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...

On my Train Journey from Bangkok to Singapore in May 2024, I decided that it made the most economic sense to fly budget one-way from Singapore to Bangkok. This was because my "return" trip will be via train routes. With this in mind, I searched for the most competitive fares and decided to book the flight with Thai Air Asia. Thai Air Asia is a low cost carrier formed via a joint venture between Malaysia's Air Asia and Thailand's Asia Aviation. From Singapore's Changi International Airport (IATA: SIN, ICAO: WSSS), Thai Air Asia fly to Bangkok's smaller Don Mueang International Airport (IATA: DMK, ICAO: VTBD). Thai Air Asia planes at  Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok, Thailand (2024) Check-in My flight was on FD356 departing Changi International Airport Terminal 4 on 27 May 2024 at the scheduled time of 2pm. Checking-in was simple and hassle free. I arrived at the departure terminal about 2.5 hours before the scheduled flight time and cleared immigratio...

Inspiration from Travel Programmes....... For most travellers, their typical travel itineraries will be planned around famous landmarks or icons. Some intrepid travellers will go further to explore the lesser known places, to experience things that the typical travellers will not get to enjoy. If we were to stay away from the famous landmarks and icons and instead ventured to explore the back alleys of the cities we had visited, what will be the kind of travel experiences that we will have encountered? Taking cues from some travel programmes which featured unexplored areas or back alleys of popular tourist destination cities, I had explored the suburban and back alleys of some of the cities I had visited. These included Nakano Ward of Tokyo which is just minutes away from crowded Shinjuku but seems like a world away when it comes down to ambience and crowd. A small shrine along the road, Nakano, Tokyo, Japan (2017) I had also travelled away from the city centre of G...

Are short trips worth all the hassle? I am usually one who do not fancy the idea of short trips involving durations of 2 days/1 night or 3 days/2 nights unless these are overland trips to another city located within 100km of my home. However, at the urging of a friend and on the need to run a short errand, I just returned from a 3 days/2 nights trip to Bangkok this week. Bangkok is a 2-hour journey by flight from my home base of Singapore. Arriving at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport (a.k.a Bangkok International Airport, IATA: BKK, ICAO: VTBS) around 2.15pm local time, it took less than an hour for me to clear the necessary Immigration and Customs procedures before I'm on the subway from the Airport to the city.  Despite the short duration of this trip, I was not only able to complete my errand but also managed to take time out to shuttle around the city, enjoy the local food and even had time to sit myself in cafes to observe the mannerisms and dispositions of the...