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

Gearing up for my next trip......  In less than a week's time, I will be going on my planned vacation. This will be my second trip of the year. After this, I have no other trips either planned or confirmed for 2024. I am still trying to come to grips with the astronomical increase in travel costs. Thus, I have been searching and waiting for discount deals on flight tickets and accommodations, but no luck so far. And so, the search and wait continue. The coming trip is a relatively short and unadventurous 5 days/4 nights return cruise from Singapore to Penang and Phuket. I had booked this cruise sometime in the middle of last year, paying a lot less than what I would need to pay if I am to book a similar cruise itinerary today. And, I love the ship, Spectrum of the Seas. Sadly for me, this ship will leave Singapore next month (April 2024) for its new home ports in China. Thus, this will very likely be the last time I cruise on Spectrum unless it returns to be home ported in Singapor...

  Where would you travel to, if you can travel back in time....... The end of November 2020 is almost here. This heralds the arrival of December, the last month of the calendar year. 2020 is best remembered as the year of a worldwide pandemic. For travel bugs like myself, the pandemic resulted in a whole travel-less year. Yes, no travel anywhere for a whole year and well into the foreseeable months ahead. News of the promising results of several vaccines under advance-staged trials provided glimpses of hope not just for travel but more importantly, for the health of the global population and economy. But it is still early days in terms of vaccine development, production and distribution. Without any travel for the year, there is definitely no trips to reflect upon during this year-end. Instead, I can only rely on my imaginations to reflect upon what could have been. So, I asked myself an age-old question. If I can travel back in time, where would I want to travel to? I would l...