Cherry Blossom monkeys

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the 15th day and the last day of the Chinese New Year.

It's been a long time since I last blogged in November and left for my South American

travel. Coming home I had many cards waiting for me but it was a bit overwhelming

to go through the whole lot and I finally got to work on them and finished editing

205 cards since November 21. February is coming to an end soon and so I start with

the Monkey postcards that have been arriving since January. I chose this beautiful monkey

postcard from Taiwan because there are two Monkey zodiac members in my family.

Thanks to Pei Yu for this lovely card!

Sent: 30 December 2015   Received: 12 January 2015   Travelled: 13 days

Chinese monkey painting

Wow so glad I could swap for this Monkey postcard issued by China Post,

with a Chinese postcrosser. Thanks Forrest!

Sent: 23 December 2015   Received: 10 February 2016   Travelled: 49 days

Lantern monkeys

Thanks again to Forrest for the Monkey card swap, super happy to get the

lovely monkey postcard and the nice stamps are a huge plus!

Sent:23 December 2015   Received: 12 February 2016   Travelled: 51 days

Monkey kitty

Hehehe it's a Hello Kitty in a monkey suit, it's awfully cute!

Thanks to Denise for the monkey card swap

Sent:7 January 2016   Received: 26 January 2016   Travelled: 19 days

Japan Zodiac card

If you look in the middle, instead of the Dragon zodiac it's replace by the 

seahorse. As the dragon is the only mythical creature from the zodiac,

it's replaced by the seahorse. The seahorse in Japanese is sometimes 

called "Dragon's bastard child" hence..the seahorse hahaha

Love this card from Japan!

Sent:7 January 2016   Received: 26 January 2016   Travelled: 19 days

Hong Kong Monkey New Year

Thanks to Cally for this awesome monkey card swap :)

Sent: 16 January 2016   Received: 2 February 2016  Travelled: 17 days

Hong Kong Monkey New Year #2

Thanks to Cally for this great monkey card swap ^_^

Sent: 16 January 2016   Received: 4 February 2016   Travelled: 19 days

Bornean Gibbon

Müller's Bornean gibbon is endemic to the island of Borneo, inhabiting the northern and eastern part of the island. In the southwest of the island lives the Bornean white-bearded gibbon; their territories hardly overlap. Grey gibbons are diurnal rain forest dwellers, characterized by the long arms that all gibbons have, with which they brachiate through the trees. They live together in monogamous pairs, and defend their family territory against intruders with long, loud singing. Their diet consists primarily of fruits. Little is known about the reproductive patterns of this species, but it is thought to be similar to that of other gibbon species.

Müller's Bornean gibbon occurs in a number of protected areas, including Betung Kerihun National Park, Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park, Kayan Mentarang National Park, Kutai National Park, Sungai Wain Protection Forest and Tanjung Puting National Park in Indonesia and Pulong Tau National Park the Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary and Semengok Forest Reserve in Malaysia.

Source: Wikipedia

Wow!!! This is such an unexpected surprise to get this card from my 

stamp guru Uncle Paul. Pos Malaysia issued Monkey stamps on 26 January 2016.

The stamps come in denominations of 60, 70 and 80 cents and RM6 miniature sheet.

On the front of the card which has been made into a Maxicard with matching

RM3 stamp from the miniature sheet. Thank you very much!!

Sent: 27 January 2016   Received: 1 February 2016   Travelled: 5 days

Chinese New Year greetings

A nice surprise from Anny for this New Year greetings

Thank you! ^_^

Sent: 5 February 2016   Received: 10 February 2016   TRavelled: 10 days

Chinese New Year Giveaway

Thanks very much to Sheerah who drew this series of cards

for this giveaway! I liked them so much that I bought the card series haha

Sent: 5 February 2016   Received: 10 February 2016   Travelled: 10 days

Malaysia Primates

Thank you Serene for this nice surprise!

Sent: 1 February 2016   Received: 5 February 2016   Travelled: 4 days

Monkeys from penang

Thanks to Camy who designed this card herself for this

monkeys and banana card ^_^

Sent: 2 February 2016   Received: 10 February 2016   Travelled: 8 days

Lion dance!

I love Lion Dances!

and I love it even more when I get not one but two of them :)

Thanks to Jane and Ping Hoong for this Lion Dance card 

sent from the courtesy of Paradigm Mall management

Sent: 4 February 2016   Received: 12 February 2016   Travelled: 8 days

Door God

Placing Door Gods on the external doors of houses is a time-honored tradition dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD). The then Emperor Taizong is said to have fallen ill, and had a dream in which ghosts came to the palace in search for him. He recounted this tale to his officials the next day, and the story quickly spread through the Imperial Court: such matters were taken rather seriously at that time. From then on, two of the emperor's top generals, Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong,  both of whom had fought with hime to establish the Tang dynasty, stood outside guarding the emperor's bedroom door. Therefore, the emperor was ablt to sleep soundly in the knowledge that he was protected by these two generals, and had no further dreams of the ghosts. The tale soon became widely known, and in their eagerness to share the protection of these "Door Gods", the common people made their own paintings and placed them on their doors. The tradition has continued ever since

(Source)

Thank you Jane for this awesome card of a Door God

Sent: 28 January 2016   Received:2 February 2016   Travelled: 5 days

Happy New Year from Turkey

A great surprise from my Turkish friend who writes to me from Van, Turkey.

I met Cigdem the first time I went to Istanbul in 2013! The second time I went in

2014 we could not meet because she had a big exam to study for and the  coolest

bit are the stamps that show the city Erzurum which I visited in 2014 on my

Silk Road trip. Thank you Cigdem!

Sent: 5 January 2016   Received: 2 February 2016   Travelled: 28 days

Happy Chinese New Year

Thanks to Violet for my first greeting card of the monkey year ^_^
Sent: 25 January 2016
Received: 27 January 2016
Travelled: 2 days

Happy Chinese New Year #2

Thanks to KKKhor for this wicked monkey greeting cards!

Sent: 27 January 2016   Received: 1 February 2016   Travelled: 5 days

Happy Chinese New Year #3

Thanks to Libby for this lovely mandarin orange card!

Sent: 27 January 2016   Received: 1 February 2016   Travelled: 5 days

Happy Chinese New Year #4

A nice fishy card from Cikgu Dale!

Sent : 10 February 2016   Received: 12 February 2016   Travelled: 2 days

Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Vaduz is said to be mentioned in historic 12th-century manuscripts as Farduzes. It is, however, commonly believed to have been founded circa 1322 by the Counts of Werdenberg. In 1322 a mention of the castle is made, which was sacked by the Swiss in 1499 during the Swabian War. The entire town was also destroyed.

In the 17th century the Liechtenstein family was seeking a seat in the Imperial diet, the Reichstag. However, since they did not hold any territory that was directly under the Imperial throne, they were unable to meet the primary requirement to qualify.

The family yearned for the added power a seat in the Imperial government would bring, and therefore sought to acquire lands that would be Reichsunmittelbar, or held without any feudal personage other than the Holy Roman Emperor himself having rights on the land. After some time, the family was able to arrange the purchase of the minuscule Herrschaft ("Lordship") of Schellenberg and countship of Vaduz (in 1699 and 1712 respectively) from the Hohenems. Tiny Schellenberg and Vaduz possessed exactly the political status required: no feudal lord other than the Emperor.

Thereby, on January 23, 1719, after purchase had been duly made, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, decreed Vaduz and Schellenberg were united, and raised to the dignity of Fürstentum (principality) with the name "Liechtenstein" in honour of "[his] true servant, Anton Florian of Liechtenstein". It is on this date that Liechtenstein became a sovereign member state of the Holy Roman Empire. As a testament to the pure political expediency of the purchases, the Princes of Liechtenstein did not set foot in their new principality for over 120 years.

Source:Wikipedia

Thanks to Ruedi for this beautiful surprise with the Monkey zodiac! an absolute gem!

Sent: 14 January 2016  Received: 2 February 2016   Travelled: 19 days