frogmo1

Normally you would fill out a small white Thai postal form as part of registering the letter. The clerk puts the registry number on this form and postmarks the form. The postmark (often illegible unfortunately) shows the date of posting and the post office code. Be sure that the clerk legibly fills in the entire registry number. That's your only hope to have the item traced if it goes astray. I've never had a clerk decline to give me this registry receipt (although sometimes they need to be reminded).

I'm looking for a competent translator of Lao laws and regulations. My former translator who worked at the Lao embassy has returned to Vientienne. Maybe you can share some leads with me.

I have rented a post office box at the NaNa Post Office for the past three years, where I receive mail from around the world as part of business I conduct on the Internet. The service can be good or bad, depending on who happens to be handling the incoming mail.

On several occasions, my registered mail was simply placed in my box without a notice being prepared or a signature being required. Likewise, when I have received mail requiring the recipient to sign a return receipt, the clerks rarely ask me to do so, just leaving the return receipt affixed to the item. In one rare case where I actually was asked to sign the receipt, it nicely appeared in MY post office box a couple days later.

On another occasion, an item of registered mail was received at the NaNa Post Office, but the clerks "forgot" to put a notice of its arrival in my box. After waiting several months for the letter, I demanded to review the bundles of unclaimed registered mail. The clerks did everything they could to avoid letting me do so, inisisting that I needed to know the number of the item I was searching for. Finally, they relented when a supervisor saw me making a lot of noise at the counter. Indeed, they found the item of registered mail I was looking for and that they had held for three months but for which they had never given me notice. They were embarrassed and insisted on then systematically going through all the unclaimed mail with me, even though I explained that this was the only item that I had not received.

I've also received non-registered mail for various other parties in my box, which I mark as "mis-sent to Box XXX" and hand in again at the counter. My girlfriend has her mail sent to my box occasionally and it is dutifully deposited into my box with no questions asked.

On the positive side, one clerk (since transferred out of Bangkok) noticed non-registered mail sent to me with an incorrect box number and nicely corrected the error, putting it in my box.

Although there is a sign that says you must present identification to sign for and pick up registered mail, I've never been asked for identification and friends of mine, unknown to the post office clerks, also have picked up registered mail for me without being asked for identification.

Mail that has arrived at Laksi from abroad sometimes takes several days (in one case ten days) to make the journey to the NaNa Post Office (as evidenced by the Laksi and Nana backstamps).

The Post Office has been wholly unhelpful in locating outgoing registered mail that is lost (usually no response is even made) and has never paid a request for the token indemnity provided for such mail. Fortunately, most Thai international registered mail does get to the recipient, making the extra 25 baht well worth paying (in the USA we pay $7-$9 for the same service, but with much more accountability -- nonetheless, USA registered mail also sometimes goes astray--in one case due to a dishonest private courier who transported such mail from the San Francisco Airport to the San Francisco Mail Center).

When you close a Thai post office box, no internationally forwarding is provided.

The clerks disliked the fact that I used to arrive a few minutes before the pickup window closed at 5:30 p.m., when they often were about to depart for the day. (That was the earliest I could get there because I work a 7:30 to 4:30 day across town.) Recently, they solved the problem. A few months ago, the pickup window hours were shortened to 4:30 p.m., although all other windows remain open until 5:30 p.m. TIT. The window is also open on Saturday mornings, although if the clerk arrives late, usually nobody else knows where the key is for the cabinet in which the registered mail is stored. Fortunately, Coffee World is next door!

Mooq - thanks for the reply.

Contrary to your comment, her Thai visa was valid. It was the Thai ID (which she produced when she realized she had not taken her Lao passport with her) that was fake. Her Lao passport has a valid Thai visa in it. However, I don't think your misstatement of that particular fact would change your advice.

The apparent absence of recourse for bribe-taking by Thai police has always caused me to strictly comply with ALL Thai laws, no matter how much of a pain in the posterior that may be (and having to carry a passport and work permit around all the time is annoying, but I was happy to have these documents when the police checked everyone's IDs one night on a bus I was on enroute to Nong Khai!). I wonder if the bribe-taking culture will ever be checked, especially when the PM has condoned it given that police salaries are low? I don't imagine that receipts are routinely given to frightened 21-year old Lao females, and I don't imagine the cops will pay income tax on the 35,000 they extorted or gift tax on the gold necklace/pendant they stole.

Please consider these facts. Recently, a friend of mine from Laos (female, age 21) was here visiting. She had a valid Lao passport, Lao exit visa, and Thai 60 day tourist visa. After taking a friend to Don Muang Airport, she returned late at night by taxi. At Din Daeng, the police stopped all taxis and asked the occupants for identification. She had left her Lao passport in Bangkok with her sister, who is married to a Thai and resides in Thailand. Upon being asked for her ID by the police, she produced a fake Thai ID. The police took her into custody and demanded that she pay them 100,000 baht. She called a Thai friend of hers who came to the police station, spoke to the police, after which the police reduced their demand to 50,000 baht, provided that it was paid within an hour. Ultimately, her friend scraped up 35,000 baht, but the police said that that wasn't enough. My friend then spent the night in confinement. The next morning the police decided to release her, keeping the 35,000 baht and her gold necklace worth approximately 5,000 baht. My friend says she never disclosed to the police that she was in Thailand legally (although in fact I have verified that she indeed does hold a valid Lao passport with a valid Thai visa issued by the Thai embassy in Vientiane last week). Under these facts, does she have any recourse against the police or otherwise, or should she just write the experience off as "This is Thailand" and pen 'STUPID' on her forehead and sell enough buffalos on her Savannakhet farm to repay her friend?