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Travel Bits: April 2026

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Travel taking backseat to work.......  I have been really busy with work since the beginning of the 2026. Work has been so hectic that I have been working 7 days a week, every week since the start of the year. The only break I had was a short 5-night trip to Hong Kong in February. In the midst of trying to beat each advancing deadlines, I often looked back longingly on my Japan trip during the first week of January when I visited Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto. Another Japan trip at the end of the year maybe, if I can find the time and budget. Things on the work front should be settling down a bit after this month, April 2026. I have another short 5-night trip to Hong Kong booked for the last week of May 2026. During this trip, I intend to spend some time cafe hopping and exploring more of the Sham Shui Po area, to check out interesting shops (fountain pens shops of course) and hunting around for delicious local food. This trip, I will be flying to Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific and staying ...
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Bucket List: Sailing into a Familiar City

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Kowloon, Hong Kong,  China A slightly different of version this article was first published on this blog in June 2024. While I have visited Hong Kong multiple times over the years, my typical travel itinerary has always been direct air flights between Singapore and Hong Kong. Sailing into Hong Kong via a cruise ship was thus a very different experience. I had since done that twice. This article describes the first time I sailed to Hong Kong from Kagoshima onboard Royal Caribbean's Spectrum of the Seas in August 2023.  ****************** The cruise ship was already berthed at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal by the time I woke up lazily in my cabin at about 8am. After a quick breakfast at the  Windjammer cafe  at Deck 14, I disembarked from the ship. This was the first time I visited Hong Kong via a port visit. While I had traveled to Hong Kong many times previously, all these visits were by air via either  Cathay Pacific  or  Singapore Airlines . A first fo...
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Travel Bits: March 2026

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Where should I travel to next.......  I have completed all my planned trips for 2026. Being only March, there are still a good 9 months to go for the year. So far this year, I had visited Kobe , Kyoto , Osaka and Hong Kong . I had also taken 2 short cruises that made port calls in Georgetown (Penang) and Phuket . With these trips completed, I no longer have any confirmed trips for the year. Of course, I will still be travelling. But where to? A trip to Taipei has been in the plans for quite a while but is yet to be decided while additional trips to Hong Kong to visit my partner are definitely on my travel agenda for the year. Will I be making another trip to Japan this year? Maybe to cities in Japan that I have not visited before. Sapporo and Fukuoka are top of the list, with a brief stopover in Tokyo to shop for stationeries!  Until I firm up my travel plans for the rest of 2026, I will be staying put in my home city, Singapore . Working and generating deliverables for ...
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Editorial Updates - March 2026

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Editorial Updates It has  already been  3 months into 2026 and I have not been posting much in this blog lately. I had been busy, both travelling and working. With the start of a new year, I have decided to make some editorial changes to this blog.  The monthly Bucket List articles will be changed to a quarterly publication. I am simply running out of topics to write for this series, mainly because I have not been travelling much in recent years. Rather than just publishing articles for the sake of it, I believe it will be more fruitful to publish articles with more interesting contents, albeit at a lower frequency. What this means is that the Bucket List series will now be published only in the months of January, April, July and October. Apart from the Bucket List series, the blog remains basically unchanged, for now. If anyone has any suggestions, I will be keen to hear from you! Until then, I hope readers will continue to visit this blog and enjoy the articles. 🌏 ...
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Travel Bits: February 2026

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Chinese New Year 2026 .......  February typically marks the month when Chinese New Year (CNY) is celebrated. Also known as the Spring Festival and Lunar New Year , this is the time when people of Chinese ethnicity celebrates the "New Year". Here in Singapore , we will have  2 days of public holidays as usual, on the first and second day of CNY. As this year's CNY public holidays fall on a Tuesday and Wednesday, many people can simply apply for annual leave on Monday for a 5-day "super long weekend" starting from Saturday, 14 February. And if one has enough annual leave days and is able to also apply for annual leave on Thursday and Friday for next week, then this will result in an even longer stretch of holiday from 14 February to 22 February, a total of 9 days off work in exchange for 3 days of annual leave. Naturally, plane tickets to popular holiday destinations such as cities in China and Japan, will also be rather expensive. Myself? No, I will not be tra...
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Bucket List: Hilltop Monastery in Prachuap Khiri Khan

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Mueang Prachuap Khiri Khan ,  Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand This article was first published on this blog slightly more than a year ago on 9 January 2025. My visit to  Prachuap Khiri Khan was in May 2024 when I transited the town and stayed overnight while I was on my so-called self-planned  South-East-Asia Train Trip .  Prior to this visit, I had never even heard of  Prachuap Khiri Khan. Other more popular places in this part of Thailand including Hua Hin , Surat Thani and Hat Yai are often featured and mentioned in Travel Magazines and Travel TV Shows. But  Prachuap Khiri Khan ? Hardly much mentions. Thus for me, arriving at  Prachuap Khiri Khan via train from Hua Hin was a new experience. Not just visiting a place for the first time, but realising that such a place exists! This is the proverbial "off the beaten path" destination, at least for me! A Travel Bucket List item? Yes, this is one for the list!   ****************** I arrived at Prachu...
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Cruise Diary - Port Visit: Kagoshima

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Kagoshima is located in the south of Kyushu , one of Japan's main island. The port at Kagoshima where cruise ships typically docked at, is located along the coast of Kinko Bay , facing the East China Sea . Royal Caribbean's Spectrum of the Seas berthed at Kagoshima Port, Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan (2023) Kagoshima Port The port is conveniently situated close to shopping areas. It is also just next to Sakurajima , an active volcano that is also the symbol of Kagoshima. The port's official name is Marine Port Kagoshima . Walking along and around the port area yields scenic views of the surrounding areas including Mount Sakurajima . View of Kagoshima Port from Deck 15 of Spectrum of the Seas, , Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan (2023) View of Sakurajima from Deck 15 of Spectrum of the Seas, Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan (2023) View of the surrounding areas of Kagoshima Port, Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan (2023) Public Transport The port is a...
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