KUALA LUMPUR (July 2): It was the Greek statesman and orator Demosthenes who proclaimed how “small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises”. Few would have guessed how, two millennia later, a plucky young American teenager in Bangkok would embody the very essence of that sentence. For William E Heinecke, now 74 and a billionaire, the story of how he built Minor International, from a little office cleaning and advertising company into a veritable conglomerate that owns hundreds of hotels, restaurants and points-of-sales for a medley of lifestyle brands, is one for the books indeed.

As this week’s issue of Options is entirely dedicated to the spirit of travel, find out who are the top Instagrammers to follow in order to maximize your journey, from making the most of accumulated frequent flyer points to live reviews of international five-star properties.

For those who enjoy imbibing while in search of adventure, follow the North Star and head right up to the Orkney Islands, a former Viking colony off Scotland, where a few key distilleries are now creating drams that segues as easily into dreams. And if flying isn’t quite your thing, corporate titan and current chairman of Lembaga Tabung Haji, Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar recounts his epic pre-pandemic train journey which he undertook in 2019, which encompassed 77 trains in 77 days, spanning 22 countries, 54 cities, four continents and two oceans. 

Read about these more in the latest Options, out with the July 3, 2023 issue of The Edge Malaysia weekly.

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's AppStore and Androids' Google Play.