Hey Mr. Postman

I decided to mail a package home today. It's not much - just a few things that I had picked up on the trek as well as some CDs of photos. I made the considerable trek to the foreign post office (as opposed to the general post office) and after a few enquiries and a clamber over a pile of garbage in a back alley, I found the parcel division. This was a small room with two counters in it, as well as about 15 busy Nepalis. There were no signs or queues - just a beehive of seemingly random activity. There was a pile of well-used old cardboard boxes piled up outside the door.

The first step was to have the contents of my package inspected, which was done quite thoroughly. Then I was told to get my stuff boxed up and come back to fill in the forms. I went to the guy who seemed to be in charge of the jumble of boxes, but he wouldn't do anything until I had filled out the yellow form. Back I went to guy #1 who gave me the yellow form and took my passport. Once I completed the form, I was sent back to guy #2 and told that packaging would cost me 300 rupees (a little more than $5). This seemed like a huge amount to pay for a broken down chunk of cardboard, but I bit the bullet as I didn't really have a choice. At this point I lost track of all my stuff as it was whisked away to guy #3 along with an Australian girl's package for wrapping. (I am curious as to whose stuff will be in the box when I finally get to open it.) I was then informed that I would need to provide them with a photocopy of my passport, which could be obtained from a shop about 3 blocks down the street. Off I went back over the pile of rubble in the alley, out into the street and past a hundred Nepalis all trying to sell me stuff. Of course once I got there, I realized that I had left my passport with guy #1, so back I went to the post office, retrieved my passport and went back to the photocopy shop. Once I returned to the post office, my package was through the preliminary stages of packaging (i.e. it was taped securely into a box made of two unmatched shoe boxes). The next stage was for these old women to sew the box into a muslin bag, which they created on the spot from heaps of cloth at their feet. Finally, a guy with a stick of sealing wax sealed all the freshly sewn seams and the package was ready to go. I was beginning to see why packaging cost in excess of $5.

It was now back to guy #1 who took the copy of my passport and had me fill out a customs form, which contained exactly the same information as the yellow form that I had just filled out. Once done, the customs form was sewn onto the muslin wrapper around my package. I don't mean that it was sewn into a pouch or envelope, but the paper was actually sewn to the fabric. I was then handed a marker and asked to put the to and from addresses on the package. Back to guy #1 for a copy of the completed forms and I was off to desk #2 to pay. I shipped the package by sea as I don't really care how long it takes it to get home, but it still cost about $48 - pretty much the same as the value of the contents of the package. They estimate 3-6 months for delivery.

Needless to say, I have new found respect for Canada Post (and US Mail and Thailand Post and Laos Post and Australia Post and Cambodia Mail.......)

On another note, I spoke to Tshering Sherpa this morning. He was going to send an e-mail to his Japanese trekking client to see if she wants to have me join her on her trek. He agreed to hire Bhola as an assistant guide, assuming this all works out. His prices were also cheaper than what I'd been previously quoted, which is good news. Hopefully I'll have a response and also a plan in the next couple of days. I also picked up my Indian visa yesterday, so am ready to go if that becomes a reality in the next 6 months. I had to go back to the embassy twice and stand in queues for about 2.5 hours during the first visit, but I was expecting that so was well prepared with my iPod and a magazine. I just bopped away while waiting for the very slow Indian wheels to turn. If it's any indication of what travelling in India will be like, I'll have to be sure to take plenty of patience with me.