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

Sense of normality......  And so the first week of July saw me complete my third leisure trip of the year. Now, three short leisure trips in a year, undertaken within the same region where I live, is really nothing to shout about. But considering the myriad travel restrictions imposed in the past two plus years because of a global pandemic, three trips within three months certainly do count for something. Yes, the optimist in me will now dare to softly whisper that for leisure travel, we are slowly returning to a sense of normality. A photo to capture the memory of my first visit to the city, Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia (2022) While there are still additional paperwork and administrative matters required before one can travel, these requirements have gradually been watered down by many national and regional authorities, such that they are now at acceptable levels, at least to me. Some inconveniences, but tolerable. I am glad to say that after my three short trips, I had now clocked tw

Travel takes flight......  After close to two and a half years literally marooned in my home city, I finally started to travel again.  In the space of three weeks, I had travelled to Malaysia and Cambodia. My trip to Cambodia's Siem Reap was my first flight in 30 long months.  My trip to Malaysia was an enjoyable one, connecting with relatives and friends. We drove north, crossing the land border between Singapore and Malaysia's southern state of Johor before continuing northwards passed the other Malaysian states of Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, and Selangor and finally reaching the state of Perak and the city of Ipoh. A total driving distance of about 550 km. During my short one-week stay in Ipoh, I visited most of my favourite eating places, indulging myself and enjoying the culinary delights of Ipoh. Together with relatives and friends, we did a short 2-day, 1-night stay in Cameron Highlands, located on the border of the states of Perak and Pahang. At an elevation of between 800

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 times. But

Travel within the City.......  As my overseas travel plans continue to be crimped by a confluence of factors including costs, hassles of overcoming COVID-related border measures and restrictions, schedule and procrastinations, I have instead been out and about locally more often. I have visited local places I had never visited before and also local places I last visited many years ago. I have also travelled from one end of my city to the other end simply to eat that local dish I last dined on years ago. Yes, travelling local and enjoying local delights have become some kind of travel therapy for me. And I must say I do enjoy my recent forays into different parts of my city, discovering and also re-discovering places that are as interesting as those I may chance upon while travelling overseas. While almost all my friends are posting beautiful photographs of themselves vacationing overseas, here I am, enjoying my own bus journeys around my city. Not that I am complaining though. I do hav

Time out....... And Into the Wild... More than 2 years into the pandemic when international travel restrictions continue to deter leisure travel, I have been "travelling" locally, re-connecting with local places as well as even visiting "new" local places that I had never been to in my life, despite living in the same country since the day I was born! Recently, I travelled to several islands located in the south of Singapore. Some of them I had visited a long time ago when I was still in a kid while for a few of these island, it was my first visit. As COVID-related social restrictions are cautiously, gently and carefully lifted in accordance with the prevailing national infection situation, the local Authorities have since announced (a few days ago if I remembered correctly) that current rules barring camping have been lifted. Yes! 😁 Some months back, I had fantasied about going on some local camping trips to enjoy the natural environment and treat myself to the no

Getting back into the groove....... As countries slowly but cautiously peel back border restrictions in an attempt to revive battered economies and move to live with COVID-19 in the so-called endemic state, things are starting to look a lot brighter. While a few countries are still trying to beat COVID-19 with zero infection strategies, the rest of the world is finally coming together again and re-opening to each other. The hermit-like style that has defined my life since March 2020 has also slowly taken a back seat. I have been going out of my home a little more, cautiously but surely. Work and social life have both taken on a more physical and personal approach as opposed to being just a small screen on those online meeting places. All said, I still take personal precautions such as being fully masked whenever I am out and about, even keeping my mask on at all times while attending work meetings. Additionally, I also avoid crowded places as much as possible and try to time my journey

Running out of Greek Alphabets....... 2 years and counting and the world is still in the midst of a pandemic caused by the nasty COVID-19 and its variants. The latest twist in the story of this current pandemic is Omicorn. At the rate this is going, we may soon be running out of greek alphabets for all the various variants that may be coming our way... 😓 After 24 months, we seem to be still at Square One of our Snake-and-Ladders tussle with the dreaded virus. To be honest, nobody has a good answer to when this may all end or subside to a level when the world can resume its normality pre-year 2020. For me, I had obediently followed all public health guidelines including receiving my full 2-dose of mRNA vaccines as well as an mRNA booster jab (3 jabs in total), observing social distancing and working from home whenever possible, never leaving my home without a mask worn properly over my nose and mouth and limiting social events to the barest minimum. My passion for travel had not featur

The Hermit Life....... Coming close to beginning the third year of staying put in my little home city, mostly working from home and meeting few people in-person, I am fast embracing a hermit lifestyle, albeit reluctantly. As I had mentioned in an earlier post in this blog, even the occasional dining-out has sort of become an event in itself for me. Living in a small compact city, there are only so many activities I can find after taking into account the need to maintain social distancing measures.  Campings are currently forbidden; ironically due to the pandemic.  Dining outs are allowed but limited seating arrangements necessitate the need to plan and book a table way in advance, sometimes as early as three to four weeks ahead. Staycations? Thanks but no thanks. The relatively high cost of staycation packages are definitely beyond my limited financial means. Reading has since become a major past-time activity for me. I used to read a lot when I was in school, both fiction and non-fict

To resume travel..... or stay put for now? As authorities in many countries started to peel back on travel restrictions, many who have had enough of being unable to travel have cheered these decisions and started travelling or planning to travel again. I am not referring to those who generally have justified needs to travel; whether this is for business, work, or to visit immediate family members, relatives and friends due to one reason or another. What I am talking about are those who resume travel for leisure's sake. The justifications put forth by these leisure travellers are that they need a break. So what kind of "break" do they really need? I am not sure. But to throw caution to the winds and embark on leisure travel at this moment in time just to sight-see may not be exactly a good idea. Apart from having to "jostle" with those who really need to travel for limited air tickets (many airlines are still not back to full operational capacity vis-a-vis pre-pa

The wild beckons....... but..... Being stuck within the confines of a small apartment and its walled interiors for the past 20+ months while (at times) feverishly working-from-home to meet rushed deadlines imposed by clients has left me feeling a bit cooped up. Suddenly, usually boring and typically ignored stuff like a patch of grass or a bunch of trees in the distance has become a much yearn-for change-of-environment. In part inspired by my recent weeknights binge watching of Korean variety shows on cable showcasing life in rural outdoor places, I imagined how nice it would be if I could (for a short period of time) indulge in these same activities. In these shows, Korean celebrities camped out, prepared their own meals over open-air campfires, went fishing or simply just chilled out  and enjoyed nature. Unfortunately, I live in a small cramp city where there are hardly any wilderness to head out to, where driving camper vans and spending a week or two out in the wild is an impossibl

A "vacation" by any other name....... As international border closures remain strictly in force, I have decided that an overseas vacation pre-pandemic style is simply neither possible nor practical. While it is true that I can theoretically travel to a couple of destinations currently, the required administrative loops and hurdles that I will have to jump through just to travel to these "select" destinations immediately made even the idea of leisure travel impractical. For example, based on the number of COVID testings one have to undergo just for a one or two-week trip, which can be as many as four or even five tests, simply don't make sense. Besides the costs involved (assuming an average of USD$110 per test), there are still the inconveniences of having to travel to designated clinics for these tests, queue up, wait, waste precious vacation time and to top it all the up, grapple with the amount of extra paperwork just to prove that I am vaccinated and also do

Leisure travel....... soon? Sunday morning. As usual, I woke up late, preferring to sleep in on weekend mornings, just so to differentiate between the weekend and weekday mornings of my new work-from-home lifestyle. As I went through the motion of eating my quotidian breakfast of cereal, oats and eggs while browsing the news websites on my laptop, with a little check on the current Olympic medal tally (today, 8 August 2021, is the last day of the Tokyo "2020" Olympics), it suddenly dawned upon me that leisure travel may soon be possible again in this part of the world. Of course, a lot still depend on the "ifs" and "buts" but there is now a small glimmer of hope that folks looking to travel for leisure may be permitted to do so, subject to some minor inconveniences such as swabbing, re-swabbing and more re-swabbing for viral particles that may be hiding somewhere up in the deep recesses of the travellers' nostrils. Meanwhile airports, airlines and othe

Missing those weekend trips....... The saying goes that often we only realised the importance of people or things after they have left or are no longer around us. In this case, it is those weekend trips that I am missing. Prior to the upheaval caused by COVID, going away for a short trip over a weekend was so simple. And because it really was very simple, I did not pay much attention to these trips. Actually, I did not even considered them as overseas trips despite the fact that I was actually crossing borders for these trips and a valid international passport was required to be produced at the border checkpoints. But now that international travel has all but vanished, these little weekend getaways started to be remembered as enjoyable overseas trips and a longing to undertake these same trips now feature as high on the agenda as those bucket list travel items. In December 2019, I went on a short weekend getaway to neighbouring city of Johor Bahru (a.k.a. JB), state capital of the Mala

  Looking on in envy....... The United States and Europe are slowly opening up for leisure travel while here in Asia, things look almost exactly the same as they were in 2020! While some Asian countries have relatively low Covid-19 infection rates compared to the US and Europe, they are firmly standing their grounds to stay shut. This is reflected in countries like Australia, New Zealand and Japan amongst many others. Australia and New Zealand are now like impregnable fortresses to foreign arrivals. Meanwhile, even though Japan is looking forward to hosting the Olympics next month (July 2021), it is at the same time saying that no foreigners are allowed into the country, wherever you are from. Such "disconnect" in policies is hard to fathom. I am not sure if policy makers are simply being too conservative or too cautious or both. Whatever it is, this continual shutting off from the World is having very damaging effects on their local hospitality and tourism industries. As Asi

Looks like 2021 is going to be another year of staying at home... for many of us....... While we were all told that 2020 was not going to the year where leisure travel was possible due to the pandemic, many of us thought that 2021 would be the time when international leisure travel will be able to resume, albeit slowly. However, amidst the news that new mutant strains had started to rear their ugly heads coupled with slow and lethargic vaccination programmes in many countries, 2021 is now more or less looking like it is going to be a lot similar to 2020. Renewed social distancing measures and stay-at-home practices are going to be the norms for at least another year. While the US, UK and many EU countries are looking to slowly reopen their borders to international leisure travel, countries in Asia are firmly keeping their borders shut for now. And that is for good measure. I personally believe that rushed border re-openings when things are still bleak with respect to the pandemic can b

Indulging in travel  fantasy....... With international travel still greatly restricted, leisure travel is all but impossible. While the body cannot physically travel, surely nothing can stop the mind wandering, even to faraway places. Yes, travel fantasy is an indulgent one must not discard when one needs to stay at home to wait out the Covid pandemic. Instead of slouching on the couch and rue what could have been if there had been no pandemic, one can take the time to read, explore (within the mind, of course) and plan for the next great personal travel adventure if and when this nasty Covid pandemic is eventually over. Go on, don't be shy. Explore the world with your mind through books and other published materials. Who knows, your next opportunity to travel, explore and enjoy the world could be nearer than you think would be possible. Meanwhile, I am taking national health advice seriously and getting myself vaccinated. My small bit in the national and international fight agains

Sorting out my travel memorabilia ....... As international travel remains curtailed, I decided that it was time to take a weekend to sort out and clear up my study which now also serves as my home office while the new normal of "working from home" (a.k.a. WFH) continues into its second year. Being someone who cherishes a neat and tidy environment, I naturally have all my books, documents and other stuff neatly arranged and displayed on the shelves lining the walls of the small room which is my study. However, with WFH taking its toll on the daily-in-use home office, stuff naturally got built up after 15 months of working from home daily, 7 days a week. The result was small piles of documents, books, magazines, work materials, letters, memos, notes and online purchases stacking up first, at the corners and then the corners-of-the-corners as space around the small room quickly ran out. That was when I decided a day of area-cleaning had become necessary. As I got around sorting

Keeping track of continuous changes in travel plans ....... One year into internal border restrictions due to the pandemic and there is still none of the proverbial light at the end of the dark tunnel of cancelled and disrupted travel plans. While previously the rollout of vaccines have been touted as the silver bullet in the fight against the pandemic, the now often-touted phrase is "vaccines ain't silver bullets in the fight against the pandemic". Meanwhile, international travel remains an impossible task. Like many travellers who previously had trips booked in advance and had to rescheduled and then further rescheduled these trips or even cancelled them, I have had my own share of dealing with the logistics and administrative hurdles of doing so and seeking refunds. Thankfully, most of my trips had now been cancelled and in most cases, I have had refunds being credited back to my bank accounts. However, I still have a hotel booking in Bali which was originally booked f

"The Journey Is the Reward "  - Steve Jobs Jizo statue, Itsukushima, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan (2019)

Travel plans for 2021 ....... When the pandemic first started rearing its ugly head in the early months of 2020 and governments worldwide started to announce local lock-downs followed by restricted borders, many travellers (myself included) soon started to realise that leisure travel for the year would not be possible. The hope then was the following year that will be 2021 is the likely timeline when we could all resume travel again. But as we head into the final week of January 2021 and are soon to bid farewell to the first month of the year, it seems highly likely that leisure travel this year is also not going to be possible. The pandemic is still raging and while there are bright spots in humanity's fight against the virus, the so-called and often touted vaccination bullet is still very much in its infancy stage. While many developed countries have started to vaccinate their population, for large swathes of the world's population, vaccination and hopes of an end to the pand