World on my postcards

Chiang Mai is a city in mountainous northern Thailand. A short 9 km drive from Chiang Mai, Bo Sang Village – also called the Umbrella Village – welcomes families to watch their arts in action. See the entire process from constructing the saa paper umbrellas by hand to painting them in intricate designs.

  Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, is a large city known for ornate shrines and vibrant street life. Wat Pho also spelt Wat Po , is a Buddhist temple complex in the Phra Nakhon District, Bangkok, Thailand.  

 At the centre each elephant has his or her own mahout to care for on a one-on-one basis. Elephants are only worked during the mornings, with their afternoons and nights free to roam the surrounding natural forest. With such a vast area filled with hills and the Ping River, elephants can wander through the forests as well as take baths in the river.

The kimono is a Japanese traditional garment worn by men, women and children. In kimono it is the pattern on the surface, rather than the cut of the garment, that is significant. Indications of social status, personal identity and cultural sensitivity are expressed through colour and decoration.

 Brazilian families are often large; having five or six siblings is not unusual. Nearly one-third of the population is under eighteen!

The Festival of Pacific Arts, or FESTPAC is a traveling festival hosted every four years by a different country in Oceania . It was conceived by the Pacific Community  as a means to stem erosion of traditional cultural practices by sharing and exchanging culture at each festival.

Mauritania lies across one of the great trans-Saharan trade routes. For over 500 years, to 1674 when the Arabs defeated them, the Almoravid Dynasty controlled the trade in gold, slaves and salt.

The Free State  is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bloemfontein, which is also South Africa's judicial capital. Its historical origins lie in the Orange Free State Boer republic and later Orange Free State Province. The majority of the population are black Africans who speak Sotho as a first language. The vast majority of white people in the Free State are Afrikaans-speaking. In 1880 the white population made up 45.7% of the total population.

Sri Lanka is the oldest continually Buddhist country, Theravada Buddhism being the major religion in the island since its official introduction in the 2nd century BC by Venerable Mahinda, the son of the Emperor Ashoka of India during the reign of King Devanampiya- Tissa. Monks from Sri Lanka have had an important role in spreading both Theravada and Mahayana throughout South-east Asia.

Afghanistan is a landlocked mountainous country located within South Asia and Central Asia. The country is the 40th largest in the world in size. Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, located in the Kabul Province. The Hindu Kush mountain range reaches a height of 7,492 m (24,580 ft) at Noshaq, Afghanistan's highest peak.

In an extraordinary meeting of nature's artistic splendor and humankind's resourcefulness, Cappadocia is one of those rare places that must be experienced at least once in a lifetime. With soaring rock formations, uniquely-rippled landscapes, splendid walking trails, mysterious underground cities and rock-cut churches, Cappadocia is the must-see destination in Turkey.

 Istanbul is the only city in the world that straddles two continents: Asia and Europe. W hile being the ancient capital of many empires, from Rome to the Ottoman era, it is not the modern capital of Turkey as Ankara is. Istanbul has the same population – 13 million and rising – as one of the smallest countries in Europe, Belgium

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a French archipelago south of the Canadian island of Newfoundland. Sparsely populated Miquelon-­Langlade island contains the Grand Barachois lagoon, home to seabirds and seals. The busier Saint Pierre island has a distinct French atmosphere, with a cathedral and the Musée Heritage, which celebrates regional history. An island nearby, Île-aux-Marins, features an abandoned fishing village.

South Africa is the only nation-state named after its geographic location; there was a general agreement not to change the name after the establishment of a constitutional nonracial democracy in 1994. South Africans are by custom polite and circumspect in their speech, although residents of the major urban centers may bemoan the decline of once-common courtesies. Each of the quite different culture groups—corresponding to home language speakers of English, Afrikaans, Tamil and Urdu, and the southern Bantu Languages, cross-cut by religion and country of original origin—has its own specific expressive forms of social propriety and respect. Source: http://www.everyculture.com/Sa-Th/South-Africa.html#ixzz4HsyN0RdS

The Bollenhut is a ladies' hat topped with pom-poms and has been part of the traditional costume worn by women in the three neighbouring Black Forest villages of Gutach, Kirnbach (near Wolfach) and Reichenbach (near Hornberg) since around 1750. Young unmarried girls wear hats with red "pompoms" and married women hats with black ones.

Peru is a country in South America that's home to a section of Amazon rainforest and Machu Picchu, an ancient Incan city set high in the Andes mountains. The area surrounding Machu Picchu, including the Sacred Valley, the Inca Trail and the lively city of Cusco, is also rich in Incan sites as well as hiking, rafting and mountain-biking opportunities.