Are you traveling to Malaysia and are looking to send yourself or a friend a postcard? I found the cutest postcard station in Central Market, Kuala Lumpur. It’s also a great spot to browse through oodles of stationery and paper products, plus getting all your other souvenir and pasalubog shopping done. Just head to Paper Adventures by Loka Made.

I started this travel project years ago: I send myself a postcard from every new city or country that I visit. You can do it the old-fashioned way—by locating the city’s post office like it’s the ’80s-90s, buying one of their generic postcards, writing on it, falling in line to pay for the right amount of stamps, licking (or using glue if you’re a germophobe) to affix the stamps, and dropping the postcard into one of the mailboxes.

But many touristy souvenir shops around the world can do it for you—for an extra fee. If you buy one of their postcards, you can also purchase stamps (for a slightly jacked-up price), and they will mail the postcards for you at a later date. Sometimes there’s a mailbox in the store where you can drop it off—also to be taken to the proper post office later on.

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A post shared by Kate Alvarez (Kate Was Here) (@replikate)

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Some stores go the extra mile. In Central Market, Kuala Lumpur’s oldest marketplace with over 300 shops, my sister and I made a beeline for Paper Adventures. They sell postcards, stationery, souvenirs, and puzzles. You won’t find the usual mass-made postcards here. They have an artsier and more unique selection of postcards designed by local artists.

After browsing through their merch, pay for your items and postage stamps, and then head over to the fun postcard station where you can get your letter- and postcard-writing done. They have pens, scratch papers, rubber stamps, and ink pads that you can use to decorate your letters or postcards.

@replikate #kualalumpur #quirky #postcard #funny #stationerystore #stationery ♬ original sound – Kate Alvarez (KateWasHere.com)

This postcard station in Kuala Lumpur is also a makeshift “stamp rally,” a trend that started in Japan where travelers and residents alike bring blank notebooks to stamping stations—usually in train stations and other tourist spots—to fill up their notebooks with rubber stamp designs that represent the city or neighborhood.

When you’re done, just drop off your postcards or sealed letter envelopes into the bright red mailbox in front of the store. Then spend the rest of your day souvenir shopping and food tripping in Central Market, also known locally as Pasar Seni.

After my trip to Malaysia, I was nervous that I’d never receive my postcard, as this has happened! The Philippine postal system is notoriously shady. In my life, I’d lost many parcels and other important mail with no remorse from the erring local post office.

At one point I thought that postcard was a goner.

But my KL postcard finally arrived in the Philippines after two months, unscathed! Hooray. Two months?! That’s snail mail for you.

Paper Adventures by Loka Made is located at G33& 34, Ground Floor, Central Market,
Jalan Hang Kasturi, 50050, Kuala Lumpur. Open from 10am-10pm daily.