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

Despite being a large crowded metropolis, the city of Seoul (officially the capital of South Korea) do have nice quite places where one can visit to enjoy the pleasures of quiet solitude. This was what I did when I was in Seoul in September 2011. Taking time off from shopping and dining in the busy Dongdaemun Market, I was pleasantly surprised to chance upon the Cheonggye Stream. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the nearby commercial districts, this stream was an oasis of peace and tranquility. I spent almost 3 hours doing nothing by this stream but simply relaxing and stretching my tired limbs from the hectic shopping and dinning that had been going on for the past couple of days that I had been in Seoul. And the experience was really amazing. I simply sat by the stream and people watch, accompanied by the small fishes, birds and insects that had all came to make their homes in this little green space. Despite the criticisms levied on the local authorities for the high...

The main purpose of my visit to the Seychelles in  May 2000, was for some big game fishing action. One of my fishing buddies, Kenneth, was there with me for the same reason. But the dates of our visit in the month of May, do not coincide with the big game fishing season which normally starts around September. Therefore, we learnt to our disappointment that big game fishes may not be easily targeted during our fishing trip. Still, we decided to go ahead and charter one of the specialised fishing boats. We contacted the organisers and chartered a small sports fisher for our fishing trip. The sports fisher was the Striker II. It cost us slightly more than US$400 for one full day of fishing, inclusive of lunch. The Striker II, Seychelles (2000) We set off at about 8.00am in the morning and Striker II headed for the southern coast of Mahé. Six lines were trolled out, including two on the outriggers. About 45 minutes later, we got our first catch. It was a meduim size Bon...

Stonehenge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (listed since 1986 together with Avebury Henge). On one of my trips to the United Kingdom, I took time-out on a day trip to visit this prehistoric monument. My one and only visit to this world famous site was in September 2011. Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England, UK (2011)

My first trip to the Maldives was in August 2014. Because I stayed at a local guesthouse and not in a resort, I had the opportunity to interact with the locals in the island where the guesthouse is located. My experience is that the Maldivian people are friendly and polite. Whenever I asked for permission to take photographs or videos, they mostly obliged and were happy to be in my photographs and videos. Here is a video of a local Maldivian fisherman preparing tuna for preservation. The fishes were expertly de-gutted and cut. The bones, heads and tails were discarded and the 2 sides of the fishes will eventually be laid out in the sun to be sun-dried (shown in one of the photos below). Preparing Tuna, Mahibadhoo, Maldives (2014) Tuna fishes before being de-gutted and cut, Mahibadhoo, Maldives (2014) Tuna fishes being laid out in the sun to be dried; the Maldivian way of preserving this important ingredient of local dishes, Mahibadhoo, Maldives (2014) ...

Whether we have visited the Maldives before or not, I am quite sure most of us would have read about the Maldives or at least heard of these beautiful islands in the sun before. Many travel magazines have featured beautiful white sand beaches bathe in the warm rays of the sun, complete with turquoise-colored waters and swaying coconut tress. Nestled within all these natural wonders are high-end tourists resorts; the pictures alone being enough to make most of us ordinary folks go "wow", accompanied by the automatic reflex action of jaw-drops. This gives an impression that traveling to the Maldives is an activity reserved for the rich and well-off. While I admit that traveling to the Maldives can be an expensive event, but the advent of Budget Airlines (a.k.a. Low Cost Carriers or LCC) have played a major part in driving down the costs to such an extent that it is now affordable for most working-class folks like myself to visit the Maldives. Can't afford to or don...

Note from the Author: Of all the trips I have clocked over the years, this particular trip ranked as my most favourite. It was one of the most unique and enriching trips that I had experienced. During this trip, I learnt that traveling is the discovery of oneself and not simply the physical journey to the destination - Timothy, Sep 2017 In December 1995, a planned trip to Australia with two friends, was cancelled in the last minute. Of course, there's a good reason for this but for personal reasons, I shall not discuss the details here. The good thing is, my colleagues went ahead with the trip and from their recollections upon their return, I concluded that they did enjoy themselves. 2 years later saw me planning another trip with two other friends. We opted for a short trekking holiday to Nepal and the target date was set for late March or early April of 1998. Thankfully, I was able to embark on this trip and we left for that magical country called Nepal...

Note from the  Author : Unlike my other older travel articles on my visits to cities, Mount Kinabalu has probably not changed much over the years. Thus, what I experienced on my trek up this mountain in Dec 2000, is also likely to be what anyone who is ascending the summit today will experience. - Timothy, Sep 2014 My first encounters with moutains were in Nepal in 1998 while I was trekking around the Annapurna region of the Himalayas. I also clocked my first peaks there and the highest of these peaks were at altitudes of 3600 to 3800 meters (11811 to 12467 ft). More than two years later on Christmas Eve of December 2000, I was at the foot of Mount Kinabalu in the Malaysian state of Sabah. At an altitude of some 4095.2 meters (13436 ft) above sea level, Mount Kinabalu is the higest peak between the Himalayas and Indonesia's New Guinea. Despite this, Mount Kinabalu is considered one of the most accessible peaks in the world and anybody with a reasonable level of fitness shoul...