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

Johor Bahru (JB) is located at the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia and is connected to Singapore via the Causeway , across the Straits of Johor. Due to its close geographical proximity to Singapore, as well as the favourable currency exchange rate between the Singapore Dollar (SGD) and the Malaysian Ringgit (RM), many Singaporeans and Malaysians working in Singapore, typically made day trips to JB via the Causeway. During these day trips, most travelers will dine and shop. It is not uncommon to see folks returning to Singapore from, JB in the late afternoons and evenings, laden with shopping bags. This happens on most days, not just the weekends. Although during weekends, the crowds crossing the Causeway are noticeably larger. Being someone who does not really enjoy being in a crowd, I mostly stay away from such day trips. On occasions when I drove across the Causeway, it was mostly to travel further inland into Malaysia, either to Kuala Lumpur or to Ipoh. But on one weekday after...

First overseas trip in 29 months......  Yesterday, I returned home from my first overseas trip in 29 months. My last trip was in January 2019 before international border closures and restrictions commenced due to the COVID pandemic. Truth be told, the pandemic is still with us. Unlike the SARS-outbreak of 2003, there are still thousands of infections recorded worldwide every day; probably even tens of thousands. But a combination of vaccinations and previous infections coupled with the relatively milder current dominant Omicron strain of the virus meant that national authorities have been carefully peeling back on travel restrictions and re-opening their borders.  While this most recent trip of mine was certainly no bucket listed travel item, it was still an overseas trip. I left for a weeklong trip to Malaysia, driving up north to Ipoh to meet with relatives and friends before driving a little further north to Cameron Highlands. I had previously visited both places numerous t...