Bringing stacks of Wine (Moving from Melbourne to Singapore)

[IPEXPERT]

I'm moving to Singapore in couple of months time from Melbourne. Since i have lots of spaces left on our container, i was thinking of buying about 100 of wine bottles to fill up some space.

any idea whether it's ok??

anything else i should buy from australia for the sake of filling the space up.

cheers

[Plavt]

http://www.customs.gov.sg/faq/mainfaq.html#Travellers

[micknlea]

You can bring it in but you will have to declare it and pay duty on it, the price is determined by the Singapore Customs Dept and is payable upfront.
Then again, do not be put off totally as it is not always a bad idea. It can work out cheaper than buying it here later thats for sure. I have a friend who regularly brings in wine direct from cellar door to Singapore and pays the duty, still cheaper than buying at the supermarket etc here...

[huggybear]

if you bring 100 bottles of wine..ur gonna need to bring a wine fridge unless you want to drink vinegar...the wine won't last very long in the hot weather unelss you plan on running the air conditioning.

i'm a bit of a wine freak myself and thus far i've been very disappointed in the selection at the stores. the lower end is well represented (yellow tail shiraz, wolf blass) and so is france / australia / new zealand. but there are plenty of new world wines that are absolutely mind blowing (concho y toro's cabernet savignon comes to mind...in the states runs $35 US). And thus far haven't seen anything from california.

i saw a few wine stores other then the couple i checked out. so i'll check those out as well.

[shef]

A BBQ and tools is a must. They don't sell it here, at least I have not found any after asking around. This is assuming you are going to get a place with a balcony. The BBQs provided here at most condos charge you about $10 each time and you need to buy your own coals etc. Yeah, no gas BBQ!!!

If you have kids, kids clothing is also good as the local variety are somewhat different unless you only want American brand names, which can be very expensive for daily wear; unlike Target and Kmart etc.

If your Mrs is size 12 and above, stock up on some summer clothes. You have very limited stores that stock those sizes. Also, bras are a must for her unless she likes heavily padded bras and small sizes.

Do not worry about bringing your bedlinen unless you are bringing your own bed as the Queen or King size beds here are shorter than what we are used to.

Wine is always good as they are expensive here and or the cheaper variety. But you would need to buy a wine fridge when you get here or they will all go bad in a matter of days due to the humidity. However be mindful of the taxes.

If you have young children, bring all their stuff from car seats, cots etc as they are very expensive here and mainly American brands.

Buy some new bathers as Seafolly brand (available here) are extremely expensive.

Leather lounge suite if you like them as they are very expensive here. All lounge furniture are also very low back if youl ike that style or if you prefer some support for your neck/head, bring your own.

All that being said, you can buy most things here in Singapore but at a very high price as almost everything is imported whether it is from its local neighbours, Australia, US or UK. Since you have the room in the container, why not bring it in.

If you get a chance to come and look around before moving here, take the opportunity to hit the shops and you will find out what is available and at what price. If you don''t then try and find an Asian friend in Melb who is a migrant themselves for some guidance.

I hope this has helped. We have just moved here from Melb too for 6 months and still take home a shopping list each time we go back.

[lost_canuck]

there are bbqs available here, from all kinds of DIY shops and a place that does just BBQs, be aware tho that you will pay a lot for them.

We left our portable in the UK and I am sorry I did now a Weber Q is like $600 sing, we paid £60 pound for ours which was much bigger.

[jskogsta]

.... Since i have lots of spaces left on our container....

Any chance I could ask which Moving Company you are using? We might be doing the same, and are looking for some input to our planning. What's the size of the container, cost etc... and do you get them to do the packing, unpacking etc??

Thanks mate!

/Jorgen

[Leone and John]

Any chance I could ask which Moving Company you are using? We might be doing the same, and are looking for some input to our planning. What's the size of the container, cost etc... and do you get them to do the packing, unpacking etc??

-------------------------------------------------------
We used WRIDGEWAY (in Melbourne) and they packed everything into a 20 foot container, did not use it all though. Also would NOT use them again.

We did not bring all our furniture and am very happy we didn't as most apartments have smaller rooms. We did bring in our dining furniture and probably wished we didn't.

Medicine's / vitamin tablets etc are expensive here and we are glad we had our Doctor give us a 6 mth prescription before leaving (Regulation 23) and we packed as much as we could of anything like that we needed. Eucy oil, baby powder, multivitamins, favorite toothpaste, favorite brand of make up and lotions. Can NOT pack anything flammable though like "after shave".

Yes, I packed some wine and two bottles of Scotch. (duty is high) Better to bring it in "duty free" each time you travel. Or have friends bring them in when they come to stay for their "free" visit.!

Larger women need to bring plenty of light weight clothing as it does not seem to be available here. Underwear and swimwear too.

Some things are not available that you maybe used to.....but then you will also find items not seen before, so be prepared to "give and take".

good luck with your move,

Leone

[rhino]

Hey just wondering what issues you had with Wridgeways? I moved with them from Sydney and didn't have any problems. Although can't say the same for Crown who were the forwarding agents - I basically had to ring them to find out when my air freight had arrived ("Yeah, its been here for two weeks!" was their reply!).

On the wine subject, I think it was about S$9 duty per 750ml bottle. And agree with the comment about the wine fridge - I only bought a few bottles and the ones I have left on the counter now make great cooking wine haha.

[Plavt]

if you bring 100 bottles of wine..ur gonna need to bring a wine fridge unless you want to drink vinegar...

I assume you mean white wine, I am not aware of red wine turning to vinegar on account of the heat?

[huggybear]

sorry plavt dude.
meant more along the lines of if you bring some wine ... unless you run your air con 24/7, your wine will go bad.

similar to how if you buy beer and leave it in 90 degree heat for a week, it'll probably go bad too.

[Grim Reaper]

Although I fully agree it is advisable to keep your (red) wine in a special winefridge, the most important condition to store wine (and ripen it), is a constant temperature and NOT moving it all the time. The temperature as such is of less importance, but the colder, the longer you can store it and the slower it will ripen.

So you can easily keep a good red wine here for 2 years or alike, just on the shelf outside a fridge, no problem at all.