Bali Expat Forum - Bali Travel Forum

Hi Guys and Girls,

I'm not sure if this is in the right place (I'll warn you now, if I don't get any answers that I like, I'll repost it all over the place - beware lol).

Now I've heard that the post in (sorry, or is it "on", as in "on an island"?) Bali is less than reliable.

It used to be possible to go to a foreign country and get your post from where ever sent to a local post office and it would be waiting for you to come pick it up. I think it was called "Post Restant".

Does this still work? If yes, any recommendations which post office to use, bearing in mind the main post offices aren't always the most accessible?

If no, what other facilities for getting your post from all over when you don't have an address are available or recommended for Bali?

I have searched this on the forum but you would not believe how many hits I get for "Post", so thanks in advance.

Mark

"Normal post" is much more reliable than it used to be. Where I live in Sanur, I get about 98% of it.

If you don't know anybody here, or don't have a favourite restaurant, etc, you can get mail sent to, you can still use Post Restante. Just get your mail addressed to:

your name
Post Restante
Ubud (for example, or whichever post office you prefer)

Just a tip here. Get your senders to mark their envelopes in some striking kind of way so their letters are easier to spot when you're thumbing through piles of post restante mail. A lot of people here are not very good with the western alphabet.

Well, that's good news and I'll take the tip too - although making the post stand out too much might invite the wrong kind of interest - if you see what I mean.

In your opinion is the post in the Sanur area "leader of the pack" cause other posters don't seem to have much good to say about the general delivery situation - but haven't mentioned their areas.

Maybe they could use all those old red Valentine envelopes that we all keep? Or do we?

I haven't used post restante for many years, but when I did, it was either the Ubud PO or the big, main one in Denpasar.

I can't comment on Sanur PO. I have a local home address so it's not an issue for me.

I thought that most snail-mail stuff is almost obsolete these days, what with the internet and e-mail. Packages of any kind, of course, are another matter. I wouldn't send one to a post restante.

I remember sending stuff to my sister in the 70's and 80's and it would hit Bali in about a week and then her mail would circle the island for a couple of weeks till they got it to her .

Did she try the Post Restante method or did she have an address there?

Having said that a lot of time has passed in the real world since the 70s - I guess maybe some of us haven't noticed? Perhaps Bali's postal service has had a chance to improve.

Anyway, you know what they say about people who say they can remember the 70s - they weren't really there....

Thanks for the answer

Markit wrote:Did she try the Post Restante method or did she have an address there?

Having said that a lot of time has passed in the real world since the 70s - I guess maybe some of us haven't noticed? Perhaps Bali's postal service has had a chance to improve.

Anyway, you know what they say about people who say they can remember the 70s - they weren't really there....

Thanks for the answer

you know what they say about people who say they can remember the 70s ...I thought it was the sixties ? And I would send her mail to her home adress in Kuta .

Thanks Jamie. That number seems to move about every 10 years.

Hi Markit
I forgot whether you are planning a long stay/move to Bali or a shorter one.

Another option that works very well if you are going to be there for say > 6 months is to rent a post office box. I did that in Lombok (also notoriously bad for mail deliveries - apart from houses not having letterboxes, anything addressed to a bule is in danger of being 'lost')

You then have a mailing address, and most post offices are pretty good at looking after mail in a post box. Where it tends to go astray is once it goes to the delivery man.

The cost was not too bad, from memory we paid around Rp250,000 for a year.
Freo

Hey Freo,

That sounds like one of the best interim options yet. Or are you recommending that even when you have a permanent address too?

We are planning on a very lonnnnng stay so what is a bule?

I mean if we lived there already we'd know, wouldn't we?

Hi Markit

It depends on where you live - many areas don't have a very organised postal delivery system, and most houses don't have letter-boxes. I found the post box the best option, and the safest.

bule = tourist/foreigner/expat that sort of thing.

Freo

7 years ago I lived in Jimbaran, studied there. no problems with the post.
We send some post to my parents in law in a smal village, no problems with the post there ider. they dont have a letter box, but the post man comes to the door. Some of my expat friends use post box, they think that is safer.

Post Office boxes are useful, where they're available.

I had one a few years ago when I was living in Jogjakarta (Bantul). It cost less than Rp 100,000/year, if my memory serves me well.
My house there was hidden in a tiny village, a bit off the beaten path. I don't recall ever seeing a postman coming there so it was my only real option, apart from post restante.

Worked fine...only lost one piece of mail while I was there. Murphy's Law was at work - the only really important mail I was waiting for didn't make it. The Bantul Post Office blamed it on the Australian mail system. Who knows?

Sorry to hear of your loss and thanks for the many interesting and informative posts on this theme.

Sanurian maybe your lost letter will still turn up - course that won't help much if its from a lost love, job offer or some such but it does happen.

So far I had only bad experiences with *sending post* from Bali. No experience with receiving, though.

I sent a few times letters from the Post Office at Bintang Supermarket, or from the one at Poppies Lane, to either Singapore or Germany.

Neither one ever arrived.

One time I sent with DHL (2nd floor of Cafe Seminyak, near Bintang) to Singapore and it arrived the next afternoon at the recipient. Very costly though, something around USD 16 for one envelope with a single sheet of paper.

Arlglglglglgl!

Thanks for that Chris - but what do you do if you want/must send post to the rest of the world? Give it to someone to post when they get back to "civilization"? Send emails to the older generation is just not an option and when you move you still have a lot of loose ends that have to be resolved back in the old country. I guess I'll have to keep my eyes open.

Thanks anyway to all those that have replied.

Mark