Sending the shopping home - Bangkok
 

We will be staying at the Marriott Spa Resort Bangkok and then traveling on to India.
If I cant resist the shopping on the way over can anyone help me out with the easiest place to organise a package to send home sea mail please? It will be just my souveniers, tableclothes, clothes etc.
thanks

I bring enough clothes to survive the first 2 days of shopping. It is cheaper to buy new clothes in Thailand than it is to get your old clothes laundered at the hotel.
Polo shirts go for 3-4 USD. Similar rates for other stuff.
Assuming you don't want to lug things to India (and that you are going back home via BKK), you could leave your purchases at the hotel (they will hold them for you for free) or perhaps store them at the airport.
Where would you be sending the packages to? USA?

-Craig

PS - Here's a list of shipping agents:

http://www.schednet.com/ASIAINFO/Bangkok.asp

from the marriott it is very easy to go to the main post office....it is on new road, which is the first major road in from the river...you can take the boat from the marriott to the skytrain pier and walk out to the main road from there (1000 ft), turn left and go several blocks---maybe 5-10 minute walk...it is at about soi 34 or 36...you can't miss it...it is a large grayish building, set back from the road with some grass and a statue in front of it and it says post office on its face i believe....

they may have a packing service...

the marriott business center may also be able to help you...you could e-mail them and ask...

fedes, airborne and the others are all in bkk as well...

don't send anything that is valuable...a friend lost quite a bit out of his parcel that was mailed last year from bkk...

be forewarned that it is quite expensive to ship things...

And, if you ship stuff home, you'll have to pay duty on all of it. If you carry it home yourself the duty is much less.

I always take two suitcases, one contains only bubblewrap. I've always been able to bring my purchases home myself.

Kathie that is too funny. Like you, I just told my travelling partner I was taking a suitcase with only bubblewrap. I like the feeling of having it when I get home and not having to deal with shipping /costs involved.

Yup, I've been doing it for over 20 years and have brought home amazingly fragile items with no breakage whatsoever. (By the way, I've had airline opt to have a little fun with the bubblewarp suitcase. One time they put a HEAVY tag on it...)

Thanks Bob, can I ship it surface from the PO? - and was the price still steep for your friend if he did it this way?
Carrying is not an option as we are overlanding 2 weeks india and then 5 weeks Nepal.... tips on getting any "cant resist purchases" home as cheaply as possible appreciated.

A friend shipped a full box of stuff to her sister in the US when she came shopping to Bkk. She used the post office - is a handy branch in Central Chitlom. Be aware tho that the post office boxes are fixed size and not very large - tho i understand the larger the box the more the chance of attracting customs attention so there is a flip side too. Another option is to ask stores at which you make big purchases to send - I purchased a full flatware set for 18 with a wooden box for a friend in S'pore and Almeta had it couriered. Cost was only about 5% of the set of the flatware.

Sorry - calculation mistake there. Flatware cost 18000 baht, wooden cutlery box cost 1200 baht, shipping cost 2700 baht. The box was very heavy so that added quite a bit to the cost actually. Almeta got the quotes from 3 courier cos., then arranged shipping, etc. Door to door.

Hi!
We are writing from Beijing on our way back to BKK. We are only allowed to check 1 pc (20 kilos) each with Swiss Air back to Paris. There is a desk/counter at the airport in BKK right behind the departure counters that says something like UNACCOMPANIED LUGGAGE - I asked and dont remember the exact amount, but I do remeber we said that to send 20 kilos or so was about 100 US dollars. I dont think you have to pay duties if you send things this way. I think we might have to do this because with Swiss Ailines the xtra kilo is 23 euros!! But we are thinking we will send our dirty clothes on it that way we make sure the FRENCH ( I am not french ) dont make us pay any duties.
Diana

to the usa you have to pay duty on almost all purchases that you import...having said that the last two times i have had things shipped to me there was no duty..

there is the gsp system for americans purchasing things in thailand that exempts you as well...check with us customs for how this works...

in any case the duty is not much...

my friend did not indicate how much he paid to ship things...yes the po would ship via ship...although in the usa lots of stuff goes by air even if you only pay for ground---who knows what the thais do...

its all relative of course...

what is the max duty-free for customs inspection to USA?
Do you keep track of all purchases? Otherwise it is hard to track. Since I take little clothes and will buy it on the way, do I have to declare each piece of clothes I will buy and wear?

I purchased some things in Chiang Mai a year or so ago that they shipped for me back to the states. They wrote something that it was handmade crafts and was an unsolicited wedding gift and no duty had to be paid. I think the handmade crafts is critical.

Me gain -- I also once had the Oriental ship some art that I had framed in Bangkok. The shipping was expensive since they had special boxes made and I'm sure I paid a premium using the hotel service but it was still cheaper than having the stuff framed here. But again I did not pay any duty -- the Oriental told me there were things to do to avoid it and they did it. So it might be adviseable to use someone who knows what they are doing rather than just taking it to the post office yourself. Might cost a bit more but might save a love at the other end.

your u.s. customs allowance is $800 per person....this applies to everything that you purchase overseas regardless how it is taken back to the us....having said that , there are exceptions...so as not to mislead i suggest, again, that you check on line with the us customs department's web-site...there is the gsp program and something about small gifts mailed home....you have to plan that you will pay duty and feel great if you are not asked for it...

i keep a detailed list of everything we buy so as to make it easy as we return home....i develop a detailed list which i have available for the customs man should he ask...one common question often asked is what is the most expensive thing you have purchased ...they make inferences from that...

if we have over $1600 worth of purchases, i always go to the red line at customs and find that works well...

on a recent trip home from germany, i told the customs man that i had 14 bottles of wine...he replied how much did they cost and i told him, and he said, "Merry Christmas" and told us to go...

we find that the customs vary from city to city...the worst we have ever encountered were in Honolulu and JFK....