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

Another cruise upcoming.....  My first trip of 2025 was a 8-nights cruise from Singapore to Bali and Lombok and back to Singapore onboard Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas in February and March. My next trip will commence in slightly more than a week from today, and it is another cruise. This time, I will be sailing one-way from Singapore to Hong Kong on a 5-nights cruise with a single Port Day in Vietnam's Chan May. One-way cruise entails a lot more logistics planning, including the booking of one-way air ticket to return home. As we all know, purchasing one-way tickets do not make much economical sense because it is usually a lot more expensive than paying for a pair of return air tickets; based on cost per flight mile. This is when my air miles, accrued over the years from my credit card usage and other flights come into play. When redeeming air miles for flight tickets, airlines typically charge based on per flight. Therefore, if I am to redeem a pair of return tickets, ...

There are places we visited ever so often, whether the trips were for work or leisure purposes or both. Hong Kong is one city which frequently features in my travel itinerary.  And in May 2023, I finally returned for a visit. A very short trip of only a few days because of my work schedule. Not really enough time for me to re-explore the city and to visit all my favourite eateries and cafes. But nevertheless, it was good to be back in Hong Kong. Night view of Langham Place and its surroundings, Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China (2023) Despite the relatively short trip, I still managed to really enjoy myself in my first real vacation of 2023. In-between the few days I had in my itinerary, I got to savour my favourite Hong Kong delicacies including Egg Tarts, Dim Sum and Roast Goose! I also visited my favourite retailers to shop for collectible movie-related figures from Star Wars to Godzilla. I even had time to discover some nice quaint eateries which I shared with my friends ...

Changing tastes......  As time passes, we all grow older and hopefully wiser and richer. But that's not the topic for this month's Travel Bits. Rather, the topic I am writing about is about changing tastes. Now, tastes can mean anything from the food we eat to analogies of our take on other aspects of life, from culture to the arts. And also the mundane like personal hobbies. So, how do all these changes in tastes connect to travel? Plenty! Even if we travel back to the same city and same town every year, our change in tastes such as the food we like, the hobbies we take on and so forth, will likely lead us to discover "new" things in the same old city or town that we think we know so much about just because we have been visiting for the umpteen time. In my case, my recent interest in fountain pens has led me to look for shops to view and purchase pens to add to my collection when I travel. I have been to Hong Kong numerous times and each time on my visit, I will alwa...

The blue-collar neighbourhood of Sham Shui Po is located in Kowloon. While it is seldom mentioned or considered in travel articles on Hong Kong, Sham Shui Po is actually a particularly vibrant part of what Hong Kong is. Populated by working class folks, the traveler will find in Sham Shui Po the "real" Hong Kong.  Interspersed amongst this densely populated neighbourhood are many shops, street markets and food vendors. Here, one can easily discover that the shopping and food are much more affordable than in the more affluent parts of Hong Kong. The vibrant streets of Sham Shui Po are always crowded with people coming and going, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China (2019) Personally, I always make it a point to drop by Sham Shui Po for its food, especially the freshly baked egg tarts which I really enjoyed. There is also the shopping. Stuffed toys, modelling kits, stationery and clothing are just the few of the many stuff that can be bought here. ...