I was told that Fedex will insure shipments to the US of up to $500.00. Is there anyway to ship packages to the US which are valued at more than that?

Hand carry valuable items.

Hand carry valuable items.

What if a person wanted to ship a gift and wasn't going back?

I've been shipping miscellaneous small and larger gifts to and from Thailand for years. The only thing is that U.S. Customs seems to like opening my stuff mailed from Thailand. So I always seem to get it with green Customs tape over the parts they re-sealed.

Thailand isn't Mexico - where you can go down to the docks to find your stolen mail and pay a fee to claim it. They're more honest here. But if you're sending something really expensive - like over US$1,000 - I recommend you take it yourself. Barring that, send it registered mail at a Thai post office. Unless the carriers see money bulging out of the box, you should be ok.