Sri Mariamman Temple

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This is an old picture of the Sri Mariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple of Singapore. For all you crazy letter enthusiasts, this is the Tamil spelling: ஸ்ரீ மாரியம்மன் கோவில்.

These stamps commemorates 49 years of independence. Singapore gained independence from the UK in 1965 after a referendum, just like Scotland did 50 years later.

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Rooftops of Paris

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Information regarding the location of the photographer are welcome.

Cool your beers and get exited for the 2016 UEFA European Championship - provided that you like football, otherwise there's still blowing soap bubbles or drinking tea for you. And why does the UK get to send three teams?

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Year of the Monkey

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This amazing place is Hạ Long Bay in North Vietnam. If you intend to propose to your girl, take her there to make it a surefire thing. Make sure not to bring other people there, as you'll get married either way.

On February 8th, 2016, the Year of the Monkey began, thus the stamp. There appears to be a pink one as well, if you happen to have it, send it to me on a postcard please.

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Old columns, old dances

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These are the ruins of once mighty Corinth, a city in Ancient Greece. There's also a new Corinth, but they've come up with new buildings and basically it's a lot less cool than the old one.

The stamps show Greek dances. In the top left corner it says Κοτσαρι Ποντιακος / Kotsari Pontiakos, which can also be found on youtube. I can't tell you much about the dresses but the colors remind me of the colorful papers in which confection used to be wrapped. Very pretty!

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Maiden Tower

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The Maiden Tower in Baku served to imprison all the naughty maidens that would not behave. Rumors say that it was once part of the city fortification, but that's highly debated among historians, so you better stick to the maiden story.

If you're into cute animals then these stamps are just the thing for you, but be aware that one of them is not an animal, but the commemoration of 130 years of telephone communication in Azerbaijan. I'm not gonna tell you which one though.

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Vast steppes

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These are my first postcards from Mongolia. You can see the typical steppes and traditional housing, called yurt in English, but "ger" in Mongolian. To enable nomads to follow their herds to different grazing grounds, these tent-like buildings can be disassembled and reconstructed easily.

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The stamp shows a drop of water. I could link the wiki article but I you've probably heard of it before.

More beaches of the Adriatic Sea

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This pretty beach is in Dhërmi, a village at the coast of Albania. Coincidentally, there is a picture on wikipedia that was shot from the exact opposite side of that rock in the middle: Link.

On the stamp you can see the Adriatic Sea and all the countries bordering it: Italy on the left, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Greece on the right.

Namdaemun

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View over the Hangang River. In the background: 63 Building, once the tallest buildings in Asia.

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Namdaemun, also known as Sungnyemun, is one of the eight gates in the Seoul city wall. Unfortunately, it was set on fire in 2008, but reconstructed shortly after.

More sheep!

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Picture taken near the village of Kaldbak.

The stamp depicts shepherds who see the Star of Bethlehem.

The Kingdom in the Sky

I've received a bunch of cards from Lesotho, and they're all beautiful!

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Moteng Village.

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The cave dwellings at Ha Kome are a National Heritage Site. They've been carved out in the 19th century and people are still living there today.

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The highlands of Lesotho can get pretty cold, with temperatures of up to -20°C.

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Harvest Time.

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Makhaleng Valley.

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The Basotho are an ethnic group in southern Africa. Lesotho is named after them.

Top left: "The Wanderer" (Bematistes aganice), a butterfly from south and south-eastern Africa.
Top right: The Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a woodpecker that lives in North America. Not sure what he's doing on a Lesotho stamp.
Bottom: Turbina oblongata doesn't seem to have a wiki article yet.

Quick, comrade! Get in the car!

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Backside: "Owners of the Pobeda Trading House in front of the monument to Peter I. 1912"

Left stamp: Triumphal Arch of Moscow, erected to commemorate the victory over Napoleon
Middle stamp: Crater lake of the Maly Semyachik volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula
Rights stamp: Russian foodstuff. The machine makes tea, the pancakes are called blinchiki. The rings could be baranka. There's also honey and caviar. Delicious!

Yaqona Ceremony

Last week I've received this card from Fiji, it traveled almost 4 months to reach me. And it was a rough ride, too, but I'm very glad that it arrived after all.

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Backside: "Also referred to as kava, this ceremonial drink is made from the crushed root of a plant of the same name. Very little reason is required for the yaqona bowl (tanoa) to be brought out and drinks offered to all present. It also, however has an important place in formal meetings and ceremonial occasions."

The bird on the left is a Scarlet Robin (or possibly a Pacific Robin). On the right, you can see a Mangrove Heron fishing.

Les îles du Salut

Not to be confused with the independent country Guyana.
French Guiana is further East, and spaceport of the European Space Agency ESA.

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The pictures are from the Islands of Salvation near the coast of French Guiana. I'm also attaching two pictures of the envelope, which I find particularly pretty:

All the stamps you can find in French Guiana are French, too, and the Euro is used as currency. Here, you can see Marianne, a national symbol of France. At least I think it's here. Hope I'm not confusing her with Marlène or Marie, she would be furious.

Republic square

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Here you can see government building of Armenia, to be found at Republic square in Yerevan. It used to be called Lenin square and even featured a large statue of the communist politician, which was later replaced by a TV monitor. The clock you can see on the tower is 4 meters wide. Amazing!

The symbols are letters from the Armenian Alphabet, Ը and Ճ.

Mountains and tits

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A beautiful view of Escaldes-Engordany, second largest town of Andorra. This country is located in the Pyrenees mountains, between France and Spain. On the left of the picture, you can already see parts of Andorra la Vella, the capital. The building in in the middle with the pointy blue tower
Centre Termolúdic Caldae, a spa.

I've also received some Eurasian blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus). They look hot.

A Winter View

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This is the kremlin in Penza, a town of half a million inhabitants, some 600km southwestern of Moscow. The picture was taken in 1913 and you can see the town's kremlin on it. A year after that, the Russian Empire got involved in World War I. Four years later, two revolutions turned the country upside-down, leading to a civil war and, ultimately, the foundation of the Soviet Union.

More pretty kremlins can be found on the stamps.
On the left: Kazan Kremlin.
On the right: Ryazan Kremlin.

Gamcheon Culture Village

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This is Gamcheon, a village near Busan, the second largest town of South Korea. The village is quite famous for its curious looks and some movies were shot there. You can read a more detailed report about this place here.

Piazza del Plebiscito

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This beautiful card is from - you may have guessed already - Napoli. The piazza del plebiscito sees a lot of visitors particularly at nighttime. The church with the large cupola on the right is called San Francesco di Paola. You can see the Mediterranean Sea in the back and the Vesuvius would be on the left if the card was even wider.

The stamp is from the national instruments series and shows the launeddas, a Sardinian woodwind instrument.

Petronas Towers

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Backside:
 "Suria KLCC, the podium block of PETRONAS Twin Towers, houses a shopping complex, art gallery, a petrol-science centre and the PETRONAS Philharmonic Orchestra Hall."

 The left stamp shows Rambutan (nephelium lappaceum), a plant similar to lychee. On the right, you can see two lotus flowers.

Talafofo Falls

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Backside text:
Talofofo Falls, Guam's favorite waterfall, provides a refreshing swimming spot at the end of a one-hour hike up the banks of the Talofofo River.
It seems that the hike there is the fun part of the falls.

As you know, Guam uses US stamps, this one showing the Liberty Bell.