Moving To Thailand

[haiku]

Hello All,

I’m a US citizen, and will be living in Thailand by years end (on a tourist visa to start) and will be shipping personal effects. I plan to buy a condo ASAP and maybe even a home in a few years after getting a business going. Items I’m shipping include framed wall pictures, China, Cloths and Knick Knacks (family keepsakes). All of these items will fit in a small crate, about 1000 pounds. No antiques or furniture or anything like that.

I will be bringing 2 mountain bikes, both fairly new. I’m also bringing my computer, a brand new Gateway which is duel voltage (115-240). Also, I have formed a small collection of DVD’s that play only on a region 1 DVD. So I was thinking of bringing my region 1 DVD player,

So my questions are…

Will my computer work in Thailand’s 220 outputs or should I just buy a new computer there?

Is there any other way to play region 1 DVD’s in Thailand?

If I assert that all these belongings are personal effects will I still have to pay duty, even for the bikes and computer?

Any ideas or information on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Nordlys]

No need to bring Gateway (if it's a desktop) and DVD player to Thailand.

I don't think there's anybody authorized to service Gateway as it's not sold in Thailand and desktop PCs are cheap enough here. Also there are multi-region code DVD players sold in Thailand and even if you don't find one, shops can do little modification to turn it into a region code free player for a mere B500 at the most, so no need to bring DVD player either. I watch mostly region code 1 discs with DVD player I bought locally and I have no problem viewing.

When I moved to Thailand my Cannondale was about the only thing that was dutied (or more like under table). I don't remember how much I paid though, probably about B14,000.

Edited June 14, 2005 by Nordlys

[Upcountry]

I brought Gateways, and they work fine when switched to 220/50 (red sliding switch next to electrical socket). Get a good UPS when you set it up to protect it from electrical surges. You monitor may be auto-switching, if you are bringing that. A laptop should have a auto switching power supply - you can tell by looking at its specs on the block.

As for repair, I guess that could be an issue, but you could always try to order the parts if it is out of warranty. You might easily find a creative tech who can help you fix it, depending on the problem (fingers crossed that it will last at least till Longhorn).

I, too, came with a big collection of CD's. I recommend taking them out of the jewel cases and packing them tightly in individual soft sleeves. You may be able to get CD shipping boxes from a local CD copier or music production company/label.

I learned the hard way that it still makes sense to ship the empty jewel cases if you prefer the solid back originals. The commonly available ones here in Thailand aren't as good, in my opinion, though they'll do the job.

Customs is tricky and hard to predict in a situations such as yours. Be prepared for the worst. A friend brought antique furniture over a number of years ago (it had been in the family), and she had to pay a huge amount.

[TizMe]

Customs is tricky and hard to predict in a situations such as yours. Be prepared for the worst.  A friend brought antique furniture over a number of years ago (it had been in the family), and she had to pay a huge amount.

Make sure that you pay for delivery to your door. That way an agent in Thailand will handle all dealings with customs. Guaranteed to be easier, and maybe even cheeper, than trying to do it yourself.

[yesduhh]

Hi, I too and moving to Thailand, in August, and plan to ship from 2000-4000 lbs. from Arizona door to door to Chonburi, and for 4000 lbs I was quoted about $6000 including professional packing. I want to find something cheaper. If you have any ideas, I will be grateful if you share them with me.

Hello All,

I’m a US citizen, and will be living in Thailand by years end (on a tourist visa to start) and will be shipping personal effects. I plan to buy a condo ASAP and maybe even a home in a few years after getting a business going. Items I’m shipping include framed wall pictures, China, Cloths and Knick Knacks (family keepsakes). All of these items will fit in a small crate, about 1000 pounds.  No antiques or furniture or anything like that.

I will be bringing 2 mountain bikes, both fairly new. I’m also bringing my computer, a brand new Gateway which is duel voltage (115-240). Also, I have formed a small collection of DVD’s that play only on a region 1 DVD. So I was thinking of bringing my region 1 DVD player,

So my questions are…

Will my computer work in Thailand’s 220 outputs or should I just buy a new computer there?

Is there any other way to play region 1 DVD’s in Thailand?

If I assert that all these belongings are personal effects will I still have to pay duty, even for the bikes and computer?

Any ideas or information on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[haha]

there are a lot of shipping companies with websites listing their prices for shipping. check this one out..

http://www.discount-shipping.net/index.cfm

[Upcountry]

We used a Thai company called Rama. When we dealt with them in 2002, they had a New York presence (they sent a truck up to our Boston area home to move stuff there for crating).

I did a web search, and this is the closest I could get (California addresses):

http://www.ramashipping.com/

But I found this old URL, which seems to get the same company, but with the New York address we knew about: http://www.ramanyusa.com/

Here are numbers I have on record for them: 1-800-322-7266, 1-800-334-1737

And an email: [email protected]. It’s on the "ramanyusa" website too, which is a different email than the "ramashipping" emails. I get the feeling they've change some things, so the "ramanyusa" link may be out of date.

We also considered a company called Lana, but web searching did not bring that up.

Rama did well for us, and their rates were good (about $4.50 per cubic foot, I think), and no constraints about the size of container (they mix other customer's things into the same containers, which saves money).

We shipped door-to-door and had no problems with customs - but my wife's returning scholar status had an impact on that.

[Steve2UK]

I, too, came with a big collection of CD's. I recommend taking them out of the jewel cases and packing them tightly in individual soft sleeves. You may be able to get CD shipping boxes from a local CD copier or music production company/label.

I learned the hard way that it still makes sense to ship the empty jewel cases if you prefer the solid back originals. The commonly available ones here in Thailand aren't as good, in my opinion, though they'll do the job.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Bit confused about this. If you're shipping the original jewel cases as well as the CD's, the weight's obviously the same as leaving the CD's in their cases. Is this thing about separating them to do with how it looks to customs?

I'm exploring ways I'll be able to ship from the UK (London) to Chiang Mai door to door in my name - mainly books (a lot!), CD's, DVD's, VHS tapes, some computer gear and other general personal items. Grateful for any suggestions - it'd be maybe a couple of palletsworth as a part-container load?

[Upcountry]

Interesting. I forgot that in fact one reason for wrapping my CD's and putting them in boxes, instead of leaving them in their cases, was in part to minimize curiosity about my CD's - some of which were CD-R's. I was a little paranoid that Custom's would confiscate them.

But the main reason was that I had been advised to protect them from damage this way. Leaving the in the cases could lead to damage if they get shaken around a lot. With high temperatures LP's and CD's are best kept tightly packed.

I was disappointed when I got here to find that good-quality CD cases were hard to find. We had to special order them from Makro in our upcountry town a year ago. It may not be possible now. The cases we see around have flimsier support for the CD and are often only available in bright colors.

It was like trying to find a plain dust cover for a 17" monitor the other day. Nothing but cute cartoon covers at Phantip. Blah.

[Steve2UK]

Interesting. I forgot that in fact one reason for wrapping my CD's and putting them in boxes, instead of leaving them in their cases, was in part to minimize curiosity about my CD's - some of which were CD-R's. I was a little paranoid that Custom's would confiscate them.

But the main reason was that I had been advised to protect them from damage this way. Leaving the in the cases could lead to damage if they get shaken around a lot. With high temperatures LP's and CD's are best kept tightly packed.

I was disappointed when I got here to find that good-quality CD cases were hard to find. We had to special order them from Makro in our upcountry town a year ago. It may not be possible now. The cases we see around have flimsier support for the CD and are often only available in bright colors.

It was like trying to find a plain dust cover for a 17" monitor the other day. Nothing but cute cartoon covers at Phantip. Blah. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I certainly see the point about protecting the CD's and LP's by packing them tightly (particularly thinking about the temperature changes during shipping). I forgot to mention LP's in my list; I have about 500 that I would love to have with me in Thailand - but I'd already half-decided that I'd have to find a good way to "rip" them to a computer hard-drive or similar storage as audio files (now that's a task - playing both sides of 500 LP's and logging the contents!!! ). Against which, if I'm already going to be doing sea-shipping of 2-3 pallets of boxed goods in a mixed container, I understand that the weight is much less of an issue than the volume.

[spacebass]

If you have a standard CRT type computer monitor it is not worth shipping that, big and heavy, you can pick up a nice used 15" TFT in Pattaya for $125 must be less in Bangkok, new 15" Acer TFT $180.

[barryofthailand]

If you qualify for a retirement visa, and obtain one from a Thai consolate in the USA, your household goods will be duty free.

[Steve2UK]

If you qualify for a retirement visa, and obtain one from a Thai consolate in the USA, your household goods will be duty free.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That was the case until recently. The customs website now has a note (in red) on it which specifically excludes non-imm O categories from the concession.

http://www.customs.go.th/Customs-Eng/House...nuNme=HouseHold

There's also a recent thread running about this - so far no sign of the change being a mistake.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...5874&hl=customs

[Tokker]

About the CD's: I too am moving to Thailand in october. I have about 650 CDs. I am planning on buying a 60GB Ipod and will put all my music on a device not much bigger than a cigarette box. Of course there is the trouble of converting everything into mp3.

Big Ups.