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

Switzerland, Interlaken, Valley of the Mountains This article was originally published in this blog in December 2018. This article captured my experience on what was my first visit to Switzerland and Interlaken in 2009. In this re-post, I had added more photographs taken during my trip. Most of these newly-added photographs had not been previously published in this blog or anywhere else. Excerpt from this blog post: "Staying in a valley amongst the mountains, even for only a few days, encapsulated visions that I had from my childhood years, to be able to live in the mountains and enjoy the beauty of nature. Goats, sheep, farms, wild berries, long hikes and rivers that run through valleys. In just a short few days at Interlaken, I experienced and truly enjoyed all these natural wonders and more. A personal bucket list item fulfilled." ****************** Located in a valley in central Switzerland, Interlaken its well-known as a resort town famous for its proximity to Jungfrau. 

Travel takes flight......  After close to two and a half years literally marooned in my home city, I finally started to travel again.  In the space of three weeks, I had travelled to Malaysia and Cambodia. My trip to Cambodia's Siem Reap was my first flight in 30 long months.  My trip to Malaysia was an enjoyable one, connecting with relatives and friends. We drove north, crossing the land border between Singapore and Malaysia's southern state of Johor before continuing northwards passed the other Malaysian states of Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, and Selangor and finally reaching the state of Perak and the city of Ipoh. A total driving distance of about 550 km. During my short one-week stay in Ipoh, I visited most of my favourite eating places, indulging myself and enjoying the culinary delights of Ipoh. Together with relatives and friends, we did a short 2-day, 1-night stay in Cameron Highlands, located on the border of the states of Perak and Pahang. At an elevation of between 800

    "To travel is to be curious ." -  Timothy Tan, author of this blog Artfully and beautifully-designed shopfront, Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan (2019) 

Having lived marooned in my city for the past 30 months, I had in the last three weeks completed two overseas trips; the first was a driving trip from Singapore to Ipoh and Cameron Highlands in Malaysia and the second was a flight to Cambodia's Siem Reap. With no trips scheduled in the month of June, I was planning on catching up on work, writings and readings while waiting for my upcoming first ever cruise experience. I had booked the 4-day, 3-night cruise to nowhere in the last week of April; intending to savour the experience of cruise life for the first time since I have never been on a cruise before. Even though it was a cruise to nowhere where the cruise embark and disembark at the same port in Singapore without stopovers in any other ports, I reckoned back then that it was something worth paying for because one never knows when some nasty pandemic surprises may rear their ugly heads again to put all travels back to a standstill. This morning, I woke up to emails in my inbox

And so I just returned home yesterday from a trip to Siem Reap. This trip was my first flight in 30 months and second overseas trip in just as many months. The 30-month travel hiatus was because of international border restrictions that began in March 2020 because of the COVID pandemic. During the trip, I visited Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. This being my second visit to Siem Reap, I limited my archeological sites' visits to just these 2 places, spending more time to study and appreciate the splendour of both sites. In-between, I also had time during the trip to walk around the city of Siem Reap to explore the many back lanes during which I discovered many beautiful and quaint cafes where delicious food and aromatic coffees were served by friendly staff. Indulging in my serendipitous walking tours without maps and fixed plans allowed me to enjoy whatever that came by way. Photo collage of my trip, Siem Reap, Cambodia (2022) Photo collage of one of my cafe stops, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Israel, Capernaum, Historical Synagogue This article was originally published in this blog in November 2018. I love visiting historical places during my travels. For many of these places, what usually remain today are a fraction of the original buildings, structures and artefacts during their heydays. However  the remnants of these once-awesome sites remain hugely attractive to the inquisitive minds of visitors. They tell stories of bygone eras which collectively form the history of all of us. For me, each visit to a historical site is itself a study of history, culture and geography; not in the scholarly sense but one embedded in curiosity and personal interests. My visit to Capernaum and its historical synagogue is one such trip. Author's note (18 June 2022): It had come to my attention that I had previously re-posted this article for my Bucket List series. Nevertheless, I still believe this is a trip that is worth a second re-publish in the same series. 😀 ****************** Tra

First overseas trip in 29 months......  Yesterday, I returned home from my first overseas trip in 29 months. My last trip was in January 2019 before international border closures and restrictions commenced due to the COVID pandemic. Truth be told, the pandemic is still with us. Unlike the SARS-outbreak of 2003, there are still thousands of infections recorded worldwide every day; probably even tens of thousands. But a combination of vaccinations and previous infections coupled with the relatively milder current dominant Omicron strain of the virus meant that national authorities have been carefully peeling back on travel restrictions and re-opening their borders.  While this most recent trip of mine was certainly no bucket listed travel item, it was still an overseas trip. I left for a weeklong trip to Malaysia, driving up north to Ipoh to meet with relatives and friends before driving a little further north to Cameron Highlands. I had previously visited both places numerous times. But