouds, what would be the impact of the decisions we took, was a challenge. So, done as best as I could, considering the unknown territory, I would say [laughs]…But one thing is that I've reflected on over the years is in our industry, I say never make enemies, so never go too far in what you can say or do in a way that would cut bridges forever. Because when we look at travel, it's an incredibly large industry on the outside, but it feels incredibly small and connected on the inside. So I try to stay cool and calm on the outside with everybody I meet in the industry.” Professional tennis Decision to stop“It was around 16. I was good, I was actually playing with some people who made it very, very high in the ATP rankings, (they went) to the final of Wimbledon, etc. But they were much better than me. You can feel where you reach your peak and they are just starting, and this is where I was [laughs], I was at my peak and they were just getting started. Then the gap was much bigger after that.” Lessons learnt“With a sport like tennis, there's no excuse. If you don't have the discipline you don't perform, (don’t) train and make sacrifices etc. you don't perform, and when you lose it's all on you. So you can't find excuses. I think it's a good way to look at yourself in the mirror and reflecting on what you did right and wrong, which is then helpful in life. You can’t put the fault on your teammates or somebody else in a company that hasn't done what they had to do. I think it trains you to have an objective look at yourself and self-awareness.”  With all the hours you have flown, do you still feel that flying is magical?“I do. I have to say I find it more magical when you go overwater, when you cross an ocean and you change continent, I find that quite magical than (being) on the short fights. Short flights are a little less magical. I guess when you leave Singapore, it’s very often you’re over the water…and has a special place in my heart, for the (Boeing) 747 which I know you too.” Democratisation of air travel with the Boeing 747“I was a little touch when BA announced that they were retiring them, just because it democratised travel. It's a plane that opened the world to the middle class. So I think it actually had a huge impact not only on travel, but on the world. For me, it's always been a particular plane that I really liked. I had incredible moments in this plane, and I'll share one with you which, for me will also remain like the engine on fire. One of those days, I was going from Paris to LA and I was waiting in line at the counter, as I said, not knowing if I was going to get my ticket. At thay time, for the staff, they had a process which put the highest priority people in line first in Economy, so they filled the empty seats in Economy. Then as you as you went down the priority list, they were filling Business Class and then they were filling First Class. Since I was a son of a flight attendant, I was super low in the priority list. So I was always at the very bottom of the list. On that flight, I got upgraded to First Class, and I was paying $10. So it was really, really cheap [laughs] and the First Class ticket was, I don't know how much, but it was incredibly expensive. (In flights like these) you always got on late, the last one on the flight where everybody was already seated with their champagne waiting. I got to my seat, which was 1A in a 747. So (I was) getting in the seat, I'm sitting down, and there's a boarding pass of the passenger next to me that was just between the two seats. I looked at it and it said Frank Sinatra [laughs].” Trade-offs between the positive and negative impact of the travel industry“I think the world is made of trade-offs and compromises. There's no black and white and the way I look at it is yes, travel is creating some pollution, like a tonne of other industries. But when you compare that to the wealth it creates; the employment opportunities for local communities around the world, to power the lodging business, the activities ...
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    35 mins
  • 19. Danny Loong – For the love of music & singing the blues

    19. Danny Loong – For the love of music & singing the blues
    Sep 11 2020
    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 Souls of Singapore“I'm one of the members of the band. It is a very big band, sometimes we are eight, nine, even 10-piece, and we celebrate soul music. It all started with tributes, all the favourite soul and Motown songs; songs by Al Green, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, all the real good stuff from that era. Daniel, who's our band leader got all us together. After a while Daniel just told us, ‘I think maybe it's time for us to do some original music,’ which got me excited. I think at the end of the day that's what you want to do. Do some original songs, songs you can call your own. That's how it all started, really.” How did you fall in love with music?“I've always been in music – classical music. I mean my parents, as (with) a lot of Singaporean parents [laughs], put us into playing classical music and it's a good thing. It's a good basic thing to learn. But I was watching the World Cup, I don't even remember what year, and they used to have a music interlude, it’s about 15 minutes. I saw these two African American guys playing the piano, it was Boogie Woogie style. I was just so drawn to it. These two guys jamming together, and they were not reading notes, as I'm used to reading notes. But these two guys were just enjoying the music and I felt there's so much freedom when they were performing, and it just got me so interested. I actually went to the vinyl store. I collect vinyls from then till now. I didn't even know what the music was called. I just basically told a guy I’d like to buy some African American music and they pointed the gospel blues and all those Boogie Woogie style, and then from there on I kind of taught myself how to play Boogie Woogie. Then, years after that I started to really like the guitar, picked up the guitar from my teacher at the time, Bee's, he taught me for about three to six months. But he also got me to listen to the song by Eric Clapton, it’s called Have you ever loved a woman? It was actually the song that he did with Derek and the Dominoes, and that song stuck with me. That was one that got me really deep into the blues.” Connection with blues music “Initially when I first heard it, I didn't really fully understand the history of it, only years after (did I understand). But initially when I first heard it, I couldn't explain it but the powerful vocals, the deep expressions that they had in the music, just felt there's something really deep in the music that I felt. Years after, when I studied in Australia, I had a few experience(s) of, and this is 1996, so it was four years after meeting BB King, I was in Perth studying in Murdoch. That was the years of the politician by the name of Pauline Hanson. When she spoke in parliament, there were incidences of racial abuse and few incidents against Asian students at a time. When I experienced that, it really got me even deeper into the music. But what's fascinating about it is that the African American people – very sad history in way. But when they get on stage to play, they put on their suit, and they stand up straight and they sing with that voice. They claim that space. For them to be able to stand up and sing that song and inspire other people, especially young men from Britain, I mean, people from Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Eric Clapton to the Beatles even, they were all listening to blues and rock and roll and they were inspired by them. There’s something about that music.” Most memorable gig“The most memorable gig we did was the one we did in one of the homes of the blues, Memphis. I'm wearing my Sun Studios T-shirt today. I will never forget that trip. We had the opportunity to represent Singapore in the International Blues Challenge, which was held in Memphis, Tennessee. We had an album full of originals, so we did that, and we also did a few covers. The whole trip was the most amazing one. We played Memphis, we got into the semi-finals – we didn't get into the finals, unfortunately – but that day, when we were in the semi-finals, something really amazing happened. The bar owner liked us so much and asked us whether we were doing anything the next day. He said, ‘You guys didn't make it to the finals, right?’ So, I thought he was taking a piss (at us) so I said, ‘No, we didn't we didn't make it.’ He said, ‘What are you doing tomorrow?’, I said, ‘Nothing,’ you know [laughs]. We are just in Memphis, we could probably go check out some things, some museum, Graceland. He said, ‘Well, how about you guys do a gig here?’ And, and I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ and he said ‘How ...
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    38 mins
Social Sciences Travel Writing & Commentary
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