Going postal.

So I went to the post office last night after work.

When I was in Hanoi (back in HCMC now) I got some cute stamps carved for my little sisters and I wanted to send them back to Noo Zulland. Until now I have only sent letters and postcards from Vietnam but that has been reasonably straight-forward: hand over lots of money and off it goes to meander its way to its destination, god willing.

Postal services, along with home internet, and nice breakfast cereal (e.g. not a bowl of meat and noodle soup) is one of the few things that is actually expensive in Vietnam – but not intolerably so, providing you don’t go on a posting frenzy.

So I go to my local post office and hand over the envelope with the 2 little stamps in it and cute piccys on the outside. This caused an instant problem. Male civil servant peers at the envelope, feels it, lifts it to the light and shakes it, then says ‘more detail’. To which I replied, with the assistance of sign language, that it was 2 stamps for children. This explanation was clearly not good enough because out came the scissors and the envelope was opened up. Sure enough, inside there were the 2 stamps and a letter for my little sisters. But this was still not enough. Male civil servant goes to consult with female civil servant and much conferring follows. He comes back and says ‘more detail’ again and hands me not one, not two but THREE forms (one of which required the information in duplicate!) to fill out. Cursing under my breath I fill out the forms and hand them back, at which point the official rubber stamp comes out (nothing gets approved, actioned or even considered in Vietnam without an official rubber stamp) and my three documents get stamped and filed nowhere in particular.

THEN, a cardboard box appears from nowhere and I am told to put the stamps and perfectly functional envelope into the box, which then gets mummified in official Vietnam-post-office-brand Sellotape. And then I get to write the address and name on the box…the box with the envelope containing the name and address on it might I add.

And then I forked out a small fortune to pay for this now substantial size box and off it went…I hope.

I came home and had a good whinge to my housemates who listened to my story and congratulated me on getting off lightly! Apparently 3 forms is the bare minimum and usually there are several more counters and people involved. My first mistake, it seems, was sealing the envelope before it had been peered in - but on the other count, getting it posted, I appear to have done unusually well because officially it seems, no foreigners are allowed to post parcels anywhere other than the central post office (the same place I waited in line half an hour for the other day to pick up a parcel). So, at least in a small way, I beat the system today.

But, for those family and friends out there who are reading – if you love me, please don’t send any parcels – the less I have to do with the postal system the better!


P.S. Can I recommend that people check out the latest offering from www.rathergood.com (the link is on the right) - 'looking for my leopard' is a keeper!