Indonesia

The first week after the Eater break is almost over (talking about the workdays, of course) and it hasn't been that bad I thought it would be, at all. So in order to celebrate it, I'm sharing some cards from SE Asia I've received recently (many cards from SE Asia have reached my mailbox in the last few weeks; an interesting region indeed).

First one comes from Yolanda, showing a waterfall called Curug Cikondangin in Cianjur, Indonesia. Yolanda writes it attracts many tourists, domestic and international ones. 

The card was  stained a bit (by another card's mark, I guess) butt the back is surprisingly neat. And the stamps are fantastic! Thanks, Yolanda!

Indonesia

Diananti sent me a great postcard representing Indonesian waterfall, located in the Bantimurung Bulusaraung National Park on south Sulawesi island of Indonesia. It contains thelimestone hill of Maros Pangkep, the second largest karst area in the world after the one in South-Eastern China.

The karst area is 43,750 hectares and has 286 caves which includes 16 pre-historic caves in Maros Regency and 17 pre-historic caves in Pangkep, Bone Regency.

There is a waterfall (Bantimurung Waterfall) with 2 caves, Dream Cave on the left side and Stone Cave on the right side of the waterfall, (inner) tubing is also can be done. I see it's also popular swimming spot. 

In 2001, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Asia Regional Office and UNESCO World Heritage Center held the Asia-Pacific Forum on Karst Ecosystems and World Heritage in Malaysia which convinced Indonesia government to conserve Maros-Pangkep Karst. Finally in 2004, the Ministry of Forestry declared the allocation of 43,750 hectares of Bantimurung-Bulusaurung land for wildlife conservatory, nature park, conservation forest, limited production forest, production forest, as Bantimurung – Bulusaraung National Park.

Besides insectarium, butterfly breeding centers, managed by both the reserve administrator and residents serve complete the metamorphosis process of the butterflies. There are many butterflies around the waterfall, so Alfred Russel Wallace dubbed the place as the Butterfly Kingdom.

The Snake is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac and related to the Chinese calendar, as well as in related East Asian zodiacal systems. As another Year of the Snake has just began (10 February 2013) many countries issued a commemorative stamp in order to celebrate it. The Indonesian issue can be seen above. Thanks, diananti!

Indonesia

This gorgeous postcards comes from Indonesia, as you can see ;) These kind of cards always make me especially happy, because I can see how do the people live at the particular part of the world, what do they eat and do. It says that markets in Indonesia sell almost everything. I'd really like to walk around at this kind of market for a bit, since we have no such type of markets in Croatia. 

Indonesia

I thought I had no postcards from Indonesia in my collection, but today, while sorting my postcards and dividing them by countries, I found this reprint that I received as a prize for winning a lottery!

Surabaya, formerly Soerabaja, Soerabaia or Surabaja, is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 2.7 million, and the capital of the province of East Java. It is located on the northern shore of eastern Java at the mouth of the Mas River and along the edge of the Madura Strait. To Indonesians, it is known as "the city of heroes" due to the importance of the Battle of Surbaya a in galvanizing Indonesian and international support for Indonesian independence during the Indonesian National Revolution.

It think this photo was taken at the beggining of the 20th century, but on the back the exact year is not mentioned. Thanks to Dee for this lovely suprise! And I LOVE the cute rabbit stamp!