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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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earthbound14
Joined: 23 Jan 2007
Location: seoul
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 Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 7:48 pm Post subject: |
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I think the limit set by most countries is 1 liter. But of course you can put it in your checked luggage and don't declare it. Ya you run the risk of them checking, but really, at 1US dollar a bottle, soju isn't exactly some premium booze. Not to mention it is clearly being brought as a gift and not for sale on some horrible black market. I don't think the customs agents really care. You're carrying a product for personal use, a product that doesn't happen to have any local suppliers where you are going....so no one cares. I brought 4 bottles of Soju, 2 bottles of expensive rice wine (a whole 10 bucks each), 4 bottles of Baeksae-ju, 2 bottles of Dong-dong-ju and 1 bottle of Makolee to Canada. Probably cost less than 40 bucks. I didn't declare it due to the 1 liter rule. When I came back I brought 4 liters of Canadian red wine, a bottle of rum and a bottle of gin (way cheaper to buy them at the store than the duty free, and duty free shops won't let you buy something if you have a connecting flight where you have to go through a security check again, so I couldn't have done it anyway). Again, no problem with Korean customs. If someone had decided to be anal, I suppose they could have fined me, but in the great scheme of things the 1 liter rule is a little silly. I suppose if I was bringing 2 liters of high end wine (perhaps 200$ a bottle) with the intent of selling them for profit, then I would have been breaking a rule worth enforcing. I am on the other hand just a drunk who likes to give stuff to his friends.
Bring the booze, if they hassle you, pay the fine, if the fine is high, give them some booze. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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| earthbound14 wrote: |
I think the limit set by most countries is 1 liter. But of course you can put it in your checked luggage and don't declare it. Ya you run the risk of them checking, but really, at 1US dollar a bottle, soju isn't exactly some premium booze. Not to mention it is clearly being brought as a gift and not for sale on some horrible black market. I don't think the customs agents really care. You're carrying a product for personal use, a product that doesn't happen to have any local suppliers where you are going....so no one cares. I brought 4 bottles of Soju, 2 bottles of expensive rice wine (a whole 10 bucks each), 4 bottles of Baeksae-ju, 2 bottles of Dong-dong-ju and 1 bottle of Makolee to Canada. Probably cost less than 40 bucks. I didn't declare it due to the 1 liter rule. When I came back I brought 4 liters of Canadian red wine, a bottle of rum and a bottle of gin (way cheaper to buy them at the store than the duty free, and duty free shops won't let you buy something if you have a connecting flight where you have to go through a security check again, so I couldn't have done it anyway). Again, no problem with Korean customs. If someone had decided to be anal, I suppose they could have fined me, but in the great scheme of things the 1 liter rule is a little silly. I suppose if I was bringing 2 liters of high end wine (perhaps 200$ a bottle) with the intent of selling them for profit, then I would have been breaking a rule worth enforcing. I am on the other hand just a drunk who likes to give stuff to his friends.
Bring the booze, if they hassle you, pay the fine, if the fine is high, give them some booze. |
I think a more important point to address would be the current anti-foreigner sentiment rolling through Thailand (the country in the OP's question) and the odds of having some customs agent (looking for a promotion or change to the day shift) nailing the OP's (or any other foreigners) azz to a wall over something as trivial as a bottle or two of soju.
Is a bottle or two of soju really worth it, especially since you can buy it locally there? |
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Natalia
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Masta_Don wrote: |
| Wow, people declare things at Customs? I've only been stopped once and didn't have anything to get busted with at the time. Do people actually get penalized? I've known people who've been caught bringing bags and bags of meat into Japan and they just took them. That's all that's ever happened from everyone I know, confiscated swords, religious icons, food, but they never claim them and never are punished. I always figured it was if it appeared that you were going to be turning a profit they'd fine you, but that's the only time. |
You've clearly never been to Australia. I have known people who have a couple of square centimetres of treated, varnished wood in a keyring and have been in serious trouble for bringing it into the country. Somebody else I knew had one kiwi fruit (by accident) and spent forty minutes being interrogated about it.
As for the liquids. I have done eighteen international flights in the last four months, and each and every time I have seen people being forced to throw away containers of liquid larger than 100ml when going through security. |
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The_Eyeball_Kid
Joined: 20 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Natalia wrote: |
| Masta_Don wrote: |
| Wow, people declare things at Customs? I've only been stopped once and didn't have anything to get busted with at the time. Do people actually get penalized? I've known people who've been caught bringing bags and bags of meat into Japan and they just took them. That's all that's ever happened from everyone I know, confiscated swords, religious icons, food, but they never claim them and never are punished. I always figured it was if it appeared that you were going to be turning a profit they'd fine you, but that's the only time. |
You've clearly never been to Australia. I have known people who have a couple of square centimetres of treated, varnished wood in a keyring and have been in serious trouble for bringing it into the country. Somebody else I knew had one kiwi fruit (by accident) and spent forty minutes being interrogated about it.
As for the liquids. I have done eighteen international flights in the last four months, and each and every time I have seen people being forced to throw away containers of liquid larger than 100ml when going through security. |
They're strange about the wood thing in Australia. I had to wait ten minutes while a customs officer umm'ed and ah'ed about a pair of wooden castanets in my guitar case but paid no heed to the fact that there was also a wooden guitar in there too. (They let them in eventually, but only after I'd let them have a go on them.) |
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hepcat
Joined: 07 Mar 2005
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Isn't there a soju equivalent in Thailand, a cheap, rice-based, vile-tasting, liver-pickler? |
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