The Adventurers

Who are you? We are Ang Aik Ang and Anne Nolasco Ang, avid travellers and parents of two lovely girls: Avery (5) and Robyn (18 months old). We both work at HP as a procurement analyst and manager of strategic procurement respectively. We met 10 years ago when paddling for HP's dragon boat team, and after becoming friends, we started scuba-diving together. We fell in love and got married in 2011.

What drives you? We love to travel and immerse ourselves in different cultures. Before having kids, we explored some 20 countries together as a couple. When the kids came along, that slowed us but didn't stop us. We've taken Avery to more than 15 countries, including the US, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Iceland and Vietnam. Robyn is 18 months old and has already travelled to Norway, Bhutan, Germany, Australia and Malta. Later this year, the four of us will tour Cuba for 10 days.

What do you do in your free time? When we are not working, much of our time in Singapore is centred around the kids. We take them to the playground every day. And because we like to experience new places, we make it a point to seek out new playgrounds all the time.

When we travel, we try to stretch the definition of "family-friendly activities" as much as we can. For instance, when we visited Bhutan, we hiked for three hours to get to the Paro Taktsang Monastery. As Robyn was just over 10 months old at this time, we were a bit concerned about how she would handle hiking to 3,120 metres above sea level. Fortunately both girls loved it and clearly have our adventurer genes.

We're now making plans to spend seven days living on a boat with 15 other people in Indonesia's Raja Ampat Islands sometime this year. We reckon they'll love that trip too.

Finish this sentence: We are inspired by . . . nature. We're still awestruck by the natural landscapes of places like New Zealand, Taiwan and Bhutan, and the underwater splendour of certain parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. We're very supportive of efforts to protect the environment, so that our daughters can grow up in a beautiful world.

This series is brought to you by MINI, to inspire and awaken the passion and creativity within you. Look out for the next edition of MINI Inspirations where we'll be featuring a Challenger who pursues his or her dreams, regardless of the obstacles. If you think you fit the bill, e-mail helmi@sph.com.sg to say why, plus a photo of yourself. We'll pick the best entries and feature them on this page.