Royal Pain in the Butt

Journey so far: .. Taiwan > Hong Kong > Beijing > Harbin > Yanji > Songjianghe >Changbai Mountain > Dandong > Dalian > Dandong > Chengde > Beijing > Datong > Hohhot > Huitengxile > Hohhot > Taiyuan > Zhengzhou > Xi'an > Lanzhou > Zhangye > Jiaugyuan > Jingtieshan > Jiaugyuan > Dunhuang > Urumuqi > Kanas Lake > Urumuqi > Kashgar > Tashkurgan > Karakul Lake > Kashgar (Kashi) > Hotan > Qiemo > Ruoqiang > Shimianquan > Golmud > Lhasa (Tibet) > Gyantse > Shigatse > Shegar > Everest Base Camp (Rongbuk) > Zhangmu > Borderlands > Kathmandu (Nepal) > Chitwan National Park > Gorkha > Bandipur > Pokhara > Lumbini > Kathmandu > Sunauli > Dehli > Kausani > Agra > Khajuraho > Varanasi > Calcutta (Kolkata) > Bangkok (Thailand) > Vientiane (Laos) > Vang Vieng > Luang Prabang > Phonsavanh > Vientiane > Bangkok (Thailand) ...

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QUICK UPDATE: February 8th
DHL - Feb 8th - 15.44 - shipment delivered

Fantastic!!!! (Insert fanfare)... Now we're leaving Bangkok tomorrow morning at 7am and will arrive in Cambodia late in the evening.
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This is a quick blog.... I want to vent my dissatisfaction with Royal Mail.

Kate and I are in Bangkok, we arrived Thursday, January 11th 2007. It's now Tuesday, February 6th 2007. A total of 27 days and counting.

Why so long in Bangkok???

We were meant to come to Bangkok for a few days, pick up a present from my Mum (sent registered to Bangkok from England) and be on our way to Cambodia. Easy. Poste Restante is a basic and efficient enough system.

Disaster, no present at the Post Office. We waited and waited and decided that after more than two weeks the present should have arrived, but nothing we could do. So instead of waiting longer we decided to go to Laos for a week.

Laos was amazing!

We returned 3 days ago and yesterday we checked again. Nothing!

Anyway it turns out Royal Mail employees can't read. They sent our present with a Thailand address to Taiwan. Taiwan obviously couldn't delver it to a place called Bangkok so sent it back home to my Mum. Respect to Taiwan for having the thought to do that quickly!

So we were sitting here like boobs not sure what we could do next...

I laugh now, but yesterday I could have screamed at Royal Mail for being so utterly incompetent!

Good news, DHL are now bringing it here so we can finally leave for Cambodia, Vietnam and South China. Sometimes it pays to pay a little extra for a better service. Already the DHL website has three updates on the first day and we feel confident.

The Royal Mail website on the other hand had one update in a month and that told us they had passed it to the Overseas Department in the Royal Mail.... nice one!

Bangkok is great though and it's a good place to be stranded.... we will buy more things, to save money in the UK...hahaha. We hope this episode of Royal Mail nonperformance is done!!

In the spirit of the Internet, here are some links:

• SE1's postal service: 'incompetent at best; criminal at worst' [April 2004]


• Wrong person, wrong house, wrong city [January 2006]


• Postcomm - the Postal Services Commission

MC