No lah. Not smuggling drugs or contraband items lah.. just electronic stuff.. hehe..
Thailand's custom is quite strict on electronic or computer products. Normally they see I'm alone they will want to check for these items (especially if you are from Singapore).
I kena twice already. The first time its a brand new mobile phone that I bought for my wife and the second time was some photo printer refill cartridges that I bought in bulk. The way they tax you also jialat... like anyhow come out with a price. (most prob they pocket the money themselves) First time blur blur, so they chopped me 1000baht tax. Second time I smarter, tell them for own use and they insist they need to tax me and again tax me 1000baht. I told them straight in the face no. And say if they want they can take the refills as I don't want to pay. The things are not that expensive anyway. In the end, they settle for 100baht. In a rush, I paid and left.
So now my strategy is not to have any things in a box that looks new to them(Toys are ok though). Take out the stuff and packed it into the luggage. I got an old 19" LCD monitor I'm carrying back this coming Tues.. so I chugged it into my luggage and hope for the best. Customs in BKK are more lenient than CM. (Those 2 incidents happened in Chiang Mai.) And this time I am flying to BKK then an internal flight to Chiang Rai. So I guess I no need to worry so much about this.
Nevertheless, if you plan to buy some stuff back, just remember to be prepared to get "taxed" by these customs.
PS: Postal service also kena numerous times. But at least they give you the tax rates. Its 7% VAT and 20baht process fees. Anything more than that its "pocket money for them".
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