Postcards from the top of the world

Over the last few years, instant messaging, messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Hike and many more, and e-mails, coupled with easy access to internet just about everywhere, hand-written letters and postcards have almost become extinct. Yet still, there are many people who love to receive postal mail that contains something other than your monthly magazine subscriptions, credit card approvals and bills. It can be an entirely amazing experience to take a few minutes off while you are on vacation and jot down a quick note for your loved one, and send it via the postal services.

The world's highest post office in Hikkim 

Writing postcards is one of my favourite ways to pass time while sitting in coffee shops or restaurants, and has now turned into an essential part of every trip I make. It is a quick, easy, sweet and affordable way to show someone that you care, while you are gallivanting.

I spend a good time to select my post cards.

Posting my cards from the world’s highest post office, perched at 14,500 feet above sea level, was a truly amazing experience. Hikkim, where the world’s highest postal office, is located about 23 km from Kaza, the major town in Himachal Pradesh’s marvellous Spiti Valley. It is just apt that this record-holding post office is located in India, home to world’s most extensive postal system.

People writing to their loved ones. 

On entering inside this small house-cum-post office, I saw a lot of tourists selecting or writing postcards and asking for stamps. A few of them had a very serious query, to know whether the postcards actually reach their destinations or not!

Rinchen, the post master, was just 22 years old when he took up the responsibility of running the post office. Today, stamping letters and postcards is a task that doesn't even require his full attention. This small office also doubles up as his home; one of the houses of approximately 165 citizens that live in Hikkim. There is no cellphone network in the village, and hence the postal service is the only means of communication with the rest of the world if you are in Hikkim. Despite this, the post office is shut for approximately half of the year because of heavy snow. 

Rinchen works alone inside the post office.
  So, I thought I would not disturb him and got a quick click of him.

There are two runners in the post office, who take turns to carry the mail from Hikkim to Kaza on foot daily in the morning. From Kaza, the mail is carried via Reckong Peo to Shimla by bus, and then further to Kalka by train. In Kalka, the mail again gets loaded into a bus and transferred to Delhi. From Delhi, it is then distributed by train or rail as per destination.

One great way to chronicle my journey was to write a postcard to myself as often as possible. On returning back, I felt a great deal of excitement about waiting for my letters to arrive. Telling the stories of your travel to yourself is a unique way to enjoy travelling. These postcards also make for great mementos of your trip, something you can cherish for a long, long time. 

So next time you are on a vacation, promise to write to yourself, and enjoy the fun!