ChidlomDweller

And to add info to this thread, when I moved from Singapore to Thailand I used Seven Seas to ship about 10 guitars and some personal effects to my mother's house in Belgium.  I did spend three months in Belgium then so they treated me as a repatriating expat.  Went without a glitch.  Good service, super-fast (day's notice), cheap, no customs charged.  I may have to do that again, but it sucks because I want the guitars in Japan and my employer will only pay for what I ship to Japan.  

Just mentioning it as a tip for others who might want to offload some of their excess goods back home.

To update, Nippon Express seems to have two websites, so anyone ever needing them, the relevant one is not the (very poor) logistics one but this one:

http://www.nipponexpress.com/moving/standard.html

I think this is a global site but they forwarded it to a local agent who got back to me very quickly.  Very good English and seems very professional and thorough (in the space of 1-2 hours they had already contacted Japanese customs for me).

Now beeg plomblem for me because I have 25 guitars and customs told them no more than 3.  Nippon Express won't even handle the shipment saying customs will hold it, etc.  I suspect they're being a bit too rigid, rather refusing the job than having a problem down the road.  Even with Thailand, I was able to ship 8 here in big boxes and about 5 more disassembled in smaller boxes among my other goods.  I also think once customs there are faced with 10 guitar boxes they'll be more accommodating than giving a quick, thoughtless answer "3" on the phone.  Or maybe not, but I'd take that risk.

Waiting to see what Crown tell me today, and I'll try Pickford as well.  I understand about household goods vs. commercial intent, and that shipping 25 is pushing my luck a bit far, but 3?  How many have more than 3 luxury watches, golf clubs, handbags,....?   Even 10-12 would make a big difference and then the others I can bring over bit by bit, quickly sell off a few others, etc.  

3 hours ago, berybert said:

Pickford's as above are worldwide. https://www.alliedpickfordsthailand.com/

Thanks, I'll ask them for a quote.  

Bumping this thread.  Moving to Japan soon. Anyone know a Japanese mover?  With all the Japanese expats there most be some big ones here.  So far I've got Nippon Express, although when I look at their website it looks more like a logistics firm.

13 minutes ago, Stupooey said:

Your last paragraph has really summed it up. The 1975 referendum saw a vote of 67% to 33% in favour of staying in Europe, the sort of majority where you can start to use emotive phrases like "the voice of the people". Unfortunately the 33% never accepted the result. Consisting mainly of the right wing of the Tories and the left wing of Labour (who have more in common than they are ever prepared to admit), whenever their own party was in power they would prevent the Government from fully committing to Europe and therefore allowed the EU to be shaped by others, in particular Germany and France. When people in 2016 said that the EU was not the one they had voted for, they had only themselves to blame, although of course they were too arrogant to admit this.

Being called a moaner by people who have been moaning for 40 years really takes the biscuit.

So right, everywhere.

Something that also really exacerbates the problem is horrible urban planning (or no planning at all).  What I mean is there are far too few connecting roads, often necessitating a long drive to cross a short distance.  This also makes the city pretty much unbearable for walking (combined with the heat, noise and pollution), pushing more people towards car use.  For instance, if you want to walk to a building 200 meters away from Sukhumvit Soi 24 to Soit 26, you're in for a half-hour walk and will arrive dripping in sweat.  

In Singapore, the government has incentives for developers to open ground-level access to the public.  Yet another example of how a little bit of planning can make a vast difference.  

21 hours ago, Kaoboi Bebobp said:

I am only a visitor to Bangkok these days. Seems to me incidents of road rage are on the rise. Taxi drivers refuse to take you where you want to go. Motorcycles take over the sidewalks at rush hour. And yet, more new hotels, condo projects and malls are being built along Suk -- three separate projects are underway on Suk Soi 36 alone, plus eventually the new EmSphere at soi 22. Add in 7 more BTS stations on the Suk line plus other extensions and thousands more people will commute into the city. Bangkok life is degrading by the minute. 

Totally agree.  Thailand is not unique in having this problem, but the solution is to have more than one "magnet city" in the country where the young, best and brightest want to go.  This place may well go entirely underwater anyway, so about time they diversify geographically.

9 hours ago, Byron Allen Black said:

Your observations are most interesting. I too first arrived in the late 1960s and visited frequently until the mid-1980s, when I worked there.

 

I wonder whether the apparent degradation of classical culture has not been much more exacerbated in the big cities. Living in Hua Hin or Khon Kaen might be much more like "the good old days" perhaps...

It would be very interesting to hear the perspective of the people who've been here for 30-50 years, what life was like through detailed personal stories.  Could probably fill an interesting book with all those stories.  

1 hour ago, JAG said:

 

It is quite ironic really.

 

The EU is bound by treaties etcetera which of course cannot be amended or reinterpreted.

 

The view of the British Electorate, as expressed in the referendum (and confirmed in the subsequent general election) can, of course, be junked, because you don't like what they decided...

Huh? No one is dictating to the UK what to do.  Brexit is barely mentioned outside the British press.  We've long moved on.  You should have just planned for a WTO deal since June 2016 instead of wasting all this time.  It's the Brexiteers who promised to the public that they would be able to negotiate a better deal than Norway/Canada/WTO.  Unless things change in the last minute, those promises will have been false, in which case a second referendum seems fair.  

I don't buy that holding a second referendum means disregarding the public's views.  Enough has happened in the past 2+ years that their views might have evolved.  If their views are unchanged, they can vote leave again.  Let's be honest, the hardcore Brexiteers wouldn't have given up either if the vote had gone 48/52 against them.

Personally I think it's a shame, but whatever, your decision.  If the British working classes want to hand over the country to the Tory right, so be it.  "Democracy is the theory that the public know what they want, and that they deserve it hard and good."

3 hours ago, 3NUMBAS said:

calls for barnier to be sacked as hes just being obstructive and will lead to an  EU implosion

By whom?  Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg?

11 hours ago, DavisH said:

just don't drive 5 km over the limit there or jay walk. 

OK, genuinely curious about this.  Is this true or TV hyperbole?  Been only to Sydney twice for about a week and loved it, but that's 12 years ago.  If it wasn't for the distance to Europe (I go three times a year), that's where I'd be now.  I have a hard time believing people get in trouble for jaywalking in Australia, unless you do it brazenly in front of a police officer where you put them in a bind.  

One other thing I forgot to mention was the really base insults Erdogan had been hurling at Merkel (among others the Nazi label).  How can he be surprised that Germans are questioning where his loyalty lies now?  

Let me also say I've met lots of really wonderful Turks over the years, but all of the pro-European, cosmopolitan type that are now seeing their country "middle-easternized".  For them especially I find it very sad what's going on there.  

9 hours ago, FaFaHead said:

Yes, you make a great point. I don’t leave much to chance. I have (as I said in an earlier post) had the luxury of doing much research since March online. Anything I could think of, I’ve Googled. I have purchased ebooks and yes, the wife and I have discussed the farmers burning for three months or so. I won’t say it’s not a cause for concern, because it is. We we have taken the position that we’ll rent for a year and go from there. 

 

We we originally started initial inquiries in Pattaya and Hua Hin, but because of my wife wanting to be associated with CMU and wanting to teach in a very good private school, not a public school, Chiang Mai is where we have landed. I have to say, Hua Hin was very attractive. Because of the distance to CMU (and the natural feelings of trepidation when having to entertain driving any great distance twice a day at least five days a week), it’s easy understand our decision to start in Chiang Mai. 

 

No no illusions for the most part. Hopefully it works out. If not, we’ll make adjustments and go from there. 

 

Thank you you again for your input. Your points are well taken. 

 

Robert

Off topic but check out the air pollution threads here.  Some good advice there regarding air purifiers and other ways to minimize that problem.  While you're still in the US, you might want to buy a purifier there already, along with some spare filters.  They're almost twice as expensive here compared to the US.  Even if you can't switch the voltage on your model, a transformer is cheap enough.

21 minutes ago, totally thaied up said:

I worked on Wharf Street in Brisbane each day. I lived on the other end of the Gold Coast. If today, I had to catch a train, it is not cheap. Not cherry picked but real life. I use to spend $16 a day for parking alone a long time back on Early Bird Parking. I hate to think how much I would spend now. Yes, I could get it a little cheaper to drive the 110 or so kilometers each way a day if I drove a small car but when you are driving constantly every day, six days a week and spend a large part of your life driving, a small Yaris is not going to cut it. My brother-in-law works now as a Lawyer in the same building I use to (he is now working for my old Company) and he lives with my sister near our home in the Coast, and he tells me transport is not cheap anymore. Below are one-way prices to Town for us via Train. I am in Zone 7

 

Adult

Zones travelled	go card	go card off-peak	Single paper ticket
1	$3.25	$2.60	$4.70
2	$3.96	$3.17	$5.70
3	$6.05	$4.84	$8.80
4	$7.97	$6.38	$11.60
5	$10.47	$8.38	$15.20
6	$13.29	$10.63	$19.30
7	$16.52	$13.22	$24.00
8	$19.61	$15.69	$28.40

 

Yep, that's very expensive, not disputing that, but how much is your BIL making, and how much would he make in Thailand?  You've got to pick and choose a bit where to live, although I admit I'm not an expert on Australia.

To give you two other real-life examples I encountered very recently:  One of my college friends (middle-ranking finance manager at an MNC in Brussels) told me he can choose a company car for 750 euros a month from his employer.  Free parking at the office in the center of Brussels, plus more petrol money than he needs for the commute.  Also 40 holidays a year plus public holidays.  Will probably retire with 2000-2500 euro pension from the government with nearly free, world-class healthcare, a supplementary pension equal to the same amount from his company, and lots of investments (with which he's been smart and/or lucky).  This is a working class guy (father teacher, mother cleaning lady) who is now 52, has 2 paid-down properties and a third being paid by a tenant.  The equivalent Thai, if he made it to university at all and that kind of finance management position, would be very lucky to pull in 100,000 Baht a month.

Another friend I visited recently (we went through the PhD program together) lives in White Plains, NY.  Also 52, 2 paid-down properties, and well over a million dollars in stocks.  He told me he rakes in over 300,000 dollars a year, although his base is more like 200,000 and the rest is from overload teaching.  He's a business professor and would be very lucky to make 200,000 Baht a month here (possible, but very few make that much -- I know because I'm in the industry).  

I find for many things Thailand is far from cheap anymore if you have Western tastes.  In fact, I get reverse sticker shock every time I go shop at Aldi or Lidl, or anywhere in the US nowadays.  

11 minutes ago, Bluetongue said:

So until the decision is finally made I'm living in both really, or la la land some might say.

That's the ideal way IMO, if you can afford it.  When I go to Europe now, I love it.  Beautiful cities, cultural offerings, etc., but everything gets boring after a while and variety is fun.