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

  "In the sky, I used to fly with the clouds, From the trees, I sat free from restrain, But in my cage, I long for the freedom that once was." -    Timothy Tan, tankstraveltales Common Black-headed Gull ( Chroicocephalus ridibundus ), Helsinki, Finland (2017)

One of the first touchpoint when a foreign visitor arrives at any city by flight is typically the subway or rail station that provides transport to ferry passengers to the nearby cities and surrounding districts.  When visiting any city, I always made it a point to take a photograph of the subway/rail station which transported me to my first destination on arrival, typically the hotel. This photograph is a memento of my trip and usually the first of many I will take when I am overseas.  Why a photograph of a subway/rail station? Because, thanks to such efficient public transport systems, I usually get to arrive at the hotel on time, drop off my luggages, take a shower and have a fresh change of clothes before I head out to explore, sight-see, dine and shop. Arriving at Helsinki for the first time in 2017 on an early-spring morning, I was surprised to find the subway station at the Airport's Terminal 2 totally absent of any passengers. On hindsight, this was not surprising as I...

Finland & Estonia, Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea The ocean has more often than not, invoked a sense of romance (travel-wise) for me. And for someone who was born and grew up in a part of the world near the equator and in South-East Asia, the northern seas of Europe are often seen as exotic and exciting. Thus, when I was planning a trip to Finland for spring of 2017, I just could not resist including a short sailing trip across the Baltic Sea, just for that personal vanity of checking off another item on my travel bucket list. Besides the bucket list tick, of course I did get to visit Estonia as well and walked on the famed cobblestone streets of Tallinn's Old Town, another item on my bucket list! To be honest, I did not actually get to sail right across a large swathe of the Baltic Sea, but only that tiny fraction from Helsinki to Tallinn across the Gulf of Finland to be be exact. But because the Gulf of Finland is technically classified as the easternmost part of the Baltic Sea,...

Vendace ( Coregonus albula ) is a small freshwater fish found in lakes in northern Europe. Usually eaten fried, it is a tasty and delicious treat that is also affectionally known as Finnish fast food! One of the rewards of travelling is to enjoy food that we don't normally find at home. And good food will most definitely turn a good trip into a great trip. Visiting Finland in 2017, I got to taste fried Vendace for the first time. And I absolutely love this dish to bits.  My personal recommendation to anyone visiting Finland is to try out this dish for yourself. And for those who do not know, Muikku is the Finnish name of this tasty fish. A delightful seafood platter of fried calamari, salmon and muikku , Helsinki, Finland (2017)

Planning for my next vacation....... Apart form the trip itself, one of the greatest thing about a dream vacation is the trip planning. Finding out about the places to visit, the food to eat and the kind of experience that can be enjoyed is a joy for anyone who enjoys travelling. While my motto has always been to travel with only a loose plan in place so that I can serendipitously  chance upon some delightful travel experiences, a loose plan still needs some basic information before it becomes what it is, a plan! With the internet literally at my fingertips, I can easily look for information whenever I have some free time in-between work meetings or tele-conferences. And these bits of information that I collect are all cut-and-paste digitally into my smart phone. A month or two before the trip, I will collate all this information to form a broad itinerary such as the cities to visit, the areas that I want to stay for the night and the sights and food I want to enjoy. Wit...

Visiting cities all over the world provide great insights into the architectural styles that define each of these cities. From cities in Asia to the Americas and Europe, one can clearly see both the distinct similarities and differences in architectural styles that come about due to the historical, cultural and religious influences over the course of each city's development over its existence. A typical traditional architectural design that blends both western and eastern European influences, Helsinki, Finland (2017) Even within each continent, each city's architecture is different and unique even though they may all look the same at a glance. In the case of Finland's capital city of Helsinki, tradition and modernity often intermingled to create a style that is both very similar yet different from other cities in the Nordic countries and by extension, European cities. This design screams modern in every sense of the word. Sleek clean lines def...

2017 Travel Review....... In terms of travel, 2017 has been the year where I travelled the most in recent memory. For the year, I have clocked a total of almost 130,000 miles in air travel alone. I basically travelled at least once every month; for all 12 months of the year. Three-quarters of my travels in 2017 were for work with the rest being vacation trips. New cities I had travelled to included vacations to Atami and Ito (Japan), Helsinki (Finland), Luang Prabang (Laos) and Tallinn (Estonia). A street in the Old Town of Tallinn, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Tallinn, Estonia (2017) The Helsinki Cathedral, Helsinki, Finland (2017) Vat Manorom Temple, Luang Prabang, Laos (2017) Other cities that I had travelled to in 2017 were mainly for work and they included cities which I had previously visited multiple times. The repeated visits to these cities did not in any way diminish the enjoyability of these trips and I did manage to snatch time out from my he...

Recovering from a trip. Is there such a thing? Of course there is! For one, if you travel between continents, there is always the issue of jet lag to take care of when you are finally back home. And if jet lag is not a problem for you, there will always be chores to do. These usually include household chores that piled up while you were away enjoying yourself on that sun-kissed beach or skiing on the slopes of that snow-capped peak. Besides the domestic chores, there will also be office work to chase when you get back to office after those days away posting your beautiful vacation pictures on social media to share with family and friends. Little Venice, Paddington, London, UK (2017) So while a holiday can be an invigorating experience and fun, there are the before and after of the trip to consider. I have wrote about the "before" in a previous blog post on my Travel Bit series (click the link here to read more  The to-do-list before embarking on a trip....... )...