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

It has been more than 5 years since I last visited London. There are many things that I missed about this city. From the great food, shopping, book stores, street scenes, parks and theatres to its tradition and culture. And of course, there are always that two major attractions for me in London, the Natural History Museum and the iconic British Museum. In all my trips to London, I had always spent time at these museums; marvelling at the displays, learning about its exhibits and getting enthralled by the richness of history. On each visit, there were always something new, something to learn, knowledge to gain and experiences to savour. I hope to be able to visit London again soon. And my first stop will undoubtedly be the British Museum. One of the iconic central pieces of the museum's exhibits that is always ready to greet each and every visitor who walk through its entrance, British Museum, London, England, United Kingdom (2017) 

How often do we take everyday sights and sounds for granted when we travel? An impressive building and architectural structure I saw and photographed while travelling on foot from Harrods to the London Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London, UK (2017) A mundane road, a bus ferrying passengers going about its daily routine, people sitting around chatting or resting and pedestrians passing by with shopping bags. Surely, these are sights and sounds that can be found in every country, city, town or neighbourhood.  Not exactly true. Because every place has its own unique sights and sounds. Yes, the flow of people and public transport or the grind of everyday life are structured to achieve the same aims; daily living. But the way each place achieves this is different. There is something unique about every place, even within the same neighbourhood, town, city or country. It is this uniqueness which gives every place an identity of its own.  As an example, London's Piccadilly Cir

London, England, United Kingdom I have always been fascinated with dinosaurs since I was a kid. Growing up, I would read lots of books and magazines about dinosaurs. I still do. :-) At public libraries or bookstores, any books or magazines about dinosaurs or with a dinosaur picture on its cover will made me stoped right in my tracks for a second look. Thus, when I fist visited London's Natural History Museum in 2011, I was thrilled. I spent an entire day at the museum, mostly at the dinosaur-section. From then on, every visit to London would not be complete for me without a trip to the Natural History Museum. Dinosaur exhibit, Natural History Museum, London, England, UK (2017) On each visit, I would spend the most time at the dinosaur exhibits. Over the years however, I have learned to appreciate and thus spent more time on the other exhibits such as the Earth Treasury (featuring minerals, gemstones and rocks), Volcanoes & Earthquakes (learning about the changing face of the pl

London, England, United Kingdom The West End is located north of the River Thames and as its name suggests, west of the city of London. Most of London's major tourist attractions and entertainment venues are found here. Watching musicals at the West End can fairly be said to be one of the most common entertainment experiences sought by tourists visiting London. And I was no different. However, I only managed to find the time to watch my first musical at the West End after numerous visits to London; although this was not the first musical I had watched, having attended performances of musicals back in my home city as well as in other cities around the world. But my first time watching a musical in the famous West End was only during my 8th visit to London and that musical was The Lion King . On subsequent visits to London, I caught performances of Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables amongst others. Posters featuring the Les Miserables musical at a West End theatre, London, Eng

Buildings and their architecture typically tell us much about the history and culture of their cities. In London, I love the many different styles of building architectures that derived from the rich and varied history of the capital city of the United Kingdom. Taking photographs of these beautiful structures as digital mementos of my visits has always been a favourite activity whenever I visited London. During one of my recent visits, I passed by the iconic Harrods Building at Brompton Road. Instead of taking the usual full-frontal photograph of this beautiful building, I decided to add a slightly different  perspective to my photograph and tilted the angle of my shot slightly. The result is a different view of the building and one which I like a lot more compared to the usual front-and-centre composition. Harrods Building, Knightsbridge, London, England, UK (2017)

Located just next to the busy Paddington Station is a quaint neighbourhood nestled amongst a mix of several canals. Little Venice, Paddington, London, England, UK (2017) Known as Little Venice, one can see many houseboats berthed alongside the canals or sailing in it. Some of these houseboats are actually Food & Beverage outlets which offer a nice English Breakfast that comes with a nice view. A Houseboat which is also a cafe, Paddington, London, England, UK (2017) Whenever I visit London, I will always take time to visit this part of the city. Sitting under the shade of the tress lining the canal while tucking into my breakfast of toasts and eggs and sipping my latte, I simply enjoy the beauty and serenity of Little Venice. Life is alway beautiful here and this is one of the many reasons why London was, still is and will continue to be a favourite vacation city for me. Breakfast set, Paddington, London, England, UK (2017) View of the con

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....... )