Travel Bits: November 2021

By -

To resume travel..... or stay put for now?

As authorities in many countries started to peel back on travel restrictions, many who have had enough of being unable to travel have cheered these decisions and started travelling or planning to travel again. I am not referring to those who generally have justified needs to travel; whether this is for business, work, or to visit immediate family members, relatives and friends due to one reason or another. What I am talking about are those who resume travel for leisure's sake.

The justifications put forth by these leisure travellers are that they need a break. So what kind of "break" do they really need? I am not sure. But to throw caution to the winds and embark on leisure travel at this moment in time just to sight-see may not be exactly a good idea. Apart from having to "jostle" with those who really need to travel for limited air tickets (many airlines are still not back to full operational capacity vis-a-vis pre-pandemic levels), they may be exposing themselves needlessly to potential COVID infections. Even if this "worse case" scenario do not materialise, they are still exposing themselves to potential hassles such as missed flights due to positive COVID tests, fast and ever-changing rules on quarantine measures, differences in rules and regulations between individual countries on vaccine certifications recognition and the list goes on.

Yes, I believe the long suffering travel and hospitality industries need customers. But couldn't we wait a bit longer to visit distant lands and instead travel within our residential country or city and provide those much needed local boosts to these industries? After all, we have all waited for almost a good 2-years. What is another 6 or even 12 more months?

To be honest, I am still debating with myself over whether I should be going on my next leisure travel soon or when do I start to leisure travel again?

Wearing my favourite travel shoes again soon?
Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia (2018)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Singapore, Horsburgh - Deep Sea Fishing

By -
Image
Horsburgh Lighthouse (or Horsburgh) is located on an outlying small island (a.k.a Pedra Branca meaning "White Rock" in Portuguese) near the entrance to the east of the Straits of Singapore. The lighthouse was named after Cpt James Horsburgh, who was a hydrographer with the then East India Company. Horsburgh is located about 54km (34 miles) east of Singapore. It was raining in the morning as we set off for the long anticipated trip which was planned as far back as 3 months ago in August 1998. There were four of us; YK, Kenneth, CC and myself.  
 Soon, we were on our way to the suppossedly rich fishing grounds near Horsburgh Lighthouse. This locale is considered a good fishing ground for recreational fishing because commercial trawling is supposedly not permitted.  
 We reached our first fishing spot at exactly 5.00 pm local time. Looking around, we couldn't see actually any lighthouse but who cares, it was the fishing that we were coming for, not a visit to so
Read more

Cambodia, Siem Reap - Wall Sculptures at Angkor Wat

By -
Image
In many places of great historical and cultural significances around the world, wall sculptures left by generations before us convey messages of events past. Such messages are recorded versions of history of the places where they are found.  I have always been fascinated by how our ancient ancestors were able to faithfully convey events that would otherwise require many pages of descriptive words, through a series of wall sculptures. The creative ingenuities, stone masonry skills and storytelling talents of our ancient forebears were translated into these beautiful and amazing wall sculptures that allow us of later generations, to learn and study the civilisations that preceded us. Are these wall sculptures from the past simply just art? Or recorded history? To me, they are both and more. In my previous visits to Cambodia's renown Angkor Wat in 2015 and 2022, I spent time studying the many wall sculptures that still remained in this ancient site. The experience has made me more awa
Read more

Estonia, Tallinn - Palace of Ungern-Sternberg

By -
Image
I was awestruck by the grandness and magnificence of this building during my walking tour of the Old Town of Tallinn. While there, I had no opportunity to enter the building itself. Thus, admiring its facade and photographing its structure as I walked around its perimeter had to suffice.  The  Palace of Ungern-Sternberg, Tallinn, Estonia (2017) Without knowing what this building was, its history and its name, the photographs I took allowed me to conduct basic research on it after the trip.  Based on my rudimentary research into the building long after my trip to Tallinn, I was to discover that it was built in the year 1865 by the German architect, Martin Gropius. Also known as the Palace of Ungern-Sternberg, the building is today the home of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. The Academy is a group of scientists whose aim is to promote research & development and scientific cooperation as well as knowledge dissemination.  The main building housing the Academy is a
Read more