Hi All!
I started this in another thread but I was getting so many great responses I though it deserved a new thread all of its own.

So here is the question

What is the number one thing/s you forget to bring to Thailand.
You get there and say " DAM! I wish I remembered...."

Thanks all

Grace

__________________
....Thailand here we come....

To leave my washing powder at home!

Laundry is cheap to have done in Thailand but buy a small packet washing powder from 7 11 (about 10 bt from memory) And hand wash some whites in it.

Thai washing powders are the same as most brands in OZ and U.K but they have somthing in them that must be banned here,because they make your whites brilliant white.

When you see kids on their way to school they have the whitest shirts and collars I have ever seen espesialy with all the smog in Bangkok and its the washing powder.

Bring some home.

(yes I have been known to do my own washing from time to time)


Den

It's due to drying the washing in the sunshine that's all. Sunshine bleaches white clothes to look brillant white. Check the difference between whites that have been dried outdoors in the sunshine and whites that have dried in a drying machine. The machine dried clothes are yellowish. All Thais, even at laundries, dry clothes outdoors in the sun.

1. Veet Hair Removing Mousse (I left mine at home because I was worried about aerosol cans in checked baggage)
I looked and looked in Bangkok - supermarkets, Watsons, other pharmacies - NO! and they had no idea what I meant. Next time I'm taking it!

2. Travel-sized kettle for those early-morning or late night cups of tea or coffee - room service not a satisfactory solution.
We have one of these and usually take it + coffee mugs + teabags/coffee. Last trip we left it at home.

Got to hotel after midnight and had to wait ages for the in-room hotpot thing to boil.

I thought we were the only ones! We bought a small kettle in Pattaya years ago and take it to thailand every trip,we also take a few tea bags coffee and the small long life milk in the mini tetra paks for the first night.

sad really to think that when we get there all we want is a tea or a coffee!

Age creeps up on all of us in the end.


Now "medi swipes" are a must for the short holiday tourist!
We use then to wipe cutelery that looks a bit if'y, and since we have used them we have never been sick.

remember things are washed up in the local tap water. but more so its what you have touched before the hand goes to mouth,so +1 for "Aquium gel" as well.

Den

When we first started visiting Thailand, we found that some hotels (even 4 star) didn't provide tea and coffee making facilities. Whether this is to make guests use room service/coffee shop or whether there's some other reason I don't know, but it's annoying just the same.

Even though we now usually stay in a serviced apartment when in Bangkok, we usually head off to some other location and so we take the kettle, just in case!
Ours is steel but I've seen plastic/melamine ones in Tokyu homewares section.
There have been many times when we've been really glad we've had this kettle with us.

Bobmac ... I dry my clothes in the sun here and they're not bright white ... so maybe there actually is something different in their washing powder ...

Kitty

PS Yes, the aquim gel (the stuff you just rub into your hands to "de-germ" them!) is fantastic. It somes in little travel size bottles from places like Priceline really cheap, and you just take it with you everywhere!

Perhaps I should have said "drying the washing in the tropical sunshine"

Thais are also keen on adding bleach to washing, "Hiater" is the popular brand.

We are in Perth and bobmac comes fom just around the corner from me,perhaps he,s been in Thailand long enough to forget just how sunny and hot it is here lol.

The washing powder must have some sort of bleach additive,we used the little packets of "OMO" I think it was and got briliant whites from hand washing, more than likley bad for the enviroment so not allowed in OZ?

Couldnt find Aquium gel last time we were there but always take our own just in case.

We get some strange looks useing the little alchol wipes (Mediswipes) but dont ever want to get sick again. I actually smoke and realized it was my hand touching my mouth that caused me to get sick a few times,which then spread to Tracey,so if I do smoke I wipe my hands first with a Mediswipe.

Den

Regarding the threads on carrying a kettle. A while back I had an immersion heater. I think it was bought from the RAC in Aust. I'd just stick the thing into a cup of water and boil it. Thing was ideal for travel as it was small & light. Don't know what happened to it, probably some Thai shelia took a liking to it. Anyway, worth picking one up if you come across them.