Hunting with eagles

Hunting with eagles is a traditional form of falconry found throughout the Eurasian steppe, practiced by Kazakh and Kyrgyz people in contemporary Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as diasporas in Bayan-Ölgii, Mongolia, and Xinjiang, China. Though these Turkic people are most famous for hunting with golden eagles, they have been known to train northern goshawks, peregrine falcons, saker falcons, and more

During the communist period in Kazakhstan, many Kazakhs fled for Mongolia,settling down in Bayan Ulgii, an area that has been designated for the Kazakhs of Mongolia today. Kazakhs (Altaic Kazakhs or Altai-Kazakhs) living in Bayan-Ölgii Province of Mongolia continue to hunt with eagles today. There are an estimated 250 eagle hunters in the Western Mongolian province.Their falconry custom, so-called 'horse-riding eagle falconry', is unique in practice only with trained Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos daphanea) on horseback. Their hunting target is almost limited to Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) or Corsac Fox (Vulpes corsac).In the first week of October, 70 eagle hunters gather for the annual Golden Eagle Festival of Mongolia  They use eagles to hunt foxes and hare during the cold winter months when it is easier to see the gold colored foxes against the snow. Many Kazakh traditions have been preserved by the Kazakhs in Mongolia, eagle hunting being amongst them. Although the Kazakh government has made efforts to lure the practitioners of these Kazakh traditions back to Kazakhstan, most Kazakhs have remained in Mongolia.

Source: Wikipedia

Thanks to Lyubov for this amazing Eagle Hunting postcard and the matching Eagle stamp!!

Sent: 19 November 2015   Received: 7 January 2016   Travelled: 49 days

Karapan Sapi, Madura Island, Indonesia

Karapan sapi is a traditional bull racing festival on the Indonesian island of Madura. Every year from about July through October, local bulls are yoked to wooden skids and raced for 130 meters, similar to a chariot race. There are several of these races throughout the season, and there is a final trophy race held in Pamekasan. The bulls participating in the event are adorned with gold and other decorations, and the event may be accompanied by Gamelan music, food, and wagers on the outcome of the race. A depiction of the festival was featured on the reverse of the 100 rupiah coin for Indonesia from 1991 to 1998. Indonesian stamp in 2009 also depicted the race along with Surabaya–Madura Bridge.
Source: Wikipedia

This card is a little bit misleading with the big Surabaya title, which

is in the island of Java while the sport depicted in the card is from

Madura island. Big thank you to Ayu for this great Traditional Sport

card from Indonesia and the matching Year of the Ox stamps , my

first stamps for this Zodiac year.

Sent: 3 Oct   Received: 27 October 2015   Travelled: 24 days

Saranggola, Philippines

Saranggola, Kite flying, in Philippines.

Thanks to Chloe for this great swap , normally I prefer singleview cards but I love

seeing the different kites on this card and it's also not something you see often on

a postcard. Great matching kite stamp which is a new issue that came out this July.

Sent 8 October 2015   Received: 20 October   Travelled: 12 days

Planet Football

The Goethe Institute exhibition “Weltsprache Fussball – Planet Football” was designed and created in cooperation with the photographic cooperative of Magnum Photos, and is one of the cultural contributions of the German government for the Soccer World Championship 2006.

Under the FIFA Motto of “A time to make friends”, this touring exhibition features football as a passion which is shared across the world, which unites people, and has no national or cultural boundaries.

(Source: Planet Football)

Thanks to Silvan for this awesome exhibition postcard for my People collection.

Sent: 9 July 2015   Received: 31 July 2015   Travelled: 22 days

Ishgl, Austria



 Ischgl (1377m) is a town in the Paznaun Valley in the Austrian state of Tyrol. Its ski resort Silvretta Arena Ischgl-Samnaun is connected with the ski resort of Samnaun across the border in Switzerland. Together this ski area belongs to the largest skiing resorts in the Alps. Its 238 km of groomed pistes are served by over 40 mechanical lifts including cable cars, gondolas, detachable chair lifts and some T-bars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ischgl

I've never tried skiing before, but I'm not a very coordinated person so I'm pretty sure I'd be face hugging the snow a lot of times. Thank you Luzian for this sporty card!



Sent: 28 December 2012
Received: 12 January 2013
Travelled: 15 days