Well, that bites a bit!

[Natch]

I've got a six week project in Southeast Asia this summer and although most of it will be in Malaysia and Indonesia, we spend the first four days in Singapore. Now Singapore is a pretty interesting City-state, but their perspective on tobacco is not what we here would like to see. I estimate for the entire time, I'll go through about 200 grams of tobacco, and even though I'll be smoking 95% of it after I leave Singapore, I have to pay an import tax just to pass through. Looks like a bit more than $70 for those four, 50 gram tins. That's about double what the tobacco cost in the first place! :affraid:

One possible help might be that I've heard they have airside (meaning between the plane and customs) lockers that you can put things in and pick up on the way out of the country, specifically for not having to pay tax on goods that you're not bringing in but just passing through. That would cost about 1/3 as much as the tax, but I hate to leave my tobacco in a locker for four days. I could possible go without puffing for the four days in Singapore, but after that it's Jakarta and smaller cities and from what I can tell, few to any decent tobacco shops, so the option of buying after looks dim. Chingi airport does have a duty free shop on the way out, but again from what I know they have very limited tobacco selections (other than really expensive top end Cuban cigars and clove cigarets) and mostly aromatics in pouches.

So the lesson to this story is don't plan on having a BoB International Pipe meeting in Singapore in the near future.

Natch

 

[Doc Manhattan]

And you can't even chew gum if you're trying to quit!

 

[mark]

What's the outlook on mailing your tobacco to you after you've settled in at your destination?

 

[shootist51]

I've always read that the Asians are big smokers, but some of those countries have very restrictive smoking laws. I seem to recall that they "cane" smokers in Taiwan :affraid:

 

[Dave_In_Philly]

What's the outlook on mailing your tobacco to you after you've settled in at your destination?

That's what I was thinking. I'd be happy to mail you whatever you want once you've passed through Singapore. No clue how long that would take though. I imagine customs could throw a wrench into that plan.

 

[SPUD 15]

THAT'S JUST CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZY :affraid: :affraid: :affraid: :affraid: MIKE I WOULD BE WILLING TO SHIP YOU WHATEVER WHERE EVER. MIKE HAVE A GREAT TRIP

 

[Natch]

Thanks for the offers of help, friends, but I'm going to look into the lockers or worst case scenario, pay the tax. Once past Singapore it will be no problem in Indonesia or Malaysia. I was really just venting a bit for this frustrating policy.

And shootest51, you are correct in that Asians smoke more than any other realm. China alone accounts for roughly 1/3 of all cigarette smokers in the world. A friend of mine is trying to develop/promote pipes in the Shanghai area, and having a difficult time getting the government interested in this potentially new industry (Gloredo Pipes is his company). The cigarette monopoly is one of the one of the biggest money earners for the Party, so I guess it's obvious why they wouldn't want to make it easy for competitors to grow!

Natch

 

[Rob_In_MO]

You know what else bites?

 

[MisterE]

What if you prepacked 15 big corncobs or cheapie briars and just bring that? No tins, just a buncha pipes. and put them all in a big Ziplock. They're "gifts for friends". Worst that can happen is that they say no. You then just check them in the safe deposit box.

It's possible Tambolaka is available there too. Kind of a severe all day smoke but it'd get you through the week at least.... :drunken: