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

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)

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...

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...

The to-do-list before embarking on a trip....... Fresh from a short trip in early July to nearby Phuket, I am already looking forward to my travel plans for next year. I already have one confirmed trip in the month of May next year where I will travel to Helsinki, Tallinn and London for a 10-day vacation. Only the air tickets have been booked. I will settle the rest of the bookings closer to the travel dates. But before you think that I really truly enjoy myself on my travels, think again. The hectic nature of my job meant that any vacation is never really a vacation. When on vacation, I am still expected to reply to office emails promptly which usually means within an hour or two. Replying to office emails is the easy part. The difficult part is when I have to prepare tender and contractual documents, budgetary quotations etc and the list goes on. The need to handle such tasks and to deliver the output required, usually within a single business day regardless of where I am in t...