Indonesia.:

Jogyakarta. : INDONESIA.:

This is a great card from a site at the Amazing Prambanan in Yogyakarta..A place that I have visited myself...This is a huge complex and Prambanan  is one of the top ten Temple sites in the world..The card shows the Sewu Temples" (The Thousand Temples ) Mahayana Buddhiist temples about a kilometer north of Prambanan.. Thank you Andrea for this card ...I remember this site well..Terima kasih,

Georgia

Tbilisi. : GEORGIA.:

A lovely big card showing a great view of Tbilisi by night..A lovely colourful card showing The Freedom Square and The Statue of St. George. Thank you so much Khaty for this lovely card and the lovely lot of stamps that you have attatched...Posted Tbilisi 7 August :Arrived Sydney 24 August Traveled 17 days.

Turkey

HARD ROCK CAFE   ISTANBUL.

LOVELY OLD TRAMS

THIS WAS A LONG WALK..

  Whenever I am in a city that has a "Hard Rock Cafe" I always pay a visit ..have a few beers and one of their great Hamburgers and fries.. and also buy a "guitar pin " for my cap.. Istanbul was no exception .I must say I had quite a bit of trouble locating it and got lost a few times ( nothing new ) and when I found it I was standing across the road from it !! unlike most Hard Rocks there was no big guitar outside showing its presence.(Aparently the guitar was not allowed by city ordinance )..I even asked taxi drivers ( Just across the road ) and they DIDN"T even know where it was located!!!..it surely was long walk down a very pleasant street with no traffic only a very old tram.After my visit I decided to catch the old tram...how nice it was ..also saved a long walk. One thing noticeable are that there are cats just everywhere..it surely is an animal friendly city.

PUSSY CATS EVERYWHERE..

LOVED THESE OLD TRAMS.

Turkey

I LOVE THIS PHOTOGRAPH..

A GREAT LITTLE RESTAURANT..

 Istanbul. : TURKEY.:

Finally arrived in Istanbul a destination that has been at the top of my list for so long...finally here.. After the Chaos at Dehli International Airport with three flights cancelled and a waste of some 23 hours was so pleased when that Turkish Airlines airliner lifted off the ground.. The transition through immigration was a slow one due to the masses of people being processed...and then with a shuttle waiting got to my Hostel rather quickly..it was a beautiful day and I felt so good being here.. The Orient Hostel was all I wanted it to be great friendly staff ..and good comfortable accomodation with great breakfasts here. Across the road was "the Happy Hole" that my sense of humour liked...a great little restaurant also the food and beer in the Orient was fine also...The main thing here was the great location ..it was in the middle of everything. so many great restuarants ..a big market place...and just by the "Blue Mosque"  a short walk to the Metro and I was anywhere that I wanted to go...loved it.. I couldn't wait to get some real food ...salads and grilled meats. Oh boy...after India this was marvellous. My days here were spent out and about with such easy access to everything with the metro close by. I will only stay here in Istanbul for four days as I have booked a flight for Izmir to visit friends.

THE ORIENT HOSTEL ISTANBUL..GREAT HOSTEL

India

MY SOUVENIR CARD THAT I SENT HOME FROM THIS VISIT.

New Delhi : INDIA.

The Akshardham Temple was finally reached after two hours traffic and another in the crush of the crowd to finally reach the entry stage..I have never seen such crowds at a monument or an event like this in all my life...there must have been over two hundred thousand people at this and around this amazing place.. we were told that it would not have been so bad if it was a week day...all I can say it was unbeleivable but well worth it..The temple building is quite amazing..I was more impressed with this than I was with the Taj Mahal..The interior has to be seen to be believed.. I think only in India..!! The day was a very memorable experience and myself and my two friends had a great time.. I think we walked ten kilometers this day..no wonder I have lost a bit of weight..This was my last sight seeing day in New Dehli and India and couldn't have been better..   If you are ever in New Delhi...put this on your list of" Must sees" It's amazing..
 The next day I left India for my next destination..wonderful Turkey and friends there.

Ashkardam is a Swaminarayan Temple complex in New Delhi India. also referred to as Delhi Ashkardham or Swaminarayan Ashkardham..The complex displays a millennia of  traditional Hindu and Indian culture Spirituality and Architechture. The monument is the second inspired and developed by Pramukh Swami Maharaj The spiritual head of the Bochasanwasi Aksha Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha whos 3,000  volunteers helped 7,000 artisans construct Ashkardam.  The temple complex attracts more than 70 % of people who visit New Delhi was officially opened on the 6th November 2005. The Temple sits on the banks of the Yamuna adjacent to The 2010 Commonwealth Games Village in eastern New Delhi The Temple at the centre of the complex was built according to Vastu Shastra and the Pancharatra Shastra.
 On July 2nd 2001 the first carved stone was laid, seven thousand carvers and three thousand volunteers were put to work for the construction of Ashkardham with over 6,000 tons of pink sandstone coming from Rajastan workshop sites were set up around places within the state. Amongst the carvers were local farmers and 1500 tribal women who had suffered from the drought and recieved economic gain due to this work
The initial stone cutting was done by machine while the detailed carvings were done by hand, every night over a hundred trucks were sent to Ashkardham where over four thousand workers and volunteers worked on the construction site.  Ashkardham was consecrated on the 6th November 2005..

Thank you Wikipedia for this information..

Malaysia.

Sabah .: MALAYSIA :

 A welcome card from a good friend in Sabah Malaysia..Thanks so much for this Card Anny and this is the second "ASEAN Community" card and stamp that I have received would be nice to get all...Xie Xie..Anny

 Established on the 8th April 1967 The Association of South East Asian Nations ( ASEAN ) it is an organisation that comprises of ten countries..( with the exception of Timour Leste) .all the other South East Asian countries are in the A.S.E.A.N member States.They are Brunei , Cambodia , Indonesia , Laos , Malaysia , Myanmar , Philippines , Singapore , Thailand , and Vietnam." The Motto" of A.S.E.A.N is,  One vision , one identity , One community.

India..

Kerala. : India..

 A colourful card showing fishermen in Kerala using the old style Chinese nets..Thank you for this card.. I really like it..I was dissapointed that I didn't get to Kerala region on my recent trip through India..

Vietnam

Saigon : VIETNAM.

Thank you Trang for once again thinking of me with this lovely card of Hoi An and the new "ASEAN Community" stamp that has recently bee released.. I hope to get one from each of the countries if possible. Posted 19 August 2015 Saigon : Arrived Sydney 26 August 2015 : Traveled 7 days.. Cam on Trang..

Georgia

Tbilisi.: GEORGIA.:

 A card from my friend Khatuna in Tbilis.. Thank you once again for your nice cards and lovely stamps.. This card shows The recently built (1995 - 2003 ) Sameba Cathedral   A very dominating building in Tbilisi..Thank you again Khaty...nice card.Posted : Tbilisi 10 August 2015 Arrived Sydney 25 August : Traveled 15 days.

Finland

Lappi.: FINLAND

What a lovely card !! I remember this exact scene vividly , when driving in the north of Finland myself..What lovely looking animals they are. Just standing in the middle of the road waiting for you to go around...funny.!! Thank you for this lovely card Angie and thanks also for taking the time out tosend me this card on your travels..And yes...it is really lovely country isn't it !!
Posted 16 August : Arrived Sydney 27 August : Traveled 11 days. Thank you Angie..

India

MY SOUVENIR POSTCARD THAT I SENT HOME FROM MY VISIT HERE.

MAP SHOWING VASTNESS OF THIS SITE

 DELHI :

This complex site of various Mughal Tombs is quite fantastic.. The major site is the Tomb of The Mughal ruler Humayun. This elaborate and wonderfully restored structure was originally built in 1562 AD following Humayun's death and was built by the orders of his widow Hamida Banu Begum.  This was the first Mughal  "Garden Tomb" ever constructed and sits in a lovely garden setting of manicured lawns and immaculately clipped hedges and flower gardens. I thoroughly enjoyed the time that was spent in this quite amazing complex looking at all the various Tomb structures. The day was as usual really very hot and so much of this was enjoyed in shade and coolness of the many sites here another really calm setting away from the caccophany of noises that are associated with the big city of Delhi  .Huge restoration projects have bought these wonderful structures back to their original architectural beauty. This I believe another of the "must sees" when visiting Delhi .There are just so many wonderful things to see here and at least a week is needed here to see many of these mostly Unesco World Heritage sites.

ISA KHAN TOMB

BU HALIMA TOMB

INFORMATION BOARD..

VARIOUS TOMB DIRECTIONS.

MAP OF SITE..

India.

JORG TAKING SOME SELFIES...WITH VIVIANA

ANOTHER SELFIE..OF US AT RAJGHAT.

MAHAT MAGANHI   RAJGHAT

                                                                                                                     RAJGHAT   DELHI

 Located in a large park with beautifully kept gardens and manicured grass lawns we finally find the site of Mahatma Ghandis final resting place. This is marked by a large square platform of black marble, adorned beautifully with various coloured flowers and in the middle is a lantern with the eternal flame of the "Father of India"
Sometime was spent here in these lovely gardens, and was just so nice to be out of the traffic madness that is Delhi City and its polution, . from here we go to the house where Gandhi spent most of his time while in Dehli.

 This house has so much of Gandis lifetime history and is a Museum  to his devoted work in Indias independence. Here there are to be seen  many  photos on the walls depicting his struggle with the British Raj.  There are many diaoramas to be seen showing various  confrontations and "demos" also his many famous meetings with various dignitaries. There is a few different effigies of this popular man both inside the museum and outside in the gardens. I spent quite some time here reading of this mans struggles and exploits with the various British Government representatives and familiarising myself with his life and history .
This was a very small man of stature with huge visions for his country..a man who lived so frugally and had little to no pocessions..One could not but admire this mans tenacity to fight peacefully for what he so strongly believed.  and win..

MAHATMA GANDIS VISIONS.

MAHATMA GANDHI

A LOVELY EFFIGY IN THE GARDEN

   ALWAYS CHASE   YOUR  DREAMS  ...

India

THE RED FORT WITH FRIENDS JORG AND VIVIANA

SO MANY PEOPLE HERE THE LINE IS OVER 1 KM LONG.

THE RED FORT DELHI

THE JAMA MASJID MOSQUE  DELHI

THE LOTUS TEMPLE  DELHI

DELHI.

Today we have hired a taxi for the day to see many venues here in Delhi...The first being The Jama Masjid Mosque..  A really huge structure and the largest and also they say the grandest mosque in all of India.The mosque can accomodate 20,000 worshippers at a time during Muslim festivals..No cameras wer allowed so was impossible to get some photos of the magnificent brickwork arches in the building..

From here we went to the Red Fort another huge structure as one would expect .This was the Palace for The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan's New capital City "Shahjahanabad" and built in 1648 A.D...The same Shah Jahan that built the Taj Mahal.

The Lotus Temple is an amazing building that as soon as I saw it I thought of the Sydney Opera House and the likeness  ( of the here they are unfolding petals of a lotus flower ) I could not get into see the interior of the building as the line was over a kilometer long and as it was so hot was not prepared to stand in the sun..also the taxi would have had to wait also...This was a dissapointment..                      

Georgia.

Tbilisi : GEORGIA.:

A lovely card showing  Tbilisi and surrounding mountains with a covering of snow..Thank you Khatuna for this fine card also for the many fine stamps that you sent wth these lovely cards I thank you for being so kind.
Posted Tbilisi 10 August 2015 : Arrived Sydney 25 August 2015 : Traveled 15 days..Thanks again Khatuna.

Poland

POLAND #2

Warsaw : POLAND.:
Today it was nice to receive another "Greetings from" Poland card.. Thanks Chris for sending me this...another for the collection.. I really like these  "Greetings from" cards with all their statistics of the various countries also..and posted from country of origin.Thanks also for the great stamps you have atatched.

                                            "GREETINGS FROM " POLAND
AREA: Poland covers an area of 312, 685 KLM2  ,and has a POPULATION of 38,483,957 with a huge amount of POSTCROSSERS of over 25,000.  The CAPITAL CITY  is Warsaw.
 FORRESTS : cover about 30% of Poland's territory with 9300 Lakes.
 RYSY is the highest mountain in Poland.
 EUROPEAN BISON : Poland has 1225 Bison which are the largest mammals in Europe.
FAMOUS POLES: include Maria Skeodowska Currie , Pope John Paul II , Frederic Chopin , and Nicholas Copernicus.
VOLLEYBALL: is a popular sport with the Mens Volleyball team winning the World Championship in 2014
AMBER : Baltic Gold. it comes in more than 300 varieties Gdansk registered its first Amber Artisans guild in 1477.. This is the second Polish "Greetings from" release by Postalove..