A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
I have been trying for three days to pick up a much-anticipated package from the USA.

On Wednesday I received a notice that something was waiting for me at the main post office. While the packages that my family sent me for Christmas sailed through the Vietnamese Cultural Censorship and Foreigner Harassment Department without a hitch, I now suspect that that was due to their small size and the high volume of Christmas mail. The envelope from Amanda and Geoff didn't even look like it had been opened, though I hear they are very crafty about making your letters look like they've arrived unmolested by bureaucratic fingers.

Apparently, however, my aunt Carolyn (I'm assuming) must have enclosed those secret State Department documents on the future overthrow of the Hanoi government, because they're making me jump through hoops for this one. Either that or they found some books they want to copy and use for their own nefarious copyright-infringing purposes. Friends here have told me that if someone sends you a compact disk, the post office police will make a copy, then give you the copy and keep the original. Then they charge you for the privilege of having had your mail read and your items confiscated. After all, it takes a lot of expensive man-hours to maintain this level of ridiculousness.

Anyway, on Thursday I headed over to the Post Office to pay for my package and see if they swiped anything. Naturally I went to the wrong Post Office, as they were not kind enough to include an address on the notice. After finding the correct location and passing by the "Cultural Item's Censorship" desk, I was informed that in order to pick it up I would need my passport. I'm starting to get a bit concerned about how big my official file must be getting at Bureaucratic HQ after only 3 months in the country, since the cops kept my passport for a day after the accident and they know the web address now.

When I returned at 4:10 pm, passport in hand, it was to find the lights off and nobody home, despite the posted 7am - 7pm working hours. Aaurgh. I really want that package -- I'm complete out of mystery novels, and Carolyn is my only hope for the next few weeks!

Since I spent all day Friday on a field trip with 150 Vietnamese public school teachers, my next attempt was yesterday. I was helpfully informed at the information desk that the Department of Annoying Me and Taking My Money has its own schedule, designed, I suspect, to be as inconvenient as possible for its "customers" -- open 8-11am and 1-4pm. Man, Hanoi bureaucrats piss me off. So I have to wait until tomorrow to get my stuff. Carolyn, those books better be good!

© 2003 Katy Warren
posted by Katy at 11:36 PM