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

New Year and new Travel Plans......  2024 is in full swing and January is always the time when I map out my travel plans for the year.  What's been cooking in my travel plans pot? Nothing much really! At least not for the time being. Between the last week of January and first week of February, I am likely to embark on my annual road trip to Ipoh to spend Chinese New Year (a.k.a. Lunar New Year). This year's Chinese New Year falls on 10th and 11th February. I usually will start my trip before or after the festive period. This is to avoid the traffic jams at the border crossings between Singapore and Malaysia. This year will be similar, I will travel early to avoid the peak travel season chaos. Photographs of my trip to Ipoh in February last year, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia (2023) Next up will be a 4-nights round-trip cruise onboard the Royal Caribbean's Spectrum of the Seas from Singapore to Penang and Phuket. This will be my fourth time cruising on the same ship and probably the

It has been more than 4 years since I last visited Taipei in January of 2018. I missed the lively streets of Taipei. The food, the shopping, the lights and the sounds.  Hopefully, the Taiwan Authorities will soon allow leisure travellers like myself to visit again. I look forward to strolling along the streets of Taipei again; shopping, eating and mingling with my local friends. Shopping Street, Ximending, Wanhua District, Taipei, Taiwan (2018)

One of the joys of travelling is to be able to enjoy local food the way the locals enjoy it. Whenever I travelled to Taipei, I always enjoyed its vibrant street food scene and of course, the food. Nothing beats the ambience of tucking into the delicious street food in Taipei, right there in the streets whilst jostling with the crowds. I do not have any trips to Taipei planned in my current travel list. But this is because of border restrictions due to the pandemic. As soon as these restrictions are lifted, I will be travelling to Taipei. I simply love this vibrant city, the local culture and of course, the street food! While I am unable to physically travel to Taiwan for now, I keep in touch with its cultural happenings through frequent text messagings with my Taiwanese friends as well as the free English-language streaming service called TaiwanPlus (a.k.a. Taiwan+) .  Beef noodles in clear soup, Beitou, Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan (2018) Mixed pork soup, Ximending, Wanhua District

There are the normal ways of going about doing things and there are the innovative ways to do the same things. In Taipei City's Beitou District, the Beitou Public Library is an example of innovation and creative artistry. While the library building itself is both an architectural wonder and a breadth of fresh air in creativity, the interiors of this beautiful library boasts the same creative ingenuity. Examples include the reading areas. There are outdoor reading areas which look out into the greenery and neighbourhood scenery, bringing readers close to nature. While for those who prefer to be indoors, some of the indoor reading and study areas have been created to resemble the ambience of a warm and welcoming cafe rather than a blend public library. The clever use of architecture and design promotes not just an innovative approach to city living but also introduce a gentleness into the lives of the local people. Indoor reading and study area, Beitou Public Library, Beitou, Taipei

Next Travel Destinations....... when leisure travel resumes... After months of not being able to travel due to the current pandemic, I must admit I missed travelling and am looking forward to my next trips when leisure travel is able to resume. My last vacation before the closures and restriction of international borders was when I travelled to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) in end-Jan 2020. While my last flight before the pandemic swept the world was in November 2019 when I travelled to Seattle (United States) on a business trip. As and when international borders closures and restrictions are lifted, the destinations for my first leisure trips will be Tokyo and Taipei. I missed the food and the shopping in both of these cities. Neon-lit giant billboards in Akihabara, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, Japan (2017) In Tokyo, I love dining on donburi (rice bowl dish); unadon (rice bowl topped with fillets of charcoal-grilled eel glazed with special sauce) and kaisendon (seafood rice bowl with slices of s

Travel Reminiscing....... In a period where worldwide business and leisure travels are heavily curtailed due to a pandemic, the next best thing to satisfying the travel bug in all of us is to reminisce past trips.  Boat waiting to board passengers, Mal é , Maldives (2014) As part of my travel reminiscence, I started a 30-day Travel Reminiscing series of posts on my Instagram account (timothytanks) for the month of May 2020. For this series, I set a self-imposed limit of one post per country/territory/city. This is to allow me to recap and share 30 different destinations over the course of one month. The featured country/territory/city over the 30-days in chronological order were: Post 1.   Helsinki/Finland Post 2.   Nazareth/Israel Post 3.   Jiufen/Taiwan Post 4.   New Norcia/Australia Post 5.   Siem Reap/Cambodia Post 6.   Loch Ness/Scotland Post 7.   Kanchanaburi/Thailand Post 8.   Rome/Italy Post 9.   Kowloon/Hong Kong Post 10. Mah é /Seychelles

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

Of all the cities in the world that I had visited so far, none other than Taipei managed to always evoke that sense of nostalgia in me. I can't explain that feeling. In fact, the first time I visited Taipei was in 2015, way past the times of my growing up years! Cityscape of Taipei, Ximending, Wanhua District, Taipei, Taiwan (2015) As to what kind of nostalgic feelings that Taipei has for me is difficult to describe in words. It probably is a combination of the old school streets and their layouts, the friendliness and unassuming attitude of the locals which is a rarity in most cities in today's materialistic-driven world, the food, the number of small bookstores tucked around in almost every corner of every street and a lot more. My connection to all things in Taipei probably also stemmed from my childhood years when I grew up watching Taiwanese dramas and documentaries on TV, most of which centred around life in Taipei. Advertising billboards screaming for at