I mailed myself two HEAVY boxes from Bangkok to New York with DHL. So many things could have gone wrong along the journey-the boxes traveled through 5 different countries!-but eventually everything arrived safe and sound. EXCEPT...
My little baby Buddha statue....AND a cookbook written in Thai that I bought just because I liked the photography.
I'm not sure why the cookbook was confiscated, but I do know that there are signs in the airport upon arrival that warn against buying Buddhas (like this one):
The funny thing is, my Buddha statue wasn't even from this summer's trip-it was from 2 years ago!
I packed it at the last minute as I was leaving Shanghai, and the statue entered Thailand without a problem, but got confiscated on the way out.
So the moral of the story is, even if you think Buddha statues are nice, don't buy them. Not only because it's apparently disrespectful to Buddhism, but it appears that the Buddha merchandise just gets confiscated and then resold on the streets to dopey tourists who don't know any better. I personally don't see a need to support the Buddha mafia.
I'm glad I didn't get a Buddha tattoo.. I wonder how they go about confiscating tattoos...
Until next time,
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