Chinese New Year Postcard from the Singaporean Philatelic Museum

Acting on a tip from the PostCrossing Blog, I sent one of my snake-themed postcards to the Singaporean Philatelic Museum as a contribution to their new exhibition Snakes and Ladders. They open a new exhibition at the beginning of every Chinese New Year. The exhibition runs from February to September 2013. if you have a snake-themed postcard, you can send it to:

Singapore Philatelic Museum
23B Coleman Street
Singapore 179807
Singapore


Make sure to include your return address. The museum will send a postcard back. I received mine today, so it's not an April Fool joke.

From Las Vegas with Love

Happy Valentine's Day

Since the Chinese New Year (Sunday, February 10, 2013) and the Valentine's Day (Thursday, February 14, 2013) is only four days apart, This Happy New Year card is perfect to mark both occasions. Two snakes, commemorating the Year of Snake, form a heart-shaped love symbol, with the Paris Las Vegas Hotel in the background.

Sealed with Love (Forever) Stamp 2013

The U.S. Postal Service issued a Sealed with Love (Forever®) stamp on January 30, 2013 showing an envelope fastened with a red wax seal where a small heart enclosed inside a larger heart.

Copies of the postcard, made via VistaPrint. were sent as US-2055999, US-2062588 and US-2080030 etc. You can also purchase a copy from Zazzle.com.

Happy Chinese New Year of the Snake

Year of Snake Maxi Card

Chinese New Year of the Snake starts on February 10, 2013 and ends on January 30, 2014. The Spring Festival celebrations run from Chinese New Year's Eve, February 9, 2013 (the last day of the Year of Dragon), to the Lantern Festival on February 24, 2013, the 15th day of the first month in the lunisolar year.

In Las Vegas, the Chinese New Year has earned an increasing recognition as the longest and most important festival in the Chinese calendar with great appeal to many visitors. The maxi card features the Year of the Snake Display at the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Bellagio, with a "Lunar Year of the Snake 2013 (forever) stamp issued on January 16, 2013, postmarked with the official first-day-of-issue cancellation from San Francisco. As seen on the card and the stamp, firecrackers are fired during the celebrations to scare off evil spirits and usher in renewed hopes for the coming year.

Update: The card was sent as US-2089840, US-2209193, etc.

Brahma Shrine at Caesar Palace

Postcard US-2032250 to Thailand shows the Brahma Shrine at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. It is a replica of one of the most famous Buddhist shrines, the Erawan Shrine at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.

At the first glance, it may feel strange to see the shimmering blue-and-gold motif among the surrounding white pillars of Roman Square. Nonetheless, since donated to Caesars in 1984 from Thai newspaper tycoons Mr. and Mrs. Kamphol Vacharaphol and Mr. Yip Hon, a prominent figure of Hong Kong, the Shrine has become a symbol of prosperity and good luck. It features a statue of Phra Phrom, the Thai representation of the Hindu god Brahma. The four faces of the Brahma statue represent the Four Divine States of Mind: Loving Kindness or Benevolence (慈), Compassion (悲), Sympathy or Empathetic Joy (喜), and Equanimity (捨).

The Shrine was cast in bronze and plated in gold, weighted more than 360 kilograms or 8,000 pounds and measured 4.3 meters or 14 feet tall. It was dedicated twenty nine years ago today on February 5, 1984 under the supervision of Buddhist monks. It is open to people of all faiths as explained by the full inscription of the shrine's plaque.

Florida Overseas Railroad

On January 22, 1912, the first train from mainland Florida reached Key West through the Florida Overseas Railroad, an extension of the Florida East Coast Railway, in operation from 1912 to 1935.

Until today 101 years ago, Key West is an isolated outpost reachable only by boat. Standard Oil tycoon Henry Flagler conceived the railroad that stretched more than 160 kilometers or 100 miles into open ocean, and the construction began in 1905. Similar to William Andrews Clark, who built the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad that went through Las Vegas in 1905, Henry Flagler was a visionary who made remote destinations accessible to both passengers and freight.

You can read the Last Train to Key West to learn how the train services ended in September 1935.

Update: The Postcard showing a train traveling along the Florida Overseas Railroad was later sent to Brasil as US-2501260.

54th Anniversay of Alaska Statehood

Glacier in Alaska

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act on July 7, 1958. It led to Alaska's admission into the Union on January 3, 1959, becoming the 49th State. Juneau, the territorial capital, was formally recognized as the state capital, and William A. Egan was sworn in as the first governor.

These shaped cards were purchased in 2003 when I attended the ASPRS annual conference in Anchorage. The glacier shaped card has been sent to Taiwan.

The Polar Bears are the Cutest

New Year's Fireworks at the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas

New Year's Fireworks at the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas 

Watching fireworks to ring in the New Year is perfect; Watching the fireworks shooting from a 1149-foot (350-meter)-tall tower is even better. At midnight on the New Year's Evening, fireworks were launched  from the Stratosphere Tower along with six other casinos and hotels: MGM Grand, Aria, Planet Hollywood, Caesars Palace, Treasure Island, and the Venetian. In all, more than 80,000 fireworks were on display named "America's Party" as 330,000 visitors were celebrating the beginning of 2013 in Las Vegas.

Update: This postcard was later sent as: US-2160260, US-2055998, US-2074542

A similar version was sent as US-2022384

You can customize and purchase this postcard at Zazzle.com.