by David McMahon © 2011

A British-style pillar box – but this one is outside the Custom House in George Town, the main city on the island of Penang in Malaysia’s Pulau Pinang State.

Dave adds:

“As you can see, this pillar box is still painted the traditional pillar box red colour and still bears the Royal Cypher of King Edward VII. (This contrasts with, say, Ireland, where the boxes have been painted green since 1922, or Israel, where the cyphers were ground off after the end of the Palestinian Mandate.) In fact, it’s identical to the Edwardian pillar boxes in the UK except that it doesn’t have a base.

“Although the concept for the photo was Kay’s, she made me take it as it involved crouching in the road! If you look at the non-existent base of the pillar box, you’ll see that it’s standing in a recess in the pavement – the bollards on either side are on the pavement, but the pillar box is on the road. Bizarrely, the slot faces the road rather than the pavement.”

Author: Dave McMahon

Dave left school at the age of 30 with the odd O-level (like Ancient Icelandic) and a doctorate in something so obscure even he can't remember what it's about. He then joined the FCO. Dave has travelled to most European countries (including several that don't exist any more, though he denies responsibility), as well as Bangladesh, Barbados, Thailand, St Vincent, UAE, Laos, and many more. Having managed to escape from London in 2001, Dave's now resorted to taking unpaid leave to stave off the evil day of his return.

by David Stanley © 2011

Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea (DPR).

David adds:

“This is the final resting-place of Kim Il-sung (the Great Leader) and now his son, Kim Jong-il (the Dear Leader).”

You can see many more of David’s fascinating photos of Pyongyang and North Korea on Google Plus

by Mike Kingdom-Hockings © 2011

Mike adds:

“Naries Namakwa Retreat, near the town of Springbok in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province, has several different kinds of accommodation. This is one of the Mountain lodges, perched on the edge of a scarp looking towards the Atlantic coast. They are thatched over a steel frame, with existing rocks integrated into the interior layout. The concept comes from a bushman dwelling built on a wattle frame. The motorbike is the cleaner’s transport.”

You can read Mike’s review of the Naries Namakwa Retreat, including information about accessibility for guests with disabilities, on our sister site CanDoCanGo

Author: Mike Kingdom-Hockings

Visit Mike's site at http://www.newfreebooters.com

by Kay McMahon © 2011

For all its beauty, this stupa is a memorial to an devastatingly tragic event in Cambodia’s recent past – it’s the centrepiece of the Choeung Ek Genocide Center, a museum set up to document and preserve the memory of the mass murder of over three million Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975-79. About 20,000 men, women and children died horribly at Choeung Ek – the stupa contains the skulls of about 8,000 of them as testimony to the brutality that was unleashed on Cambodia’s people during those years.

You can read more about the Choeung Ek killing field here:
The Killing Fields

Author: Kay McMahon

Kay has been an expat for over 20 years. She set up the British Expat website more than 10 years ago, whilst living in London and missing the expat life. These days she spends much of her time lugging computers and cameras around the world. (Dave gets to deal with all the really heavy stuff.)

by Kay McMahon © 2011

Here’s a photo I took of an elaborately adorned Cantonese opera singer from Singapore’s Chinese Theatre Circle performing to entertain the guests at the luxurious The Pavilions resort in Phuket. Apparently it takes the opera performers two-and-a-half hours to put on their make-up and costumes. And all that for maybe a fifteen-minute performance.

We were visiting The Pavilions, Phuket to experience their Passions programme. I wrote a feature about it for ALuxuryTravelBlog.com, and you can read more on there about the wonderful time we had.

Actually, I’m lucky to be able to publish this photo at all as I was “enjoying” myself so much I managed to lose my camera. Most likely, I left it lying around somewhere, and then went back to our villa. Tsk. Luckily one of The Pavilions’ excellent staff found it and kept it in a safe place until the following day when it was handed back to me intact. If I’d lost my camera anywhere else I would probably have freaked out, but The Pavilions is such a safe and relaxed environment I just knew that everything would be OK.

You can read more about our Cantonese opera experience here:
A night at the opera – water sleeves and pheasants’ tails

Author: Kay McMahon

Kay has been an expat for over 20 years. She set up the British Expat website more than 10 years ago, whilst living in London and missing the expat life. These days she spends much of her time lugging computers and cameras around the world. (Dave gets to deal with all the really heavy stuff.)