Strange things that people do in Timor

Do you notice how we are creeping up to the two-months-in-Timor mark? Oh my!

Posted a package to my family today (trying to post as early as possible for Dad’s birthday on 2nd February. Forgive me if it doesn’t get through until April, Dad, I tried!).

Now, in Australia, when you pay for more than a certain amount of postage, the post office staff print off a tidy little piece of paper that has the amount of postage you paid for, they stick it on the parcel, and away it goes. Not so in Timor, however.

The woman in the post office took two entire sheets of stamps – that would be about, oh, 70-odd stamps, I believe - and wound clear masking tape (that’s tape two inches wide) around and around and around my parcel. AAAAAAAA. As a former stamp collector and generally picky person, NONONONONONO.

But I couldn’t really do anything, because you know, it would’ve looked weird, and rude.

So! Mum and Dad! When (if) you get that parcel, please know that I was not the person who taped up the parcel. I just watched in disbelief. It was the only polite thing to do.