How to mail to and from your country

[sybillevz]

I would've thought that the terrible reputation from WWII would've at least made people aware of my country, or maybe Mozart or Red Bull or something ... but yeah ...

Coffee and cake - that's what I associate with your country, Natascha.  Oh yeah ... and mountains.    Basically the whole of Austria looks like Innsbruck in my parochial little imagination.

...And Sachertorte and Mozartkugeln... Wonderful country !! (You can see that I like chocolate, as any good Belgian should...)

[prasad]

Prasad - did u receive my inspirational quote mail yet? I wrote ur address in block letters! 

Not yet Karina.  It normally takes 12 to 15 days at least to get to me.  I will inform you as soon as I get it.  Again, a very big thanks to you and the others who made this side exchange for me.  I felt horrible to have missed out on the original one and you guys just made my day with this.
-Prasad

[camilleysan]

Tips for writing TO the philippines (based on experience)

• For the philippines the format that I was told by the post office to follow is
  
  Name
  Unit Number, House/Building/Street Number + Street Name
  Barangay, City/Municipality
  Postal Code + Metro Manila
  Country
  
  A "Barangay" (which can be abbreviated as Brgy.) is the smallest country subdivision in the philippines. I guess it's like a neighborhood (correct me if i'm wrong) and initially when I started giving my address so I can exchange mail I didn't include the Barangay Name and found that I received mail pretty late. I guess they find it easier to send the mail if the barangay name is there because it really narrows down where exactly in the city the mail goes.
  
  
  
• The easier it is for them to read the address the faster it gets sent out whether the address is written in print or script. What I normally do is write the name in calligraphy and the address in print but i've tried sending letters with addresses written in script and they've all gotten to the people I was sending them to.
  
  
  
• It takes anywhere from 2 weeks to a little over a month for international letters to get to me (I'm not sure if that applies to everyone in my country though)
  
  
  

Tips for writing FROM the philippines (based on experience)

• If you want to use postage stamps you have to ask them for it before you hand them your letters. The protocol for them is to use the machine stamp.
  
  
  
• If you want to use pretty/unique stamps you also have to specifically ask the post office you're sending your mail what the other designs are. Some post office don't have too much of a variance because it depends on how often the main branch of philpost delivers the new stamp designs to the smaller branches.
  
  If you really want to use pretty stamps, you can go to the head office in manila to buy a sheet of the design you want. (If i'm not mistaken they come up with new designs fairly frequently (you can check here for the stamp designs http://www.philippinestamps.net/)
  
  
  
• As much as possible paste the stamps on yourself. I find they don't really do it properly  . Sometimes if you leave your mail for them to do, the stamps will hang out of the envelope, the stamps wont be aligned etc.
  
  
  
• As much as possible try to send international letters 3-4 weeks before the estimated date you want the recipient to get your mail. Though I find this depends on which branch you mail your letters... Some branches take longer to mail your letters compared to others.
  
  
  
• International mail costs about P30.00-P40.00 pesos depending on the country (based on the Inspirational quote exchange asian countries range from P30.00 -P35.00, letters to the USA and Europe are normally P40.00) and local mail is about P10.00
  
  
  

[handmadeletters]

Camille, super super helpful! Thank you!

[chantellehoffmann]

Another tip I learned from an Austrian bride who was sending invitations from the USA. She said that US postal workers would often times see *Austria* on the envelope and toss it in the bin going to Australia which meant it took a very long time for the mail to get to Austria. So she asked me to write *Austria, Europe* on the envelopes.

Good point Jean. When mailing to my husband's Austrian family we always include "Austria, Europe" on the address line as well as we've lost more than one letter/package to our Aussie friends down under .

[ValarieW]

Tips for writing TO the philippines (based on experience)

• 
  
  Name
  Unit Number, House/Building/Street Number + Street Name
  Barangay, City/Municipality
  Postal Code + Metro Manila
  Country
  
  
  
  
  

Camille, thank you! Would you mind filling one in with an actual place? Just out of curiosity. Schin you are brilliant as usual. I often have to google and then It rarely helps as I don't know what part is the province or state or county or parish or arrondisement or what have you. I'm pretty sure I always screw up the envelopes headed to Asia.

and the UK.

and probably Europe too...

Ok, probably a lot of international ones.

[Moya]

Another tip I learned from an Austrian bride who was sending invitations from the USA. She said that US postal workers would often times see *Austria* on the envelope and toss it in the bin going to Australia which meant it took a very long time for the mail to get to Austria. So she asked me to write *Austria, Europe* on the envelopes.

Good point Jean. When mailing to my husband's Austrian family we always include "Austria, Europe" on the address line as well as we've lost more than one letter/package to our Aussie friends down under .

Look, you can't blame us for wanting all the pretty letters ... alllllll the pretty letters come to meeeeeeee ... 

[dimins]

How to mail to Singapore:

There are generally three different types of Singapore addresses.

The first one is for those living in flats:

Gopal Singh
Blk 335 Tampines Street 23
#10-246
Singapore 052335

• ‘Blk’ is abbreviation for Block, and indicates the block number of the addressee. The block number is usually the last 3 numbers of the postal code.
• ‘Tampines’ is the district or area in which they live.
• To take note, besides ‘street’, there are also other terms like ‘avenue’, ‘lorong’ which mean the same thing and is used in the same way. It indicates the road in the district that the addressee’s block can be found.
• #10-246: The address lives on unit 246 on level 10 of the block.
• Singapore 052335: The postal code. You need not write ‘Singapore’ after that, since that’s pretty self-explanatory.

For those living in apartments/condominiums:

Gopal Singh
25 Liliput Road
#10-05 The Gulliver
Singapore 294953

• 25 Liliput Road is the actual location of the condominium.
• #10-05: The addressee lives on unit 05 on level 10 of their block.
• The Gulliver: The condominium’s name (note that condominiums have names and flats do not)
• Another point to note is that condominium do not have block numbers.

For those living on landed property (houses, etc.):

Gopal Singh
8 Nassim Drive
Singapore 175024

• That is all.
• Landed properties do not have names and, of course, do not have blocks.

How to mail from Singapore:

Assuming your letter is going to weigh less than 20g, the price will vary from $0.50 to $1.30 depending on your destination.

Zone 1: Malaysia and Brunei - $0.50
Zone 2: Countries in Asia & the Pacific (except Australia, Japan and New Zealand) $0.70
Zone 3: Countries in the rest of the world - $1.30
(from here)

All you need to do is buy postage stamps from any post office, fix it on your envelope and put it in the “Other Countries” mailbox. If you want, you can also queue up and let the post office lady do the stamping for you. All you need to do is pay for the stamps. You can also buy postage stamps from SAM machines.


This is a list of SAM locations in Singapore, and this is a list of SAMs with weighing scales.

[katerina]

Hello!
today I had a weird problem with German post. I sent a little packet to a friend of mine near Nürnberg.
It was written not very well according calligraphy's rule, but it was a kind of copperplate, quite nice.
She had to pay a fee because the postman couldn't read the address? is that possible? any german that knows something about boring postman?

They have glued a tag on my address 
someone else has had similar experiences?

[AAAndrew]

Ever since I read this thread, I've started to simplify my addresses if I'm mailing outside the country. I'll be sending you a mailing very soon, and the address on the outside will be printed, hopefully neatly, but getting the letter there safely and timely is more important than the aesthetics. Unfortunately, sometimes the beauty has to be sacrificed for the utility.

My writing isn't that good anyway, so at least my recipients are not missing much. 

If I were to receive a letter from Michael Sull with a computer-generated label, I'd be more disappointed.

[Faeleia]

In Singapore,

The zipcode for eg S(392812) is the most important, followed by unit number for apartments, then street name. Since Singapore is tiny, there really isn't any worry for not being able to find the place right away, but with the zipcode, almost anything can be found

[ash0kgiri]

Hello,

Had a strange experience today. So posted few IAMPETH envelope through Indian post day before. The guy at the counter gave me the necessary stamps to be put on the envelope. I made sure that he has given me the right quantity and amount as i don't want them to come back. He said all well and assured that its all done. Gave him the 6 envelopes and before leaving told him not to forget

Today morning found 3 our of 6 envelopes in my office. Didn't understand why so immediately went back and asked the concerned guy, why it came back. I was shocked to hear his answer. He said the envelopes were upside down showing your office address and I forgot to write 'TO' and 'FROM' on them, so they assumed its a Delhi delivery.   Can you beat that. So i submitted the envelopes again with 'TO' and 'FROM written in the respective place.

Stop laughing now...