Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
It was my first trip was to Vietnam. I had never been there before even though I was in the army during the Vietnam war.
This is the main post office in Saigon, built during the French colonial period. The people working there were very helpful and friendly, like everyone else I met in Vietnam. They have a window where they sell older issues, but still valid for postage. I bought quite a few there.
And the interior of the post office:
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On my way to Vietnam I had to change planes in Hong Kong so I decided to spend a couple of days there. I did send post cards there too, but I can't find them. Even though I knew Hong Kong had reverted to China, I used stamps with Queen Elizabeth on a couple of cards because one of the locals assured me that they were still valid. Well they were not really valid, but they did pass through the mail. The stamps did not get cancelled and there was a handstamp on the card saying something to the effect that the stamps were no longer valid, but they were letting it go just to be nice.
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My second trip was to Kenya. One week was spent building the foundation for a new house and a second week adding a room to an existing one. One of the best things about working in these places is the kids who would come around the worksites after school to see the foreigners. One time a large group of children started singing and dancing. We all had to stop working and watch.
After the second week most of the people in our group went on a safari. Seeing the wildlife up close was incredible – we got within 5 feet of some female lions resting in the afternoon sun. At a different park the driver had to put the van in reverse and drive fast when a mother rhino started to charge at us.
Back in Nairobi I found the post office and sent a lot of mail. Everything came through without a problem. All the postal workers were friendly, efficient and helpful, as they had been in Saigon.
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Another place I worked was Armenia, a really scenic country. You see a lot of ancient small churches scattered throughout the countryside. Armenia claims to be the oldest Christian country in the world. That means at one point the king converted to Christianity and declared that everyone in the country was now Christian.
The postal system there is not reliable. When I watched a clerk handstamp everything, they all reached their destination. Another time when I wanted to mail a bunch of things, the grumpy clerk pointed to a box and told me to put them there. None of those reached their destination.
While I was in the neighborhood, I decided to visit the Republic of Georgia. Georgia is another scenic place. Again, the postal system is not the greatest. First of all, it is hard to even find a post office. The system in the post office if most unusual. You wait first in one line to pay. I showed a surly woman at the counter the two postcards that I wanted to send to the United States. I paid her some money and she gave me a receipt and pointed to another line. I took the cards and the receipt to the other line and gave them to a different crabby woman. One of the postcards never made it to its destination. The other one is below.
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thanks for the amazing road trip Roger. I especially liked the HK mail story.
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My last trip with Habitat was to Paraguay. We spent a week helping build a new house. Actually, part of the time was spent digging a hole by hand for a septic tank. Everywhere we worked on these trips we used hand tools provided by the local Habitat affiliate - never any power tools or machinery.
The people of Paraguay are very nice and I can speak enough Spanish to get by pretty well. However, the part of the country that I saw was not scenic, quite boring in fact. I wish I had taken a few more days and gone to Iguazu falls where Argentina, Basil and Paraguay come together. It is supposed to be spectacular.
I sent quite a few postcards, but the postage rates seemed very high for a developing country.
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On my trip to Paraguay I changed planes in Panama, so of course I had to spend a few days there doing a little sight seeing and buying stamps.
My wife never wanted to go along with me on these trips. Doing manual labor in developing countries just didn't seem to her like a good way to spend vacation time. Well I enjoyed it and I didn't really mind travelling alone. When I was not with the Habitat group I usually stayed in hostels to save money. It was a good way to meet other people from all over the world.
If I were to rate the countries I visited on these trips, it would be like this:
Best food - Vietnam
Best wildlife - Kenya
Best landscapes - Armenia
Best postal system - everyplace except Armenia and Georgia
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Fascinating thread and images, Roger!
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Roger, thanks for the interesting stories and images!
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Great post, Roger!
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01:40:27am
Yes, a very interesting thread.
I found a small stamp store in Saigon on Too Do street a few doors from the Caravelle Hotel.
, and bought stamps and a neat locally made stock book full of stamps as well.
I enjoyed getting away from the ship, the port areas and whatever passed for down town.
I often used stamps to get to meet the local people. If I did not find, at the least, a kiosk selling stamps I would use a small stock card that I carried with me. In a cafe or similar facility I'd order some coffee and perhaps toast and while waiting woul lay out whatever stamps I had on the tablecloth.
Invariably someone, either staff or other customers, would chance by and take a look, saying, in one format or another, "Oh, you collect stamps," followed by, " I collect stamps also" Or "My son, my daughter or a brother or sister collects too."
The ice woul be broken and in mot cases a friendly conversation developed. A few times a reasonably decent friendship was born.
And yes, I met several young ladies that way, with pleasing results, largely depending on how long my ship was scheduled to remain in that port. People almost always to be friendly and helpfull, possibly thinking that anyone who collected stamps cannot be all bad.
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In my travels around the Pacific, I only visited post offices to buy stamps and mail the occasional post card to friends/family. I wish I too had looked for stamps shops and mailed myself postcards/letters! With only a few days in most ports, time was short. Besides, most days in port were work days for me! And for the 2nd year on the ship, I was the Kootenay's mailman!
Peter
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When I was a teenager, my father was US Army and we lived in Germany. In our travels I mailed myself postcards. I found that many of the resort towns had pictorial cancels, which further fueled my obsession.
I continued once we moved back to the USA and those became the basis for my New Jersey postcard collection. When I was 16 I had a nice Peugeot Tour de France racing bike and would set routes in New Jersey to go to post offices to collect their postmarks on cards and covers. I did it partly for my collection and partly to prove to my father that I actually biked that far!
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I wonder how many collectors on SoR collected while working at sea. At least three I think.
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06:36:22pm
Once I began using the Citation Binder I would acquire an extra life jacket and fasten a six foot lanyard around it, check the power of the little battery of the light that it came with an stored it with two large plastic garbage bags at the foot of my bed, along with a small roll of duct tape.
Obviously the plan was to double bag the album, slip the eye splice at the end of the lanyard over a wrist, if it ever came to that kind of emergency
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01:01:39pm
" ..... I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter
And make believe it came from you
I'm gonna write words, oh so sweet
They're gonna knock me off my feet
I'll put kisses on the bottom
I'll be glad I got 'em
I'm gonna smile and say,
"I hope you're feeling better"
And close with "Love," the way you do,
I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter
And make believe that it came from you ....."
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When I was a little younger I liked to volunteer in far off countries with Habitat for Humanity International. It was a great way to see sights and experience some of the local culture in a way one does not ordinarily do as a tourist. In each country I would make a point of extending my stay, taking day trips and walking around whatever city I was in. I would always seek out the main post office where I would buy a bunch of stamps and send postcards to family, friends and to myself.
It was my first trip was to Vietnam. I had never been there before even though I was in the army during the Vietnam war.
This is the main post office in Saigon, built during the French colonial period. The people working there were very helpful and friendly, like everyone else I met in Vietnam. They have a window where they sell older issues, but still valid for postage. I bought quite a few there.
And the interior of the post office:
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re: I sent a postcard to myself
On my way to Vietnam I had to change planes in Hong Kong so I decided to spend a couple of days there. I did send post cards there too, but I can't find them. Even though I knew Hong Kong had reverted to China, I used stamps with Queen Elizabeth on a couple of cards because one of the locals assured me that they were still valid. Well they were not really valid, but they did pass through the mail. The stamps did not get cancelled and there was a handstamp on the card saying something to the effect that the stamps were no longer valid, but they were letting it go just to be nice.
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re: I sent a postcard to myself
My second trip was to Kenya. One week was spent building the foundation for a new house and a second week adding a room to an existing one. One of the best things about working in these places is the kids who would come around the worksites after school to see the foreigners. One time a large group of children started singing and dancing. We all had to stop working and watch.
After the second week most of the people in our group went on a safari. Seeing the wildlife up close was incredible – we got within 5 feet of some female lions resting in the afternoon sun. At a different park the driver had to put the van in reverse and drive fast when a mother rhino started to charge at us.
Back in Nairobi I found the post office and sent a lot of mail. Everything came through without a problem. All the postal workers were friendly, efficient and helpful, as they had been in Saigon.
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re: I sent a postcard to myself
Another place I worked was Armenia, a really scenic country. You see a lot of ancient small churches scattered throughout the countryside. Armenia claims to be the oldest Christian country in the world. That means at one point the king converted to Christianity and declared that everyone in the country was now Christian.
The postal system there is not reliable. When I watched a clerk handstamp everything, they all reached their destination. Another time when I wanted to mail a bunch of things, the grumpy clerk pointed to a box and told me to put them there. None of those reached their destination.
While I was in the neighborhood, I decided to visit the Republic of Georgia. Georgia is another scenic place. Again, the postal system is not the greatest. First of all, it is hard to even find a post office. The system in the post office if most unusual. You wait first in one line to pay. I showed a surly woman at the counter the two postcards that I wanted to send to the United States. I paid her some money and she gave me a receipt and pointed to another line. I took the cards and the receipt to the other line and gave them to a different crabby woman. One of the postcards never made it to its destination. The other one is below.
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re: I sent a postcard to myself
thanks for the amazing road trip Roger. I especially liked the HK mail story.
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re: I sent a postcard to myself
My last trip with Habitat was to Paraguay. We spent a week helping build a new house. Actually, part of the time was spent digging a hole by hand for a septic tank. Everywhere we worked on these trips we used hand tools provided by the local Habitat affiliate - never any power tools or machinery.
The people of Paraguay are very nice and I can speak enough Spanish to get by pretty well. However, the part of the country that I saw was not scenic, quite boring in fact. I wish I had taken a few more days and gone to Iguazu falls where Argentina, Basil and Paraguay come together. It is supposed to be spectacular.
I sent quite a few postcards, but the postage rates seemed very high for a developing country.
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re: I sent a postcard to myself
On my trip to Paraguay I changed planes in Panama, so of course I had to spend a few days there doing a little sight seeing and buying stamps.
My wife never wanted to go along with me on these trips. Doing manual labor in developing countries just didn't seem to her like a good way to spend vacation time. Well I enjoyed it and I didn't really mind travelling alone. When I was not with the Habitat group I usually stayed in hostels to save money. It was a good way to meet other people from all over the world.
If I were to rate the countries I visited on these trips, it would be like this:
Best food - Vietnam
Best wildlife - Kenya
Best landscapes - Armenia
Best postal system - everyplace except Armenia and Georgia
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re: I sent a postcard to myself
Fascinating thread and images, Roger!
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re: I sent a postcard to myself
Roger, thanks for the interesting stories and images!
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04:36:03pm
re: I sent a postcard to myself
Great post, Roger!
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
26 Jun 2022
01:40:27am
re: I sent a postcard to myself
Yes, a very interesting thread.
I found a small stamp store in Saigon on Too Do street a few doors from the Caravelle Hotel.
, and bought stamps and a neat locally made stock book full of stamps as well.
I enjoyed getting away from the ship, the port areas and whatever passed for down town.
I often used stamps to get to meet the local people. If I did not find, at the least, a kiosk selling stamps I would use a small stock card that I carried with me. In a cafe or similar facility I'd order some coffee and perhaps toast and while waiting woul lay out whatever stamps I had on the tablecloth.
Invariably someone, either staff or other customers, would chance by and take a look, saying, in one format or another, "Oh, you collect stamps," followed by, " I collect stamps also" Or "My son, my daughter or a brother or sister collects too."
The ice woul be broken and in mot cases a friendly conversation developed. A few times a reasonably decent friendship was born.
And yes, I met several young ladies that way, with pleasing results, largely depending on how long my ship was scheduled to remain in that port. People almost always to be friendly and helpfull, possibly thinking that anyone who collected stamps cannot be all bad.
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re: I sent a postcard to myself
In my travels around the Pacific, I only visited post offices to buy stamps and mail the occasional post card to friends/family. I wish I too had looked for stamps shops and mailed myself postcards/letters! With only a few days in most ports, time was short. Besides, most days in port were work days for me! And for the 2nd year on the ship, I was the Kootenay's mailman!
Peter
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re: I sent a postcard to myself
When I was a teenager, my father was US Army and we lived in Germany. In our travels I mailed myself postcards. I found that many of the resort towns had pictorial cancels, which further fueled my obsession.
I continued once we moved back to the USA and those became the basis for my New Jersey postcard collection. When I was 16 I had a nice Peugeot Tour de France racing bike and would set routes in New Jersey to go to post offices to collect their postmarks on cards and covers. I did it partly for my collection and partly to prove to my father that I actually biked that far!
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re: I sent a postcard to myself
I wonder how many collectors on SoR collected while working at sea. At least three I think.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
01 Jul 2022
06:36:22pm
re: I sent a postcard to myself
Once I began using the Citation Binder I would acquire an extra life jacket and fasten a six foot lanyard around it, check the power of the little battery of the light that it came with an stored it with two large plastic garbage bags at the foot of my bed, along with a small roll of duct tape.
Obviously the plan was to double bag the album, slip the eye splice at the end of the lanyard over a wrist, if it ever came to that kind of emergency
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
05 Jul 2022
01:01:39pm
re: I sent a postcard to myself
" ..... I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter
And make believe it came from you
I'm gonna write words, oh so sweet
They're gonna knock me off my feet
I'll put kisses on the bottom
I'll be glad I got 'em
I'm gonna smile and say,
"I hope you're feeling better"
And close with "Love," the way you do,
I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter
And make believe that it came from you ....."
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