Sunday Stamps: Flying

This miniature sheet is from a postcard that I sent to myself from my first business trip back in 2015. 

This special edition was issued back in 1998. According to wikipedia, this Air Traffic Control (ATC) Tower was the tallest in the world when it was built. It monitors two runways for Kuala Lumpur International Airport (main and also referred as KLIA1) and KLIA2 (domestic). Currently this tower is only 3rd highest in the world. It has been overtaken by another tower monitoring a 3rd runway for KLIA2 and that in Suvarnabhumi International Airport - Bangkok.

Fly around the world today through Sunday Stamps @ See it on a postcard.

~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

Stamps: Post & Philately

Counterclockwise:

Poland Europa 2013, features the Postman Van used by the Polish Post

Malaysia 2012, a stamp for the World Post Day showing the uniform of postmen from the 1950s

Brasil, 2009, an express national delivery postman on a motorcycle

I love that I'm able to extract these three stamps showing transportation means of postal delivery from different countries.

Finland 2013, playful and colorful "I ♥ Postcrossing" stamp. 

Postcrossing has been a highly successful project, boosting the hobby of deltiologists. It's honestly what got me into collecting postcards.

Today is World Post Day. This event is celebrated annually to commemorate the creation of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1874. The theme this year is Innovation, Integration, and Inclusion. To read more about the celebration this year, please click here. For more postal related stamps this Sunday, please check out the participants for Sunday Stamps, here.

For my readers who are part of the postal service, thank you so much for your contribution in taking care of our mails, parcels, packets, and packages!

~maria

P is for Petronas Tower, Malaysia

Being in elevation of around 40,000 ft for the past 10 hours or so, it's but most appropriate for me to share this postcard today.

Sent: 13 March 2015 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Received: 25 March 2015, Traveled 350 km in 12 days

For letter "P" --

Petronas Tower is the tallest twin towers in the world. It stands at around 1,400 ft. I was definitely in awe and felt super small when I saw it in Kuala Lumpur early last month (March). I was only able to view it from the ground, feeling like a worm. I didn't go up cause there's a fee and I was stingy. 

What are the tall skyscapers that you've visited before? We're you able to experience going up that tall building?

~maria

M is for Mount Kinabalu & Melaka, Malaysia

Direct Swap, Sender: Agatha
Sent: 18 Oct 2012, from Sandakan, Malaysia
Received 2 Nov 2012, Traveled 1023 km in 14 days

M is for Mount Kinabalu and Melaka, Malaysia! Wow! That's a lot of M. I am in for another demanding week but I make time to continue with the A to Z April challenge. It's motivating for me to post for letter 'M' cause I got more than 1 postcard to share for this letter. Also because I have this as initial, with my first name, Maria.

Curiosity prompted you for sure why another demanding week. For new readers and visitors here in my page, let me fill you in some of the details.It is just 3 months now since I relocated into this new city for a new job. I am learning many things and sometimes I go crazy because it is a 180° change in almost everything for me. The good thing is that it makes me step out of my comfort zone and I can now enjoy 2 days off every week. Yeeyyy!!

I feel it as a luxury now to have a 2-day weekend because in my previous job I had to work 6 full days plus more each week! So having Saturday off really makes me feel wonderful, giving me more time to live a balanced life; allowing me to recharge during weekends.

To my greater delight, the 5-day work week comes with better renumeration! I can now plan vacations! Working hard comes with a promise of a nice vacation trip later on. Malaysia is among the most probable destinations as it is close by. There's also many budget flights so it's not painful for the pocket. I love going for hikes and visiting old towns so Mount Kinabalu Park on the postcard above and Melaka on the postcard below are perfect places for me to plan for a trip. Both are UNESCO WHS, inscribed in year 2000 and 2008 respectively.

MY-91561, Sender: Jiayi
Sent: 18 Feb 2012 from Pusai Mel Nasional, Malaysia
Received: 22 Mar 2012, Traveled 2,468 km in 33 days

The views on these cards should be more than enough motivation for me to resume with work now. I hope the week is on a productive start for everyone! :)

~maria

Oriental Birds

Arriving back in Manila today, I'm greeted with two postcards on top of my study table. At the back of one card are really bright and beautiful stamps:

Issued by SingPost, the green stamp is from the "Pond Life" definitive collection, issued in 13 April 2011. It features the most common and beautiful specie of damselfly -- Ceriagrion cerinorubellum, commonly known as ornate coraltail. Another stamp from this set, can be found here.

The red stamp is from the "Flora and Fauna" set issued 6 June 2007. For the Aethopyga siparaja, the males have the bright crimson belly and greenish black tail. The females are olive green with hints of pale yellow. To read more about other commemorative stamps from this series, click here.

Drawing inspiration from these two stamps, I found similar ones to share for Sunday Stamps. It's perfect 'cause the theme this week is 'anything you wish'.

Issued in 2005 by Pos Malaysia, the stamp shows tekukur or the spotted dove, Streptopilia chinensis. The Malay name was derived from its soft te-croo-croo call. More information about this bird can be found here.

These 4 stamps are from a PhilPost special issue on 7 March 2008. I have the entire souvenir sheet and very happy to have it. It was for the Philippine participation at the 2008 Taipei 21st Asian International Stamp Exhibition. The first stamp (upper left) is the Philippine Eagle or Pithecophaga jefferyi -- our national bird. To read about these stamps and other stamps from the issue, click here.

These 2 stamps are from the bird definitive stamps issued by the HongKong Post on 31 December 2006. I have here the Greater Painted-Snipe or Rostratula benghalensis and the Red-whiskered Bulbul or Pycnonotus jocosus. The souvenir sheet features 12 birds (including these 2), and there were 4 high-value stamps, that can be found here. The complete set can be found here.

I'm happy to come up with many related stamps to the Singaporean stamps. Also, it's nice to know that despite most places are highly urbanized, there are still tangible efforts to raise awareness for the protection of our ecosystem, like printing beautiful birds on stamps. I think my challenge is to check out whether I have bird stamps from the west in my collection...Well, we'll see to that, until the next 'anything you wish' theme for Sunday Stamps.

~maria

Flowers of the earth

We're having an odd summer here in the Philippines. It has been raining at days when the sun is supposed to be showcasing its boldest grandeur...and ok, I stumbled upon this English proverb:

April showers bring forth May flowers. ^____^

Aha! That doesn't make me so grumpy about the rain and the floods anymore. Yep, May will be here soon. The young children will need an abundance of blooms to offer to the Virgin Mary every evening. Flores de Maria had always been something for me to look forward into for summer breaks from school.

My grandparents from both sides of the family grew flowers and vegetable garden. I remember both the impatience and amazement in watching the buds becoming more beautiful each day. I also remember the disappointment when the flowers are starting to wilt. How I wished the flowers would stay vibrant forever...held by sturdy stems. But they didn't and they won't. I guess that's life. But with every dying flower is a promise of another beauty waiting to be discovered somewhere in the garden :)

So much for my recollection and back to the topic: SUNDAY STAMPS :D I was unable to post stamps for quite a while now. I'm making up for that today. Since it's flowers/spring theme in Viridian's this week, here are the rest of the flower stamps from my collection:

My favorite! Red tulips are associated with eternal true love.

A 2007 flower stamp from Czechoslovakia. 

Cylamen is both a scientific and common name.

It is also called sowbread, persian violet, or primrose.

Issued in 18 March '09 under the Holy Days & Celebrations.

I wish someone can tell me what flower is this exactly...please.

I am taking a wild guess that it belongs to the genus Tagetes.

I need help on these stamps, too. I don't know how to read Japanese characters :(

My grandma's favorite!

 The flower that knows its chemistry --

The petals would be pink, purple, or blue depending on the soil's pH.

I was searching for info about this stamp, and here's what I found:

The deep blue color of the iris is associated with nobility --

its three petals symbolizes valor, wisdom and faith.

In mythology, Iris is the goddess of the rainbow.

In historical context, it's the fleur-de-lis of the French monarchy.

The greater pasque flower is listed under 'Jewels of Nature' 

in the official travel guide website of Slovenia.

And here's a flower art in stamp from Croatia. The design was made by

Orsat Frankovic and Ivana Vucic. This was a part of the 

Croatian Ethnographic Heritage - Posavina series.

I hope you enjoyed these flower stamps. Happy Sunday everyone and have a great week ahead!

~maria

p.s. If you want to see some flower stamps from my country, find them here.