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

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

Review of my travels in 2016... 2016 has been an extremely busy year for me. It also marks a year when many of my planned trips could not proceed as scheduled due to a hectic work schedule. However, there are also a great many unplanned trips which happened during the year. Trips which I have to cancel in 2016 include visits to Osaka (Japan), Barcelona (Spain), San Francisco (California, United States) and Auckland (New Zealand) as well as my annual personal retreat to Bali (Indonesia). Unforeseen projects that crop up along the way as the year progressed lead to these cancellations which I will eventually undertake at a more appropriate time in the foreseeable future. Trips which were not planned but happened in 2016 include visits to Thiruvananthapuram (India) to attend a friend's wedding and to Orlando (Florida, United States) to attend a software conference with my customers. The visit to Thiruvananthapuram and Orlando were my first ever visits to India and the Unite

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

Hong Kong is a small city crammed with people and more people. Yet, Hong Kong is a very interesting place with just about anything and everything all packed into a small city with a total land area of about 2750 square kilometres.  In my many visits to Hong Kong, which is just under 4 hours by flight from my home in Singapore, I have almost always make it a point to visit the famed Goldfish Market. The name Goldfish Market is a slight misnomer. Because in the streets that make up this so-called Goldfish Market, shops lining the narrow streets peddled all kinds of tropical and marine fishes, besides the traditional goldfish.  Colourful freshwater shrimps for sale, Goldfish Market, Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China (2016) There are also many shops which sell reptiles including many types of Geckos as well as the occasional Chameleons. Various types of tortoises and turtles are also sold as pets here. These include species such as the Star Tortoises, Leopard Tortoises

Due to an extremely heavy work schedule, I missed posting an article on my monthly Travel Bits series for the month of November 2015. However, the series continues with this post for December 2015. As I write this article, I am also busily trying to clear as much of my work as possible before I embark on a one week vacation  to Hong Kong and Taipei (my first ever trip to Taiwan) next week. For my upcoming trip, I will be flying from Singapore to Hong Kong on Singapore Airline's (SQ) famed Business Class! I only paid for the fuel surcharges and taxes because my return air tickets from on SQ are redemption tickets using my fast expiring Krisflyer miles. For my return flight from Hong Kong to Taipei, I will be flying via EVA Air's (BR) Business Class. This will be my first time flying with EVA Air. As usual, I will be writing about my onboard experience after my trip. December is usually the month when many of us try to squeeze in some vacation time after a long year of w

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

Shenzhen is a major industrial and commercial city in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. The city is located in the so-called Pearl River Delta with Hong Kong just south of Shenzhen. This close proximity to Hong Kong has no doubt contributed to Shenzhen's economic success with both the Chinese territories having a symbiotic and integral economic relationship. I last visited Shenzhen in February 2012 when I was there to attend an Information Technology (IT) Seminar. As my trip was only for 3 days, I didn't have the time to really move around the city to take in the sights and sounds of this vibrant city. Inside one of the modern shopping malls of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China (2012) Shop display, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, Guangdong Province, China (2012) Despite the limited time I had during this visit, I still managed to do a little bit of walking, shopping, and eating. I was amazed by the modernity of this city. The orderly way the cit