batamhog

A group of five friends arrived at the new airport two days ago for their well earned one month holiday in Pattaya. Four of them being smokers, and not liking the brands avialable in Thailand decided to bring a reasonable supply of their own cigs from the duty free in England. O.K. 10 sleeves each might be excessive but they were purely for their own use, plus maybe a few packets for me , hopefully.

After being searched the five lads were dutifully wisked away to some police station approx half an hour away where they had all the cigs taken off them and a fine of 3,000 (Three thousand pounds) deducted from their wallets.

Given the choice of pay or go directly to jail (Whether Bluffing or not ) the lads coughed up and after five hours were let go to continue on their journey to Patters.

Another family of four (Man ,wife and two young kids ) were fined 1,000 pounds and not having enough money to continue their holiday got the next flight home.

Could this be another money making scam from the customs. Surley the duty on fifty sleeves of cigs can't be that high. Don't get me wrong, they new they had exeeded the limit but three grand is not a nice way to start your hols.

TIT the land of smiles

Just be carefull lads

Just do not bring more than one pack of cigs to Singapore. If you do and do not declare it, it will be $1,000 fine. It happened to my wife and we really do not like to come to Singapore any more.

Get a Mac, you will not haveproblem with the viruses made for MS