With the proliferation of WiFi and cell phones, does anybody mail postcards anymore? I haven't gotten one in years, so I assume the answer is "no." If, however, on your next trip you decide that you not only want to send a postcard, but you want to do something unique, why not send a card from an underwater mailbox? Though not common, there are five underwater mailboxes for you to visit:

1. Vanuatu Post created the world's first underwater post office. Situated within a marine sanctuary off Hideaway Island, this post office, staffed by a postal employee, can receive mail if you are a visiting diver or snorkeler. The best part? The lines are always short.
2. On Japan's southeastern coast, there's a mailbox 33 feet beneath the surface of the water -- the deepest mailbox on record. Each day, the contents are collected from the box, which reportedly contains as many as 200 pieces of mail. Conveniently, the group who developed this post office also invented Surumail: edible, squid-flavored postcards.
3. Malaysia's Reef Dive Resort has set up what it believes to be that country's first underwater mailbox. Any mail sent through this mailbox is sealed inside a plastic bag and postmarked with a special stamp.
4. St. Thomas, USVI, has an underwater post office inside its Underwater Observatory, which means you can get the "underwater stamp" without getting "underwater wet."
5. Paradise Island, in the Bahamas, boasts an underwater mailbox adjacent to a spiraling 100-foot tower.

I'd love to get a postcard sent from an underwater mailbox. The first person to send me one gets an Amazon gift certificate worth 10 times the amount of the postage.

Filed under: Scuba Diving