Ever felt like sending snail mail with lots of love from all the way on Mount Kinabalu? Oh, you know, just in case you can’t get data service there and therefore can’t access your Google Mail app, and therefore left with no other choice but to post traditional mail. Apparently, now you can.
On 8th Feb, Pos Malaysia Berhad (Pos Malaysia) installed its 3,110th post box in Malaysia, also Mount Kinabalu’s first post box, 3,289 metres above sea level at Pendant Hut, Laban Rata. To put that into perspective, Mount Kinabalu is 4,095m-high, also the highest point in Malaysia. The post box was officially launched yesterday (14th Feb) and needless to say, it immediately made it into the “Malaysia Book of Records”.
Just in case you think that’s a ridiculous move, word has it that more than 100 postcards were posted through the Mount Kinabalu post box the very day it was installed.
According to Communication and Multimedia deputy minister Datuk Jailani Johari, Pos Malaysia’s Mount Kinabalu post box is comparably as high up as those at Mount Fuji, Japan and Jungfrau Swiss Alps, Switzerland. The post box would be a new product to draw tourists and promote Malaysia’s highest mountain through specially postmarked postcards. A special self-inking date stamp of Mount Kinabalu and its altitude print is available at Ranau post office as the cancellation mark.
True, nobody in the right mind would climb all the way up just to send snail mail, but we’re guessing that the special postcards could very well potentially become a collector’s item. It’s an additional item to remember one’s climb by, aside from the Mount Kinabalu climb certificate one would be legible for upon completion.
As for the frequency of collection, well, Pos Malaysia acting Group CEO Azlan Shahrim said a postman would be assigned to go up and collect the letters and postcards from the post box at 12 noon every working day. A Pos Malaysia van would send the letters and postcards to the office of Mountain Torq, a Pos Malaysia licenced agent at 10am the following day, to be processed at the Ranau Post Office.
So, love letters from the highest point of Malaysia, anyone?
Sources: MMO, Star Online, Pos Malaysia’s Facebook page / Featured image from here.
