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

Woke up today to the news that my favourite travel destinations in Asia, Japan and Taiwan, will soon reopen to leisure visitors. As part of the re-openings, strict and cumbersome anti-COVID measures will be dropped or scaled back. It has been a long while since I last visited destinations in these regions of Asia. I love the food, culture, sights and sounds of Japan and Taiwan. Even though other regions of Asia, which are also on my favourite list, continue to remain shut to leisure visitors, I can at least explore more travel options for 2023. Sakura viewings in spring, Japan's hanabi  (fireworks) festivals in summer, hiking in the National Parks of Taiwan and spending a couple of nights in the magical town of Jiuefen. I can't wait to plan and book my trips! Ema (small wooden tablets used by worshippers to write down their prayers or wishes), Ueno, Tokyo, Japan (2017) The magical and lovely town of Jiufen, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan (2016) Next and hopefully so

Jiufen, New Taipei City Since watching the popular and award winning Japanese anime fantasy film,  Spirited Away ( 千と千尋の神隠し )  in 2003, I had wondered how nice it would be if I could one day visit an actual place similar to that shown in the magical world portrayed in the film. The dream became a reality years later in 2016 when I visited Jiufen for the first time during one of my frequent trips to Taipei. Just before the trip, I had transitioned from being a full-time employee to start my own consultancy business. Because I had just started my business and jobs had yet to materialise, I had the luxury of spending more time than usual on vacation. With that extra time on my hand, I planned a side trip to Jiufen, making sure to stay at least 2 nights there. While many visited Jiufen as a day trip, I wanted something more from my visit. To spend more time there so that I could explore the surrounding areas and to make use of the peace and quiet during the nights there to map out m

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