​AUDREY CHIN 

Words can’t describe this natural wonder seemingly balanced on a hair (Buddha’s apparently). The Golden Rock of Mon State – It’s a miracle! This slideshow requires JavaScript. Where is your favourite rocky place? Do share a link to a picture. BTW – I also like the 12 Apostles on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road #Amazing #Rock #Myanmar #Travels #travel #Asia #MonState #Burma

I spent February 12, Myanmar’s Union Day, among the Karen. Union Day celebrates the signing of the Panglong Agreement between the majority Burmans and the minority ethnics to struggle together for an independent Union of Burma. The meaning of Union remains contested among the minorities. Indeed the Mon and Karen minorities were not even original signatories. But more on that another time… I did not see any signs of the differences that are being negotiated with gunfire in the

I stole 2 days before the Irrawaddy Literary festival to visit Karen State and Mon State in South Eastern Myanmar. Here are my first impressions of Karen State, from the initial sight of Zwekabin Mountain (the state landmark), past a village to Hpa An, the state capital situated on the banks of the great Salween River. This slideshow requires JavaScript. Pictures can say more than words in this case. More to come over the next few days … #HpaAn #KarenState #Myanmar #Asia #aci

For me, Constance Singam the Singapore feminist and civil society activist, is the epitome of true grit Brought up in a patriarchal South Indian Catholic household, almost promised off to a Kerala Indian boy in the next village when she was twelve, married for love soon after her first job to an older man and then a housewife who didn’t even have a driving license for eighteen  years, Connie blossomed in widowhood.  Now, we know her as the mother of Civil Society. When Consta

Sarah Pannir’s spotlighting Marina Bay Sands today, the Mid-Autumn Festival I campaigned against this casino development. Since its completion, we’ve had more problems with addicted gamblers, under-age commercial sex and tourists who drop in specially to commit crimes in our suburban housing estates. But, Sarah is right. Like any seductress, Marina Bay Sands is beautiful and beguiling. People say Singapore is a workaday efficient city bereft of charm. On this weekend, when a

We’re just back from remote Lugu Lake, Yunnan China where my friend Choo Wai Hong traded in her high-flying high-stress corporate lawyer’s life for this: – the view from her front window – a handcrafted tribal living room – and time and more time to look back at her choices and write all about it. It was a huge change going from tropical rush-about Singapore to the quiet of these Northwestern Yunnan mountains to live among the matrilineal Mosuo. For our friend, it was the rig

It’s been almost two months since my visit to Myanmar and I’m still caught in the Burmese web. I’m not the first to be captured by the country. There was Rudyard Kipling, Amitash Ghosh, Emma Larkin… Karen Connelly Courtesy of Amazon.com Now there’s Karen Connelly. I’ve just put down her book Burmese Lessons: A True Love Story. It’s brilliant, you need to read it. But it also stirred mixed feelings on my part. Here’s the story. Karen Connelly is wonderful writer, one who makes

In Myanmar, they’ve been switched off for 50 years. It makes for a slower pace of life and a more crafty approach to manufacturing. Don’t let’s talk about productivity though… A business center A call center A taxi in the suburbs A water taxi Milling your own face powder Pressing cooking oil Drawing lotus fibres Hand-spinning silk Setting up a hand loom Hand-rolling sugar Wood-fired stills #Yangon #Myanmar #Meiktila #travel #Asia #Muslim #Buddhism #Burma #Arts

Singapore’s 2013 budget certainly tries to give Singaporeans what they’ve been clamoring for: Stricter limits on foreign labour, carrots and sticks to increase local productivity, a more progressive tax structure, more measures to cool house and car prices. But when we get what we ask for, we also get the consequences: The devil’s in the details and the implementation… Debate in Parliament, on the blogs, and in whispers among the moneyed classes has already highlighted concer

This week Pope Benedict 16th steps down, the first papal resignation in nearly 600 years. At the University of Tubingen in Germany, the theologian Hans Kung, author of the forthcoming “Can the Church Still Be Saved?” hopes for a new spring for a fading church. But in the Mekong Delta, in my husband’s family, life flows on uninterrupted like the river. Every Spring, my husband and his Saigon siblings make an annual pilgrimage to the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho to celebrate my

How words helped two women find common ground despite distance and a 12 hour time lag. Late last year I joined Jeff Goin’s on-line platform building course at www.tribewriters.com. In one of the practice modules, I found a post by Kathleen Caron that was very critical of Americans and how Americans had grown cold and uncaring in their affluence and independence.  By way of contrast, the writer spoke about how some Vietnamese women helped her load her groceries at Costco, a un

It’s been a long time since I’ve been so excited about a trip. The last time I experienced this degree of anticipation was 20 years ago, when my husband brought my two older children and me to Vietnam for our first visit.  I can understand why I was so anxious to see Vietnam. The country and its history loomed large in my experience. It was my husband’s birthplace, his family had become mine if only through their monthly letters through the 15 years of my marriage before the

Since the US lifted the embargo on Myanmar last September, it’s become the it destination We’re going there in March and the trip’s been one of the conversation topics at every Chinese New Year visit. As with all newly emerging countries, everyone who’s just gone has tips. Here are the 5 things I’ve been told not to forget  – 1: My visa.  Yes, even citizens of ASEAN (like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam) need visas into thi

What’s our’s The areca clad hills scrolling past the windows The marbled gorge The fertile land We can’t own it Nor even the hours Half drugged on tour guide prattle Haggling and buying Clicking away We pass time Otherwise wasted Gathering images, tastes, pumpkin seed biscuits, pineapple tarts, Bean cakes already mouldy… What’s really ours? The alley in moonlight your hand in mine A shared bowl of dumplings sticky and sweet A ying-yang ocean seen through the mist #

Photo Credit: http://www.marcpotts.blogspot.com I’ve been accused of being Pollyanna! All because I said yesterday that Singaporeans shouldn’t objectively be as unhappy as we say we are. I’m not going to take back what I said, although I’ll concede that Singapore isn’t an easy place to live in. Going through the Gallup questions myself, I can see how many Singaporeans didn’t say YES! to many of them. Did you feel well-rested yesterday? No. I was multi-tasking, trying to get r

SILENCE! Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com Dani Batz’s photostream I’ve just returned from my 3rd retreat. When I first started going, people kept asking me “Why?”The question was usually accompanied by a concerned expression or a caring touch. “What was happening with my life?” “What was getting too much for me to bear that I needed to check out? To re-arm and recuperate?” I had to re-assure everyone I was fine, I wasn’t re-treating from anything. It was more a call from

Monique Truong – An award winning American writer and you’re discovering something new about how an American woman of Vietnamese descent might be perceived in this Little Red Dot you’re visiting for the first time. In the first of this series on Vietnamese Artists in Singapore I interview Monique Truong, the award-winning author of The Book of Salt and Bitter in the Mouth who was in Singapore for the 2012 Singapore Writers Festival. The Book of Salt has been nominated for the

Moonlight over Clementi Rail Bridge Finally, 15th day of the 8th moon – Mid-Autumn Festival.  The moon a beautiful yellow orb. The moon cakes set out with tea. The children traipsing around the garden with their lanterns. The children want to know why. Why on this night we eat these pastry crusted cakes. Why we walk around with lanterns. Why we sing these silly songs – to the jade rabbit, the lady Chang E? What do I tell them? That the cakes and the lanterns commemorate a rev

10th day of the 8th month of the dragon year – a busy buzzy sort of day running around delivering Mid-Autumn gifts to friends and associates.  Something new this year, we’re distributing fresh fruits and flower teas, not the usual fatty cakes! Finally sitting down to my own cup of tea now and a quiet stare at the moon with Wumen Huikai‘s poetry for company. Wumen Huikai, b. 1143-1217, was the  abbot of Longxiang Zen monastry. His name means, Wisdom Opens Without a  Gate. Belo

8th day of the 8th moon of the year of the Dragon. We start with the verses of the most unaccomplished – mine. Photo Credit: www.roschdeshnewmoon.com New Moon The new moon enters Tentative Before her time A slim curve of silver Hiding Behind yesterday’s flowers Hesitant Unconscious of her charms —– Do you have a favourite moon-poem. In the spirit of awaiting Mid-Autumn share it. Leave a comment! #Poetry #MidAutumnFestival #crescentmoon #Mooncake #Moon #zen #Asia #Arts