1. cadge a beer box from a local hotel
2. buy tape
3. pack and then repack the box due to having decided that I really won't be needing 3 sets of thermals!
4. Decide how to send it: courier, postal service, air etc. In order to get some professional advice I popped in to see an old friend of mine Ramesh Tripathi whose retail outlet is very close to the guesthouse and who exports regularly so would know what I should do. He immediately recommended the National Post Office and offered the services of one of his men (as a boy he had been a student of Jalashwary all those years ago). So ..
5. Get on the back of his motorbike carrying my box on my lap.
6. Ride though the city for about 15 minutes - traffic everywhere and going in all directions of course.
7. Arrive at post Office and seek advice at the counter, to be redirected to an office round the back.
8. fill in a form in Nepali - thank goodness I had some one with me!
9.Empty the box so that contents could be examined by officials.
10. repack and re-tape the box
11. Watch while the heavily taped box is sewn into a muslin wrapper - yes sewn.
12. Re-write the address on the new external wrapping.
13. Give the package to a man who melted wax and used a seal on every seam so that any tampering would be immediately detected.
14. Pay for wrapping service
15. Take the parcel to another office to be weighed and paid for
16. Discover that they only accept cash.
17. Walk out of these buildigns and along the road to an ATM lounge
18. Use 3 ATMs before i find one which accepts my card
19. Return to post office and pay (about 30 pounds - can't find the symbol)
20. Obtain receipt and tracking numbers etc and return to Thamel on the bike.
See? Easy! Well it certainly was, thanks to Ramesh Tripathi! Who even fed me Dhal Bhat for lunch on my return! I am so lucky to have such good friends in Nepal!
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| Inspection desk |
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| Sewing up my parcel |
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| The wax seals |
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| Adding the seals with hot wax |
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