No, I haven't been to Kuala Lumpur. This is a post card left over from a trip there in 2023.
I actually wrote it and sent in in March 2025 from the UK.
But for the person who received it this week in South Africa, it wouldn't have been a surprise for them to think it had taken 18 months to reach them.
If you live in a country where things work, you take it for granted.
In the UK we moan about the cost of postage, the late delivery times, items going astray, deliveries to the wrong address. But if you live in a country like South Africa, it's rare that anything makes it to your door at all, ever.
We lived there for 4 years and as an expat, we relied heavily on the post. From birthday cards for the kids from family to letters from friends and important documents such as replacement passports. It was a nightmare.
Even recorded, signed for, deliveries and DHL (other agents are available) had no guaranteee of making it to your door as the postal system just didn't work, so you had a PO Box address that was expensive and even then, you were lucky if anything, ever at all made it into your PO Box.
On many occasions I'd track parcels and letters sent from the UK right to the sorting office and even receive a slip in the PO Box only to be told 'no we don't have it' I'd show them the slip, the tracking number and they would lie to my face or demand a fictional payment to 'look for it' and at that point you knew it had been stolen or in some cases just thrown away.
Once a parcel from my friend was returned to her house 18 months later, having sat someone in South Africa with no attempt ever being made to have delivered it. Another time a parcel was returned from New Zealand, why it went there, I'll never know.
There were times when empty envelopes arrived with no letter inside, just a torn envelope.
I would have even less success posting items from South Africa, even post cards could take months to arrive in the UK. I'd wait till family and friends visited or Peter was travelling and get them posted in the UK and I'd write my Christmas cards in August and leave them with my mum, when I was over on a visit, to post in December.
After we left South Africa, I posted a birthday card to a friend, I asked at the post office for a certificate of postage, even the woman who sold me the stamp said not to bother as she didn't expect it to get there.
I'm off to Paris in June to see for my friend for a weekend, it's becoming an annual trip. I will write the birthday and Christmas cards and some letters for her to take home with her like I did last year, she will arrive with letter etc like last year also for and from a couple of friends. She is my post mule.
It was her house I sent the post card to, the post card was for a mutual friend. For some reason her postman will deliver the post, the friend it is intended for, for some reason, her postman seems to just bin all her cards and letters.
And then little miracles would happen, a letter would arrive address like this, within 10 days of being posted and you'd wonder just how it made it through.
Oh wow! That is fascinating and shocking that the postcard took so long to arrive! We do take the post for granted here. What a nightmare the postal service sounds in South Africa!
ReplyDeleteIt's a world of it's own the post and almost everything else over there, it either works or it doesn't
Deletewow, 18 months for a postcard! I guess, like you said, it's lucky to have arrived at all! I don't know how we'd manage in a country with a poor delivery service.
ReplyDeleteThat really puts our moaning about the post and deliveries in the UK into perspective! I hope you have a lovely visit with your friend in June.
ReplyDeleteThat's so interesting to hear that! It sounds like a third world situation. When we lived in Jamaica, the postal system was not good. But it certainly was not as bad as that. And people willingly sign up to work with the postal system in such disarray? I think you've got some good systems worked out to get your mail sorted. Well done you!
ReplyDeletePostcards for birthdays is the way to go and when we or friends travel we hand things over to be delivered in person
DeleteI've heard the post is unpredictable in South Africa. A SA friend sent me a parcel and it arrived within a fortnight, so I guess I was lucky.
ReplyDeleteIt can all be pot luck I'm afraid
DeleteThe postal system in South Africa sounds like a nightmare! Makes you realise how lucky we are in the UK to have pretty reliable post, even if it does sometimes take longer than expected to arrive. Hope your friend’s postcard arrives safely. How amazing that the post addressed “Africa” managed to arrive. #WotW
ReplyDeleteThe post card arrived within 2 weeks, so we were lucky this time
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