Postcards for the weekend 79: Transportation

For the theme this weekend, I'm sharing two postcards with boats and ships from my previous trips.

Souvenir from my trip to Malta, Traveled 9,863 km

This first postcard features luzzu, traditional colorful boats with the eye of Osiris. The boats are painted bright red, yellow, and blue. Moored at the Marsaxlokk Bay, these boats provide a beautiful contrast with the blue waters making the scenery even more photogenic. I've marked this postcard with 14-19 April 2017 at the back. Those were the dates of my visit to Malta. 

Souvenir from my trip to Sweden, 9,984 km

This second postcard features the Klippan, a cultural heritage area that gave birth to the city of Gothenburg. The postcard was given the title "Skepp a hoj". If I'm not wrong, I think it means, "ship ahoy". I've marked this one with 19-30 April 2017. 

I've totally forgotten that these postcards are from the same trip I made to Europe early last year. They make me nostalgic, even more so because I don't think I'll see that part of the world this year.

It's a long weekend here in Singapore for the Easter holiday and I'm not traveling this week. So, for one of those rare moments, this post comes early :)

~maria 

Postcards for the weekend 64: Museum of Flight

Postcard sent to self, Sent 28 October 2017
Traveled 12,970 km

The Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA was probably one of the most awe-inspiring museums I've seen so far. On this postcard is shown the T.A. Wilson Great Gallery. The aircrafts that are shown here trace the history of the first century of flight. There are 20 full-size aircrafts in this gallery alone. The museum consists of three galleries and has more than 150 aircrafts on display. 

Postcard sent to self, Sent 28 October 2017
Traveled 12,970 km

This aircraft is suspended from the ceiling in the reception area of the museum. This is a Boeing B & W Model 1 seaplane. This is a replica of the first aircraft built by William E. Boeing and Conrad Westervelt in 1916.

Happy weekend everyone,

~maria

Postcards for the weekend 57: Anything you wish

Friendship Gift Postcard, Sent from North Houston, Texas
Sent 2 Dec 2013, Traveled 13,241 km in 10 days

For our theme this weekend, anything you wish, I'm sharing an anecdote, facts, and trivia about the United States of America and the states that I'm visiting during this 3-week business trip.

CA-669234, Sent from Montreal, Quebec
Sent 11 Oct 2016, Traveled 14, 644 km in 15 days

According to a report published by Instituto Cervantes, the United States of America has more Spanish speakers as compared to Spain. My first conversation after getting out of my 13 hours flight from Tokyo to Washington, DC was with a gentleman, whom I asked for directions. My un poquito Español was put to the test. Good thing some Spanish words are incorporated in my native tongue, Filipino. Evidently, one needs more than English to efficiently get by in the USA.

RU-1711183, Sent from Yekaterinburg, Russia
Sent 29 Apr 2013, Traveled 6,872 km in 37 days

My flight from Tokyo (I flew in first from Singapore to Japan) landed at Washington Dulles International Airport. I wish I budgeted a couple of days for sightseeing. I could have seen the Lincoln Memorial in the capital. 

Direct Swap, Sent from Vienna, VA
Sent 22 Nov 2016, Traveled 15,685 km

From Washington DC, I flew here to Cleveland, Ohio. This is my first main destination for my 3-week business trip here in the USA. When I came to the office yesterday, I was given a goodie bag, containing several items and a paper with a Did You Know? header. As you can imagine, it's the inspiration for my choice of postcards for this post. I learned that Ohio is the Birthplace of Aviation, as the Wright brothers were born in Dayton, Ohio.

TW-1056264, Sent from Taiwan
Sent 25 Oct 2013, Traveled 1,171 km in 13 days

On Sunday, I will fly from Cleveland to Seattle, with a connection via Chicago. The Ferris wheel was invented in Chicago in 1893.

Friendship Gift Postcard, Sent from Seattle, WA
Sent 19 June 2015, Traveled 12,970 km

The state of Washington is my second and last main destination for this trip. Washington state produces more apples than any other states. I'm pretty curious if I'll have the chance to see apple orchards while I'm there. Moreover, I also hope to see one of our blogging friends, John.

Happy weekend everyone,

~maria

Postcards for the weekend 39: Traditional street scene

Speaking of traditional street scenes, I think nothing can be more traditional than this postcard of "bayanihan". Strictly speaking, it isn't a street, but since in the province where I grew up, cleared up pathways throughout grasslands were what we considered streets for passage of people and carriages pulled by either water buffalo, horse, or cow. Since traditional Filipino houses were built on stilts during earlier days, it's quite common to see men from the community gathering and helping a house owner who wants to move the property. These men weren't paid a cent but they're served a sumptuous meal and local alcoholic beverages after the heavy task.

A horse-pulled carriage or kalesa. Nowadays, this kind of transportation is more of a touristy thing in many historical places of interest in the Philippines. This is one of the earlier forms of transportation, I reckon not just in my country but in many other countries as well.

Now onto more modern street scene, on the above postcard is our version in the Philippines of a tricycle or trishaw. This transportation is normally overloaded with passengers as there isn't a lot of tricycles to transport people from villages to the town. This overloading happens mostly during when there are festivities in the town center.

For traditional street scenes. Happy weekend everyone!

~maria

Postcards for the weekend 20: SE Asian land transpo

PH-61397, Sent to Pella, Greece
Traveled 9,664 km in 14 days

Here's a horse-drawn wooden carriage that's been widely used in the Spanish colonial era of the Philippines. The local term is calesa. I remember when I was a child, my grandparents would bring me to the church or to the town market in a calesa. Nowadays, it's mostly found at tourist attraction sites and is no longer used as a means of every day public transportation.

Sent from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Traveled 350 km, sent 12 June 2015

This is called a trishaw. Similar to the calesa, tourists are the ones seen enjoying a ride. The back of this postcard says that this is static image was taken in Malacca. I've never been there but I've seen for several times a row of trishaws carrying tourists around Chinatown (Singapore).  

Friendship gift postcard, Sent from Jakarta
Sent 23 July 2012, Traveled 2,787 km

Trishaw in Indonesia is called becak. I've never seen a trishaw for the couple of visits I've had to 2 different cities in Indonesia. I reckon that it has been widely replaced by motorbikes. As far as I know, at least in Jakarta, there's an app for motorbikes which works like an Uber/Grab where you can order a motorbike for a pick up / drop off service.

Friendship Gift Postcard, Sent from Ho Chi Minh, Vietman
Sent: 20 November 2013, Traveled 1,611 km in 6 days

I've been to Ho Chi Minh several times and I've seen few people still riding this type of tall bicycles. Although nowadays, as most of you may know, the city's streets are full of motorized bicycles. Perhaps for originality or to attract attention, some street vendors could also be seen like the man with his items for sale on the postcard below:

Sent from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Traveled 2,698 km

I hope you enjoyed these postcards from my part of Asia. I'm currently traveling for work and facilitating workshops even on Saturdays for this weekend and the next. It's been really busy on my end lately and I hope you all would forgive my delayed visits on the pages you share for our weekly linky party.

I hope you're all having a more relaxing weekend as compared with me!

Cheers,

~maria

Postcards for the weekend 19: Trains/trams

Direct Swap, Sent from Pawlowice, Poland
Sent 26 July 2012, Traveled 9,615 km

A steam railway locomotive photographed by Ilya Semenov. It's a model L-3348 from the former Soviet Union. Do you know a place where steam trains are still used for passenger service?

Souvenir postcard from Gothenburg, Sweden

I ran out of stamps for all the postcards I bought when I went to Sweden in April of 2015. This is one of a couple of postcards that remained with me. I think these are much older models of the trams I saw and used when I was there. It was my first time to ride a tram in Europe and I think I spent a good 5-10 minutes just to watch the trams passing by and stopping at the Central Station in Gothenburg.

CA-249624, Sent from Hong Kong
Sent 18 May 2012, Traveled 13,422 km in 21 days

Here's another tram that looks like an older model compared to what exists in Hong Kong nowadays. Hong Kong was my first out of the country trip back in 2009. I was amazed to see the tram as no trams exist in the Philippines (at least none that I'm aware of which are being used for public passenger service).

I wish the year is starting well for all of us!

Happy weekend,

~maria

Star Ferry from Hong Kong

Salamat po (thank you), Jocelyn for inviting me to join in your 'Our Wonderful World Tuesday' blog fest :) I'm following your lead for my first entry in participation to that -- here's a card of the Star Ferry that I got from a private swap. The card arrived last week and it's definitely making me miss Hong Kong more and more.

I was lucky to spend a one-week vacation in Hong Kong and Macau in Nov 2009. The Star Ferry rides are one of the most memorable experiences. I am scared of ship rides, no matter how short the distance. The Star Ferry rides were particularly dreadful. The water in the Victoria Harbour on which it travels is always busy; the ship tilts a lot from left to right!

But what makes me wanna repeat the experience again is I feel like I'm being part of something important in the history of navigation. A part of history that will always remain alive, and I would know that I was also a living part of it. Haha! I wish I was able to phrase it nicely that would properly convey what I wanted to mean with it. :p

According to the Star Ferry Company website, The National Geographic Traveler named the ferry crossing as one of the 50 places of a lifetime.

~maria

The Philippine Jeepney

Here's another card for a private swap that will travel to Poland tomorrow.

Jeepneys are the most affordable means of public transportation here in the metro (national capital region -- Manila). Undoubtedly, this is true for other busy places in the country. Is it because of its flamboyance? Check. Because it allows you to travel at a low cost? Check.

This is my transportation from my apartment to work. The minimum fare is PhP8.00. When I first came here in Manila back in May 2003, it used to be PhP4.00. Despite the increase, I still prefer  riding a jeepney to riding a train. It's too crowded in the train and you have to stand from the origin station all the way to your destination. I am able to sit in the jeepney, travel time though is almost doubled. Hmm, I guess I love being stuck in traffic! Haha.

I am proud of the Philippine jeepney -- a product of the Filipino ingenuity; born out of Pinoy natural resourcefulness and creativity. The first jeepneys in the archipelago were transformed leftover military trucks of the Americans after World War II. Uncle Wiki describes this as an 'obiquitous' symbol of Filipino culture.

~maria