Ciggies to Singapore - don't bring 'em!

[USVirgin]

Picked up the ex at the airport today as she returned from a trip to Southeast Asia. She was in a foul mood, having spent too much money abroad.

 

Among other things, she got fined for crossing the border from Johor Baru to Singapore with 8 packs of cigarettes at SGD200 a pack. Made me laugh because, firstly, she should know better and secondly because it would take her a few months to smoke that many.

 

As I said, she was in a foul mood, so no further questions asked.

 

I'm posting this as a public service for those that might be unaware of Sillypore's laws.

[Coss]

Packets or cartons?

[Nervous God]

Note it's the land crossing not coming into sillypore by air

[Mekong]

Note it's the land crossing not coming into sillypore by air

 

You are not even allowed to take any Smokes into Sillypore now, I got fined / had to pay duty at Changi a couple of years back for having an unopened carton I bought at local Lotus store in BKK, bastards xrayed my hand baggage when I arrived on a TG Flight. Following trip I flew SQ and no xray of hand baggage.

 

[Nervous God]

None by duty free? Fark - glad I don't smoke then

[USVirgin]

ND, she said SGD200 per pack, in other words 10 bucks per cigarette.

 

But one of the silliest things she did on her excursion was bring me home some really expensive coffee from the PI made of marsupial crap.

 

Picture me saying, 'Gee, thanks.'

[Coss]

But one of the silliest things she did on her excursion was bring me home some really expensive coffee from the PI made of marsupial crap.

 

Send it to me, I'll take it.

 

Coss

[gobbledonk]

ND, she said SGD200 per pack, in other words 10 bucks per cigarette.

 

But one of the silliest things she did on her excursion was bring me home some really expensive coffee from the PI made of marsupial crap.

 

Picture me saying, 'Gee, thanks.'

 

Hmmm, methinks the Fils heard about the price of this:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak

 

Kopi luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between US $100 and $600 per pound.[1] It is sold by weight mainly in Japan[citation needed] and the United States and served in Southeast Asian coffeehouses by the cup. Sources vary widely as to annual worldwide production.[6]

 

Sumatra is the world's largest regional producer of kopi lowak. Sumatran civet coffee beans are mostly an early arabica variety cultivated in the Indonesian archipelago since the seventeenth century. Tagalog cafe alamid (or alamid cafe) comes from civets fed on a mixture of coffee beans and is sold in the Batangas region along with gift shops near airports in the Philippines.

 

My reading of the PI version is that they keep captive civets and force feed them the beans - exactly what the difference in taste would be, I'm not sure, but in both cases you are drinking *coffee*, not animal dung per se. Granted, I wouldnt be lining up to sample anything that had been through a human digestive tract, regardless of how exotic the owner may have been.

[USVirgin]

Yep, I read that wiki page sometime after my OP, thanks, so I was wrong in using the word marsupial. Anyway, same stuff as made in Indo, perhaps just a different species of civet.

 

This particular brand (haven't tried it yet) claims their beans are picked off the forest floor, not farmed like others in the PI. The packaging says the coffee makes a great sleep aid, along with some pretty outrageous health benefit claims (wish I had the package handy to quote them).

[shygye]

Luwak