@Brandon ***********

that's what I was thinking. He wanted 10k baht deposit, and to keep the passport. I was already out at this point knowing I'd get a random inspiration. But then he said I couldn't take outside of city and I was trying to get to chiang rai. It took a surprising amount of searching to find an available car to do this

@Mike ******

have your thai gf look up thai rental car companies. Much cheaper. I did notice a quirk... some places will not allow you to leave chiang mai with their vehicles. A motorcycle rental place at chiang mai train station does this. They also demanded to hold onto my passport during the rental. I wasn't gonna take that risk

@Bruce ********

I think Bruce has a good point here. I get tired of seeing the entitled babies in the USA wear shirts or say things like "welcome to America, now learn english" or "if you don't speak English, get out". These same redneck degenerates are the same people who go to Mexican holiday spots and then ask "doesn't anybuddy here speak English?" No. You American pig, now gtfo. I think if you're living in Thailand, on a permanent or objective to be permanent basis, you are (implied) trying to assimilate into the local community, and therefore, have a moral obligation to at least try to learn the local language.

Be careful of youtube videos. They are accurate up to the time of making the video. This goes for any internet information. The laws governing foreigners, banks, immigration are always changing

@Paul ******

1) is that total cost? Or per item? Second, how do I use thai post if sending from USA? General us postal service?

@Paul ******

so thai post can, to varying degrees, circumvent customs? Or have different restrictions?

@Paul ******

I don't have thailand post. The tea in question required a license, but wad going to require over a month and was estimated at 600 usd (per ups)

Canada may require a transit visa depending on nationality. As I understand, your visa will be a sticker in your passport, taking up the entire page. This visa may have your dates of travel printed on it. There is no stamp as far as I know. I don't know about extensions with American tourist visas, because visas are supposed to be issued by your home country usa embassy. I was led to believe that if you wanted to extend, you had to travel back to (if you're thai) us embassy bangkok and then return to USA again.

I've sent several ups/dhl to Thailand. I've found that whatever you paid for an item, triple it's cost to determine shipping and customs fees

Note, if anything is quarantined, (example, food like tea leaves) it will be held in customs for as long as they bloody well like, AND in addition to fees, and an import license (IF they approve) they will charge you a daily rate for storage.

If you want to relax, you can hire an agent to represent you. If you're going to be in CNX, may I recommend the chiang mai visa shop? I mean, he's an agent, who will charge a fee. And you will need to be present as thai immigration always takes photos. But he could tell you everything you need. And he could help you maybe bypass a few steps to be done in one hour. For the peace of mind, it's probably worth a little extra dollars