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

I love Japanese food, especially sashimi. And dining on Japanese food in Tokyo makes the whole experience an awesome journey in culinary heavens. Japanese cuisine are well known for their freshness, colours and intricate presentation. Japanese chefs took great pride in their profession and the each dish they served come with much dedication and artwork; mastered over the years. This photo was taken using my iPhone 6 Plus when I was visiting Tokyo in Oct 2014 and dining at a sashimi restaurant in the heart of Ginza, near Hibiya Park. The colours and arrangements in this dish are simply amazing. Sashimi, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan (2014)

This has been a crazy month at work for me. After my short holiday to Siem Reap last month, I have been working non-stop, seven days a week. And to cap it all up, some reshuffling of work schedules mean that I will have to correspondingly reschedule my planned trip to Hong Kong and Taipei next month! That's kind of disappointing but life always serve up its surprises; both pleasant and unpleasant and this is one of those unpleasant surprises. Taking a short break from my work (well, I still have a life outside of work!), I decided to treat myself to some nice chocolate buffet in town yesterday night which was a Saturday. I have not been out and about in town of late, especially in the nights and I was surprised by the sights and sounds. There are the usual night scenes in Singapore which never failed to amaze me even though I was born, live and work in Singapore. Not expecting the carnival-like atmosphere and the amazing sights that I was to encounter, the only cameras I h...

Hong Kong's famous Victoria Harbour is the natural harbour sandwiched between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. When not obscured by inclement weather conditions or smog from the numerous factories in the geographically nearby Pearl River Delta area of Guangdong Province in mainland China, Victoria Harbour boasts stunning views of the Hong Kong skyline. The skyline is especially vivid in the night when viewed from Kowloon towards Hong Kong Island. Whenever I am in Hong Kong and when time, schedule and weather permit, I enjoy taking long and slow strolls in the evenings along the waterfront on the side of Kowloon. During one of these strolls, I took this picture of the nigh skyline with my iPhone. For this photograph, I chose a view of the skyline that was sandwiched between the ornamental sails of a tourist boat for a more dramatic effect.  Victoria Harbour, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China (2012)

Many of my friends know that once a year, I will travel to the Indonesian resort island of Bali for a short break to re-charge after one whole year of immersing myself in the rat race in my home country.  :-) Kicking sand on the beach, Bali, Indonesia (2011) So why do I travel to Bali so often? The reasons are many. The top 10 reasons for my frequent visits to Bali are: 1. Free Air Tickets . Yes, the air tickets for me were usually "free" except for the usual airport taxes, custom fees and airline surcharges. Throughout the year, I mostly used a single credit card with an airline tie-in. This meant that all my purchases on this credit card earned rewards points which were automatically converted into frequent flyer miles with the tied-in airline. I used my cards for everything from paying for my groceries to paying my recurrent mobile phone and home utility bills. Thus, at the end of each year, I would usually be able to earn enough frequent flyer miles to rede...

The Tonle Sap consists of the Tonle Sap River and the Tonle Sap Lake. It is located in Cambodia and is connected to the mighty Mekong River. As the season switches between the dry and wet seasons, the size of the Tonle Sap Lake varies considerably. During my trip to Siem Reap in September 2015, I took a half day boat ride along the river. The ride took me right along the river all the way to the open expanse of the lake. Here, the vastness of the Tonle Sap lake becomes evident as it stretches beyond the horizon. I snapped this picture of some of the houses along the Tonle Sap River as my boat pulled out from the jetty and headed towards the Tonle Sap Lake. The photo was taken using the panoramic mode of the camera on my iPhone 6 Plus. Houses along and on the Tonle Sap River, Siem Reap, Cambodia (2015)

September 2015 has been a busy month at work for me. Because of this, I had not been writing much. Thus, I missed my self-set quota of publishing one travel article every two weeks on this blog. Now that things have cleared up a bit at work, I hope to be blogging more regularly. In this month, I managed to find some time to travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia. The purpose of this trip is to visit the world famous archeological temple sites that are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site listing of Angkor. As a keen student of history and archaeology in my free time, I had read and researched much on Angkorean history. However, no photographs or research can match the feeling of personally standing in the midst of these magnificent temples. While what remain today of these temples are but a shadow of the grandeur of the original buildings in their heydays; standing on what was and is still considered holy temple grounds and walking the hallways of the temples that were built and crafted ...

The state of Malacca (a.k.a. Melaka) lies south of the Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur. The states of Johor and Negri Sembilan are to the south and north of Malacca respectively. By car along the North-South highway, Malacca is just a 3-hour plus drive from Singapore, depending on traffic conditions. Malacca City, viewed from a room window at the Hatten Hotel, Malacca, Malaysia (2015) Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, the city centre boasts a number of iconic tourist attractions. Besides places for sight-seeing, Malacca's rich cultural heritage also translates into an equally rich food culture.  A simple breakfast of Roti Canai (an Indian flatbread) is usually served with curry, Malacca, Malaysia (2015) Claypot Rice served in a hot claypot with rice, chicken and lots of flavourful garnishing, Malacca, Malaysia (2015) Malacca's many historical buildings and sites have been "preserved" as museums. These museums are natura...