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

I usually do not have a detailed to-do list prepared for any of my trips. I am a traveller who prefers to take things easy and enjoy the unplanned chanced encounters; whether it is a trip experience or making a new friend during my travels. The only planned items in my leisure travel are hotel accommodations and airplane, train or bus tickets, especially if my itinerary includes commuting between cities. Anything else is left to chance. For my upcoming trip to Hong Kong next month in the first week of May, I do have a couple of to-do items lined up though. In a dinner conversation with friends over the weekend, I was reminded that there have been some new places of interests in the city. And one among these certainly raised my interest. This is the new Hong Kong Palace Museum. Only officially opened in July 2022, the museum is located in the West Kowloon district and showcase artefacts from the National Palace Museum in Beijing's Forbidden City. Having never visited Beijing before,...

Travel Planning....... When it comes to travel, it is always good to do some advance planning. I am not suggesting that we have to plan to the last minute details of each trip including the waking up time for each day of the trip and so on and so forth. What I suggest is some form of broad planning that helps to make the trip more hassle-free and enjoyable. These are the tips I myself follow for each trip that I took. For shorter trips, I may skip some of the steps. But in general, following these trips has always help me to ease easily into my travel and help take away some of the stress of going to a new place each time I travel. Air travel has made airports the typical gateway for most overseas trips. Departure Hall, Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong SAR, China (2017) Research - I typically read a bit about the country or city before each visit. With smartphones and connectivity to the internet readily available, it is always easy to find some t...

Safeguarding important personal belongings when travelling....... Over dinner with friends during the weekend, one of them related to us about an incident in his recent  trip to Europe. He was on a group tour and one of the travellers in the group had lost her passport as well as all her cash and credit cards. She was the victim of a pickpocket. Apparently, the act occured while the group was in a small crowded lane while moving from one point in the city to another. The pickpocket (or pickpockets) must have had made use of the confusion and the crowd to carry out the theft. The aftermath of that incident effectively ruined the victim's trip. She was left without her important travel document which also happened to be her only form of identification in a foreign land. And she was also left penniless as all her cash and credit cards had been stolen. Thankfully for the lady, my friend loaned her cash and assisted her to contact the nearest diplomatic representati...

Of all modern wide body airliners, none is arguably more impressive than the Airbus A380-800.   And its not just the aesthetics that made the A380 the favourite airliner for most travellers. The interior of the plane is spacious and grand. More importantly, it does not gives one the claustrophobic feel. Take offs and landings are usually smooth and turbulences encountered in-flight are typically  less disturbing to the passengers, probably due to the size and bulk of this massive aircraft. The cabin is also relatively quiet as the plane cruises to its destination, providing a good ambience for the passengers to rest or catch up on some sleep, especially on those red-eye flights. Personally, the A380-800 is my number one choice when it comes to flying. This is especially so during long haul flights. Whenever possible, I usually try to select flights serviced using the A380 when booking my flight tickets. I will even go as far as to give up the so-called premium flight ...

Connecting Flights....... This coming weekend, I will be traveling to Taipei (TPE) via Hong Kong (HKG). Because my flights were booked on different airlines under different booking codes, I have to collect my check-in luggage upon arrival in HKG from SIN, clear immigration and customs, check-in again for my next flight from HKG to TPE, go through immigration again as well as the necessary security checks before I can emerge airside at the airport for my connecting flight. Departure Hall of the Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong SAR, China (2017) Sounds like a hassle? Not when I will be flying J-Class (a.k.a. Business Class) on both sectors from SIN to HKG via SQ (Singapore Airlines) and HKG to TPE via CX (Cathay Pacific) on tickets paid with air miles. Sure, there are hassles with the connecting flights on 2 different airlines with different booking codes but they are worth it.  In order to ensure that I have a seamless transit at the Hong Kong ...

EL AL is the flag carrier of Israel. The airline began its inaugural flight from Geneva to Tel Aviv in 1948 and today flies to more than  50 destinations worldwide. Its main hub is at Ben Gurion Airport  (IATA: TLV, ICAO: LLBG) in Tel Aviv. The airline operates an all Boeing fleet including the 737-800, 747-400, 767-300ER and 777-200ER. Newer planes such as the 787-9 Dreamliner model have started to enter service with the airline since the second half of calendar year 2017.  I have personally not flown with EL AL before although I frequently saw EL AL planes at the Z ü rich Airport (IATA: ZRH, ICAO: LSZH), Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport (IATA: BKK, ICAO: VTBS) and Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok Airport (a.k.a. Hong Kong International Airport) during my business and leisure travels. Here are a few photographs of an EL AL Boeing 777-200ER plane I spotted at the Hong Kong International Airport (IATA: HKG, ICAO: VHHH) taken in Dec 2015 while I was on transit returning ...

Emirates operates the largest number of the massive Airbus A380-800 passenger planes compared to all their peers in the airline industry. At the time of the writing of this blog post, Emirates reportedly had 96 of these magnificent planes in operation with a further 46 on order.  The A380-800 is also my personal favourite. When booking my flights, if the flight schedules, plane availability and budget permit, I will usually select those flights operated using the A380. The comfort level of this plane, its relatively spacious interiors and its good handling of turbulences are exceptional. And of course, this plane looks absolutely beautiful. A marvel of engineering! I have never flown on Emirates before and thus have not had any chance to experience the A380s operated by this reputable airline. I had however flown on the A380-800 numerous times on flights operated by Singapore Airlines and thus got to experience the comfort of this plane in both 'J' Class (Business) and...

Air Seychelles switched to its current livery in 2011. Today, its fleet consists of one Airbus A330-200, two Airbus A320-200 and six DHC-6 Twin Otter (in a combination of the Otter-300 and Otter-400 Series aircrafts). While waiting for my flight from Hong Kong to Singapore at the Hong Kong International Airport on 22 August 2016, I spotted the Air Seychelles A330-200 at one of the boarding gates. It was the first time I had seen the "new" Air Seychelles livery in person. Definitely one of the most impressive and best livery on any aircraft today. Air Seychelles A330-200 with its impressive livery of bright red, green and blue colours with two white terns, Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong SAR, China (2016) Close-up photo of the tail wing of the Air Seychelles A330-200; the two white terns standing out in the burst of red, green and blue colours, Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong SAR, China (2016)

Spending those loose change at the end of a trip....... Each time I travel to a different country, I almost always end up with leftover currencies from the country or countries that I had just visited. This is fine for countries which I visit often for work or vacations. But for countries which I am unlikely to visit again in the immediate future, what shall I do with these leftover small changes? Currencies from countries which I visited often such the British Pound, EU Euro, Hong Kong Dollar, Indonesian Rupiah, Japanese Yen, Malaysian Ringgit, Thai Baht and US Dollar, I wouldn't mind holding as I can use them again on my next visits. But for some other countries, my stack of leftover change from these overseas trips has grown quite substantially in the sense that I have a little bit of currencies left over from each country that I had visited. These include the Australian Dollar,  Cambodian Riel, Israeli Shekels, Korean Won, Nepalese Rupee, Seychellois Rupee, Swiss Franc...

I flew 'J' Class on from Hong Kong (HKG) to Taipei (TPE) on EVA Air (BR) during my recent vacation. This was my first time flying on EVA Air. As this was a vacation, I had wanted to take things a bit slower and also to travel in a bit more luxurious style to reward myself for working non-stop, including weekends, for the past 5 months. Thus, I decided to fly via Business Class in the late morning which I supposed is a relatively off-peak period for flight reservations, especially on a weekday. Thus, I was booked and flew to Taipei's Taoyuan International Airport via EVA Air's Flight BR852. The Flight BR852 that I was on, uses an A330-200 to serve the relatively short route from Hong Kong to Taipei. Total fight time was 1 hour and 45 minutes (official estimates) although based on my watch, we actually touched down in Taipei in less than 90 minutes after leaving Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok Airport. As this was a short flight, I did not get the chance to real...

Airplanes are synonymous with today's notion of traveling. Whenever I am at any airports waiting for my flight, I always enjoyed watching planes took off and land. During such moments, I have never failed to marvel at the incredible engineering feat that enabled such big machines to literally lift off almost effortlessly from the ground and into the air! Amazing isn't it? As part of my aircraft watching past time, I usually took photos of these planes; using my iPhone as that is the most convenient camera that I have on hand. Here is a picture of a Thai Airways Airbus A380-800 taxying along one of the runways of the Hong Kong International Airport (IATA: HKG, ICAO: VHHH). Thai Airways Airbus A380-800 at the Chek Lap Kok Airport, Hong Kong, China (2012) See also other  Airplane Pictures  in this travel blog