We know letters from abroad are unreliable, lost into a black hole it seems. I'm thinking using the Post Restante system might fix that, for me next time I'll attempt a letter delivery to Post Office in Soi Post Office

It has been a long time since I heard of Poste Restante, and even longer since I've used it myself.

On the Hippie Trail in the mid-1970s it was just about the only way to get a letter from home.

In some countries it actually worked quite well.

I remember getting a letter from my Mom at the main P.O. in Tehran... "news about the cat"... it was one of the most welcome letters I've ever received.

Omnipresent weirdnesses on the overland trip had left me feeling somewhat homesick.

7 hours ago, CMHomeboy78 said:

It has been a long time since I heard of Poste Restante, and even longer since I've used it myself.

On the Hippie Trail in the mid-1970s it was just about the only way to get a letter from home.

In some countries it actually worked quite well.

I remember getting a letter from my Mom at the main P.O. in Tehran... "news about the cat"... it was one of the most welcome letters I've ever received.

Omnipresent weirdnesses on the overland trip had left me feeling somewhat homesick.

Yes i used it 1998 backpacking when i needed a replacement bank card, worked well

On 1/10/2026 at 9:26 PM, CMHomeboy78 said:

It has been a long time since I heard of Poste Restante, and even longer since I've used it myself.

On the Hippie Trail in the mid-1970s it was just about the only way to get a letter from home.

In some countries it actually worked quite well.

I remember getting a letter from my Mom at the main P.O. in Tehran... "news about the cat"... it was one of the most welcome letters I've ever received.

Omnipresent weirdnesses on the overland trip had left me feeling somewhat homesick.

Yes from Goa to Kathmandu in the 70s.

Use a Post Office box, but they come at a cost, about 500+b a year

On 1/10/2026 at 9:26 PM, CMHomeboy78 said:

Poste Restante,

Is that still even a thing?

On 1/9/2026 at 2:15 PM, scubascuba3 said:

We know letters from abroad are unreliable, lost into a black hole it seems. I'm thinking using the Post Restante system might fix that, for me next time I'll attempt a letter delivery to Post Office in Soi Post Office

First set foot in Thailand in 1962, retired here in 1993. Maybe I've been lucky, but in all of that time not a single letter or parcel sent from outside Thailand has ever gone missing.

Let the person that's sending you a letter know your address in Thai script. They can then print it and attach it to the letter. Only write "THAILAND" in Roman script so the letter is legible in the sender's country.

This usually works out fine.

You can also write it in both languages.

16 minutes ago, Lung Uan said:

Let the person that's sending you a letter know your address in Thai script. They can then print it and attach it to the letter. Only write "THAILAND" in Roman script so the letter is legible in the sender's country.

This usually works out fine.

You can also write it in both languages.

I can't fault your logic, and it would work fine for mail from friends and relatives who could just print out a scan of your Thai address whenever they need to send you something. But one of the things that cause people problems and cost them actual money when their pensions are stopped are the Proof of Life certificates sent by government pension departments. These organisations are so backwards they won't use e-mail, even though my banks and private and occupational pension providers have been doing it that way for a long time. I doubt that the DWP in the UK, for example, would have a clue how to store your address in Thai script, and their computer systems probably wouldn't allow it anyway, and there's no way they'd keep a scan of your address in Thai, their systems aren't set up for that kind of thing.

On 1/9/2026 at 8:15 AM, scubascuba3 said:

We know letters from abroad are unreliable, lost into a black hole it seems. I'm thinking using the Post Restante system might fix that, for me next time I'll attempt a letter delivery to Post Office in Soi Post Office

A P.O.Box might be better – the post office where I live charge 500 baht annually for a box.

When i send something to my exwife or her mother in surin it took weeks before it arrived.

Then i started sending it POSTE RESTANTE to the main post office in Prasat in surin.

Write her name and the adress to the post office.After that i took only 4-5 days before it arrived.

Next time i might go to my chosen post office first and check they are ok with using Poste Restante

9 hours ago, wombat said:

Is that still even a thing?

Good question.

I would have thought the term "Poste Restante" might have been changed to "Par la Poste Escargo" or maybe "Courrier Escargo" by now.