Kargah Buddha - Pakistan

More than 50,000 rock carvings, inscriptions and engravings of Buddha can be found  in Gilgit-Baltistan, which shows the presence of Buddhists in these areas during  the late Stone Age. Unfortunately  many of the rock engravings  have already been damaged or defaced because of vandalism and ignorance.

The rock engraving on the postcard is called “Kargah Buddha”.  It’s  located near Kargah Nallah (10 km from Gilgit Town) 
The engraving was carved in the 7th century A.D.  A buddhist monastery,  three stupas and  Gilgit manuscripts (some of  the oldest manuscripts in the world) were also found in the vicinity in the 1930^th.  

Some people say that the image of Buddha was carved on the rock in order  to pay the faithfulness to Lord Buddha.
Apart from that there’s  a local legend behind this carving. Once upon a time  the villagers asked a passing saint to help them get rid of an ogress called Yakhshini who lived at Kargah. The saint succeeded in pinning her to the rock and declared she won,t bother them for as long as he was alive, however, if they buried him at the foot of the rock, she would never be free. So the villagers killed the saint and buried him below the rock.

My own pictures of Kargah Buddha

Shanghai International Circuit - China

I received this wonderful postcard from Tomanjaro.  Thanks a lot Tomanjaro!!!

This postcard is a tribute to my old passion for The Formula 1. I'm not a Formula 1 fan anymore. I was watching it and was really interested in the racing between 2003 and 2006 when Michael Schumacher was driving for Ferrari which seemed invincible, and young ambitious to win Fernando Alonso for Renault. There were a lot of great tense battles between them. And between Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, The ICEMAN. as well. And Alonso did it. He won The Formula 1 World Championship in 2005 & 2006. Ohhhh, I was so glad. I always liked Michael Schumacher, he's one of the best...but back then i was tired of watching Ferrari win all the time and I wanted a new face, a new hero that would come and overthrow the titans. Fernando Alonso+ Flavio Briatore+Renault made a perfect team. My heart belonged to them entirely.
In 2007 Schumacher left The Formula 1, after that Alonso left Renault, the thrill was gone. Little by little I began feeling bored with The Formula 1. Now I'm not interested.

Shanghai International Circuit

Race laps - 56
Turns - 16
Pole position - Left-hand side of the track
Lap record - 1:32.238 (Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, 2004)

Architect - Hermann Tilke
Opened - 2004
The track layout was inspired from the Chinese character shang, the first character in the name of the city Shanghai.

Jihlava - Czech Republic

Locomotives at the Jihlava train station.
I love this postcard simply becuse it made me think
of The Moscow Train Station in my hometown Saint Petersburg. Not only the locomotives but the
building in the left corner and the rails and the whole atmosphere....all that looks so
familiar. I felt like going at The Moscow Train Station, taking a train and going to visit my
relatives in the village. It's nice to travel with friends or in a company of someone
special drinking wine  or beer on the way. 

Zakynthos - Greece

The first postcards, the one from mywishlist, was sent to me by Milda.
I love the way she named the island: green + blue + white + turqoise island :-)
Actually that was my second postcard of Zakynthos. You can see my first one on the right.
The shipwreck bay.
Can you see the remains of the ship on the beach? Once upon a time the ship called "Panagiotis" carried illegal cigarettes. The storm and its damaged machine were the reason of the shipwreck in 1982. I remember the year wery well because it was the same year i was born. The waves moved the ship to the beach and the beach became the most photographed place at Zakynthos. There is no road to lead you there but you can easily go by daily cruises.
I don't think that there were daily cruises there when the ship wrecked, so the question is still the same.....Why is the rum always gone?

The second postcard offers the great general bird eye view. I can see the Blue Cave, of which i have a closer picture now, on it and the only thing that's left is a closer picture of the ship.And, of course, visiting this magnificent island.

Floating market - Thailand

This beautiful postcard came to me from Glen and Muey.
I had a couple of stamps dedicated to 50th anniversary of state visit of queen and king of Thailand to Pakistan and i thought that it would be very nice to send a postcard with this stamp to someone in Thailand. So i contacted several people and some of them liked my idea. Glen was one of those people and kindly agreed to swap with me. That's how i got this postcard.

The floating market in Rajburi. I have other postcards of this market but non of them looks so nice. It's all because of the water that looks like a liquid gold.

Glen also wrote that Bangkok used to be crisscrosed by many canals like the one on the postcard and so gained the name "Venice of the East" But today most have been filled in and converted into streets. My home town Saint Petersburg is sometimes called "The Venice of the North")))

Persepolis - Iran

Persepolis is situated 70 km northeast of the modern city of Shiraz, Iran.

Persepolis was the capital of the Persian kingdom. To the ancient Persians the city was known as Parsa (The City of Persians). Persepolis is a transliteration of the Greek name of the city which means: "Persian city"

According to Diodorus Persepolis was the richest city under the sun and the private houses had been furnished with every sort of wealth over the years…many of the houses belonged to the common people and were abundantly supplied with furniture and wearing apparel of every kind….

The bas-relief in the public hall of Darius, where The King of Kings received the tribute from all the nations in the Achaemenid Empire on the New Year occasions and gave presents in return, depicts Darius sitting on his throne with a monarchic stick in his right hand and a lotus with two buds in his left hand. The details of his clothes and throne as well as parts of the fine vessels in front of the king can be seen very delicately and precisely. All the relief works were done on dark-grey marble and were painted in ancient times. Apart from that the walls were tiled and decorated with pictures of lions, bulls, and flowers.

a postcard showing detail of Darius Public Hall bas-relief in the eastern staircase of Apadana Palace

Darius on his throne with the crown prince Xerxes

Stone Village Houses of Assos - Turkey

What we’ve got here….It’s Assos again, a city where Aristotle used to live for a while.

Thank you Deniz once again!!!! :-)

I couldn't find much about this particular place. As far as I understand  this postcard shows nicely crafted and decorated stone houses  set upon a mountainside overlooking the sea. The whole place is made of stone, some houses are old and some new but built the same.

Do you know how i love stone cottages? Well it's my second dreamhouse - a stone cottage on a narrow stone street))))

Russian blinis with caviar

I LOVE CAVIAR...salmon roe most of all...so i love this postcard.

To tell the truth i was very surprised to see a postcard like this because it's not something that the Russian bookstores are filled with.  You'll find tons of cityviews and some art postcards but for some reason you won't see any postcard showing the map of Russia, Russian flag or matreshka and stuff.
Juliana from Novosibirsk sent me this postcard and i have to thank her a lot for it.

Khao Phing Kan - Thailand

One of my longtime wishpostcards that finally came to me from Chile. Thank you Ignacio!!!!!
This rock is located in the area of Phang Nga bay in Thailand (not far from Phuket). It's known to the people of Thailand as Tapu Island or Nail Island.
But since it was featured in the James Bond movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" in 1974 the island is popularly called James Bond Island.
James Bond and Francisco Scaramaga were standing infront of it when started their decisive duel. I have to admit that from all villains this million-dollar hitman is my favorite.

James Bond: You live well, Scaramanga.
Francisco Scaramanga: At a million dollars a contract I can afford to, Mr Bond. You work for peanuts, a hearty well done from her Majesty the Queen and a pittance of a pension. Apart from that we are the same. To us, Mr Bond, we are the best.
James Bond: There's a useful four letter word, and you're full of it.

Neuschwanstein Castle - Germany

Neuschwanstein Castle in the German state of Bavaria

I received these wonderful postcards from Wenzel. A nice winter view with amazing fairy-tale castle and frozen lake. I like castles much more than palaces and this one looks unreal. By the way the Walt Disney logo was designed after this castle.

Assos - Turkey

Today I received a great postcard from Turkey, the one from my wish list and I really have to thank Deniz for that.

The Ruins of the Doric Temple of Athena built by the settlers from Lesbos.

Assos (aka Behramkale) is an ancient town in front of the island of Lesbos founded in the 7th century B.C by Aeolian colonists from Lesbos.

After Plato's death, Aristotle left for Assos to the court of his dear friend Hermias of Atameus.  

Hermias was , a eunuch and former slave who had come to rule the province of Atarneus.  In his youth, Hermias had studied philosophy in Plato's Academy where he first met Aristotle

Aristotle  married  Pythias, Hermias' daughter or niece and spent about three years in Assos before moving to Lesbos. After that he was invited by Philip of Macedonia to tutor his son Alexander in 343 BC.

In 341 BC, shortly after Aristotle accepted the tutoring position, Hermeias was captured by Persians  and tortured to death  in a vain attempt to extract information regarding King Philip’s invasion plans. His death moved Aristotle deeply, and he created a memorial at Delphi commemorating Hermias’ loyalty and writes a hymn to his name

Karlův most - Prague.

There is something that fascinates me about Charles Bridge in Prague. The beauty of the bridge itself and the outlines of the city beyond it has the air of mystery and romance that leaves me mesmerized although I guess that it looks totally different in reality, in the daytime overcrowded with noisy tourists....

I found this description in a third-rate gothic novel....the novel was really bad but it was worth spending half an hour of my time just to find these lines:

The blackened statues, as I passed under their blank gaze, along the unending bridge, with their ancient garments and their saintly crowns, seemed to me the real inhabitants and owners of this place, while the busy, trivial men and women, hurrying to and fro, were a swarm of ephemeral visitants infesting it for a day.

(Lifted veil - George Eliot)

I've got this postcard from a friend. It used to be my favorite postcard of Prague until I got the previous one.

Почерневшие статуи святых в старинных венцах и одеждах, под пустыми взглядами которых я проходил по бесконечно длинному мосту, казались мне подлинными обитателями и владельцами сего места. А толпы куда-то спешаших обычных мужчин и женщин представлялись роем крохотных эфимерных созданий, населивших город на один единственный день.

(Приоткрытая завеса - Джордж Элиот)

My third favorite postcard showing Prague and one of my very first

LONDON is very beautiful at night

The man was steeped in Highland fantasy, and he revealed London as Wrapt in a soft haze of mystic beauty, a fairy tale of delicacy and wistfulness.

(Aleister Crowley - The Moonchild)

Ночам Лондон бывает очень красив...Погрузившись в мечтательные видения, он открыл для себя Лондон в мягком, мистически-прекрасном тумане — чудесную сказку о тоске и неясности. (А. Кроули - Лунное дитя)


This lovely postcard i received from Anu. I'm very glad that we could arrange several swaps because she also sent me another great postcard of London. Amazing night view - empty street, wet pavement and reflections of street lights.

A trip to remember. Murree.

Day 2.
We got up early in the morning, because we wanted to see the maximum of Murree in that single whole day that we had. We had planned our schedule before leaving and wanted to keep up the schedule, so we had to leave Murree...                                                         

Murree Hills

The next day
We had to queue up to take shower, because we had a single bathroom for the four of us. Thanks God the geyser worked and it saved us from freezing to mortality in shower!

Our first destination was a breakfast place, because Nabeel refused to think about anything until we took breakfast. We had our first paratha with fried eggs at a small place filled with locals. We had decided to go only to the places where local residents dine, instead of going to high street (mall road) tourist catering pseudo Lahori, Peshawari, Sindhi etc restaurants.
After breakfast we headed out to a place in the direction of Nathia Gali (some 5Kms from Murree). This spot was discovered by Nabeel on his prior visit to Murree. This place gave us the first feeling of being in a non-urban setup. Murree otherwise (the high street Murree) is a tourist joint with all the amenities that a man can ask for in a cosmopolitan city.

Our next stop was Patriata. We could not afford a helicopter ride over Murree, but the Patriata chair lift and cable car combo was accessible and affordable for us. We did have a kind of an aerial view and most interestingly free of cost! TDCP in-charge at Murree (Patriata) generously allowed us a free ride and not only the ride (I’m talking about hospitality!).

We went up all the way to the top station, disembarking from the chair lift, which took us from the base station, at the mid station and taking cable car from there.

in the heart of the woods

We went out towards the woods along with our accompanying TDCP employees to witness some of the natural beauty which lies uncovered for tourists. Walking through the woods, breathing fresh air along with cigarette smoke, we heard some kind of singing. When asked, the TDCP representatives explained that it was POTHWARI SHER (Potohari poetry) singing. They explained that usually shepherds sing these songs, while over seeing their grazing cattle (it is mostly goats).
We headed towards the sound of the singing and upon visual contact we noticed that it was no single shepherd loning it out there. There were many people sitting on the ground and listening to the one who was singing at that time. We sneaked close to them and hesitantly sat among the crowd. We were expecting the turn of all heads towards us, but most amazingly no one turned as if we were expected or as if it made no difference.

We sat there and enjoyed the singing. During the intervals we talked to the people present there and they explained that such kinds of gatherings were not planned. It was something like a single person sitting in the wild and singing and anyone who wanted could join in just for listening or even could participate in a kind of a verbal duel. The real format of Potohari poetry is dualistic, which means that one person sings about his village his girl his life and the beauty of everything and then the other person responds with a story of his own. The Potohari poetry, just as all other poetry, is mostly love related, but it has a strong tint of sorrow and longing. Potohari verse mostly tells about the beloved, who parted.

After that wonderful experience we took the same cable car and then chair lift down to the base station, where lunch awaited us. We met madam chicken at the table again. She was very nicely grilled and was saucy and well marinated. Madam chicken tasted so well that Vera even allowed herself a second serving. And guess what, our longtime, to come; companion was accompanied by rice on the table. Believe me till that time we had no idea that Madam and her companion would follow us like rock star fans!!!

Coming back to Murree from Patriata we decided to at last go to the Mall road to see the tourist life and get a feeling of being a tourist. We were amazed to see new multi-storey shopping malls filled with branded apparel, accessories and other stuff.

Cold temperatures and tiredness forced us back to our accommodation at around 22:00 hours. We were served a hot cup of tea before going to bed. We needed a nice night’s sleep, because the next day we were supposed to make a 234Km run all the way to Naran from Murree. Once in bed I had shivers, which I could not figure out the reason for, maybe it was because of the cold or maybe it was the thought of those 234Kms which we had to ride over spirally mountain roads. But whatever it was it kept me trembling till I fell asleep.