Kathmandu Post, Shipping, Email & Phone

Post and Shipping
The main Kathmandu post office is at the junction of Kantipath and Khichapokhari, near the Bhimsen Tower. It is open Sunday to Thursday, 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday, 11 am to 3 pm. It can be hard place to deal with and unless you have a lot of mail it is a good idea to deal with the hotels, communication centres, and bookshops that will mail things for a small charge.

The poste restante is efficient. The counter is to the left behind the main counter (open Sunday to Thursday, 10 am to 4 pm (closes at 3 pm mid-November to mid-February) and Friday, 10 am to 2 pm. You are supposed to show your passport to take a letter with you.

Post offices are closed on Saturday in Nepal, not on Sunday, as are many other offices. You should not use the mailboxes, but should make sure your letters and postcards have their stamps canceled in front of you at the post office. Otherwise the stamps may be removed from your letters.

Parcels are sent from the foreign post office, a little north of the main post office. It is open Sunday to Thursday, 10 am to 5 pm, Friday until 2 pm. Parcels have to be first checked by a custom officer and then packed in a particular way. To airmail packages takes 2 to 6 weeks and sea mail takes at least 3 months. To post a package at the Foreign Post Section of the GPO takes about an hour and a half.

It is not such a good idea to ship anything from Nepal, unless it is a large quantity of things. It is best to take whatever you purchase with you. If you ship something, besides shipping costs there are custom charges, clearance, storage, and who knows what else. Add in all the work involved and it can cost you more to ship the goods then to bring them with you, even paying overweight. Of course that is, if you ever received the items you ship. Sea Freight is not much cheaper than air, as the goods first have to be shipped to Calcutta, which is an extra cost.

A good contact for shipping is Oriental Express (526-466, Fax 977-1-220143) run by Dibya Joshi. His address is Post Box No 1690 in Kathmandu. Sharmasons Movers (222-709; fax 222-026), Kantipath is a reliable shipper used by many foreigners. Diki Continental Exports (417-681; fax 414-997), across from the Hotel Mandap in Thamel. Some other shipping agents are: Ritual Freight (251-942), Thamel; Mountain Packers & Movers (424-974; email: kcmount@wlink.com.np), northwest Thamel; and Speedway Cargo (410-595), north Thamel. Some Western courier companies are Federal Express (228-861), Ramshah Path; DHL International (222-358), Thamel and Kamaladi; and United Parcel Service (UPS) (423-300), Thamel.
American Express allows their customer to sent mail to their office like poste restante. Their address is American Express, Yeti Travels Pty Ltd, Hotel Mayalu, Jamal Tole, PO Box 5376, Durbar Marg, Kathmandu.

Email
There are many places to send email in Thamel. Rates are mainly between Rs 7 to Rs 10, Rs 2 or 3 for working off-line, Rs 10 to 15 to print a page, and Rs 15 per kilobyte to send a letter. Often the networked can be crowded and it can take a while to send a simple email.

K@mandu Cybermatha, on Kantipath, east of Thamel, is one of the most efficient places, but is also higher prices than most places.

EasyLink Cybercafe, just north of Thamel Chowk in Thamel, (www.visitnepal.com/easylink)is a good place to send emails.

Global Communications (228-143; fax 220-143; email: glocom@mos.com.np), Tridevi Marg, has good phone rates, E-mail, fax, and accept Call-backs for Rs 25. Several other places do E-mail. The GPO offer good rates for phone calls.
Cybertrek (ctic@wlink.com.np), Thamel. ATM Telelinks (postfax@mos.com.np), Thamel.
The Himalayan Explorers Club will print out letter for free for members.

Phone
You can use a private operator or call from Central Telegraph Office, by the National Stadium and around 500m south of the post office. They are open 24 hours and are efficient. It costs around Rs 40 to get here from Thamel.
The private operators charge about $3 to $3.50 (Rs 160 to Rs 190) per minute for international calls. It costs Rs 5 to Rs 10 to receive a call-back. If you plan to talk for a while it will be cheaper to call from the Central Telegraph Office. You can also call from your hotel, but it is best to check the price before you call. Calls made in a hotel are often more than double the normal price.
For operator assistance to find a number call 197.

Important Numbers
Police, Durbar Square 100, 223-011
Fire Department 101, 221-177
Red Cross Ambulance 228-094

Copyright ©2001 John Howley and Spiritual Guides