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

Travelling smart and Packing Effectively I've just returned from an overseas working trip which involved taking two different flights and spending close to 24 hours on those flights as well as on transit. Including the outbound flights, it totalled four flights and close to 48 hours just on travelling within a single week. And because it was a work trip, there will be milestones to be achieved, meetings to be conducted, technical details to be discussed and reports to be written. Throw in the time differences between the various locations and the accompanying jet lag and the result was a very tiring trip. While I cannot control the hassles associated with long haul working trips, I can still do a lot to smoothen the process to aid in my personal comfort and recovery. And a key point to this self-help is to pack effectively. For this trip, I decided not to bring along any check-in luggage. But because I will be travelling through Europe over the peak summer period, I also...

The legendary Tanuki is a mythical Japanese Racoon Dog who supposedly possessed special traits which bring good luck. In Japan, many businesses and residences have a Tanuki  statue displayed at their entrances.  The 8 traits of the Tanuki are typically represented by a hat (for protection against trouble), big eyes (for situation awareness and to be able to see better which is necessary for good judgements), a sake bottle (representing virtue), a large tail (signifying steadiness, strength and resilience), a large scrotum (to ensure financial success or luck), a promissory note (representing trust), a large belly (which symbolises decisiveness) and a smile (for friendliness). During my many visits to Japan and even to Japanese restaurants outside of Japan, I often came across statues of the Tanuki . These statues were usually made from ceramic materials as pottery ware (also known as Shigaraki ware). One  Tanuki statue I saw in Hida-Takayama particularly ...

Originally part of the defensive walls of the city of Tallinn and built around the 14th century, the Viru Gate is marked by two towers. Today, the twin towers of Viru Gate stand proudly at the entrance to Viru Street. These iconic and beautiful landmarks of Tallinn are often used by first time visitors of the city to identify the location of Old Town, myself included. The towers are probably also one of the most photographed features of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Old Town (a.k.a. Historic Centre) of Tallinn. Here are a couple of pictures of Viru Gate taken using my iPhone 7 Plus during my visit to Tallinn in May 2017.  Viru Gate, Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia (2017) The Author in front of Viru Gate, Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia (2017)

Finnair currently deploys the Airbus A350-900 for its daily service between Helsinki and Singapore. The plane is configured with 46 Business Class seats in a 1-2-1 l layout, 43 Economy Comfort seats (a.k.a. Premium Economy) and 208 Economy Class seats. Both the Economy Comfort and Economy Class seats are set in a 3-3-3 layout. I flew Finnair from Singapore to Helsinki in May 2017, trying out its J-Class (a.k.a. Business Class) for the first time. Incidentally, that was also the first time I flew with Finnair. I will be following up with a review of my experience onboard Finnair's J-Class on the A350 plane. But before I get around to writing that review, here's a picture of the Finnair A350-900 at the boarding gate at Singapore's Changi International Airport. This was the exact same plane that took me from Singapore to the Finnish capital of Helsinki. Finnair A350-900, Boarding Gate at Terminal 1, Changi International Airport, Singapore (2017)

Recovering from a trip. Is there such a thing? Of course there is! For one, if you travel between continents, there is always the issue of jet lag to take care of when you are finally back home. And if jet lag is not a problem for you, there will always be chores to do. These usually include household chores that piled up while you were away enjoying yourself on that sun-kissed beach or skiing on the slopes of that snow-capped peak. Besides the domestic chores, there will also be office work to chase when you get back to office after those days away posting your beautiful vacation pictures on social media to share with family and friends. Little Venice, Paddington, London, UK (2017) So while a holiday can be an invigorating experience and fun, there are the before and after of the trip to consider. I have wrote about the "before" in a previous blog post on my Travel Bit series (click the link here to read more  The to-do-list before embarking on a trip....... )...

Very often, cities come to be defined by just one iconic feature. This definition usually developed so symbolically that whenever anyone from anywhere in the world see that iconic feature, they will immediately think of the city to which this feature is associated. The icon can be anything from a natural feature to the cityscape itself. But more often than not, such icons are architectural buildings that tell the historical, cultural or religious background of the city. In Helsinki, one such iconic architectural feature is the Helsinki Cathedral. Located in the neighbourhood of Kruununhaka in the centre of the city, this is a Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral. The Cathedral's iconic green dome, flanked by four smaller domes, towers over the the city. It is today one of the must-see sights for tourists visiting Helsinki. Built in the mid-19th century, this distinctive landmark has come to be closely associated with Helsinki and is regularly featured in postcards and articl...

Flowers have always been one of the subjects I love to photograph. Over the years, I have taken lots of photographs of flowers everywhere I go. I simply love the colours, vibrance and details that flowers present as a photography subject. And this is especially true when photographs of flowers are taken close-up (i.e. in macro mode).  Here, I took a photograph of a flower growing along the street just outside the Novotel Paddington located in Paddington Central. I was visiting London on vacation in May 2017 and there were many flowers, both beautiful and colourful, growing along the street just outside the hotel. I don't know the name of this flower but its bright purple colours caught my eyes and I snapped this photograph using my iPhone 7 Plus using its depth effect mode. Flower, Paddington Central, London, England, UK (2017)