Vientiane - Post Report Question and Answers
How do you send and receive your letters and package mail? Are local postal facilities adequate?
U.S. embassy personnel have access to DPO and pouch, though the pouch is now highly restricted (paper mail and prescription medications only). There is DHL, but it is expensive and difficult to use. You are best off shipping anything by going to Thailand and using DHL there. I do not know anything about local mail, but I literally don't even know my own residence's address, so things are very unstructured. - Dec 2024
DPO and pouch. DHL and Federal Express are available but very expensive. Don't recommend local Lao postal system as it is unreliable; USPS does not deliver to Laos. - Mar 2024
Diplomatic Pouch; DHL is reliable, too. - Mar 2023
DPO. I never used local facilities. - Jun 2020
We use the diplomatic post system. - Oct 2018
We had an APO and the pouch when we were there. We did not have a PO that we could buy stamps from, so be sure to have a USPS.com account. You can buy and print stamps from home and bring in the packages to mail. Mail took about 3 -4 weeks to arrive at post. - Jan 2014
