Chiang Mai Final Days

March 18, 2011

Senne's Summary: In our last days in Chiang Mai, we wandered the streets, did a bit more shopping, mailed a giant package home, and discovered that a Buddha likeness can’t leave this country without a lot of hoops being jumped through.

Our last couple of days in Chiang Mai were relatively quiet. The rain continued… apparently there had been a monsoon in China and we were receiving the after effects of that. We can’t really complain… we’ve definitely had our fair share of sun over the last 8 months!

At one point we were watching TV and the signal dropped. I joked with Steve that it went out because of all the rain… then a message came on that said the disruptions to the satellite transmission were due to "sun outages". I am NOT making this up.

We did a little more shopping during the day, returned to Starbucks (better get the good tea lattes while we can!), and generally just wandered about the town.

In the evening, Steve headed off to the Night Bazaar on his own (I needed a rest… I think I’ve been doing more walking than I should have!), but he was armed with a list of the things we wanted to get to send home. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to find out that he did come back with considerably more than was on the list! Look out Mom, this box is going to need a little more space than anticipated!

On our last full day we decided to check out prices to ship things home. We ended up deciding to ship with DHL because they have “specials” that end up being the same price as using the regular post office, and you get package tracking. As I was talking to the DHL guy about which box to get, I mentioned we had a Buddha that was about 21 inches tall so we’d need to make sure that the box was big enough for that. This is when he informed me that you couldn’t send Buddhas out of Thailand without appropriate permission. He showed me the sheet with the instructions, which we were clearly not going to be able to complete before leaving Thailand. This is a warning for all of you future visitors. If you REALLY want to bring a Buddha home, make sure you know the rules and give yourself time to fulfill the requirements. You WILL NOT get it out of the country without permission.

This is the beautiful Buddha that we were so looking forward to taking home!

At the post office and courier’s office you are required to show them everything going in the package and they will NOT let you send a Buddha. From research I did online, later, it seems that there is a room full of Buddhas at customs at the airport. I don’t have a problem with them having this rule… what would be nice, is for the bazillion shops that have Buddhas for sale to let you know what the rules are to take it home with you before they sell it to you. They are clearly targeting tourists with their stores and stalls… likely knowing full well you will never be able to take it home.

Nevertheless, we got over our sadness at not being able to take our Buddha home and gave it to Sophia to keep at the hotel. The Buddha now lives in the library… and looks quite beautiful in his new home.

Here he is in his new home... in the library at the Sirilanna Hotel in Chiang Mai