Mailing Stuff Back Home While Traveling

Although you will come across so a lot of amazing things that you want to buy while traveling and you don’t want to carry it all around with you until you return home, it’s still not the best idea to mail it home.  I have never tried this before but I have met a lot of people who have run into problems trying to do so.  When I shop as I travel, I tend to buy smaller things like rings, bracelets, little trinkets, smaller ceramics, cloth-made items like purses, sarongs, hats, or t-shirts, or other small souvenirs.  All of these things are of very little value too.  I carry all of the stuff that I buy in my smaller backpack that I carry and I keep it locked up if I leave it in my room. I also use this backpack as a carry-on because it has happened that things bought have gone missing while bags are checked at the airport behind closed doors.  Since I buy smaller, lighter things, I carry them around with me as I travel, no problem at all.  I also try to wait until later in my trip to buy gifts so I don’t have to carry them around with me for too long.  I have a friend who backpacked Bali, Thailand, and India and bought a lot of beautiful things (which all of these countries have!), and she paid to have it all mailed back home from India.  Her box never made it back and she lost all of her belongings that she bought.  I have another friend who paid to have her laptop and other belongings mail back home to her parents and it had been over three months and still no package. Another friend paid to have a lot of his clothing and other stuff sent back home from India and it took months to finally get it but the process wasn’t easy.  He was asked multiple times to verify specifically what was in his boxes as proof.  This all just sounds like a big opportunity to be stressed out, worried, and to lose belongings and money.  Therefore, I highly recommend waiting towards the end of your trip to buy a lot of stuff if you want to shop, buying smaller and lighter items, and carrying in your bag close to you.  I have bought beautiful things and have managed to carry them around and get them home safely.