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

Mount Stanserhorn is located in Switzerland's canton of Nidwalden, near to Obwalden. The highest point of Stanserhorn is recorded as 1,898 metres above sea level, or the equivalent of about 6,227 ft. At the peak of the mountain is a restaurant, a souvenir shop and an observation deck. Most packaged group tours which bring tourist to the city of Lucerne usually include a side trip to the peak of Mount Stanserhorn.  Getting to the top of Stanserhorn is relatively convenient due to the availability of a cable car service. At the peak, one can look out into the vast mountainous landscape of the surrounding areas. From here, the mighty Swiss Alps is truly a sight to behold. View from the top, Mount Stanserhorn, Nidwalden, Switzerland (2009)

Safeguarding important personal belongings when travelling....... Over dinner with friends during the weekend, one of them related to us about an incident in his recent  trip to Europe. He was on a group tour and one of the travellers in the group had lost her passport as well as all her cash and credit cards. She was the victim of a pickpocket. Apparently, the act occured while the group was in a small crowded lane while moving from one point in the city to another. The pickpocket (or pickpockets) must have had made use of the confusion and the crowd to carry out the theft. The aftermath of that incident effectively ruined the victim's trip. She was left without her important travel document which also happened to be her only form of identification in a foreign land. And she was also left penniless as all her cash and credit cards had been stolen. Thankfully for the lady, my friend loaned her cash and assisted her to contact the nearest diplomatic representation of her

In one of my previous blog articles, I posted a picture of a "Peeping Cupid" in Ginza, Tokyo. On my recent trip to Taipei, I chanced upon a similar statue of a "Peeping Cupid"! While I am not sure if there are similar statues in other cities, it is now two chance encounters with statues of a "Peeping Cupid" in two different cities in Asia. :-) Peeping Cupid, Taipei, Taiwan (2018) This is my previous blog post of the Peeping Cupid in Tokyo.

Despite being a fairly frequent visitor to Ipoh, capital city of Malaysia's Perak state, I find myself constantly discovering new and interesting stuff about the city on each new visit.  In my most recent visit in November 2017, I was driving around with friends in the Ipoh Padang area looking for a nice cafe to relax, chill and catch some virtual Pokemon on my mobile Pokemon GO game when we chanced upon a clock tower with distinctly European-style carvings and decorations. Birch Memorial Memorial Clock Tower, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia (2017) I searched the internet for more information on this unique clock tower and learned that it is known as the Birch Memorial Clock Tower . Constructed in the early 20th century, it was first unveiled in the year 1909 in honour of J.W.W. Birch, a British Officer. Look closely and you will find a bronze bust of Birch in the north-facing facade. Perched on top of the tower is a bell measuring approximately 6-ft and 6-inches in diameter.

I am sure most of us have been on many trips to different places all over the world. And we all have our own favourite and most memorable trips. These are the trips that never fail to bring a smile to our faces when we look back at those travel photographs, read about the same places on travel blogs and articles or sharing them with family and friends. What are your most memorable trips to date? Among my most memorable trips is my first and only visit to the Maldives. There are many things I did not get to enjoy or experience during that trip. I did not get to swim with Manta Rays, I did not get to see a Whale Shark in the sea, I did not get to stay in a luxurious 5-star beach resort and I certainly did not get to dive and swim with the fishes. But I did get to experience living and interacting with the locals, eating locally cooked food, walking along the pitch dark beach at night with only the moon and stars illuminating my path, welcoming local fishermen back from a nig

Low Cost Carrier....... With Low Cost Carriers (LCC) sprouting like mushrooms after a heavy tropical downpour, many are jumping on the air travel bandwagon. In a way, this is a good thing for those travellers who otherwise may not be able to afford to travel to far flung destinations due to the previously relatively prohibitive costs of air travel. A Scoot A320 plane on the tarmac of the Sultan Azlan Shah Airport, Ipoh, Malaysia (2017) But for those where cost is not such a big deterrent, is LCC the way to travel? As the name suggests, LCC basically means no-frills air travel. And because most LCCs operate on very tight schedule amidst other business-related constraints, this usually means that if there is a technical issue either with equipment (i.e airplanes) or operations such flight delays due to inclement weather, staff shift planning and other related issues, there will be downstream impact on the traveller such as prolonged delays at airports or even last-minute c

I have been fortunate to be able tio visit many UNESCO World Heritage sites in person. One of these is the Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn.  Town square of the Historic Centre, Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia (2017) Visiting sites inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List allow travellers like myself to experience and appreciate the natural, cultural and historical wonders that had and still grace the world we live in. However, the one and only time I had come across an actual plaque describing a site's inscription in the World Heritage List was when I was visiting the Old Town of Tallinn. Nothing beats seeing the real thing in person! Plaque in the Historic Centre describing the site's inscription in the World Heritage List, Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia (2017) The historical medieval building where the Plaque is displayed, Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia (2017)