The Travelling Feet

My travel blogger friend Catherine of SeekingFelicity.com sent me this postcard before I left for my backpacking trip. Though I managed to ask my cousin to send me a scanned copy of the postcard, I haven’t had the chance to see the actual one since my folks misplaced it.

London just recently hosted the 2012 Olympics. I had seen a couple footage of the opening and closing ceremonies and I’d have to say that I’d probably need some time to getting used to the kind of entertainment they offer. Honestly, I didn’t quite get one of the performances during the opening ceremony – the one where they paid tribute to the internet and social networking because of how it affected the lives of millions all over the world. I got bored after watching it so I turned the TV off. I only saw the Spice Girl’s performance on the closing ceremony too. hehe.  I guess I’d have to travel to London and live there for a while to understand the country better and I’m hoping that I’d get to do this dream in this lifetime.  Never been a fan of sports too so I didn’t pay much attention to what was happening during the Olympic season. What I remember was watching (or reading, i think) about a segment in the news that the 2012 Olympics didn’t boost UK’s economy as what was supposed to happen but I don’t want to bore you with that talk.

Anyway, on Cath’s message, she said that London is one of the most popular diverse cities in the world where people love to drink tea and that the national food in Britain is an Indian dish called Tikka Masala (I guess it really shows that a huge chunk of UK’s population comprises Indians? or perhaps Indian culture has a great influence in UK’s). Fish n’ chips is also very popular she says. In London, fries are called chips and where chips are crisps. I’d have to agree with her that it is indeed bloody confusing!

Postcard Origin: United Kingdom
Date received: somewhere around Feb 2012

Stamp collected: unsure since a sticker was on top of the stamps

Someone recently asked me how much does it cost to send a postcard from the Philippines. My answer was 14 pesos. That’s basically the postcard stamp price you need to secure to send a postcard within the country or abroad. The thing is my reply may have caused confusion when someone asked me how much to send a postcard from the same city where I’m in since I do not think that there is a postage stamp of that amount (not sure though). If there’s one, you’d hardly find it.

a 6.56″ x 4.93″ postcard and a 14-peso postage stamp

How Much to Mail a Postcard

Postage for postcards will require you to pay 14 pesos (roughly ~0.33USD ) provided that you are sending a regular sized postcard. A regular sized postcard ranges within the measurements of 6.56″ x 4.93″. If the postcard you choose to send out are way bigger in terms of the measurements mentioned in here, you’d have to pay for different postcard rates.

a 7-peso postage stamp sheet

Postcards cost somewhere between P4 up to P40. I normally settle for those priced at P12 due to their quality and the postage stamps price I stick on the postcards I send out are just those 7-pesos stamps.

In case you do not see any 14-pesos stamps, simply buy two 7-pesos stamps and attach them to your postcards. That’s how you should do it. But if you want to be generous and attach a stamp that’s priced over P14, go ahead and do so! You’re not going to be penalized for it!

Happy Postcrossing!

P.S. This is the postcard stamps price when you send postcards from the Philippines to any country in the world, ok?

For this session of Postcard Sundays, I am showing you a postcard I received from China.

One day, a large envelope, the size of the envelope of a LARGE greeting card, got delivered to my home address. The first thing I noticed with the envelope before opening it were the stamps pasted in it. I couldn’t contain my excitement as I saw those stamps as there were four of them. They were so cute and large in size too! (check the photo below to see the resized image of those stamps)

When I opened the envelope, I first saw the postcard of a landscape (photo above). It doesn’t have any info on its back as to where it was taken or the name of the place. Although there were Chinese characters printed at the back, I couldn’t understand what they were.

My anonymous postcard sender is a postcard and stamp collector and was generous enough to enclose a second postcard too (photo shown below).

And guess what else is inside the large envelope I got. STAMPS!!! My generous postcard sender was too kind to send me stamps and the quality of those stamps were all in excellent condition. There were 15 of them of different sizes and prints and they were all colorful and lovely. My head was already jumping with glee upon seeing the stamps given to me.

This is one great thing about exchanging postcards. When you get lucky, you’re likely to receive treats like this. I just need to find those stamps a new home.

Postcard Origin: China
Date received: April 2009

Stamp collected: China Stamp

I always have this penchant for stamps, postcards, writing letters and keychains. I can still recall those days when I was exchanging letters to someone from Germany and Indonesia back in grade school writing about fuerteventura holidays but then I got busy and grew up.

Then 2 years ago, after blog hopping some sites, I stumbled upon Postcrossing.com, a non-profit (i guess) site which aims to give you the opportunity to allow you to exchange postcards with random strangers across the globe at the expense of the person sending the cards. With this, my passion in exchanging letters via postcards got renewed.

sent to Netherlands in 2010
receiver: ”I wanna live there “

So what do I gain from exchanging postcards? Stamps. My motive is selfish in nature. I send postcards so that I can receive postcards with real stamps in it. You see, I collect stamps. Not that I am a fanatic about it but I just want to collect them. No special/complicated reasons involved. The sight of stamps always fascinate me eh

Then lately, something hit me.

This Facebook group where I’m a member, the Pinoy Travel Bloggers group, is very much aggressive in their advocacy of promoting the tourism of the Philippines. You see, like any other Asian countries, a lot of travellers fear of visiting our country due to the bad publicity about our place. Some countries even have the Philippines on their list of must-not-visit places for security reasons. Aside from our country being totally misunderstood in terms of safety, travellers are also wary of travelling here due to the costs involved. Imagine the 7,100+ islands we have and the costs involved on exploring each one of them. Too expensive! Unlike the greater mainland Asia where you simply travel by bus or train to go to each country, in here, you have to fly to each one of those destinations. Cheap alternatives are available too but might be too tedious and stressful for some.

Anyway, going back to where I got hit (hehe), I realized that I was unconsciously promoting the Philippines by sending these postcards. Such a no-brainer if you’d think about it

Some of the random folks I send postcards would list down nature, sea, beaches, folk traditions, festivals, architecture and all those other categories for their postcard preference and we basically have all of those!

Like these 3 postcards I just sent out, each person who’ll receive this had their own preferences on what they wanted to get and here’s my share of promoting tourism in our country

This postcard of the Taal Volcano will travel all the way to USA since the person who requested this loves nature. I hope that with this postcard her family can visit the Philippines and explore Taal Volcano as soon as it’s safe to trek there again. Never been to this part of the country too. The closest I got to seeing Taal was viewing it from Tagaytay and I look forward to the day that I’d be able to climb this cute volcano

This beautiful scenery of the beaches of Coron, Palawan will go all the way to Germany as the person who will receive this loves the sea. Being in Germany, I guess they have limited options to swim in their beaches due to the cold temperature and I hope they find time to fly to the Philippines and enjoy this truly captivating treat that Coron has to offer. I’ve never been to this place too but Coron has been added to my must-see places list. Soon Coron, soon…

And of course my hometown – Cebu. This postcard shows the different places to visit in Cebu and this one’s gonna travel to China as the one who’ll receive this also loves nature, architecture and requested to receive something about my place. Like any other destinations in our country, Cebu is blessed with a rich cultural heritage and beautiful beaches that will definitely lure any traveller to visit the place. Although China is also rich with its own natural resources, I hope the one who’ll receive this postcard would visit Cebu and enjoy our tropical climate and prestine white sand beaches too.

So there you have it. Now you know the reason why I waste take time and exert effort in sending out postcards.

How about you? Do you want to receive a postcard from Cebu? Yes? Then send me your complete mailing address here, with the subject: “PLEASE SEND ME A POSTCARD”, ok?

“it shows AMÁLIA RODRIGUES, the best FADO singer of all times.”

For this Postcard Sundays edition, I’m giving you something black…as promised  ;-)

Actually the postcard I received looked more of a sepia thingy but either way, it’s the closest thing I got to having a black and white postcard. Never expected I’d get one too. I was used to getting all those colorful postcards with beautiful sceneries, festivals, etc and this postcard gave me that “WOW” factor.

Not that it was too beautiful, ok? It’s more of a realization that I do not have to stick to sending the postcards I normally send out, you know – those showcasing beaches and famous landmarks. But the problem is there’s so little to choose from with the limited budget that I have. If I send a big postcard, it means I had to add more stamps to it on top of paying extra for the card. Good thing it doesn’t require me to hire German Translators. Ok, now I’m ranting. back to the topic…

This postcard was sent by an aunt in Portugal who’s starting a postcard and stamp collection for her baby niece. Isn’t that sweet? According to the sender of the card she sent a Postcard of one of the best Fado singers of all time. “Fado is a typical Portuguese music genre”  she said.

Wiki says that …
“fado is a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor. However, in reality fado is simply a form of song which can be about anything, but must follow a certain structure. The music is usually linked to the Portuguese word saudade which symbolizes the feeling of loss (a permanent, irreparable loss and its consequent life lasting damage).”

Not knowing what Fado is, I had to checkout YouTube and listen to the song Fado Corrido. Then I checked a couple more songs from Portuguese singer and actress Amália Rodrigues, known as the Queen of Fado. It’s like listening to songs of Billy Holiday in the movie Forever Young. One song I liked was Amália’s rendition of the song Fado Meu

Fado Meu by Amália Rodrigues

It’s just nice knowing that I got to have this opportunity to learn something new from the countries of each of the postcards I receive and Yes, I listen to songs like this

Postcard Origin: Portugal
Date received: June 2010

Stamp collected: Portugal Stamp

Up next…something from China