Belated Secret Santa

Well, it was worth the wait! I finally arrived home after a long haul flight and found this delight in my letterbox from my belated Secret Santa: :

I'm quite partial to nice Constantine campgates. Very happy to come home to this. And very happy to be back in sunny Australia after freezing for the last week in DPRK! Here's another happy snap:

 

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WOW. Thats an incredible picture what on earth are you doing in the DPRK?

 

Nice coin. BTW. Somewhat related.

North Korea, Kaesong
King Sukjong of Goryeo (r. AD 1095-1105)
AE Cash (c. AD 1097- 1105)
25 mm x 4.42 grams
Obverse: Hae Dong Tong Bo (Seal script) "Treasure of the Eastern Sea"
Reverse: Blank
Note: Scarce to Rare. Casting fault on reverse.

 

Nice!

 

Very interesting! I did see some ancient Korean coins when I visited the ancient town of Kaesong. I don't know much about these.

 

My other hobby is collecting passport stamps. I'm trying to get one per country. I've been to all the "normal" countries, so all that's left is the more difficult places. Much like coin collecting really.

 

A fantastic walkabout! I went to Russia when it was still the Soviet Union, but I have no desire to go to North Korea. That was enough of that sort of country for me for a lifetime.

BTW, neat coin!

BBTW, you look like Bono in that picture!

Good on 'ya!

 

Very cool. I would love to travel more.

 

Cool travelling hobby, Smeag ... great photo (looks like you were having fun)

Curious? => what was the climate temperature while you were there? (I don't see snow on the ground, but you look a bit like a guy from Australia in a northern country)

 

that's a nice campgate greg, sharp and some tad o' sweet silvering.

well played secret stanta

 

Yeah, we aussies aren't used to cold, Gol. The temperature most days was around zero degrees celsius maximum, and -10 overnight. It never gets that cold back home in Oz!

 

Great gift! I've only been to South Korea and likely the only way I'm going north is if hostilities resume.

 

Congrats on your Secret Santa coin !!!

Now that you're back home, enjoy the warm weather down under...it's still COLD here in the US northeast!

Somehow i don't think you have a new 'pen-pal' with that soldier you posed with

 

Re: North Korea; I highly recommend the book "The Last Stand of Fox Company." Incredible story from the "forgotten war," Korean War. What those Marines and U.S. Army soldiers went through will stay with me for the rest of my life. Amazing that at 66 years of age I knew so little of that "Conflict."
Steve

 

Stamps in North Korea ? Man I thought people travel there nowadays to collect HBs.

 

"This Kind of War" by T.R. Ferhenbach is a eye opener. I consider it a must read for a broad perspective of the war. When I was stationed in South Korea I decided I had to have a greater historical appreciation of why I was there and that book did the trick.

 

How many countries in your passport stamp collection? The smallest?

 

I have 67 stamps. Nobody has a particularly small stamp though.
This year i plan to get all the "stans": Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgzystan etc.

 

Nice Hobby Greg! Big FUN!

If an American took a circuitous route from the US to another country (stay away from going through Canada), to Cuba, the Cuban customs would stamp that last page with a small mouse or small animal...only about 1cm stamp... However, sometimes US Customs on the return journey would throw some verbal feces at you...
I only have 35 different ones here, but have been to most of them MULTIPLE times... however, my travel is not a hobby...

 

Most of the places I've been haven't stamped my passport...10 countries and no stamp.