Travel Bits: July 2026

By -

Another trip completed while the next beckons ....... 


Mid-July 2026, I just returned from another short trip to Hong Kong, my third of the year to the southern Chinese city.

During this trip, I had some time on my own and I discovered another fountain pen shop tucked in the Sham Shui Po district. I bought a pen from them to support local small business and also to justify to myself for making the effort to go all the way to look for the pen shop based on recommendations from friends who are into fountain pens. 

I also enjoyed myself dining and sight-seeing, as usual.

After achieving Silver Tier Status with my Cathay Pacific membership, I got to enjoy lounge access this trip, even though I was only flying Premium Economy. Enjoying the delicious food in the lounge, reading newspapers in the comfort of the lounge and getting myself freshened up with a nice shower just before boarding my return flight was certainly a travel experience to savour.

Coming up on the first week of August, I will be embarking on my next trip. I will be travelling to Tokyo. However, my hope of catching the Van Gogh exhibition at the Ueno Museum vanished after I realised that all tickets are now sold out online. The only option is to wake up early and go early to the museum to join the queue to try and get hold of one of the small number of tickets reserved for walk-ins. Not an early riser,  and also with no guarantee of getting any tickets, I am still in two minds whether to go this route. Probably not.

Despite possibly missing out on the exhibition, there are still many areas in Tokyo to explore. Maybe a morning flea market? I have never been to any morning flea markets in Tokyo despite numerous trips to the city over the years. This trip may just be that trip where I get to experience first-hand, a weekend morning flea market in Tokyo. And if I am lucky, I may just find something unique to buy and bring home as a trip memento. We shall see how that plan goes.

Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong, China (2026)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inflight Experiences - Premium Economy on CX690 and Economy on CX635

By -
Image
When I travelled to Hong Kong in February 2026 for a weekend trip, I flew on Cathay Pacific return. My outbound flight from Singapore to Hong Kong onboard CX690 was serviced using a Boeing 777-300ER and the return flight CX635 was serviced using an Airbus A350-900 aircraft. On this trip, I flew on mixed cabin class, in Premium Economy onboard CX690 and Economy onboard CX635. The service from the crew on both flights were similar, generally very good. Despite the crew being more busy in Economy due to the relatively larger number of passengers to attend to, they still managed their workload really well. As a passenger, I usually require very little or no assistance from the crew, preferring to sit quietly in my assigned seat during the flight, watching the inflight entertainment system or plugging in my AirPods to listen to my favourite music. Therefore, my only interaction with the crew was during the meal service. Check-In  The check-in for my outbound flight, CX690, at Singapore'...
Read more

Travel Bits: September 2015

By -
Image
September 2015 has been a busy month at work for me. Because of this, I had not been writing much. Thus, I missed my self-set quota of publishing one travel article every two weeks on this blog. Now that things have cleared up a bit at work, I hope to be blogging more regularly. In this month, I managed to find some time to travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia. The purpose of this trip is to visit the world famous archeological temple sites that are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site listing of Angkor. As a keen student of history and archaeology in my free time, I had read and researched much on Angkorean history. However, no photographs or research can match the feeling of personally standing in the midst of these magnificent temples. While what remain today of these temples are but a shadow of the grandeur of the original buildings in their heydays; standing on what was and is still considered holy temple grounds and walking the hallways of the temples that were built and crafted ...
Read more

Taiwan, Taipei - Taipei 101

By -
Image
Visiting Taipei again after 8 long years, there is nothing more iconic to mark my return visit than to post a photo I had taken with my mobile phone of the Taipei 101 skyscraper.  Located in and around the area are lots of shopping and dining establishments for the visitors. As a tourist, I went to the area for both shopping and food. Seeing the Taipei 101 in all its lighted spectacle at night was a bonus, a photo moment not to be missed. Taipei 101, Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan (2026)
Read more