Singapore Women’s Weekly, October 2007

SWW: Give us a brief bio about family– how many people in your family, what number are you in the sibling chain, what do your parents do, how old are they?
ZSL: There are four of us. My brother is 3 years younger. My mother was a school teacher and my father was a pilot with Malaysia Airline. They're both retired.

SWW: Give us a brief bio about yourself – what was your first job, how did you go on to copywriting, which was the most famous copywriting work that won an award/ which award/ which year?
ZSL: My first proper job was as an optician in London. I came back to Malaysia one holiday, in 1991, and met the creative director of Ogilvy & Mather who asked me to help out (for fun but no money). 2 weeks later, she offered me a job as a junior copywriter. I took it and moved back to live in Malaysia. My most famous advertising campaign was for TV and radio - Polo Mints, won the Golden Kancil Best of Malaysian Advertising, Cannes Film Festival, London International Advertising Awards, New York Film Festival and Singapore Creative Circle. This campaign scored almost 100% recall in consumer research groups.

SWW: When did you start travel writing, where was the piece sent to and how much were you paid?
ZSL: I started travel writing when I was 13, mostly on journeys between KL and Burgess Hill, my boarding school in Sussex. But I never thought about publishing my writing. ‘A backpack and a bit of luck’ is my first published work.

SWW: What is the current job that gives you the moolah to go on all those travels to write books like Backpack?
ZSL: Job? What job? Heehee....seriously, I would work for about a year or two, as a creative group head, or creative director. Then I resign and go travelling for a month or two, come back and get another job that pays reasonably well.

SWW: What drew you to the places and people mentioned in Backpack?
ZSL: Sometimes, it’s a piece of chewing gum that I spit at the world map on my wall. Sometimes, it’s the travel agent’s recommendation, as most flights are fully booked when I decide to travel. The destination is rarely my choice, as I don’t plan ahead. When I travel, all that is on my mind is the desire to have good experiences, and also to learn from a different culture, and to see life from a different perspective. I am somehow led by an invisible force to people who are kind and helpful to me, and who fulfil those desires.

SWW: What was the two or three funniest incidents you would highlight from your book?
ZSL: In 40 degree heat in a South Africa, my friend thought she had malaria. When I went into her hut, I found her lying in bed, weak, red faced and sweating profusely . I discovered that she had turned the air-conditioner to ‘heater’ mode by mistake. And it was on ‘High’. Her recovery from malaria was rapid - right after I switched off the heater. During my travels around the UK, I took a job as a waitress in a Jamaican restaurant in Oxford where the proprietor and chef was a moody 250 pound rastafarian. He often chased the Nigerian kitchen help around the restaurant with a machete.

SWW: Which of the places mentioned, would you recommend to others to go to?
ZSL: Well, it really depends on what one wants out of travelling. If it’s a meaningful experience you’re after, then I’d recommend India. I believe that India is a land of abundance. There’s never enough of anything, yet there’s often more than enough.

SWW: Practically, all chapters of the book mentions food – from cicadas for tea to marshmallows in a graveyard. How big is food as a part of your travels?
ZSL: To me, food means 2 things: It’s an ice-breaker that gets people to open up, talk and laugh. It’s such a big part of culture that I would not think I’ve truly experienced a culture if I haven’t tasted deep fried grasshoppers, goats’ eyeballs, or prairie oysters (bull’s testicles)

SWW: Surely, not everybody’s lovely – which ones were horrid and why? (need not be from the book).
ZSL: Truth is, I ’ve encountered so many lovely people that I think the nasty ones are forgotten. I can remember only one nasty person. I was sitting by a lake in a residential area in Helsinki. A hoity toity middle aged man with something obviously up his @*rse, told me off for sitting there, saying it’s private property. To add insult to injury, he said slowly, “Do..you...understand...English?” I was so put off by his arrogance and ignorance that I just apologised and walked away.

SWW: How does your family feel about all this gadding about? Not freaked out?
ZSL: Gadding about? Gosh, I never saw it that way. Well, I’ve always been stubborn, and after so many years, my mother has stopped nagging me. It also helps that I don’t tell her everything, like some potentially dangerous situations I’ve been in. But you see, those incidents, though I would never have actively searched for them, turned out to be the best experiences I’ve had - experiences that have contributed to who I am today, which I’m happy about. Besides, I’ve always landed on my feet, and have always been financially comfortable. So, it did take some time to convince my mother that I was doing the right thing (for myself) Now, my family is okay about my ‘gadding’ about.

SWW: How do you take in all the info so that you can write about them, eg, do you keep a daily journal, take copious pix and let the images jolt the memory?
ZSL: I never write notes. And I hardly ever take pictures. I do take my camera with me, but I forget to use it. I’d rather see, hear and feel, than spend time recording for the future, what I could have wholeheartedly seen, heard and felt at that moment. I think this is why I’m able to write so vividly, about events, people and places years after. Part of ‘The Dance of Life’ happened 12 years ago, and I still feel it as though it happened yesterday.

SWW: How do you approach people? What are three opening lines that surely work – such that people will invite you into their homes to eat strange things with them?
ZSL: I don’t actually approach them. They strike a conversation with me first, and that sets off a chain of events I never planned for. I’m pathetic at planning, and I have no sense of direction, remember? But I do have a good nose for sniffing out genuine people from the psychopaths. (Hope this line does not go into the book of ‘famous last words’)