Postcrossing Blog

The Little Mail Carriers are still island-hopping in the South Pacific! After their adventures in New Caledonia with postcrossers Maret (aka Cerres) and Andry (aka andry1961), our tiny postal duo boarded another plane to visit a place most of us only know from stamps and atlases: Wallis and Futuna. Come along as they report back from this remote corner of the world, where life (and the post!) move at an unhurried island pace.

From New Caledonia, we flew to Wallis and Futuna with the airline Aircalin, which operates two flights per week from Nouméa. Wallis Airport was a charming sight to behold in itself. Beyond its delightful architecture, the airport served as a vibrant gathering place for the locals. When we departed four days later at the early hour of five in the morning, the area around the airport was surprisingly bustling with people.

Wallis and Futuna is an exceptionally unique France overseas territory that has never been colonized but chose to become a part of the French Republic (1961) while preserving its three kingdoms.

The first inhabitants of Wallis came from New Caledonia. Europeans only discovered Wallis in 1767 when Samuel Wallis laid eyes on an uncharted island. After an initially confrontational reception from the locals, he returned to the sea, leaving the island with his namesake. The local population predominantly comprises Polynesians, whose gracious hospitality and traditions whisk you away from daily life.

Many of them adorned themselves with beautifully scented flower necklaces (often more than one) or tucked flowers into their hair. This was not limited to women; men embraced the tradition too. The daily presence of these traditions was evident in the local attire and tattoos. Both floral and oceanic motifs were popular in these expressions.

The Wallis Post Office is located in the capital city, across from the royal palace and near Mata-Utu Cathedral. Here, the post office isn’t just for sending postcards: you can also arrange telephone and internet connections, transfer money, pay bills, and more.

Adjacent to the post office, there’s an impressive philatelic department where we spent at least two hours every day when the post office was open. We received a warm welcome and were even offered a workspace for leisurely stamping.

The islands’ first stamps were overprinted stamps from New Caledonia, issued in May 1920. The stamps depict the history and nature of Wallis and Futuna, all of which are displayed along with explanations behind numerous glass-encased panels. On our last day in the Philatelic Center, they gifted us a flower necklace, though it was a bit too large for us — Maret was wearing it instead of us.

During our time in Wallis, we also visited Talietumu, the best-preserved Tongan Fortresses in Pacific Region and Lake Lalolalo, one of the largest inland crater lakes in this area.

In total, we made several rounds around the island during those days — the circumference is only about 50 kilometers. Although the distances were not vast, pedestrians were quite rare, also in Mata-Utu, but friendly stray dogs were abundant.

However, it’s worth noting that our journey was not without its challenges. A daily storm, which prevented flights to the nearby Futuna Island, added an element of unpredictability to our adventure. 😞 We’ll have to leave that visit for another time… but that’s part of the adventure.

With postcards written, stamps carefully chosen, and new friends made at the post office, it was soon time for Maret, Andry and us to say “mālō” and continue our journey across the Pacific. Stay tuned — we’ll soon have some more exciting travel reports to share!

Some time ago, the Little Mail Carriers got wind that Andry (aka Andry1961) and Maret (aka Cerres) were preparing for a very exciting trip to the Pacific. As dedicated travel mode enthusiasts, they jumped at the opportunity to join them on their journey!

Hi everyone! The goal of the trip was to visit Pacific islands belonging to various countries where Postcrossing was not yet well-known. The journey took off from Tallinn Airport, and of course, there are no direct flights to these desired islands, so our route also included other major country post offices along the way.

The first stop was Istanbul, Turkey. The Turkish Post (or PTT) has a presence at Istanbul Airport. Most postcards sent from the country are shipped to other nations via their national airline, Turkish Airlines. We also took the longer flights on the same airline during this trip.

The plane landed in Singapore, but it’s easy to travel from the airport to the neighboring country of Malaysia via public transportation… so that’s exactly what we did on our layover! Across the border in Johor Bahru, a friendly postal worker lady Farah helped us stamp our postcards at the local post office. While the stamping was done at the post office, the postcards themselves had to be deposited in an external mailbox, from where they were sent to the sorting center.

Back in Singapore, there are post offices with varying opening hours all over the city, but to ensure we made it to the next flight on time, we decided to mail the postcards from the airport post office. By the time we arrived, it was already closed, so we dropped the cards in the mailbox before jumping on our next flight.

After 10.5 hours in the air, we were approaching our main destination. What motivated people to sail on their small vessels to unknown waters thousands of years ago is still a topic of debate among scientists. We support the idea that curiosity and the desire to explore foreign lands drove us, just as it did for those early explorers.

Our first stop in the South Pacific was Grande Terre, the largest island of New Caledonia. New Caledonia is a French overseas territory (technically, a sui generis collectivity) situated in the Pacific Ocean. It encompasses over 300 islands and islets and is located between Australia and Fiji. The native population is the Kanak people, but there are also many inhabitants of French origin and their descendants living on the island.

British explorer James Cook became the first European to visit New Caledonia on September 4, 1774. In the mid-19th century, it transformed into a French colony, and by 1946, it became a French overseas territory.

Nouméa welcomed us on the morning of September 26 with cheerful and windy 20-degree Celsius weather. However, since it was a Saturday, we had to rush to the post office. Only some post offices are open for half a day on Saturdays, and they are all closed on Sundays.

Apart from us, there were many other visitors at the post office. The official name of the postal operator in New Caledonia is the Office des Postes et Télécommunications, which manages mail, phone, and internet services, as well as banking services. We were the only ones on that morning sending postcards.

We were graciously assisted by the lovely lady Melatia. Postcards sent from here are routed to Europe through France, while direct connections are available to the USA and Australia. To our delight, we discovered that New Caledonia, despite being a French overseas territory, has its own unique postage stamps… so it was a nice opportunity to see these distinctive stamps!

Nevertheless, the visit to the post office was not the sole item on our agenda. We also joined in to support our travel companion Cerres, who participated in the 7th Marathon International Mobil of New Caledonia 10 km run, where she achieved a personal record. YAY! 🎉

To close the trip, we checked out the Great South Lagoon of New Caledonia, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2008. We also had the opportunity to explore one of the many exquisite national parks on this remarkable island — Blue River Park! It was amazing to see the river meander through the backdrop of red earth and the ancient kaori trees, some of which are more than 1,000 years old!

This was just the first leg of our Pacific adventure though, and our hosts Andry and Maret tell us there’s still a lot more to come… so if you’re curious about small islands and their post offices, stay tuned to see where we’ll land next! 😊

Combining his academic background in Finnish language and culture with his lifelong love of stamp collecting, some years ago Jonas (aka radiohead92) embarked on an internship at the Postal Museum in Tampere. Get ready to explore the fascinating world of Finnish postal history through his eyes, accompanied by some very special little travelers…

"Some years ago, I had the idea to combine my two main interests, Finland and philately. Finland has been an important subject for me through my studies of Finnish language and culture at the University of Vienna, philately since I was 11 years old when I started collecting stamps. I remembered the Postal Museum in Tampere, and asked if an internship there would be possible. Years ago, I had been in Finland for the first time, visited Tampere and participated the big International Meetup during the FINLANDIA 2017 Stamp Exhibition. Now I am a proud member of the Finnish Postcrossing Friends Association and have visited Finland many times. The Little Mail Carriers have observed and participated my whole internship at Postimuseo.

Tampere is a city famous for its industrial buildings, so it is not a surprise that it is called the “Manchester of the North” (Finns call it “Manse”, which is the Finnish word for Manchester). The Postimuseo is housed in a former building of a foundry, which looks really beautiful.

In the museum exhibitions that were featured back in 2022, you could see many interesting items of Finnish postal history, like the first motorized car of Posti or ancient writing instruments (e.g. a quill). Believe me, the little ones and I were stunned about this amazing exhibition everyday!

They were so many great other parts of the museum. Especially the library, full with interesting books about Postal History and Philately was a place where I had been often in my leisure time. No surprise, that the Little Mail Carriers wanted to explore the department of postcards immediately.

Behind the scenes, the full collection of European stamps of the last 100 years or the printing plates of the first Finnish stamps 1917 were amazing. I had the chance to see everything there, the staff of the Postal Museum was very friendly and willing to show me their treasures.

They were delighted to see my shining eyes and my tasks were varied. For instance, I had to scan old and expensive collections of stamps and postcards, or to sort stamps for the next exhibitions.

Sometimes I participated in the guided tours for school-children and wore an old postal uniform for them. It was very nice to see how the children explore the former and current postal items. Everyday I got a new, exciting task and the Little Mail Carriers were good and helpful fellows.

During the weekends, we traveled to other parts of Finland and attended some Postcrossing meetups, at Rovaniemi and Oulu. In Rovaniemi was the big Santa Claus Meeting on Arctic Circle, where we visited Santa Claus and its post office.

In Oulu we met some local postcrossers and, of course, the famous Toripolliisi, a sculpture of a former local policeman.

The Postcrossing meetup at Tampere, held at Postimuseo, was also special. The Little Mail Carriers were the V.I.P.s there! Finland (and Tampere) are famous for the Moomins, so the little ones had to visit the Moomin Museum, which is situated in the fairground of Tampere, the venue of FINLANDIA 2017.

In short, my internship at Tampere’s Postal Museum was a dream combination of my passions for Finland and philately. Surrounded by fascinating postal history and with the Little Mail Carriers as my steadfast companions, I experienced firsthand the rich stories behind mail and the vibrant spirit of the Finnish Postcrossing community. This adventure has left me with lasting memories and an even deeper appreciation for the connections Postcrossing fosters worldwide."

A big thank you to Jonas for sharing his amazing adventure at the Postal Museum with us and the Little Mail Carriers! We’re so glad they had such a fantastic time exploring the world of Finnish postal history. Until their next journey, happy travels, little ones! ✈️

A while ago, the Little Mail Carriers visited Bali to meet Vonny (aka postcrossingbali). They’ve been excited to write about the experience, so let’s turn it straight over to them!

Om Swastiastu! That is Balinese greeting meaning “May peace be with you”.

I Gusti Ngurah Rai is one of Indonesia’s National Heroes and the International Airport in Bali is named after him. The red writing above shows how it is written in the Balinese script, natively known as Aksara Bali and Hanacaraka. It is an abugida used in the island of Bali, commonly for writing the Austronesian Balinese language, Old Javanese, and the liturgical language Sanskrit.

In Bali we encountered many entrance gates like this, it is called Gapura Candi Bentar. It is decorated with Balinese style carving depicting the life of traditional Balinese people containing the symbol Rwa Bhineda, two things that always coexist such as yin & yang or good & bad sides of life to maintain the balance of nature, along with the Ang and Ah script inserted that means sky/father and earth/mother, so when these two put together it will form a life. It is formed by strong pillars that serve as a guardian and protector of its inhabitants. All together, it is hoped that anyone who passes through the Candi Bentar can have good thoughts, words and deeds when in the area of the house or building. Indirectly, this is also believed to be able to protect the occupants of the house from all kinds of evil intentions.

Balinese are very religious. There are also many small temples in Bali where the Hindu can come, pray and give offerings. This one is located in the International Airport Garden Area.

This huge, beautiful sculpture, called Satria Gatot Kaca (Gatot Kaca Knight), is located just in front of Bali’s Airport. It is made by famous sculture artist from Ubud – Bali, namely Wayan Winten in October 1993. The statue portrays a scene from the Mahabharata story, where the knight Gatot Kaca, the son of Bima, one of the five Pandavas (who is famous for his courage and bravery), is standing on top of Karna (Kaurava)'s famous many horse chariot, holding his famous Ganda Angkasa (sky club). This statue symbolises the courage and chivalry that will bring glory, and is believed to provide security and spiritual protection for travelers visiting Bali.

Bali is one of the 17,508 islands in Indonesia and the only Hindu-majority province in Muslim-majority Indonesia. Bali has a unique culture and customs, one you cannot find anywhere else in the world. Diversity is very much well accepted in Bali. You can sometimes see a church, mosque and pura (Balinese Temple) located harmoniously side by side.

It is very common in Bali that culture and religion infused together. One of the example is this magnificent architecture of Catholic Cathedral richly decorated in Balinese style. It can easily be mistaken as a Pura (Balinese Temple).

The weather when we were in Bali was just perfect, and we enjoyed taking a stroll through the rice paddies. While we were there, the rice was just ripening, so the farmers hung colourful cloths to scare away the wild birds to stop them from eating the rice.

Look at these beautiful sculptures of Balinese Man and Woman we encountered in front of a local’s house entrance, and the pretty front of this house. This complex style decoration can be found almost everywhere in Bali!

This is Sesajen, an offering given to the Gods as a way to say thank you for the blessing given. It is done daily by setting aside a small portion of food that they have on that day.

Bali is surrounded with many beautiful beaches, and the sunset is so beautiful that photo doesn’t do it justice…

During our trip to Bali, we arrived just in time to experience Nyepi. Nyepi is once in a year Day of Silence to commemorate every Saka New Year (Balinese Calendar). During Nyepi, the Balinese Hindu will be fasting, doing self reflection and meditating from 6 am in the morning until the 6 am the following morning. In these 24 hours, there are restrictions such as no lighting fires or lights, no working, no entertainment or pleasure, no travelling and for some no talking or eating at all.

3 or 4 days before Nyepi, the Balinese do “Melasti”. It is a ritual performed to cleanse the world from all the filth of sin and bad karma. It’s held on the edge of the beach with the aim to purify oneself of all the bad things in the past and throw it to the ocean. We were told that this ritual is done all over Bali beaches.

Months before Nyepi, the Balinese make Ogoh-ogoh. These are demonic statues made from bamboo, cloth or styrofoam, symbolizing negative elements or malevolent spirits or even characters from Hindu mytology. The night before Nyepi, the Ogoh-ogoh will be paraded around, then burned to vanquish the negative elements and create a balance with God, Mankind and Nature. Because of the pandemic, for a while the parades were not allowed, and they were simply displayed in front of community halls.

Especially the day before Nyepi, there are so many people stopping to take picture of the Ogoh-ogoh and creating slow traffic. We, of course, joined them for Ogoh-ogoh hunting. Above are some of the Ogoh-ogoh we managed to take picture of.

Balinese set up offerings in front of their houses, and decorate the Pura and streets with Penjor to celebrate Nyepi. We saw some Pura with many Balinese bustling in and out bringing offering and praying preparing for Nyepi!

Near one of the Pura, we smelled something really amazing to eat, so good it made our stomachs rumble! Just next to the temple, there was a lady selling Sate Babi (grilled Pork Satay marinated richly in spices). The lady was very kind and friendly to us and proudly showed us the Tipat, steamed rice cake packed inside a diamond-shaped container of woven palm leaf pouch that are eaten along with the Sate Babi and Balinese Sambal (chilli sauce). Our host assured us we could find this yummy Sate Babi almost everywhere in Bali and not only during special events, although there are many more sellers when there is a ceremony. It tastes very yummy and a bit spicy, but we really enjoyed it.

On Nyepi Day, we woke up to a very peaceful quiet morning. It’s very quiet: we were having a hard time to find words on how to explain the sound of “total silence”. We could only hear the sound of the birds chirping and even the breeze through the leaves. There were no other noises, especially from vehicles or machinary, even human voices were kept to the minimum. We took a peek outside our host’s residence — the main road that was usually bustling with traffic was totally empty! And we noticed the air feels different, it was very fresh and cool. We guess it is very clean because there is zero pollution during that time. There were only few pecalang (local security) patrolling making sure all is well and to provide assistance if needed in case of emergency. We were told that today everything is closed, even the airport and harbor. Only the hospital is open, but you will need a special permit to go there since no one is allowed to go out.

At night, we ate a simple easy meal — our host prepared us the famous Indonesian instant noodles, Indomie Goreng, yummy! It is listed as the best-tasting instant ramen 2019 by the Los Angeles Times, and it justified its title! Since we are not allowed to turn on the light, we ate under a small torch. It’s a unique fun experience.

After dinner, we went to the rooftop to see the sky. The view was breathtaking, the sky was a sea of bright stars since there was no light all around us. Despite it being cloudy at that time, we could still see many stars shining clearly, it’s like bilions of diamonds scattered throughout the sky. Our host told us had it not been cloudy, it would have been much more beautiful. Many tourists and famous photographers come to Bali just to experience and taking picture of the night sky during Nyepi.

Before we left, of course we had to send some postcards. We visited the main Post Office in Denpasar and its Philately Counter.

On the way to the airport we stop by the Badjra Sandhi Monument which was located nearby the Post Office. This enormous monument was originally built in 1987. It is a symbol to preserve the spirit of the struggle of the Balinese people throughout the generation as well to maintain the integrity of the unitary state of the republic of Indonesia. It has 17 steps at the main door, 8 large pillars inside the monument building and the 45 meter height of the monument symbolizes the Independence Day of the Republic of Indonesia which is 17 August 1945.

It contains 33 dioramas, which cover various incidents in the history of the Balinese, including the Balinese kingdom, the introduction of Hinduism, the Majapahit era, Dutch colonialism, and the struggle for independence.

Well, that sums up our short experience in Bali! We hope to visit again some other time to explore the many parts of Bali we didn’t get to see. Goodbye Bali, hope to see you again!

A big thank you to Vonny for being such a wonderful host and sharing with the community the magic of Bali! We’ll be dreaming of fragrant offerings, dazzling Ogoh-ogoh, and that breathtaking starlit sky for a long time to come.

With their passports in hand and postcards sent, the Little Mail Carriers are off to their next adventure — who knows where we’ll turn up next? See you soon! ✈️

Hi everyone! Some time ago, the Little Mail Carriers visited the third-largest island in the world: Borneo (also known as Kalimantan in Indonesian language)! It is divided among three countries (Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei) and sits right on the Equator, so the weather is always warm there. They were really curious to start exploring, so they joined Norita (aka noritaa) for some adventures!

On an early Sunday morning, our host woke us up to go to Siring’s recreational park, located at the heart of the capital of South Kalimantan, Banjarmasin city. This park was built on the shores of the river Siring, thus the name. There used to be a floating market at the river, but when we visited it was temporarily closed due to the pandemic. We took some photos with the river view and also in front of one floating food stall we found at the bank river. The stall was closed as it was still early.

We bought tickets to ride a “Klotok (a motorized boat) along the river. The round trip on the boat lasted about 30 minutes.

Right in front of the dock where we got off, stood the city’s landmarks, a 6.5 meters high (21 ft) statue of a bekantan (Proboscis monkey) which is a native primate of this island. Bekantan are a highly arboreal species and they live in groups consisting of one male and several females and their babies. Since there were quite many people who took pictures in front of the statue, we had to wait for a while.

We also stopped by the miniature of Banjar traditional house called “Bubungan Tinggi”. In the old kingdom time, this house was the core building in a complex of a palace where the king and his family lived. The name “Bubungan Tinggi” refers to its sharp and high roof (45 degrees steep).

We were hungry and our host took us to try a dish from the local cuisine, a rice noodle chicken soup called “Soto Banjar". Soto is a popular Indonesian chicken soup that can be easily found anywhere in the country, from a street stall to an upscale restaurant. There are many different soto in Indonesia, some of them are named based on the region where they are originated, including “Soto Banjar” as Banjar is not only the name of our ethnic group but also the short form of “Banjarmasin” (the name of our city).

Soto Banjar is made from a combination of spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and lemongrass. There was a chicken foot in our soup given for free, in some places you have to pay extra for them. It is served with compressed rice cake called “Lontong" and chicken satay.

After we finished eating we strolled at the river bank again and surprisingly found an antique stall, where old coins, banknotes and stamps were sold. We looked at some of them, and took a picture of us with a set of stamps from 1965. The stamps featured the founding father of Indonesia, Soekarno. Soekarno was a leader of Indonesia’s nationalist movement during the colonial period. Together with Mohammad Hatta, he proclaimed Indonesian independence day on August 17, 1945. He then was appointed as the first president and served from 1945 to 1967.

We continued strolling along and passed by a graffiti of Banjar traditional costumes and traditional house just like the one that we saw before. Traditional costumes for men are long-sleeved vest decorated with motifs, long pants in similar color and a cloth with similar pattern wrapped around the waist. For the head, they wear a headband that has one of edges is higher than the others. Women wear a top called “Baju Kurung Basisit” and sarong. The top is called basisit, and it has straps (or “sisit” in Banjarese) at the neck and hand parts.

The sun was already high but before heading back home we went to “Kampung Sasirangan” or Sasirangan village which is a center for sasirangan production. Sasirangan is a typical traditional fabric of Banjar ethnic group that are used as headbands, belts for men, as well as scarves, hoods and also a traditional tank top for women. Lately Sasirangan has been developed into an industrial product in South Kalimantan. Sasirangan is derived from the banjar word “sirang" or “menyirang" that means “to stitch together". The method in making sasirangan is a bit similar to that in Javanese batik.

The next day we accompanied our host sending her mails to the post office. Here in this city, they do not use mailboxes anymore so all mails have to be dropped at the post office. Incoming mails are delivered directly to the door of the recipients.

It was a very hot day so once we were home our host treated us with rambutan fruit. “Rambut" means hair, and this tropical fruit has hairlike spines on its outer skin. Rambutan is a garden fruit tree and in South Borneo it is common to find them either in the back yard of the front yard of a house. The fruit are usually sold fresh but since they have a short shelf life they also made and sold as pickle.

Thank you Norita, for this sweet visit to Banjarmasin! So many new things to learn about and explore… I’m sure we’ll be dreaming of monkeys, rambutan and colorful sasirangan for some time.

With their passports in hand, the little ones are already off on fresh adventures – where they’ll pop up is anyone’s guess!