Now that her children have flown the coop, Mrs Fong-Chalopin is devoting more time to StoryPlus, the foundation she and her husband started 10 years ago to help improve literacy and support education among underprivileged children.

So far, the foundation has supported the building of schools and orphanages in Mozambique and Burkina Faso in Africa as well as Bhutan.

"Our foundation is not big, I don't go fund-raising at all. I go with projects which I feel are sustainable and worthwhile, supported by people I trust. But I really hope to take it to another level," she says.

"I have been extremely blessed in so many aspects of my life. But in my travels, I've come across people born in places or families where a happy outcome is unlikely or not possible," says the former model, who comes home at least four times a year to see her parents and siblings.

One of her brothers runs a car company, another is the managing director of a multinational while one sister runs a teakwood plantation in Indonesia.

She is now exploring other causes and has put together a book titled Obor, The Torch Bearers, featuring Indonesians who, despite their own problems, are helping others in significant ways.

London-based lawyer Karen Fong says of the friend she has known for 25 years: "She looks very sophisticated now, very different from the kampung girl that she was. And yet inside her, there is still the kampung girl who loves her family, her husband and her children and treasures her friendships and the simpler things in life."

Mrs Fong-Chalopin turns 50 next July and will celebrate it by scaling Mount Kilimanjaro in the summer with her family.

She sees life as a book with many chapters.

"Hopefully, I have a few more chapters to go, and I hope they will be influenced by torch bearers too."

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