My Story

I love life and I felt too lost rushing everywhere I went in the past few years. Upon graduation, I managed to get myself into a decent corporate job and relocated myself to Hong Kong. I spent the first 1.5 years flying between Hong Kong and Taiwan for work. It was a great experience to be lead a jet setter lifestyle. I was more familiar with the layout of HK and Taoyuan Airport as compared to the local MRT network. Along the way I met many interesting people (including my favorite singer and pop band) and made a great deal of friends. Not to mention there were few key events that took place in the 4 years of living abroad.


I spent the next 2.5 years living in HK. I can proudly call HK my second home. There were many kind people who took great care of me and made sure this cute(then) petite Singaporean girl was well taken of. I started to travel more and more during my vacation break and made use of the great geographical location of HK and explored North Asia and United States. I learnt that people are really diverse in HK, from the international crowd of expats (and each of them are different in their own ways!) as well as the local folks. I learnt to be more tolerant and open minded about cultures, values and understand the value of mutual respect.

Student Days - Pocket money +Vacation Job = Nearby Holidays and Overseas Community trips

I love travelling. Instead of saving my pocket money + vacation job money to learn driving, I started to save up for my little trips back in my university days. I must thank my Mom for letting me to travel at a young age with my school. I headed to Bangkok with my history class and had a blast at the age of 15. In that same year, my liberal Mom allowed me to follow the Rotary Club of Singapore and Rotary Club of Manila for a student exchange programme in Manila. How many parents will allow their kids to explore at this young age? My parents did!

It was a mind blowing experience for me. I learnt to see the world in a different way. I saw poor mentally ill people being kept in conditions there were not fantastic. It shocked me at a young age. I saw poor (really poor) people in Manila and it was definitely a culture shock for a well-sheltered Singaporean. After I got back to Singapore, I initiated a series of mini projects and fund raised for the cause. I was so into it that I neglected my studies in that year (my O levels!). I scrapped through in the end (thanks to good karma!).

In my first year in National University of Singapore, I was not too sure which ECA to take part in. I participated in a local volunteering group but wasn't very enthusiastic as it did not propagate the cause I believe in. At that point in time I felt stronger towards social causes in developing countries. I compared socio-developmental factors and of course the standard of living across the poorer Asia countries. Southeast Asia region is always being neglected somehow. I love Southeast Asia, this is the region I call home and I think as a fellow Asian/Southeast Asian we have to be proud of our very own region. The history in this area cannot be neglected and we are so connected in terms of geography, culture and religion.

Project Keptawan 2 in Chiangmai - Living in the hills for 3 weeks


An opportunity came up at the end of 2001. I joined a Youth Expedition Project (YEP) sponsored by Singapore International Foundation (SIF). I was lucky to part of Project Keptawan 2 as there were different students who participated from various institutions. In this group, I learnt a lot from others as each of us came with a different perspective. I was one of the youngest and definitely I would say I absorbed  like a sponge in what I saw and experienced. I realised that the world is bigger than what I think.

I stayed in Nong Monta village in Chiangmai for more than 3 weeks. We lived in conditions without electricity. It was an eye opener as a city kid like me learnt to make peace with TV-less nights and just campfire (the weather plunged to around 10 Degs) to keep us warm. We take many things for granted indeed. I learnt how we can interact with the hill tribe minorities without a common language. My favorite person was Pi Tom, our translator and the project manager from Chiangmai city. He's a great guy with a very kind heart. He always calls me Sha Sha Chou Chou (Smelly Sha) as we tried to teach him some funky Mandarin. I learnt Jai Yan Yan (Relax in Thai) from him.

Everyone was teary as we bid goodbye to the villagers. The kids and the villagers loved us. We definitely had a good time despite some rough moments. I made friends within the group that lasted till today. I did not cry as I am someone who likes to be tough in such situations. It doesn't help when everyone was crying. I wanted them to remember my smiley face. I knew I would be back to visit. That brings me to another point of if you set to do something, do it. I came back a year later while working during vacations to save up for the air ticket. Budget airlines were not existent in Asia then.

Those were the days, cladded in project tee and sitting in the lorry. Lorry was the main transportation for us to get ourselves from Chiang Mai city to the village. (3 hours of bumpy ride!)

We were working hard!

Hanging out with the karen children.

The lady folks and the children. Married women wore colourful dresses while the young ones wore white outfits.

Project Letpabya/ Project Pinnya Tazaung in military Myanmar

I learnt a lot in the previous project. But I know the real deal was to expose pampered Singapore kids like me to a different sort of life and be socially aware about what is going on around the world. My primary cause was still to help someone out there in a place that really needed help. In NUS, I met up with a year 4 medical student J. J had started a series of health care related project in Myanmar. Myanmar! How cool was that? As a political science student, I knew what was going on around in Southeast Asia. I decided to join his cause. Being the only non-medical student in the group, we discussed and he gladly asked me to lead a team that focused on non-medical educational project to work with their medical group. I remembered getting a few students to help me and I started with Art & Craft wing of the project. Art is a luxury in some countries as materials are not the easiest or cheapest to find. Now you can see the link why I started Peakstarz. My affinity with Art & Craft started in my younger days!

Myanmar is a very interesting country. It was a much authoritarian military government in those years as compared to today. We made friends with Myanmar students who were studying in NUS.AH, an engineering student was the who the one who came up with the idea to work on his hometown that was located 17 hours away (by bus) from Yangon. It was the year of SARS and it definitely made things more difficult. We only received our approval and visas one or two weeks before the date of departure. I was glad we received some donation of medical supplies and funds and we pulled off for the logistics part. I did not have enough cash to pay for my own ticket that year. J lent me $600 as I told my family the air ticket was 'sponsored' (parents would not love the idea of me paying $600 for a trip to some remote village). Those were the things I done back in my school days because I believe in making a difference and because I thought we were doing the right thing.

It was an adventure to do a project in Myanmar. The suspicious government and police did not put me at ease. Being very politically and socially aware of the situation we were in, I could not help noticing stares and policemen following us everywhere we went. Nonetheless we did what we could during the trip and wished we could do more. Stress did not do me well as I felt that I did not handle the project as well as I could. Apologies to the teammates then who had to put up with me!

What did I learn from the project? I met 2 very valuable friends. R and YP are two very good pals of mine. They were the leaders for the medical part of the project. 3 of us spent a lot of time planning and working on the project. We came to realise and learn much from this project. We were aware of the Santa Claus theory and what was the absolute good we could bring to a community in a remote region. As a student group, we were idealistic and we met with many challenges such as funding and continuity of a student project. We come to realise the best way to help a community is to be able to contribute professionally and offer a more substantial level of help. Perhaps one day we will go back to Myanmar again. Till then, we know we have to come up with a better idea and plan.

Eat Pray Love Shoot


I am very impressed if you have managed to read till this section. For a few years I stopped pursuing what I long believed in. Trust me, it is very easy to lose yourself in big cities in HK and Singapore. Materialism and consumerism took the better of me. I enjoyed my 'luxurious' days and spent much time gloating over the lack of meaning in life.

2011 was my year and I believe 2012 will get even better. After returning from Hong Kong for almost 2 years, I really had enough of my job and lack of meaning in my life. I was very comfortable and took short trips whenever I could. Nonetheless I was not very happy with my life. What were the things I have not managed to do? I knew I was hitting 30 and I definitely need to pursue several things instead of leading a linear uniform life of Singapore. I did not have a big plan and simply set up some little goals.

I left my job on March 14th 2011. I intended to lead a Eat Pray Love Shoot life for a while.
Eat- self explanatory, just eat whenever you are
Pray - be at peace with myself, pick up meditation and zen in whichever place I was at.
Love - Love myself, love the people around me, love the world, hopefully find my one true love :)
Shoot - Be a camera whore, a professional one if I can!


I did. I explored many places and took a slower pace of life. I have taken decent pictures of beautiful places around the world. I tried many different cuisines and tried my best to enjoy the best scenic places with a zen state of mind. There were many people whom I had met over the year that made a deep impression. I learnt to love myself more, as well as thinking of ways to love people around me better. I started Peakstarz, as I believe in the handwritten messages that had been lost in the onset of technology. I want to share with people I met with my handmade cards and the pictures I have taken over in my various trips.


What is next. I seek to be an agent of change. It will take time and patience for that to take place. I dream of doing something bigger and larger in life. I believe somehow I will be guided to the right place and the right time somewhere down the road. Keep believing my dear friends. Do not forsake your dreams!



A snapshot of places I been in the past few years

2006: Shanghai, Seoul for a ski trip
2007: Beijing, Chengdu and Tibet
2008: Osaka/Kyoto, Shanghai, Bali, Seoul and outskirts
2009: Taiwan, US (San-Frans region), Langawi, Siem Reap in Cambodia, Bangkok, Ho Chih Min
2010: Taiwan, Phuket, London, Paris, Southern France, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Malacca, Penang
2011: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malacca, Greece, Turkey, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, US(San    Frans, Vegas, Atlanta, Tennessee, Washington DC & New York).

Please read the following links for my travel stories and my thoughts on various things in life:
(To be completed)