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

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)

Over the past couple of years, I have become some kind of regular for cruises originating from Singapore to Penang (Georgetown) and Phuket. Thus, I seldom find the need to disembark during port days. Instead, I utilised the port days to swim in the pools onboard, when everyone else are on their show visits. After my swim, I will usually walk around the top deck (Deck 15 of Quantum Class ships) and enjoy the bird's eye views of the port and the surrounding areas. This photo I took with my mobile phone shows Georgetown as viewed from the top deck of Ovation of the Seas as the ship was berthed at Swettenham Pier. Bird's eye view of Georgetown as seen from Swettenham Pier, Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia (2026)  

Anyone visiting Osaka or who had visited the city will know about Dōtonbori. This is the place in Osaka where people gather for entertainment, shopping and food. The bright lights of Dōtonbori at night is a sight to behold, with large creative signboards advertising everything and anything. On my second visit to Osaka in January 2026, I did the touristy thing and visited Dōtonbori for dinner and sightseeing on Day 2 of my trip. I was not disappointed. While the crowd was indeed overwhelming, the visual spectacles more than made up for the squeeze of humanity. Dōtonbori at night is truly a five senses extravaganza. Dōtonbori at night, Chuo Ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan (2026)

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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. 🌏 ...

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...

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...

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...

Singapore , where I was born and grew up in and still live in, has always been compared to Hong Kong . While both cities have their similarities, they also have their unique differences which defined each city it each own right. I was first "introduced" to Hong Kong as a kid when I watched Hong Kong-produced TV dramas with my family. Then, I started listening to Canto-pop, basically pop songs by Hong Kong artistes. While I was not conversant in the Cantonese dialect then, I did slowly picked up the language due to constant exposure. Today, I still do not consider myself conversant in Cantonese. But I can at least understand the dialect when someone speaks to me in it. I will try my best to reply in Cantonese, peppered with Mandarin of course. For the record, I am an ethnic Chinese with Hokkien ancestry . However, I have no known living relatives in China or the province of Fujian , just to digress a bit from the focus of this blog post. Back to why I love Hong Kong and fin...

Travel Year 2026 has commenced.......  I am a little late with my monthly Travel Bits post for this month because I had been traveling and only just returned home less than a week ago. Then, there were the office work, the home chores and of course, the usual procrastination to deal with before I could actually sit down and start writing this blog post. Truth be told, I am behind in lots of work and chores but I will just have to manage each task as they come! So where have I been traveling to? I started the year with a trip to the airport on 1 January 2026 for my 1.30am flight on 2 January to Hong Kong. I was actually on my way from Singapore to Osaka but transited in Hong Kong to meet my partner at the Hong Kong International Airport before taking the onward flight to Osaka.  It was a really short trip to Japan as we only had 6 days before we need to return to Hong Kong and Singapore respectively. This was because I had a cruise scheduled on 8 January from Singapore to Pena...

After a very good dinner, I was window shopping in Sha Tin's New Town Plaza when I discovered a beautiful rooftop garden. While the rooftop garden is beautiful, I find the view from this vantage point even more awesome. High hills with residential buildings in the background and children playground in the front, both nicely illuminated by man-made neon lights as well as the fading natural light from the dusk sky.  A photo opportunity that I simply could not resist. Rooftop garden with an awesome view, New Town Plaza, Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China (2025)

I have "met"  Godzilla many times in Tokyo! The last meeting I had with the famous and colossal legend was in November 2024. Godzilla, Godzilla Store Tokyo ,  Shinjuku Marui Honten Annex , Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan (2024) I had specifically reserved almost one whole day of my Japan trip just to seek out Godzilla at all the locations it has been known to appear. These include Shinjuku Tôhô Building , Hibiya Square , and of course, Godzilla's very own  Shinjuku Marui Annex (Shinjuku Marui Honten Annex). I also bought a Godzilla-themed t-shirt at Don Quijote Akihabara . Here are some "proofs" of my meetings with Godzilla! Godzilla, Hibiya Square, Tokyo, Japan (2024) Myself with my Godzilla merchandise paper bag,  Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan (2024) A Hobonichi X Godzilla Weeks Diary for 2025 bought at the Godzilla Store Tokyo,  Shinjuku Marui Honten Annex, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan (2024)

Angkor Wat and its archeological sites are steeped in history, religion and culture. Any visitors, will be in awe of all that Angkor Wat has to offer. While one may prefer to look at Angkor Wat from either a historical, religious, cultural, scholastic or scientific angle, but all will certainly agree that this is not simply a collection of archeological sites but a lot more.  In this photograph taken with my DSLR camera from a distance away, two young monks took in the sights, cameras in hand to record the magnificent beauty of Angkor Wat. Monks, Angkor Wat, Angkor National Park , Cambodia (2022)

I have always loved wildlife . But I am un able to take good photographs of wildlife , mainly due to a lack of patience and photographic skills . Whenever, I chanced upon an opportunity when a bird got near to me, I always tried my best to capture a photograph of it, hoping that one of these photographs will turn out well. I am not saying this photograph is good. But it was as good as it got for me. Wild bird ,  Kings Park and Botanic Garden , Perth, Western Australia , Australia (2018)

Most visitors to Cambodia's famed Angkor National Park are interested in its archeological sites, including Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom as well as many others. But for locals, sometimes, it was the natural surroundings of the sites that drew their interests. I was visiting Angkor Wat on my second trip to the Angkor National Park in 2022 when I caught sight of these two local kids admiring flowers on a tree.  From quite a distance away, I lifted my DSLR camera and zoomed in for a close-up photo of this magical moment.  Kids admiring flowers on a tree, Angkor Wat, Angkor National Park, Cambodia (2022)

12 months into 2025 and looking forward to 2026.......  Similar to my Travel Bits article of November 2025, I will start by repeating that I had just returned from another weekend trip to  Hong Kong . This was my 6th visit to the city for the year. However, my next trip will be just a mere month away, in January 2026, on transit while on my way to Osaka . Next week, I will embark on a road trip from Singapore to Ipoh . This trip will wrap up my travels for 2025. Meanwhile, I had already started planning for my first overseas trips in the first two weeks of 2026. I will begin the new year by traveling to Hong Kong, Osaka, Kyoto, Penang and Phuket in quick succession. A busy travel calendar to start the new year. Equally busy is my work schedule. I am expecting myself to be working on the go while I vacation. There are analyses to conduct, reports to write and online meetings to attend. A fast paced December to conclude the year of 2025 and an equally fast paced January to st...

Petaling Jaya, Selangor This article was first published on my other blog,  Monde des Stylos . This other bloc entered on anything and everything related to Pens and Stationery. Attending a local Pen Show is a personal milestone in my Journaling hobby. At such events, I get to not only meet like-minded enthusiasts in the world of pens and stationery, but also get to see and touch many of the pens and stationery that I would otherwise only get to see virtually from photographs online. Traveling from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur just to attend a Pen Show was the first time I travel specifically for such an event. Certainly a Travel Bucket List item for me! ****************** This was only my second time attending a pen show. And because it was the inaugural  Malaysia International Pen Show  and it was also held in a venue relatively close to my home city, I decided to travel to attend the show; also taking the opportunity to meet up with friends whom I have not met for so...