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

After more than 5 years, I visited Phuket again in October 2022. While this trip was a short few hours because I was visiting this beautiful island as part of my cruise ship's sailing itinerary, it was nonetheless nice to be back in Phuket. More than 2 years of border restrictions due to the COVID pandemic, things seem to be returning pretty much to normal in Phuket. Eateries are open for business again, although many do remain shut, tourists numbers are rising again and the locals seem a lot happier to be able to again welcome visitors to lovely Phuket. In my few short hours on shore, we kept to the Patong beach area to dine on our favourite Thai food including Mango Sticky Rice, chill at a beachfront cafe, went for a nice foot reflexology session and just walked along the beach to enjoy the view, the sun and the Phuket vibes. I promised myself I will be back to Phuket soon, for a vacation. See you again Phuket! 😀 A tourist doing the touristy adventures, Phuket, Thailand (2022) A...

Japan, Tokyo, Nakano The original article was first published in this blog in July 2021.  I have always been happy to visit small towns when travelling. Unguided with maps or GPS , I enjoy simply walking around with no fixed plans, exploring and taking in the experiences and chance encounters that come my way.  While in Tokyo in 2017, I decided to take a side trip to Nakano, a ward of Tokyo which is just a 10-minute train ride from crowded and busy Shinjuku. I discovered a gem of a town, one filled with cherry blossoms trees in full bloom (my trip was in early-April), tranquility and most of all, the charms that come with travelling without any pre-planned itinerary. Instead of a lengthy article struggling for words to fully describe my side trip to Nakano, I decided that a short video is a more appropriate medium to share my experience of the magic of Nakano. ****************** I visited Nakano as a side trip while in Tokyo in the sprin...

  " Travel is a state of mind , I travel far and wide, both in person and in mind. " - Timothy Tan, tankstraveltales An anime-rendition from an actual photo of myself taken at a small cafe called Island Cafe Myu (アイランドカフェ ミュウ), Kamitsushimamachi Hitakatsu, Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan (2019)

A recent trend on social media is to have one's selfies being digitally transformed into anime renditions of oneself. For those who are not familiar with the term anime, it is basically animations of hand or digitally drawn stylised characters that originated from Japan. Because I am currently unable to travel due to heavy work commitments, I decided to "travel" digitally into the world of anime using selfies of myself taken during my travels.  Travel is after all not just physical journeys but also journeys of the creative mind! Here are some of my photos, transformed into anime character(s) of myself. Digitally generated characters of what I would possibly look like if I live in an anime world! 😂 The original photo from which this digitally generated picture of Anime Timothy was taken in Busan, South Korea (2019)  A semi-accurate rendition of myself in anime-style. The original photograph was that of myself taken in the balcony of a cruise ship somewhere along the Stra...

Holiday accommodations with personal spaces to relax in.......  Living in an apartment in a city, I am literally walled in. Yes, there are small pockets of greeneries within walking distance of my apartment, but I always believe it is good to live in a place with its own patch of open space, no matter how small. Where a small garden is not possible, at least a balcony where I can sit and enjoy the fresh air with a cup of coffee after a long day at the office. While I can't change much of my permanent living environment due to the high cost of real estate where I live, at least I have the luxury to choose my holiday accommodations when it comes to those few days of vacation escapades. When I travel, I thus tend to choose accommodations where the rooms come with a balcony accompanied by nice views or those rooms with a patio overlooking lush greeneries. When I am not out and about sight-seeing or shopping, a cup of coffee, some snacks and a good book will always accompany me on a nic...

Israel, Caesarea The original article was first published in this blog in 2016.  Caesarea was an ancient port and administrative city on the Mediterranean coast of Israel.  Located between the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, this ancient city sits within the Caesarea National Park. If you like history and are visiting Israel or the surrounding regions, I highly recommend a side trip to Caesarea.  For me, my visits to Caesarea were the fulfilment of a personal bucket list item.  ****************** Caesarea is a small town in central Israel. It is located along Israel's Mediterranean coastline and is situated 45km north of Tel Aviv and a similar distance south of the northern Israeli port city of Haifa. Caesarea was built sometime between 25 to 13 BC by Herod the Great (a.k.a. Herod I). In the Bible, Herod I was described as the ruler who ordered the "Massacre of the Innocents" based on a prophecy at the time of the birth of Jesus.  Walking amongst...

Travel Plans for 2023 .......  With the completion of a cruise trip on 31 October, I wrapped up my leisure travels for 2022. Following the pandemic-induced stay-within-home-city period which for me stretched from February 2020 to April 2022, I had the luxury to go on six trips in 2022. A trip to Ipoh and Cameron Highlands in mid-May was followed quickly by an escapade to  Siem Reap in the last week of that same month. My first ever cruise experience happened in July when I sailed with Royal Caribbean onboard its Spectrum of the Seas ship from Singapore to Penang and back to Singapore on a 3-night trip. In August, I visited Kuala Lumpur, the city I visited in January 2020 just before the worldwide pandemic struck.  A repeatedly postponed trip to Bali, no thanks to the pandemic, finally happened in the first week of October. In the last week of that month, I went on my second cruise trip. Again on Spectrum of the Seas, I sailed from Singapore to Port Klang, Penang...