caution when buying marble
 

VN has wonderful marble cutters. They make everything from small knick knacks to immense fountains.We purchased marble animals for our garden. After bargaining for a good price we reached an agreement that included shipping to our home port. What we doidn't know was that the shipping company also charged us for variious handling fees on our end that almost doubled the orice of what we bought (making it definiately more than it was worth to us)

In my experience, shipping large items from SE Asia does effectively double the price of what you buy.

Didn't you buy a whole set of celedon dinnerware? It must have cost a small fortune when you added the shipping costs

All told, including shipping, a full service for 8 with 4 sizes of plates and two sizes of bowls plus many serving pieces cost me about US$600. It was all custom-made to my order and it's gorgeous. I thought that at that price it was a bargain.

When I inquired about sending home large wood items from Shanghai I was told that in addition to shipping there would also be a fumigation fee before the items could enter the US!

Yes, iI also had to pay that with my marble turtles. I guess they fumigated the box they were delivered in.