Canada et پاکستان

Ok, so tonight I'll let myself get carried away: I'll post this second pair of covers.

This first cover, my second or third from Pakistan, gives us a glimpse of Pakistan. The block of four, as you can see, has the theme Visit Pakistan 2006 and shows a series of mountain-lake landscapes, which are among the most scenic areas of the country. Clockwise from the upper left that are Henna Lake, Lake Payee, Lake Dudi Pat Sar, and Lake Saiful Maluk.

Henna Lake nestles in the hills, ten kilometres (six miles) east of Quetta, a startling turquoise pool within bare brown surroundings. There is a lakeside restaurant with picnic tables shaded by pine trees. At one end, the irrigation dam rises out of the depths like battlements of a fort. It is very attractive for holidaymakers, and is crowded with hikers and campers on holidays. You can hire a boat and paddle on the lake and around the island in the middle.

Dudiptsar lake or Dudipat Lake is a beautiful lake encircled by snow clad peaks. The lake lies in the extreme north of Kaghan Valley and is about a four-hour drive from the chief town Naran. The word "dudi" means white and "sar" means lake. This name has been given to the lake because of the white color of snow at surrounding peaks.

Lake Saifal Maluk has water that is clear with a slight green tone. The clarity of the water comes from the multiple glaciers all around the high basin feeding the lake which provides a good scenery. It is speculated that an underground river empties into the lake; which is why its depth is unknown. A fairy tale called Saiful Muluk, written by the famous sufi poet Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, is associated with the lake and discusses a prince who fell in love with a fairy princess. The impact of the lake beauty is of such extent that people believe that fairies come down to the lake whenever there is a full moon.

Lake Payee probably isn't that popular as much hasn't been said about it.

Moving on to the other two stamps, let's start with the lower one. It celebrates the Platinum Jubilee (or 75th year) of the Karachi City Council KMC Building. The Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) Building is one of the many historic buildings located at M. A. Jinnah road and has evolved an iconic status as one of the landmark structures of Karachi. The foundation stone for the KMC Building was laid in 1927, construction was completed in 1930, followed by the inauguration in 1932.

The City District Government of Karachi decided to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the building on 07 Jan 07. On this occasion, the building went through a massive renovation project which included repairing of the clock tower. Events are organized around the theme of "Hamara Karachi Festival 2007." They include Mushaira, Exhibitions, Cultural, and social activities.

The last stamp, the upper one, commemorates the 21st International Congress of Ophthalmologists held in Islamabad in 2007. Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine which deals with the diseases and surgery of the visual pathways, including the eye, brain, and areas surrounding the eye, such as the lacrimal system and eyelids.

The stamps were franked at Islamabad on 21 May 08 and, again, the "Registered" postmark was used.

Up next we have a home-made 2008 Olympics cover from Canada sent on 08.08.08, the first day of the Olympics, if you recall. The cover bears two of the single stamps that were issued by Canada Post in July. The stamp celebrates Canada's participation in the Games of the XXIX Olympiad and recognizes the more than 340 athletes who proudly represented Canada in Beijing. I find the design pretty neat, one of those contemporary pieces that give off a feeling of motion even though the picture is obviously not moving. I like the design very much, but I must say it took me a while to figure out that the athlete was holding up a Canadian flag.

This is the back of the cover, where we have some more stamps for additional postage. As you can see, the post office here in the Philippines ravaged the back of the cover again with those terrible pen scribbles! Why is the post office doing this? Can't they tell that the cover is for collection? It angers me when I see this scribbling on the covers I receive.

Also, I was just wondering about the postmark used. I was just wondering if it is a special personal postmark that the sender can use if he obtains a permit (just like in the States: "Mailer's Postmark")? I ask because I am used to postmarks that. although also large and rectangular, bear the Canada Post logo. This one does not. Does anyone have any information on this?

Polska

Here is a nice pair of FDCs from Poland sent from Andrzej Bek, my philatelic contact in Poland. I actually received it about 3 months ago in August, but I only got to posting it now. In fact, there are many covers that I was never able to post because their scans were sorted into some obscure folder that I have virtually no recollection of ever creating and were then set aside in some corner of my hard drive that I rarely visit. It was only yesterday that I found out about these covers MIA. hahaha

So I guess I will be "way behind schedule" again since I plan on posting these before I do the ones I recently received. I plan on posting daily starting today, so it won't take too long till I get back on track - hopefully.

Moving on, this first FDC is #18 in a series called "Polish Towns and Cities" and celebrates 900 years of history of Racibórz, which was first mentioned in the Chronicles and Deeds of the Dukes or Princes of the Poles by Gallus Anonymous.

Racibórz is a town in southern Poland. In the Middle Ages, its vicinity to numerous trade routes helped develop it into a venue for craftsmanship as well as the host to the largest granary in the region. Over the centuries, it was inhabited largely my Germans, and this resulted in the Germanization of the area. Today this small town is home to about 60,000 inhabitants.

The stamps design shows some landmarks and symbols of the town, the first being the renaissance tower (built around 1574). The second is the late-baroque column that appears to be in the foreground. This was erected between 1725 and 1727 to give thanks to Mary for the end of the epidemic of 1715. Miraculously, the column survived WWII, which is a wonder since all the tenement buildings that surrounded the square on which it stood were all destroyed.

The FDC cachet depicts the Chapel of Thomas Beckett dating back to the end of the 13th century. The FDC was issued on 01 July 08 and some other stamps were added onto the cover for postage and were cancelled two weeks later, on 15 July.

This second FDC shows Sanctuaries of St. Mary, in this case St. Mary of the snow. This sanctuary, found near the major peak of Igliczna mountain, is for St. Mary Mother of God, the Cause of Our Joy "Mary of the Snow". The pilgrims come here to attend the wooden figure of St. Mary with Holy Child - a folk copy of St. Mary's figure from the Mariazell sanctuary in Austria. The figure had been brought in here in 1750 by Christopher Veit from Wilkanów village, as the changing national borders made the direct pilgrimage Mariazell sanctuary almost impossible for the local people. In 1777 the first case of miraculous healing had been documented, followed then by many others. The chapel soon proved to be too small for the ever-growing hosts of pilgrims and the new church had to be erected, consecrated in 1782.

The stamp shows the venerated idol and the FDC presents its domain. The FDC was released on 21 June and, again, extra stamps were added for postage and also franked on 15 July.

I'm Back!

Hello again! Did you miss me? Hahaha

Well, I spent the last four weeks on a vacation; went to Beijing and Shanghai in China and also a few tourist areas in the Luzon area, namely Puerto Galera and Tagytay. I must say that I was very busy during this time, hopping from place to place - one day, I'd be in a plane, the next in a train, and then the next on a boat! Whew! But it was really fun and exciting and at least a change from the grueling everyday cycle that I had gotten used to before my little break.

Anyway, my favorite part about being gone for a while is coming home to find wonderful surprises waiting for me in my mailbox! Four weeks' worth of mail is quite a handful and I literally had to ask for a plastic bag lest I drop any letters on the way home. There were many interesting finds in the small pile that I found in the mailbox, and I will share them with you little by little in my upcoming posts. It's very exciting, don't you agree? Hehehe

Hope you enjoy!

Here is an FDC that I picked up during my China trip. I bought it at the Beijing Capital Airport, Terminal 2. China Post has a neat little branch there to cater to the tourist rushing to send out last-minute postcards from his trip as well as philatelist itching to get his hands on some nice philatelic souvenirs. I was a bit of both, I must admit.

Thankfully, they had the FDC shown above available (they didn't have it at the Shanghai Postal Museum when I visited - or did the postal clerk just not understand what I was asking for?). I of course jumped at the opportunity to get one of these airport FDCs that I've been wanting to have since they were released on 28 Sept! Unfortunately, they only had two left so I wasn't able to buy any for my exchange partners. The other issues were not very interesting or expensive to the point of exploitation, so I didn't feel like buying them for me or for anyone else.

One thing that bothered me was that the clerk at the post office seemed to have overpriced me because, to the best of my knowledge, a regular airmail letter to the Philippines from China costs only RMB 4.50 (roughly USD 0.65), but the clerk insisted I pay RMB 8.50 (almost twice what I should have) and said that the stamps already on the cover could no longer be used for postage. I don't know if it's only because I got used to the Philippine system where the postage on the FDC is still valid, but I was under the impression that I could still use these stamps already on the cover for postage! Unfortunately, the clerk said I couldn't. Is anyone familiar with the Chinese postal system's regulations on such things?

To add to the confusion, the clerk spoke very very limited English, which I find surprising since he was working at the international terminal of an airport! I didn't want to argue with the guy, especially since he didn't seem to understand me, and I really wanted a Beijing Capital Airport postmark to be chopped onto my cover, so I just gave in and paid up. As you can see from the scan, at least I got what I wanted!

At any rate, a little bit more about the cover and the stamps:

The stamps show the three busiest airports in China based on number of passengers handled: Beijing Capital International Airport (first), Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (second), and Shanghai Pudong International Airport (third).

Beijing Capital International Airport (北京首都国际机场) is the one on the left hand side. In 2007, it served 53,583,664 passengers, and became the 9th busiest airport in the world. There are three terminals. Terminal 1, the oldest (1980) handles domestic flights, except for HK and Macau and Taiwan; terminal 2 (1999) handles the international flights of China Eastern, China Southern, and Skyteam members; and terminal 3 (2008) handles all Air China, One World, and One Alliance international flights as well as other domestic and international departures. Terminal 3 is the second largest terminal building in the world, second only to the new terminal at Dubai International Airport, and is larger than London Heathrow's five terminal buildings combined. It was opened earlier this year, just in time for the Olympics.

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (广州白云国际机场) is the one on the lower right. In 2007, it served 30,958,467 passengers. The current airport was opened in 2004 to replace the old, dilapidated airport with the same name. "Baiyun" (白雲) means "white clouds" in Chinese, and refers to Mt. Baiyun (Baiyunshan) near the location of the former airport. The airport is also referred to as "New Baiyun" to distinguish it from the previous version, but this is not a part of the official name.

Shanghai Pudong Inernational Airport (上海浦东国际机场) is the one on the upper right. As the third busiest in 2007 in terms of passenger traffic, it served 28,920,432 passengers last year. It opened in 1999 and a new terminal was added in March of this year. The name "Pudong" refers to the district in which the airport is located. The term Pudong is derived from "Pu" (from Huangpu river, which divides Shanghai into East and West) and "Dong" (which means East in Mandarin), so literally "Pudong" means "East of the Huangpu River."

As for the other stamps, the two RMB 0.80 stamps on the lower right hand corner along with the one RMB 1.50 stamp on the far left are probably part of the same set, which seems to celebrate earth (and/or the world or land - that would explain the green) and water. Unfortunately, I cannot read Chinese so all I can do is guess.

The RMB 1.20 stamp with birds is part of a definitive set and the larger, square RMB 1.20 stamp features Chinese traditional paintings.

Like I mentioned earlier, the cover was franked at the Beijing Capital Airport on 26 Oct 08, which was a Sunday, I might add!