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

The setting sun in the back drop of the sea that extends into the horizon typically evokes a sense of vastness to me. It makes me realise how small I am in the vast expanse of the sea and the world. Since young, I had often stood on a beach or a jetty and stared right out into the horizon as the sun set, contemplating what life was, is and will be like out there. This photograph was taken at Cottesloe Beach in the western suburb of Perth as the sun sets over the sea. The ship in the distance provided perspective to the overall picture. Setting sun over the sea, Cottesloe Beach, Perth, West Australia, Australia (2018)

“Better to see something once than hear about it a thousand times” Sculpture at a Temple, Gangnam-gu, Seoul,  South  Korea (2011)

Mixing up the travel bookings....... I must admit that there are times when I got my travel bookings all mixed up. Thankfully, most of these mixups occur on relatively minor details like the number of days of a hotel stay. In my most recent trip to Hong Kong just last week, I had booked myself with the wrong hotel, having made the booking just a couple of days before my trip. Perhaps feeling over-confident in myself, I had happily typed the hotel name into my web browser, clicked on the weblink that I believed would direct me to the hotel's booking website, chose the best value accommodation for my period of stay, keyed in my credit card details and double-clicked on that "confirm" button, all without actually checking a second time. It was only when I printed a soft copy of the hotel's email confirmation of my booking that I realised that the said hotel which I had just booked and paid for, is not the one I had wanted to stay in! And to make matters worse, i

Buildings and their architecture typically tell us much about the history and culture of their cities. In London, I love the many different styles of building architectures that derived from the rich and varied history of the capital city of the United Kingdom. Taking photographs of these beautiful structures as digital mementos of my visits has always been a favourite activity whenever I visited London. During one of my recent visits, I passed by the iconic Harrods Building at Brompton Road. Instead of taking the usual full-frontal photograph of this beautiful building, I decided to add a slightly different  perspective to my photograph and tilted the angle of my shot slightly. The result is a different view of the building and one which I like a lot more compared to the usual front-and-centre composition. Harrods Building, Knightsbridge, London, England, UK (2017)

Having mobile phones with good cameras provide us with the opportunity to take interesting photographs whether we are at home, at work or traveling. The convenience that comes with taking photographs with our mobile phones means we are unlikely to miss out on those good photo opportunities wherever we are. While strolling along the beach on a nice afternoon at Fremantle, I came across this group of children playing and enjoying themselves during a day out in the sun. With my mobile phone, I zoomed in and took this photograph. The innocence of childhood captured in the photo brought back memories of my own childhood and set me on an introspective mood. Children playing at the beach, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia (2018)

2018 Travel Review....... In 2018, I did not travel as much as I wanted due to work commitments. Compared to the preceding year of 2017, I traveled a lot less. Nevertheless, I still managed to clock some amazing personal trips and got to visit many places for the first time. These included the cities of Moriyama, Omnihachiman and Takashima in Japan's Shiga Prefecture and also Perth and its surrounding areas in Western Australia. I also got to visit Indonesia's beautiful island of Bali for the first time in 2 years as well as my favourite and usual destination cities of Hong Kong and Taipei. And all these trips within a year in which I was supposedly "grounded" in my home city because of work!  Fireworks over the harbour to celebrate Western Australia Day on the night of 3 June 2018, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia (2018) My travel in Shiga in April 2018 was amongst one of the best trips I had ever taken. The itinerary was intentionally p

The port city of Kobe is one of the largest cities in Japan and has a population of about 1.5 million. It is also the capital of Hyogo Prefecture. Personally, I feel that Kobe is most beautiful and romantic in the night as the city lights up in a kaleidoscope of colours. I took this photograph on my mobile phone in April 2018 and it has remained one of my favourite photos of Kobe, reminding me of the magic and beauty of this city. The photo shows a view of the Meriken Park which is located in the port area. The Kobe Tower in red-orange colour is in the centre while the Kobe Maritime Museum is the curvy structure lighted in green colour to the right. This beautiful night view can be enjoyed from the shopping and entertainment hub of Kobe Harborland which is within walking distance from the JR Kobe Station. View of the Meriken Park, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan (2018)