Reader question: Sending clothes to Thailand

Cees,

we have brought clothes to Isaan for years (so not sent).
All this for the last 30 years with good intentions.
Many Dutch clothes are too warm for Thailand.
Our experience is that the local population has little interest in clothing other than jeans and a light jacket.
Sending clothes by post works well.
you preview the price per weight, put it in a box and hope it arrives.
The Thai post works reasonably reliably.
In the cooler time, the Thai sometimes want to throw on a sweater and a jacket, but the following year they have already lost it.
We are well acquainted with the Nong Khai area, both the area to the left and right of the Mekong.
and find it hard to imagine that there is a real need for clothes there, other than jeans and jackets

I would also check whether the clothing is well spent and how long it is worn.
Many items are simply resold on the thrift market or deposited in the pawn shop to collect cash while you are away.

.
Good luck

When a son was born in my household in Thailand, I brought two suitcases full of beautiful Dutch baby and children's clothing – “used but clean and intact”, in the words of Gerard Reve, who grew up frugally…
We made a first choice ourselves and had the rest, dozens of pieces, picked up by fellow villagers.
There seemed to be little real interest in it, the items were taken but no one asked about the origin or expressed a thank you and nothing was ever said about it afterwards. Foreign.
I am happy to let the meaning of this be explained by real Thailand connoisseurs.

My experience with sending by post, on the other hand, is undividedly positive. All more than 20 boxes, up to 20 kilos by sea, reached their destination, complete and unopened.

The winter in the north of Thailand and therefore also in the north of the Isan can be cold. We then have the electric heaters on. At night it can go down to zero degrees outside.

Poor people have no stained glass windows and close the shutters and yet it is cold. People go to sleep with their clothes on on a thin thing on the floor because it is cooler there, but in the winter that works against you.

Long trousers, windproof jackets and sweaters are then necessary, but more decent mattresses and sheets and blankets. Concentrate on that, don't send clothes but take them with you and buy beds and bedding here.

Sending is best and cheapest by Post NL and priority.

The large shipping companies do have agreements with customs and then a fixed rate is charged (30 percent) regardless of what is in the package. I have everything sent by Post NL, but even then you can be unlucky that the container opens. But then you have to deal with the local customs and they are more open to consultation than the offices in Bangkok.

No experience with clothes, but I don't think it matters. I did send a rather large box of jigsaw puzzles to an orphanage in Buriram and they just arrived.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJXVO2421_8