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

In May and June of 2024, I had the joy of going on a long train journey from Bangkok to Singapore. This was not a single journey where I simply boarded a train in Bangkok and disembarked from the same train in Singapore. The whole journey was made up of multiple trains rides where I stopped at different cities in Thailand and Malaysia, even spending a night at some of these cities. And there was also an overnight train ride between the Thai cities of Prachuap Khiri Khan and Hat Yai. Throughout the journey, I rode in different cabin class from Class 1 (air-conditioned with sleeper bed in a dedicated cabin) to Class 3 (non-air conditioned with only drafts from the ceiling fans in the cabin and wind from the windows to keep cool). The journey was meant to mimic the train travels of the old days when air travel was not so common and train travel was the norm. Since I was born after those days, I could not experience such travels and could only read about it in books. This train journey, tr...

Returned from a Trip, Preparing for Another......  And just like that, my autumn trip to Japan is completed. During the trip, I had explored parts of Tokyo I had never before visited, drove to Nikko and got to spend some time at the Nikko Toshogu Shrine, had lunch by Lake Chūzenji and explored its surroundings on foot including the Kegon Falls and checked off a Travel Bucket List item by staying at the historic Nikko Kanaya Hotel. As of 2024, the hotel is 150-years old. Historic and famous people including Albert Einstein, Dwight D Eisenhower, Helen Keller and Isabella Bird were some of the previous guests and visitors to this hotel. I had read Ms Isbella Bird's travelogue on her travels in Japan, "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" and had drawn much inspirations from the book, both for my own travels and writings. From the book, I had also read about her trip to Nikko in the 19th century. Thus, to stay at the same hotel was for me, a Travel Bucket List item.  In my upcoming trip...