Kathie's Celadon report
 

(At last! I'm able to post! Fodors, please get your problems fixed!)

Many of you know that I purchased a full set of celadon on my recent trip to Thailand. I ordered from Siam Celadon in Chiang Mai. We ordered 8 place settings of 4 sizes of plates, 2 sizes of bowls, lots of serving pieces (a large salad bowl, a huge platter, mangosteen-shaped condiment containers, sauce boat, butter dish etc) mugs and tiny Chinese tea cups. The total cost including shipping was about US$800. The celadon was cutom-made for us (takes about 1 month) and then was shipped by sea. We ordered in mid-late November, received notice that it was shipped on Dec 25 and would take 75-90 days to get to our doorstep in Seattle in 8 boxes. On Saturday, three boxes arrived. This stuff was packed! Each piece was carefully wrapped in paper (large pieces in bubblewrap as well) and then in double cardboard, then packed with slabs of foam between and arround the pieces, small pieces of foam filling every space, and packed into sturdy cardboard boxes. Each box was labeled (e.g., 8/8, etc) plus had our order number and the designation of the pieces packed (e.g., 4-1181).

What we have received so far are the largest pieces. The pieces are stunning!

You know how it is, you're in Thailand looking at things and buying stuff, and when you get home, you're amazed at how special it is. This was an even more striking instance of this, as it's been months since we saw what we were ordering.

I'll keep you posted on the arrival of the rest of the celadon.

Kathie,

Glad to hear about the safe voyage of your celadon. I know the excitement you feel when you are opening and admiring something that was brought from afar. Sounds like you've gotten a beautiful set, enjoy!

Aloha!

Kathie, we're not big fans of celadon but we can totally relate to your experience. It is so special when "your" order arrives from Thailand especially when it is custom-made for you.

I adore celadon - I'll bet it's beautiful. Enjoy.

Im also planning to purchase something large..a set of celadon, furniture, etc...and have it shiped, OR ship it myself from Chiang Mai. I commissioned a rug from the Tibetan Refugee center in Darjeeling and that piece was stunning.

Does anyone have nfo on having things shipped from Thailan? Is there a UPS store or Fedex or other shipping company in the area?

Mark-

Kathie, please post a photo. We, too, want to see it and enjoy.

Zengoes-if you are going to buy furniture, make sure you read about people having problems with furniture drying and cracking.

Thanks for the suggestion, GPanda...will do!

Mark-

great kathie...so it will all arrive in time for the GTG...don't throw the boxes away cause you will need them for the flight to pasadena....

shipping....i have used ups several times and while expensive, they usually pickup from the people i have bought from....there might be some limitations to the insurance if you pack yourself so check it out...

i know there is a shipping place in many of the malls in bkk....i also know that some of the hotel business centers will also assist you with this...

they are also in the phone book...

some of your furniture may come freight included....

Kathie,
Did you have to go to the port to pick up the boxes or was it delivered to your door? I'm curious how it works in Seattle, as our "by sea" shipment last year into the Port of Newark from Chiang Mai was much more complicated than I would have imagined (which may be a Port of Newark anomoly though unless we move no way around that) -- warehouse charges added on both the west coast and east coast, and several delays as the container it was in didn't pass the Homeland Security xray test so it had to be unpacked, hand inspected, and repacked.
I opted for FedEx door to door delivery for my china from Jenggala Ceramics in Bali this year, and that was snap.
Bob, Craig, anyone on the east coast -- your thoughts, experiences??

we have used ups air (5 day) from thailand and laos....no laos was delivered directly to us via a sea voyage now that i think about it...

we did not go to the port....guenmai wrote a very funny story about having to go to the LA port last year to get her "children" from their sea shipment....she had given each one a box of crackers to eat along the way...so not to worry....

in short....all our shipments have been door to door...

i believe kathie's was the same...

its very expensive, so to get a whole set of quality dishes and shipment for $800 is amazing....

i sent 25 kilos, about 50 lbs, from bkk last fall and that alone cost $185....ups air---5 day....

(I can't believe I can post this - this site has been impossible all day!)

My celadon was door to door sent via the post office(!!). I thought I was going to get DHL, but it turned out the DHL was air only and incredibly expensive for the heavy celadon. So it was sent via the Thai post office via sea to the USPS. So no going to the port or the airport to pick it up (I did that for carpets from Turkey once - what a hassle).

I'm hoping the rest will arrive on Monday. I suspect the post office just sent three boxes to be delivered on Saturday so the postman would have space in his truck for other people's mail...

Kathie,

Might the issues you are having with Fodors be an issue other than Fodors?

I have been checking Fodors all day with no problems.

Perhaps there is a network outage somewhere on the route you take to Fodors causing problems.

ust like an accient on a highway, a router problem somewhere along your network path to Fodors can really wreak havoc with connectivity. Unfortunately, if that IS the case, Fodors wil have no control over the issue....but it should resolve itself.

zengoes - many people have been having probelms with Fodors this week. It comes and goes for me.

I can read posts, but I can't always post. It's interesting, because the site is set up on my computer to "remember" me, but not only does it often not remember me this week, but even when I log on, often it won't allow me to post (I click on respond, and a blank screen comes up. And then when I check to see if I'm logged on, I'm not -even though I've just logged on and it accepted my log-in.

So it does not appear to be a local problem here in Seattle (or in my house or workplace).

(This is definitely a Fodor's problem as I live in Singapore and have had the exact same problem intermittently for a week. )

Kathie, glad your shipment has started to arrive safely. In Bali last year I purchased service for 16 people, plus numerous serving pieces at Jenggala Ceramics, and if you can believe this....BROUGHT THE WHOLE THING HOME ON THE PLANE! Ah the joy of having a husband who is a PPS Solitaire flyer with SQ! Jenggala packed the whole shebang into several custom built wooden crates, with a total conbined weight of well over 200 lbs. My daughter was with me, and we hand carried our luggage onto the plane and used our combined weight allowance to send the dishes through the baggage line. I was prepared with US$ the "tip" the agent to be kind to me on the overweight charges, but I never had to use the money. When he saw the Solitaire card, he put the whole thing through without blinking. I still can't believe I got away with it and laugh a little each time I use my dishes! Enjoy your celadon....everything will taste better served on it, because you will remember your trip while dining!

Lindsey, so glad to read that you live in Singapore. Kids of a very close friend are going to Singapore for 2 months this summer for work. They are a family with three children (all under 10 years old). Do you know anything about summer daycamp programs in Singapore. We looked at the American School website but nothing was listed. We had heard that the American School does run a summer program. Any other programs would be good as well. Thanks!

Lindsey -- lucky you !! Air freight for 200 lbs I don't even want to think about !! And Kathie, great price. You must be thrilled and already planning that first dinner party. Are you going to cook Thai?

Our Port of Newark story is rather amazing. We rented a van to pick up our "child" and set off on a sunny wintry day for Newark. First, we had to go to the customs office with all our paperwork to get the final stamps -- this had arrived by fed ex a few days earlier. There is no parking in Newark near the customs office. There was no third seat in the van so I was sitting on a moving blanket on the floor. As we circled looking for a place to pull over (it got darker and darker the closer we got to customs), it started to snow.
After running into customs while my husb and friend circled the block, I discovered he had to "present himself" as his name was on the manifest. So back into the snow, which is now really starting to stick, switch drivers, hsb makes quick work of customs and we're off to find the warehouse.
It is really snowing now. Big downy flakes. We can hardly see ten feet ahead. The docks at Newark are out in no man's land, the street signs are non-existent, and now, the snow is covering all the signs anyway. We finally find the warehouse (had to call them for directions twice), pull up and out comes our "child" in his wooden crate looking for all the world like a little dracula shipped back from Transylvania. And as we drive away, thinking our karma has to be in seriously bad shape and the gods just hate us -- the sun breaks out.

Needless to say, fed ex door to door for the ceramics seemed the right choice -- the drama was one thing, but all the little hidden charges of sea freight to NY were rather profound. The shop in Chiang Mai split that with us, which was really very nice of them. It was almost an extra $400.

Kathie:

you might want to know that a new restaurant opened in L.A..."Celadon" ...and we were there a few weeks ago...the ambience is outstanding..and there are many Thai touches throughout. The food presentation is basically Chinois/French, with Thai dishes available. In fact their concoction of Pad Thai is by far the best I have ever tasted. Any Thai travelers in the Southern California area would do well do try tis one out...it's on Third across from Farmer's Market. Prices are a bit on the up side, but the experience is well worth it.

Stu T.

Lindsey - what a great story! Somehow, I can just see them loading those big wooden crates into the plane in Bali! I once brought home two Persian carpets purchased in Singapore. One was smaller (only 8x10) but the other was 9x12 and very heavy - 80-90 lbs. The guys at the store wrapped the big one and put handles on it like a suitcase. All of our luggage was over-stuffed as we were returning from Java. Our luggage had been overweight before we bought the carpets! When we arrived at Changi with all of our luggage, I was anticipating big overage charges. But the woman at the desk smiled brightly and said "oh, you've bought a carpet - how nice!" I asked her how much to bring it back with us and she said " Oh, you're flying first class and it is new year's day - let's jsut put a tag on it." Amazingly, all of our luggage arrived in Seattle with us (two stops from Singapore in those days) for no extra charge!

And jenksar, I love your New Jersey docks story - very atmospheric...

Elainee, you came to the right source. As a parent of two kids at Singapore American School and an active volunteer there for the past 6 years, I can definitely help you. Here is the link for the SAS summer program. http://www.sas.edu.sg/summer
It's an excellent program, run by SAS faculty, who are some of the best teachers in Asia.

The American Club also runs a very good program here in the summer. My oldest daughter was a camp counselor there for the past two summers. Here is the link for the AC home page....http://www.amclub.org.sg. I just checked and they have not posted anything about the summer program yet, but you could email and ask them. Not sure if you have to be a member of the Club or not, to have kids in the program.

There are a few other summer options, but I think those are the best two, especially for kids who are new to Singapore.

Kathie, sorry, we seem to have totally hijacked your thread about celadon!! But I did love the rug story....several of our visitors here have done the same thing. You will be pleased to know prices on Persian carpets have jumped sharply here in the past few years. Your rugs are probably worth much more now than what you paid for them.

One other comment on shipping stuff from Thailand. Years ago, when we lived in Houston, we made a trip to Chiang Mai and shipped home some teak chairs, a small chest of drawers, a lamp and some other decorative accessories. An agent in Houston wanted $500 to do the paperwork to clear the shipment. So I called the Customs Office and found out I could do it myself. The one thing that made it go very smoothly was that I had taken pictures of everything in CM, before it was packed. I took those with me to Customs and got the signatures in about 2 seconds flat. Then I had to drive 30 miles to the other side of town to pick up my shipment, but to save the $500 it was worth it. Of course that was pre-Sept 11 and I'm sure things have become much more stringent.

Bob...I didn't go to the port to pick up my monk/Buddha statues. I had to go to a huge warehouse,full of truckers, out in Compton. The truckers were so nice and let me cut in line (and not wait an hour) to pay my forklift and other fee, and even took out a machete and sliced the metals ties off of the wooden box for me....they saw me struggling alone. One crowbared the crate open and gently slid the monks out as if they were infants. The monks arrived, from Bangkok, flawlessly and were wrapped in a lot of bubble wrap. They are made of painted teak wood and I haven't had not one crack and it was 112 degrees last summer where I live in L.A. County and they survived the blazing summer heat just fine. Almost everything in my apartment is wood and is just fine and has been for decades. If you have items shipped, it's important to open the crate immediately and check for water damage. A close friend of mine and her husband have been working at the docks in San Pedro for about 20 years now and she told me that she's noticed plenty of water damage to crates. Happy Travels!

Zengeos...I had the same posting problems last week...very frustrating. I have to log in differently now than I have logged in for years. Happy Travels!

Ok, I said I'd let you all know when the full set arrived. We have it all today (it was at the post office, but we had to wait to pick it up because of our schedules). It's unpacked and there isn't a crack or chip on any piece. It looks great and they did a great job packing it. We are really delighted with it.

Elainee, I remember your request for a photo - we'll have to do that now that it is all here and post it.

I can certainly recommend Siam Celadon after this experience.

We bought 8 celadon place settings with lots of serving bowls and two platters from Baan Celadon when we were in Chiang Mai two years ago. They shipped everything (door to door) carefully wrapped in bubble wrap as Kathy describes and not a single thing was broken. We were thrilled when we got it -- like a taste of Thailand suddenly appearing on our doorstep. We use it every day and it still looks just as beautiful as when it arrived. We love it and it brings back wonderful memories.

It is a fabulous reminder of Thailand isn't it?

Hi Kathy - a couple of qustions if I may. When you say that the total cost delivered was 800 $, how much of that was for the delivery? You say you had the stuff custom-made, which aspects were yours to decide on, just the colour or anything else? (BTW which colour did you get?) Is Celadon at all available in your area or at least via mail-order? If so, would it be much more costly or did you simply prefer getting it from its place of origin? I wonder if the glazing employed is food-proof according to the rather stringent standards we have in Europe (the FDA is now slouch either, afaik ;-) - did the place have any information on that aspect at all?
Thanks & enjoy!

Kathie -- can't wait to see pictures and hear about your first dinner party !!

Sheygetz, A bit over half the cost to me was the shipping. If you need more specific info, let me know, as I can check my invoice.

What aspects of the celadon did we decide on - well, I guess the short answer is all of them! We chose the pattern (there are many to chose from), we chose the pieces we wanted (a huge variety available), we chose the glaze color (we chose blue) and whether we wanted the glaze covering the edge or whether we wanted a rubbed edge.

While I do occasionally see celadon here in Seattle, I've not seen anything of this quality here. I would expect I could mail order celadon, but getting it from an intermediary would at least double the price.

I did some research on lead content of the glazes used several years ago. I don't remember the specifics, but I think CFW did that research more recently and may be able to give you the data. In any case, I was satisfied with the info I found.

I didn't research the lead content, but was told that it was lead free and accepted their word. The quality, style and variety of the celadon at Baan Celadon or Siam Celadon totally surpasses anything you can find in stores in the U.S., including Gumps, at about one half the price, even with the shipping. As Kathy says, the cost of shipping is as much as the cost of the dinnerware, but we really felt it was a great buy, and a wonderful reminder of Thailand.

Kathie, is there a Siam Celadon shop in Bangkok and will they make custom pieces there as well?
Thanks

Yes, there is a Siam Celadon in Bangkok. I'm sure they will take custom orders.

there is one celedon factory shop near the corner of asoke and sukhumvit....there is a fabric shop on the corner and the celedon shop is a few stores down asoke in the direction of the queen's convention center....limited offerings, but they may do custom work...

We had some celadon shipped too from Baan Celadon a couple of years ago and i too am reminded of the great time we had in Chiang Mai every time we use it. Shipping was rather expensive and taxes and delivery from the port really added to the cost. Wished we had used Baan Celadons shipping but hey you live and learn. The celadon however is GORGEOUS.... Might just us it when Bob and karen come to stay!!!!

I wonder if anyone who has purchased celadon or other potentially heavy items has decided to carry them as extra, even overweight, baggage on the flight home. If so, how did that work out? How do you think the price compared with shipping it home? It seems like it might be no more expensive and might even be cheaper once you consider potential customs savings.

Have a question that I hope you will answer. What is the difference between Baan Celedon and Siam Celedon? Haven't found much researching on the net and can't find any of the stuff in New Orleans to look at or to price. Which store in Chiang Mai did you use? Hope to purchase some when we are there in Jan. Any information will be greatly appreciated.

they are seperate companies and have different styles....sort of like wedgwood and coalport....

or melmac and correll...

yes we have carried stuff home in our hand luggage with no problems...often in fact...

You can see the Baan Celadon and Siam Celadon patterns on their websites. I have never seen either for sale in the US. Both are excellent quality, choose according to which pattern and color you prefer.

The full set of celadon we bought had to be custom made, so flying home with it was not an option. Also, if you buy a full set, the sheer weight and number of boxes makes it not practical to bring home on the plane. Certainly a few pieces could be carried or packed.

Kathie, just reading about your purchases is exciting! I have looked on the net and thought all patterns were lovely. Will be difficult to choose. On a more practical side, have you had any chipping? Do you use it for everyday or just on special occasions? It says it's dishwasher safe,do you run them through or hand wash? If you order a set or many pieces do they discount? Love the little soup bowls with the lids. I think shopping for celadon is going to be one of the highlights of my trip. Was it just that you liked the Siam patterns better than the Baan or did you base your decision on other factors? thank you!

I bought the celadon for everyday use. I have not had any chipping. I do put it in the dishwasher.

Basically, there are no discounts for buying more pieces. We purchased a huge set (details in the original post), in part because we figured since we were paying to ship it home, we might as well ship a lot. Also they custom-make all sets, so all the glazes match perfectly. We liked the blue that Siam has, but the "blue" at Baan was very blue-green, which I didn't like.

In person, the patterns struck me as more different from each other than they did on the web. While I liked the lotus pattern we chose at Siam better than Baan's lotus pattern, there were plenty of patterns at both places I could be happy with.

I recommend you visit both places before deciding what to buy.

Kathie, Thank you for all of your information. I noticed in another post that you mentioned you liked the crush of Chinatown. Would you please tell me about it and what purchases to look for. I read somewhere that if you want to buy gold jewerly that this is the spot. True? Any information would be greatly appreciated.