Thread: Shipping from the UK

Hello there,

We're moving from the UK to Bangkok in August to teach at an International School for a 2 year contract. The school have said that they'll pay towards shipping as part of a settling in allowance of THB 30,000, but haven't been able to give us any direction on how to arrange this. I've asked for a few quotes, but they're coming back very expensive - between £800 and £2500. Does anyone know of a reasonable priced and reliable way of doing this by sea freight?

I'm still not sure what we want to ship over yet either, but I've been estimating 6cbm for the quotes.

Also any tips on what we should ship over (I know "as little as possible"), but is there anything that you can't get there / wish you had taken?
Also we've been warned off shipping electricals because of an import tax - has anyone heard of this/ know how much the tax is?

Thanks in advance,
Amy & Adam

Thankyou Sothernboy, tats really helpful, I'll check them out

Originally Posted by old git

looked in yellow pages

Thanks Old Git, I've now re-checked the yellow pages, and sent off a barrage of emails to get quotes. Tea is a good tip - we always take tea on holiday with us, so we'll have to calculate our consumption, and pack accordingly - can't risk running out.

---Update---

Originally Posted by wildchris

Main thing we regret not shipping is our two wonderful huge sofas we had in the UK as they are expensive here, or not available.

Good tip Wild Chris :-)
The School told us not to ship furniture, as it's cheap and available out there, but I don't want to beleive everything they say, so we might check out the lay of the land, but make our sofas accessible for someone else to ship to us, just incase.

---Update---

Thanks Chris,

We're hoping to go for a furnished condo to start with like you. We're thinking of hireing mopeds out there (we'll get an international drivers licence), but we were considering shipping our pedal bikes...?

We may make some boxes of "just incase", and leave them with the folks to forward on with surface mail once we've seen the lay of the land.

There are also other teachers starting this term at the same school, we're just trying to get the school office to pass on their contact details, because it would be good to make contact with someone else in the same boat before we go - then we could share a container, as you recomended.

We only get air tickets + £600 for all expenses - so we're trying to be as ruthless as possible with what we ship.

Thanks for the tips all,
Amy & Adam xx

First of all, welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have a good gig and Im sure you will go on to have a lot of fun.

With that said, I cant for the life of me see why you would need to ship an entire containers worth of stuff over to Bangkok for a 2 year contract. Tea bags? Really? I assume you have been over to Thailand before?

Hi all,
Thanks for your help, I'm here now, and have learnt lots since I got here - so incase anyone else reads this post looking for information I'll tell you what I've learned:


Shipping - don't use "pack and send" - they give the best price, but when they've got your stuff they add loads of extras on, and say that you didn't pack it properly, and that the price has changed, and if you won't pay that price your only options are to collect it and arrange with someone else - but they won't release it to you until you've paid almost half that cost again for their "work already undertaken". They are very "relaxed" when giving you the quote, and selling it to you, and don't include many instructions, but once they've got your stuff they basically hold you to ransom, and tell you that you've "done it wrong", and it will cost more.

What it's difficult to buy over here: If it's only for Westeners it's expensive or doesn't exist:
Bedlinen - I've trawled all the supermarkets, and markets - you can get:
5 peice set which includes - fitted base sheet, 2 pillow covers, 2 bolster covers. Can't get a flat unfitted sheet, or Duvet cover - these are pretty light and packable items, so you may want to ship your own.
Duvets - again these are only for westeners, because only westeners have air conditioning. They don't sell Duvets (except at Ikea in BK), instead there are "comforters", which are thin duvet type things, but with no cover, so you wash the lot.

Food:
Teabags - yes you can get teabags, but at supermarkets ONLY "Lipton Yellow Bags", at 100 bags for around 190 Baht / £4. Herbal tea is the same price for just 20 bags. You can't get decafinated, or any of the stronger tastier British brands, even in the import shops - however because these are light, they can be posted over by your family.
Sugar free - beware if you're diabetic, you will be able to get coke zero, or coke lite (and these are not always available - e.g. cinema), otherwise you'll have to ween yourself onto water & soda water. There's no other sugar free versions, and no cordial - this is just an FYI, because it would be unviable to ship this over.

Suntan lotion - unless you go to a Boots, all suntan lotions from supermarkets come with "whiteners", so no good for us who want to get a tan.
Hair Dye - again, the Thai's don't really dye their hair, or eyelashes etc.
Facecreams - if you're in the UK stock up on your oil of Olay in a shop like "savers", as you can get the premium facecreams here in Boots again, but at premium prices.
Underwear - if you're a funny cupsize beware, and bring a big stock with you, and don't expect to get matching sets of bras and panties either.

Don't worry about:
Adaptor plugs - the supermarkets sell extension strips that take any plug in the world quite cheeply - around 200 baht / £4

Shopping tips:
Go to Ikea for plates, and cutlery - much cheaper than the supermarkets, and markets + if you want a real duvet and bedlinen.
Western sizes - try Chattachuck market for footwear, and clothes. Or department stores like Robbinsons. However, ladies if you're larger than a sz 40, it gets a bit more difficult.
Milk - it's weird over here, buy lots of the little bottles, and taste test them before committing to a big bottle, or you could end up with sweet creamy tea!

Good luck to you all on your move, it's great over here once you get used to the domestic stuff xx