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.