China Post

I finally found the post office near my house! The other day I decided to try sending a package & some postcards. The postal worker didn't speak English, so I used hand gestures & the very few Chinese words that I know to tell him what I wanted.

The postcards cost me 4.50 yuan each (about 65 cents) to send to the US. For the package, I had to fill out a form in triplicate, noting the contents & their value. The postal worker then did his own mountain of paperwork, using a dot matrix printer to finalize the transaction. Unlike in Vietnam, he didn't ask me for my passport number.

The whole thing took about 45 minutes, including waiting in line & licking stamps :)

A Gift from the Post Office

I go to the post office quite often to send gifts & cards home. Today I made another visit there to send off some last items before I leave Bien Hoa. As the woman handed me my change, she also gave me a bag with the post office logo on it, apparently a frequent customer gift!

The Post Office

I go to the post office at least once a week to send things home to friends & family. Sending packages is really easy here. I just bring the item & the address, & they provide the box or envelope & pack it up for me right there at no extra charge. The average cost to send something to the US is about 150,000 dong, or roughly $8. Let me know if you want me to send you something. I'm more than happy to do it :)

I Got a Package!

I got a notice at the school yesterday that I had a package waiting for me at the post office. How exciting!

This morning I rode my bike the three kilometers to the post office. I still don't speak very much Vietnamese, so I gestured & smiled & pointed at my package notice. It turns out that my package was not waiting for me at the main post office, but at one of the branch offices, about six kilometers back the other way, they said. I had no idea where it was, but I set out in the direction that they pointed, thinking I would stop on the street in a few kilometeres & ask directions again. A treasure hunt!

I rode for what felt like five or six kilometeres (really, what do I know about kilometers?), & stopped at a quickie mart to smile & point at my package notice again. According to that guy, I was going in the right direction. I went another (?) kilometer or so & stopped to ask again. Nope, they said. Back the other way. Okay! So I turned around & headed back. I went back & forth another couple of times before I finally narrowed in on the post office.

When I went inside the (thankfully) air conditioned office, I showed them my package notice, now all sweaty from being in my pocket. They asked for my passport. Oh no! My passport is still in Saigon, awaiting my visa extension. I smiled like a dumb foreigner & showed them my Arizona driver's license. They passed it around, looked at me very sternly, passed it around some more, & then finally accepted it.

The treasure was mine at last!


Thanks to Scott W. for my new tin whistle & instruction book. I'm looking forward to getting started on my first lesson. The package came complete with an official government inspection letter. Way to keep the mail safe, Vietnam!