Ari's Planet

After trekking a bit in Nepal and buying a small amount of souvenirs, I wanted to mail home the extra stuff, like warm clothing, that I no longer needed. Not a good idea from Nepal. First, you have to find the main post office in Kathmandu, which opens at 10am. The trouble starts with the shipping rates. Here is what I got (prices in Nepali rupees):

For air mail
US base 776, 1st kg 934, additional kg 580 (direct route)
IL base 974, 1st kg 347, additional kg 249 (via India)

For surface mail
US Base 775 plus 354 per kg
IL base 930 plus 468 per kg

EMS is even costlier
US 1200 plus 350 per 500 gr
IL 1250 plus 300 per 500 gr

The upshot was that a 1.5 kg package cost 1700 Rs, or about $30US, which was about what the items were worth! I tried going to the general counter, since LP says you can send parcels less than 2kg. My big 1.5 kg package was directed back to the international counter, and my little 9 DVD package was rejected since apparently only 3 DVDs are allowed per package (these are DVDs of photographs I have taken, not movies). I checked rates at some commercial shippers but they wanted even more, starting at $37 for my 1.5 kg package and 7560 for four-day service on a 5 kg package (4 week service would have worked for me, but they weren't providing it).

Instead, I decided to schlep my stuff with me to India, but I did mail the DVDs from the private post office off of Thamel that is listed in LP. The 9 DVDs, sent by registered air mail, cost about 400 Rs, plus a 50 Rs "surcharge" of some sort per DVD for 7 of the DVDs, which brought the total to around 850 Rs. On the positive side, the DVDs arrived about 2 weeks later in Massachusetts on the east coast of the US in good condition.