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

January heralds the beginning of a new year. A new year of work, a new year of commitments and of course a new year of travel! My travel programmes for this year should hopefully be a bit more interesting than that of last year although I already had to modify the travel period for my first trip of the year. I had originally planned to drive from Singapore to Ipoh (Perak, Malaysia) in the early part of February to spend the long weekend that comes with the public holidays for Chinese New Year (a.k.a. Lunar New Year). However, as my regular pet-sitter is already fully booked for this period, I have to instead travel after the Chinese New Year period. What a bummer but the trip is still on. :-) Ipoh, State Capital of Perak, Malaysia (2015) The crystal clear waters in the streams of Ulu Chepor, Perak, Malaysia (2015) My next trip should be a longer one sometime in mid-April 2016. I am planning a trip to Japan. Its been 18 months since I last visited Japan and I wanted...

I usually have the habit of reaching the airports ahead of my check-in time. This allows me ample time to have my air tickets issued, check-in my luggages, clear security checks and attend to all the other administrative requirements without having to be in a rush. I hate being rushed, especially when I am on vacations. Thus, as long as I can control the time, I will make sure I will not place myself in situations where I need to rush myself or be rushed! Another reason I reach airports early is because being early allows me lots of time to view the planes on the tarmac as well as planes taking off and landing. On my recent trip to Taipei, I saw this  Eva Air A330-300 plane with Hello Kitty livery at one of the Departure Gates and took this photo using my iPhone 6 Plus. Eva Air A330-300 with the unique "Hello Kitty Loves Apples" livery, Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei, Taiwan (2015) See also other  Airplane Pictures  in this travel blog

I flew 'J' Class on from Hong Kong (HKG) to Taipei (TPE) on EVA Air (BR) during my recent vacation. This was my first time flying on EVA Air. As this was a vacation, I had wanted to take things a bit slower and also to travel in a bit more luxurious style to reward myself for working non-stop, including weekends, for the past 5 months. Thus, I decided to fly via Business Class in the late morning which I supposed is a relatively off-peak period for flight reservations, especially on a weekday. Thus, I was booked and flew to Taipei's Taoyuan International Airport via EVA Air's Flight BR852. The Flight BR852 that I was on, uses an A330-200 to serve the relatively short route from Hong Kong to Taipei. Total fight time was 1 hour and 45 minutes (official estimates) although based on my watch, we actually touched down in Taipei in less than 90 minutes after leaving Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok Airport. As this was a short flight, I did not get the chance to real...

Finally I managed to put aside some of my work and travelled to Hong Kong and Taipei for a short year-end trip. Because this was suppose to be a trip to allow me to wind down and relax a bit, I did not plan my itineraries to be hectic, Instead, my 2-day stay in Hong Kong and 5-day stay in Taipei were really free-and-easy as in I take in whatever sights, sounds and food that come my way. Armed with the cameras in my iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6s Plus as well as my Canon EOS-70D DSLR, I took lots of photographs of the places I visited during my combined 7-day trip as well as the food I enjoyed during the trip. And because December is the month when we celebrate Christmas and the Year-End festivities, many shops were cashing in on the festivities with beautiful window displays that simply screamed "come and buy"! Here is an awesome shop window display which perfectly captures the mood of Christmas yet is blended with subtle advertising of the products that the shop ca...

Due to an extremely heavy work schedule, I missed posting an article on my monthly Travel Bits series for the month of November 2015. However, the series continues with this post for December 2015. As I write this article, I am also busily trying to clear as much of my work as possible before I embark on a one week vacation  to Hong Kong and Taipei (my first ever trip to Taiwan) next week. For my upcoming trip, I will be flying from Singapore to Hong Kong on Singapore Airline's (SQ) famed Business Class! I only paid for the fuel surcharges and taxes because my return air tickets from on SQ are redemption tickets using my fast expiring Krisflyer miles. For my return flight from Hong Kong to Taipei, I will be flying via EVA Air's (BR) Business Class. This will be my first time flying with EVA Air. As usual, I will be writing about my onboard experience after my trip. December is usually the month when many of us try to squeeze in some vacation time after a long year of w...

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...