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

Korea, Busan, Train Journey from Seoul Inspired by the first full-length Korean movie I ever watched; Train to Busan, I was excited to take the real train journey from the South Korean capital city of Seoul to Busan. While my short train ride of just under 3 hours was rather mundane compared to the adventures of the characters in the title movie, this was nevertheless still an exciting experience for me because that was the first time I ever took a train in South Korea. The trip was in November 2019. ****************** The Korean movie, Train to Busan , largely served as the inspiration for my decision to fly to Seoul instead of Busan even though the main destination of my vacation trip was Busan. I chose to experience a train journey from Seoul to Busan and to enjoy the scenery of South Korea as part of my rail trip because the rail line passes through other major South Korean cities such as Suwon, Daejon, Daegu and Ulsan. High Speed Train a...

Travel within the City.......  As my overseas travel plans continue to be crimped by a confluence of factors including costs, hassles of overcoming COVID-related border measures and restrictions, schedule and procrastinations, I have instead been out and about locally more often. I have visited local places I had never visited before and also local places I last visited many years ago. I have also travelled from one end of my city to the other end simply to eat that local dish I last dined on years ago. Yes, travelling local and enjoying local delights have become some kind of travel therapy for me. And I must say I do enjoy my recent forays into different parts of my city, discovering and also re-discovering places that are as interesting as those I may chance upon while travelling overseas. While almost all my friends are posting beautiful photographs of themselves vacationing overseas, here I am, enjoying my own bus journeys around my city. Not that I am complaining though. I do...

At heights of up to 50 metres above ground, these aptly named Supertress are iconic features of Singapore's famous and well-loved Gardens by the Bay. While already impressive during daytime by their sheer height and imposing presence at the so-called Supertree Grove, it is at night when these Supertrees truly come alive. Along with the arrival of dusk, the large canopies of the Supertrees light up in an amazing kaleidoscope of colours, gently shifting from one colour to the next, like gentle breezes in the tropical night. Skytrees, Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay, Singapore (2021) Despite these Supertress being man-made, all 18 of them are actually filled with living plants. Through clever design and creative architecting, vertical panelings provide anchors for various flora to be planted on the Supertrees whilst at the same time, providing the right environmental conditions for them to flourish. Widely considered one of the must-see sights of Singapore, visitors and locals alike wi...

  "Travel Opens Up Our Minds, And Expand Our Horizons." -  Anonymous Cruise Ship, Hope Bay, Antarctica (2016)

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)

Staying in and not traveling an inch out of my home city for 27 months and counting, I have been indulging myself in "virtual traveling" through television shows and cable streaming programmes. Watching Korean travel and variety shows constantly over the past two-plus years has taught me much about Korean culture and food. Of course, I love Korean food, especially the spicy variety topped with lot and lots of chilli and kimchi. When I resume my leisure travels, I will definitely be visiting Korea again. I am already eyeing repeat visits to my favourite Korean city of Busan. And when I do return to Busan, kimchi will definitely be on my dining menu, for all 3 meals each day, every day of my trip! Kimchi at a local morning market, Gwangan-dong, Suyeong District, Busan, South Korea (2019)

So, here I am. On a Saturday afternoon and still sitting in my work chair at my home office working away on my laptop, having just downloaded a bunch of work emails from my clients with lots of pending-to-do stuff requests. With borders thrown open, albeit with some rules and the usual terms and conditions attached, why am I not travelling the world but still stuck in my little man-cave working away? The simple answers are rules (and more rules) and budget. Let's first get to the "rules" part. Many moons ago, I had mentioned in more than just a few posts on this blog about travelling to a neighbouring country now that travel rules are more or less more relaxed for leisure travel. Well, rules have certainly been a lot more relaxed than say, a couple of months back. But still, there are red tapes to cross and bureaucracy to navigate. Ever sine the dawn of the Covid era in March 2020, almost every country and territories in the world have their own version of a mobile app me...