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Giudad (sic) Trujillo, Hotel Jaragua (Dominican Republic)
So many changes. Keep reading! First, the city name of course now is Santo Domingo. Second, the hotel name is now Renaissance Jaragua Hotel and Casino. Third, this unused linen item is not technically a postcard, more of an ad card fully pre-printed on the back. If you had been desperate at the time, you might have been able to mail it as a postcard but that was not the intention. As for the hotel, it is apparently closed for renovations as we type this, due to re-open soon. No doubt the online reviews will improve then. Grade: 1
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I crossed the Equator with Garuda Indonesia
This is a baggage sticker (unused) once issued by the airline Garuda to passengers who flew the appropriate routes. It measures roughly 4-1/2″ x 8″. Grade: 1
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East African Airways – Zanzibar baggage tag
We have hundreds of tags like this, just sitting here, and because this one seems sort of exotic, we are listing it anyway. It dates from 1968. The other side has similar but not identical printing, and it’s a bit crumpled–but look where it went! Grade: 2
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Hong Kong Disneyland Grand Opening (September 12th, 2005)
What you see here are three of eight facings from this single-sheet brochure (to be absolutely clear: this is not a postcard) giving opening information for Disney’s second Asian theme park, after Tokyo. Grade: 1
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Atop the Empire State Building (New York City) – brochure
This brochure dating from about 1969, and despite everything, the building still stands strong. Grade: 1
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Guanajuato (Mexico) – travel brochure
From the early 1950s. Grade: 2
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The New El Salvador – travel brochure
From 1967, when they still required smallpox vaccinations. Grade: 1
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Delhi travel folder (India)
Printed in February 1973. Grade: 1
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ESSO road map of El Salvador
From 1967 and a car rental counter. Grade: 1
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Rest Houses and Rest Camps of Uganda
Published in June 1965, just before things began to get really touchy. Grade: 1
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Victoria Falls travel folder (Northern Rhodesia)
Then in Northern Rhodesia (until 1964), now Zambia, in a thick folder issued by the Northern Rhodesia Tourist Bureau. Grade: 1
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Siberia
An Intourist travel folder from 1969 or so. Grade: 1
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Madagascar
Travel brochure from 1965, primarily in French and with an English-language insert. Grade: 1
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Burundi – travel brochure
In French, and dating from no later than the early 1970s, maybe earlier. The heart of Africa somehow looks like a target. Grade: 1
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Guatemala – travel brochure
From the mid-1960s (with a population estimate for 1966), this well-preserved folder. Grade: 1
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Guadalajara (Mexico) with Panoramex
Most likely 1960s folder offering various tours. Grade: 1
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Uganda – travel brochure
From the mid-1960s, before things got tough. Grade: 1
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SAS City Portraits – Nairobi (Scandinavian Airlines System)
A brochure from 1966, and a featured article on “Your First Hour in Nairobi” … if culture shock didn’t get you first, of course. Grade: 1
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Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Where to Go (1-14 December 1967)
… and for a few other parts of the country, too. Disclaimer: we *think* this dates from 1967, but there’s a slim chance it could be 1968 — no later. No way to tell, from any of the contents. Well, there would be ways to know, but we’re feeling lazy today. Apart from that writing on the front, in good if quite aged condition. Grade: 2
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Stop in Douala/Yaounde (Cameroons)
Two very different cities featured in this single-sheet, multi-foldout travel brochure published probably in the early 1960s by UTA French Airlines. Bits of extra writing. Grade: 4
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Liban – Beyrouth (travel brochure) (Lebanon)
If only you were lucky enough to see Beirut before all the troubles started … such a cosmopolitan place. This folded travel brochure from (maybe) the early 1970s, issued by the Lebanese National Tourism Council and all in French, has a substantial map of the city inside as well. Grade: 1
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Guide to the Grand Palace, Bangkok (Thailand)
This 16-page guide has its own serial number (132757) and would have been published possibly in the 1980s. It came from the Palace itself and the historical guidance inside would hardly change over time. Grade: 1
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Where – Your free guide to Thailand (16-22 February 1979)
Twenty pages of aging newsprint giving the visitor a breathless glimpse into Thai attractions. Grade: 2
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Macau Guide Book (1997)
From the Macau Government Tourist Office, about 58 pages of then-useful information about what was (then) a Portuguese colony. No longer. Grade: 1
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Macau Guide Book (2009)
These tourist guides were becoming more sophisticated, and heavier, with the only problem being there was almost no time to read and decipher them. Much of what was said in 2009 would still be true in Macau’s various historic areas, but a lot has changed as well, and we look forward to sometime finding an updated version — unless everything is online now. Grade: 1
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Macau – The Surprising City
An earnest folder from the 1970s, and we can only smile when it writes that “those who take the midnight ferry (from Hong Kong) save the cost of a hotel room and step ashore early, after a good night’s sleep on board”. Hardly! Grade: 1
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Macau Casinos
This single-sheet, multi-foldout promotion from Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau dates from the early 1970s and while the condition of the folder is great, the contents just scream “long ago”. One must have iron nerves and body parts to venture into any of the many Macanese casinos now. Grade: 1
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Macau Tourist Map
Single folded sheet, a typical tourist map from the Macao Government Tourism Office, and we wish Macau would decide once and for all how to spell its own name. Nonetheless, Macau manages tourism very well even as it can be absolutely *buried* under the weight of visitors. Think Venice or Dubrovnik but where nearly all the tourists come from just one country. Grade: 1
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Macau Immigration card
Use of this card was abandoned many years ago. Grade: 1
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Kuala Lumpur This Month (Malaysia)
“This Month” being August 1980. There are 60 pages of tips. Grade: 1
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Semenanjung Malaysia dan Singapore road map
From 1977, this Mobil Travel Map of Semenanjung (Peninsular) Malaysia and Singapore, wildly out of date in both cases now but a useful reference at the time. Grade: 1
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Kinabalu Park, Sabah (Malaysia)
Unmarked and nicely informative folder from the late 1980s, showing that there is much more to this national park than Mt. Kinabalu itself. Grade: 1
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Mount Kinabalu: A Guide to the Summit Trail (Sabah, Malaysia)
Quite detailed and multi-sponsored folder from the late 1980s. But we climbed this mountain and can say one thing with certainty: it was not just a gentle uphill walk. One section was so startling that had we approached it in daylight, we would have turned back. The guide later said, almost in an off-handed way, that park managers had stopped reporting when people fell off to their deaths. True or not, it was easy to believe. Grade: 1
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Kuala Lumpur guide (map) (Malaysia)
A large, folded, unused, Kuala Lumpur map from the Tourist Development Corporation, maybe the early 1980s but definitely not recent. Grade: 1
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Kuala Lumpur, Capital City of Malaysia
A large map and additional notes about Kuala Lumpur as it was in the late 1970s, issued by the Tourist Development Corporation. Grade: 1
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Discovery Tours: Explore Mystic Sabah (East Malaysia)
This folder should date from the late 1970s, when Sabah was arguably more mystic than it may be now. Grade: 1
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Malaysia Visitors Map
Issued in mid-2011 and still as-new, the title and some of the ads might be “Malaysia” but the contents are definitely focused on Kuala Lumpur. Grade: 1
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Bali Map
This undated brochure is from the early 2000s and though it does have a small “map” of Bali inside, its main function is to sell tours. Grade: 1
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Australia Outgoing Passenger Card (July 2003)
Unused. Grade: 1
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Map of Jakarta (Indonesia)
From 1981, and absolutely useless both then and now. Grade: 1