My Weekend

Ms Laurel Chor likes to spend her weekends playing rugby, hiking and being outdoors with her two dogs. PHOTO: NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY SINGAPORE

Ms Laurel Chor, 26, is an adventurer, conservationist and multimedia storyteller from Hong Kong.

Named a National Geographic Young Explorer for having been to 60 countries by age 25, she has received a grant to launch the Hong Kong Explorers Initiative to encourage people to appreciate the outdoors and wildlife.

Recently, she was in town for a talk that is part of Nanyang Technological University and National Geographic's series for undergraduates to learn about career paths and how to make an impact on the world.

Ms Chor, who is single, lives in a one-room apartment in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong, with her two dogs, Wilson and Digby.

What are weekends like for you?

I try to play rugby whenever I can. Also, I make it a point to go hiking on Lantau Island, Hong Kong's largest outlying island, to take in how nice and open the environment is with limited cars and beautiful beaches.

What do you do for leisure?

Well, hiking is one of them.

I like to take photos of landscapes on hikes too, just so that I can capture a side of Hong Kong that not many people see.

I also take photos of my dogs.

I like to go camping as well because I don't feel the need to travel so far when there is so much to do in Hong Kong and its outlying islands.

I camp on Tung Ping Chau island or Tap Mun island if I have a long weekend. These are especially nice because you don't have to hike there and can take a ferry over.

Who do you spend your weekends with?

Mostly, I spend it with my rugby mates and another network of friends that I go hiking with regularly. These friends are a melting pot of ethnicities, including locals as well as buddies from Canada and Australia.

If you could hang out with anyone, dead or alive, for one weekend, who would it be?

It would be Richard Branson. He seems like a fun guy and he has built a lot from nothing. He's even contributed to space travel.

Complete this sentence: My perfect weekend would be...

Spent outdoors with my dogs.

Omar Amir

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 05, 2016, with the headline My Weekend. Subscribe