Vietnam, Shaped cards serie from Vietnam post

 Today I went to philatelic bureau as we have new stamp and I saw they had released new shaped cards. So until now, the Vietnam post had released 5 shaped card: Ancient bridge, Lantern, Aodai - tradional costume, Conical hat and the earliest one: a postal box issued last year as the official maxicard for the 70th anniversary of Post and Telecomunication issue.
I hope Vietnam post will have more for this serie to present about our country.

The first one issued in Aug 2015. A typical postal post in any city in Vietnam.

These two show Hoian city, an UNESCO site. Issued in July 2016. The Bridge Pagode and Hoian Lantern are very famous to tourists when they visit Vietnam. They are symbol of this tiny and peaceful city.

And these two released recently. Conical Hat and Aodai are a couple which make the beauty of vietnamese girl, women for several decades. There are many poets and writers writting about this topic .

I look for new ones about the vietnamese cuisine as I am a bit gourmand.

Cover#201 Kyrgyzstan, Floral Cover,

 Cover from one of the rare countries to me arrived today.  I love stamps from Kyrgyzstan, they are always so coloful. This one was sent from Sberatel fair in Prague, whe Kyrgyzstan post opend a kios to help collector having philatelic of thei country.

Sent from Prague: 9 Sept 2016

Departure from Kyrgyzstan: 25 Oct 2016

Arrived: 15 Nov 2016

Thank you so much Trung for this beautiful cover!

Cover#200 Czech, Cover with a lot of beautiful stamps,

 This letter arrived today, I got it from my neighbour as I am not at home all the day so the factor gave it to her.

Sent: 01 Nov 2016

Arrived:14 Nov 2016

This one is new fauna issue for this year of Czech post. I love this serie.

 With some other EUROPA stamps for my EUROPA collection.

 This set is from United Nations Post about the LGBT topic. It is in my wishlist for a long time and finaly I got them for my collection.

Thank you so much Trung for your support!

Cover#199 Japan, The year of the Rooster 2017 FDC,

This is the first one arrived for my Lunar year collection: Year of the Rooster 2017. Japan is one of the first countries released stamps to celebrate this event.

The sender used the both stamps of the set from the lottery serie. Traditionally, for lunar new year stamps, Japanese post issues two types: the normal and the lottery ones with a pretty extra price (+3) and the number. The result will be known in middle of January.

Sent: 1 Nov 2016

Arrived: 11 Nov 2016

Thank you so much masako-k for this help!

Legend about the Rooster

The rooster always sought to prevail over others, made troubles and fought all around. When the Jade Emperor selected the lunar zodiac animals, the contributions to human beings were taken into consideration, so the rooster had no chance. One day, the rooster found the horse which had been selected was spoiled by human beings with golden saddle and silver stirrup. The rooster was very envious of the horse, so it asked: "hi, brother horse! How does you win today's honor?" The horse replied: "I plow and transport at ordinary times and charge forward in wartimes. So I have made great exploits for human beings. Of course they love me." The horse continued: "it is not difficult to get human's love if you can take your advantage and work for them. For example, the ox can plow; the dog can watch the gate; the pig devotes meat and the dragon can rain. You are born with a natural golden voice; maybe it is helpful to humans."

After going back home, the rooster thought it over and finally found that it could wake up the sleeping people with its golden voice. Therefore, the rooster got up early every dawn and woke people from sleep by singing. Humans were very grateful, so they decided to ask the Jade Emperor to list the rooster into the lunar zodiac signs. But according to Jade Emperor's standard, only animals rather than birds could be selected as the zodiac signs. Among the six domestic animals, the horse, the ox, the sheep and the dog were all selected except the rooster. So, the rooster was extremely anxious: its eyes turned into red and its throat became hoarse, but still had no effect.

One night, the rooster was unable to get over; it tossed about and couldn't sleep. Its soul came to the Heavenly Palace and complained tearfully to the Jade Emperor that it woke up the humans every morning and made great contributions, but it was not selected, so it was unable to get over. After that, the rooster cried. The Jade Emperor thought the rooster indeed made great contributions and his standard of selecting the lunar zodiac signs was wrong, so he picked a flower in front of the Heavenly Palace and put it on the rooster's head as a reward.

After the rooster woke up, it found there was really a red flower on its head, so it went to visit the Four Heavenly Kings with the flower. The Four Heavenly King recognized that this flower was the one in front of the royal furnace and the Jade Emperor valued the rooster, so they permitted the rooster to participate in the competition for lunar zodiac signs. On the competition day, the rooster and the dog got up and came together. When they approached the Heavenly Palace, the rooster flied to the front of the dog. The dog wanted to catch up but failed, so it was ranked after the rooster. Since then, the dog hated the rooster and chased after whenever it saw the rooster. Even today, the dog is still angry about the rooster and the phenomenon of "the dog chasing after the rooster" is still visible. While the rooster still wakes up people every morning in red face and with a beautiful red flower.

PC#161 France, UNESCO site: Paris, Banks of the Seine

From her travel in Paris, my old classmate sent me this Effel tower card. It remembers me old days I was in Paris for my new year holiday, the noel market close to this tower. They burned the top of the  tower with a lot of light in different colors. And the market at the bottom was crowed with asian, african and europeen cuisine. The color of donut I still remember. With the music of some vagabond artists who are from South American, the Indian music to me is the music of the wild nature.

 I still remember the Event night Christmas, my two friends with me were in Notre Dame de Paris. It was a night with slight rain and pretty cold. We had to run to catch the last train to back home, walking in the silence of Christmas night. Sometimes, a car passed us and I could hear some word from certain songs I didnot know the name. They drunk in a party, backed home and sang a bit. 

And I didnot forget the lyric of one of my favorite song about Christmas too:

"Quand december revient, quand la neige neige

Et ton visage me revient, en rafale de rires  d'étoiles

C'est nour deux à l'envers quang mes rêves rêvent

A ces Noel rouges et verts

Nos huit ans nos amours d'hiver

Marie-Noel Marie-Noel

Petite fille. joujou fragile

Petit Noel, de mes Noels d'enfants..."

Paris, Banks of the Seine

 UNESCO site

Date of inscription: 1991

From the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, from the Place de la Concorde to the Grand and Petit Palais, the evolution of Paris and its history can be seen from the River Seine. The Cathedral of Notre-Dame and the Sainte Chapelle are architectural masterpieces while Haussmann's wide squares and boulevards influenced late 19th- and 20th-century town planning the world over.

Source: unesco.org

Thank you so much Van!