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

Inspiration from Travel Programmes....... For most travellers, their typical travel itineraries will be planned around famous landmarks or icons. Some intrepid travellers will go further to explore the lesser known places, to experience things that the typical travellers will not get to enjoy. If we were to stay away from the famous landmarks and icons and instead ventured to explore the back alleys of the cities we had visited, what will be the kind of travel experiences that we will have encountered? Taking cues from some travel programmes which featured unexplored areas or back alleys of popular tourist destination cities, I had explored the suburban and back alleys of some of the cities I had visited. These included Nakano Ward of Tokyo which is just minutes away from crowded Shinjuku but seems like a world away when it comes down to ambience and crowd. A small shrine along the road, Nakano, Tokyo, Japan (2017) I had also travelled away from the city centre of G

Travel Plans....... The months of January and February are usually the time of the year when I plan my travels for the year. Besides those ad-hoc trips that may crop up due to business or other reasons, my vacation trips are typically planned well ahead. When I planned a trip, I usually only took care of the broad outlines of the itineraries including where to travel to, the best time of the year to travel to the planned locations, accommodation costs, air tickets availability and visa requirements. The nitty gritty stuff like what to do during the trip, where to go, things to see and do etc. are usually left for much later. Where to travel to: This is usually the first question I asked myself when a trip was being planned. As a creature of habit, I have re-visited the same places many times either due to my likes for the destination, the environment, the food, the culture and the people. But I do also visit new places which I have never travel to before. I will try to visi

Rail has played the role of a crucial means of transportation since the early 19th century with the invention of the steam engine.  Today, rail transportation no longer runs on steam engine except for a very few select lines around the world who still provide this service, usually to cater to the tourism industry. Typically, such lines are operated as a form of luxury travel for the select few customers who can afford to fork out huge sums of money to enjoy the unique experience.  For normal folks like myself, rail transport refers to modern electric trains. And nostalgia typically refers to the older models of the trains still running. Apart from the trains, the tracks on which the trains run on can be very photogenic subjects during our travels. Whenever I traveled, I usually enjoyed photographing the trains and also the tracks on which the train operated. This is especially when I visited places in rural areas, away from the main city and business centres where th

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

Reading and Travelling....... What has reading got to do with travelling? Plenty of reasons. For me, reading up on the countries and cities I am visiting provide me with lots of information on the sights and sounds that I can expect. It also allows me to better plan my itinerary and help me to decide on where to stay and how much time to spend in a particular place. Other important information like currency exchanges, local culture and customs, potential immigration hurdles and visa applicabilities are also what I look out for when I read up on the places i am about to visit. Most of these information can be found in travel guides or on the internet. Dungeons and Dragons, a wall mural in a former dungeon and now a toilet, in a restaurant housed in a heritage building, Tallinn, Estonia (2017) And of course, reading about the experiences of other travellers provide me with a whole new world of information not usually available in officially published literature. For this r

Traveling and local food, a symbiotic relationship ....... While traveling, I usually prefer to try the local cuisines. This is to allow myself to be immersed into the local culture and customs because food is certainly one area where its preparation, flavour, taste and presentation are heavily influenced by the culture and customs of the people who created the cuisine. During my current vacation in Tokyo (yes, I am writing this article from the comfort of my hotel room in Shinjuku), I again went looking for delicious and authentic local food. And in Japan, there are no other food dishes more popular than seafood. Sashimi set, Ueno District, Taito, Tokyo, Japan (2017) While I do not always dine at expensive restaurants when I travel, I do occasionally splurged on dining when I felt an urge to spend some serious money. But more often than not, I usually dine at local eateries where food prices are affordable and I get the opportunity to mingle with the local crowd.