My souvenir horror story is from KL where I fell in love with Malaysian kites. My big problem was not the weight, nor the size more the awkward shape that I was convinced would sit flat in my backpack, alas it did not. The day I was leaving KL I had to rush to the post office first thing so I could ship them home. Trying to find the post office was a challenge in itself but trying to send the thing in one piece was even more challenging. After a lot of confusion between me and the girl at the counter I ended up with tape and brown paper and was told to wrap it. And that was that, badly wrapped with minimal bubble wrap. Needless to say they arrived at home torn, but luckily fixable with a bit of glue, tissue paper and sticky tape!!!

The moral of the story is try and find things that aren’t awkwardly shaped and if you are shipping delicate items use LOTS of bubble wrap, i will never make that mistake again!!!

If you are shipping packages you may consider just shipping them to someone you know (Mom, a friend, etc.) where they are easy to pick up. Some of our packages send the “economy method” literally arrived four months after we sent them, so it may be even after you have stopped mail service. Just let the trustworthy person you send it to that they will be receiving the package “sometime in the next 6 months” and then hope for the best!

I think your best bet would be to get a friend or family member involved. Someone trustworthy, settled and unlikely to move too often!

Of course, companies do things differently all around the world, so if you find a local solution, please let us know what it is so we can let others know.

Same thing with the services that you already mentioned. Cindy mentioned shipping the bedspread. If I wanted to do that same thing from several different countries, over the course of a year, will the services you mentioned keep the boxes until I return to pick them up?

I forgot that at one point we were collecting small pebbles and using FIMO to make necklaces; carrying a little bit of the place with you.

I’m also glad to hear long, cheap postage options still about. That was something we didn’t even consider in Hong Kong and considering the amount of stored stuff we through out when we arrived back in New Zealand, that’s probably a good thing! We’re trying to leave less stuff behind with family this time around…we’ll see how it goes.

And just in case you can’t resist that marble chess set (or in our case a handmade silk bedspread in India that we bargained very hard for) – don’t despair. The thought of carrying it to 10 more countries probably isn’t your first choice, but most countries have very “budget” shipping options that won’t cost you much money. We shipped our comforter home from India using their “BYSAL” shipping method – which means they’ll transport it any way that they can manage. Ever wonder what those heaps of packages on the tops of buses or camels were? It may take several months to arrive at it’s final destination on the slow boat, but so far we are 2/2 on sending these packages (one from India and one from Vietnam). Both packages cost us less than $30 USD/package. This way you can consolidate your gift and souvenir shopping and see it next time you swing by your home country. I still wouldn’t send anything valuable, but it’s worth the risk over carrying something heavy around for months!