TANKS Travel Tales - a travelogue.......

And so I just returned home yesterday from a trip to Siem Reap. This trip was my first flight in 30 months and second overseas trip in just as many months. The 30-month travel hiatus was because of international border restrictions that began in March 2020 because of the COVID pandemic. During the trip, I visited Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. This being my second visit to Siem Reap, I limited my archeological sites' visits to just these 2 places, spending more time to study and appreciate the splendour of both sites. In-between, I also had time during the trip to walk around the city of Siem Reap to explore the many back lanes during which I discovered many beautiful and quaint cafes where delicious food and aromatic coffees were served by friendly staff. Indulging in my serendipitous walking tours without maps and fixed plans allowed me to enjoy whatever that came by way. Photo collage of my trip, Siem Reap, Cambodia (2022) Photo collage of one of my cafe stops, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Israel, Capernaum, Historical Synagogue This article was originally published in this blog in November 2018. I love visiting historical places during my travels. For many of these places, what usually remain today are a fraction of the original buildings, structures and artefacts during their heydays. However  the remnants of these once-awesome sites remain hugely attractive to the inquisitive minds of visitors. They tell stories of bygone eras which collectively form the history of all of us. For me, each visit to a historical site is itself a study of history, culture and geography; not in the scholarly sense but one embedded in curiosity and personal interests. My visit to Capernaum and its historical synagogue is one such trip. Author's note (18 June 2022): It had come to my attention that I had previously re-posted this article for my Bucket List series. Nevertheless, I still believe this is a trip that is worth a second re-publish in the same series. 😀 ****************** Tra

First overseas trip in 29 months......  Yesterday, I returned home from my first overseas trip in 29 months. My last trip was in January 2019 before international border closures and restrictions commenced due to the COVID pandemic. Truth be told, the pandemic is still with us. Unlike the SARS-outbreak of 2003, there are still thousands of infections recorded worldwide every day; probably even tens of thousands. But a combination of vaccinations and previous infections coupled with the relatively milder current dominant Omicron strain of the virus meant that national authorities have been carefully peeling back on travel restrictions and re-opening their borders.  While this most recent trip of mine was certainly no bucket listed travel item, it was still an overseas trip. I left for a weeklong trip to Malaysia, driving up north to Ipoh to meet with relatives and friends before driving a little further north to Cameron Highlands. I had previously visited both places numerous times. But

I took this photograph of an Asiana Airlines A330-323 plane at Incheon International Airport in November 2019 while walking to the boarding gates to board my flight from Seoul to Singapore with Singapore Airlines. I have never flew with Asiana before. Maybe I will get a chance to do so when I next visit South Korea. 😊 Asiana Airlines Airbus A330-323 at Incheon International Airport, Incheon, Seoul, South Korea (2019) Asiana Airlines Airbus A330-323 at Incheon International Airport, Incheon, Seoul, South Korea (2019)

    "Connections in our travels, Make for lasting memories and friendship." -  Timothy Tan, author of this blog Sunset, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia (2018)

The Palazzo d'Accursio (a.k.a. Palazzo Comunale), located on the Piazza Maggiore, is the Town Hall of the city of Bologna. Also housed here is the Civic Art Collection which showcases paintings from the Middle Ages to as late as the 19th century. Palazzo d'Accursio, Bologna,  Emilia-Romagna, Italy (2022)

A couple of articles back in this blog, in the April 2022 edition of Travel Bits , I wrote about my envy of friends who were all already embarking on their long awaited travels, visiting faraway and beautiful places in Africa, Europe and the United States. In that blog post, I also complained about my inability to embark on any travel plans so far because of a perfect storm of relatively high travel costs, the hassles of overcoming COVID-related border measures and restrictions and also schedule conflicts and procrastinations on my part. Well, complaints no more. In the short span of just an April week, I had booked 2 additional trips for this year. But as I remained firmly as a traveller who abjures onerous travel-related hurdles, these 2 trips were chosen mainly because they present the least restrictions and requirements. No pre-trip testings, no pre-trip submission of lots of paperwork, no pre-trip loading and seeking approval on poorly-designed apps and the likes of these. The fir