Travel Forum / Destinations / Asia / March 2006

Just pack them as you would do any other item?????
Obviously don't declare anything at customs

Jan

I know in the US there is hefty fines.  Best advice?  Don't do it.

in the last 5 years, i've returned to canada from thailand 4 times...
three of those times i've been "pulled over" at customs and been
subjected to lengthy, detailed searches... they never find anything
because i never have anything... and that may be the problem...

i usually stay in and around thailand for anywhere from two to four
months at a stretch, which to the average semi-literate canuck  customs
person seems strange... so i guess that's suspicious... go away for that
long and do NO SHOPPING??!!

that is, except for the large number of books i have always mailed back
before leaving, which i do declare... the total value is usually around
$500, well under the once-annual $750 you are allowed, so should be no
problem, right? WRONG! what kind of person goes to thailand and reads?
reasons the semi-literate... so i guess that's suspicious... what kind
of books?, they invariably ask... thai and asian history, thai and asian
 art, novels, i invariably reply... yeah, right, thinks(?) the hockey
fan in a uniform... i guess...

once i did declare a "my country, my beer" (in thai script) singha
muscle shirt ($3.00Cdn) that i'd bought in chiang mai to have a quick
climb on the wall in the night market, and a couple of times i declared
a carton of marlboros, usually picked up in haste in tokyo, cuz i always
forget in bangkok...

why did you stop over in tokyo, goes the dumbass... to visit friends and
ex-in-laws? i reply, often rudely by this point in the exchange... so,
what kind of white canadian 50-something has friends in japan of all
places?... this dude is really up to no good... or so i guess they guess...

they turn out my dirty socks and everything usually, so next time i plan
to plant a little bag of fresh steaming excrement inside a sock, hoping
to provide a bit of a thrill for the anal shithead...

i have an earring, near-shaved head, and have tried wearing everything
from trekking pants and a t-shirt and sandals to a black suit and costly
shoes... don't matter... i must be bad... so "please open this plastic
bag" (with sticky dried mango) i've forgotten to chuck...

draw your own conclusions matt... and never underestimate how absolutely
offensively stupid these people can be... if you say the usual and
declare a load of the usual tourist trash, they might just wave you
through... and if you're age-appropriately dressed and coiffed, they may
just let you go... me, i've rarely managed it...

once they grilled me as to why i'd spend a month in nepal... ever heard
of everest base camp? was perhaps not the wisest reply... look at that
earring! gotta be some kind of maoist drug-runner child-f.cker, i
imagine the dork imagining...

so use your imagination and think about the old rent-and-burn from your
local rogers if you really have to have cheap dvds to distract you from
dreaming about being back in asia... or move to thailand next week, like
me... maybe i'll never have to do that again... too bad about the
sockfull o' sh.t, though....

michael

If they are burned to a unlabled cd, say you brought them
with you to use on the trip. If they have had a lable printed
on them, and is not the original, go to a shop and have it
burned to a unlabled cd, and say you brought it with you,
and kept the original at home incase you lost them.
If you bring a laptop, copy all you can to the hard drive
and don't bring the disks home. Burn news ones at home.