A little out of sequence for this series, and because it was introduced yesterday, today I’m returning to the question of duty-free products.

If you’ve gone for a budget airfare, odds are that you will have at least one change of aircraft, and in my case having booked an Aeroflot flight, the stopover was at Moscow Chermenteyov airport.

Based on my own experience, whatever you pay in Sterling at Heathrow Duty Free, you will pay in US Dollars at Moscow.

So for example, back in 1999, Heathrow duty-free shops charged £16.00 for 200 Benson & Hedges cigarettes, and duty-free Moscow charged US $16.00. I’ve no idea what current prices have reached, but the disparity is likely to be similar.  (One after-thought here, is that back then, those prices represented a roughly 90p/36% discount from regular retail, and that it was at a time when most news reports were saying 90% of the retail price was duty and VAT … hmmm!)

This disparity is the first opportunity after your journey begins to start making major savings, especially with UK excise levels on alcohol and tobacco, which supposedly are waived in duty-free, but appear to then be re-added in the form of cost-recovery for the exorbitant rents that duty-free shops are charged in airport terminals.

That Moscow price is slightly higher than the duty-paid price in Thailand, but you will not be able to get British cigarettes easily here, so stock up en-route if you absolutely must have them. Remember that the further east you go, the cheaper they seem to be.

At Chermenteyov, beware of currency problems, some of the transit lounge restaurants and bars will only accept Rubles, and none of them are particularly cheap (unlike the duty-free “supermarkets” in the transit lounge). Some of the restaurants and bars will accept Sterling, but you’re safer to buy about 100 or so US dollars before you leave, as they’ll all accept those.

Now comes the kick in the sensitive parts.  Almost as soon as you land in Thailand, you’ll be wishing you’d not forked out those duty-free prices, regardless of where you bought.  Ten years ago, as a comparison to the prices above, a pack of Benson & Hedges from a Thai convenience store (not always the cheapest place to buy in-country) cost 40 Thai Baht.  Back then, that was about 70 UK pence, and around US $1.20 – do the maths.

If you got here and opted for a local premium brand such as “London” filtered in a Benson & Hedges style of gold box (with a taste and strength similar to Lambert & Butler silver box (UK brand)) you’d have paid 30 Baht, which was under 50-pence, and significantly less than a dollar.  Today those same “London” branded cigarettes are 50 Baht, which at today’s exchange rate is almost exactly one UK Pound, and about US $1.60

What about booze? Named international brands here are cheaper than the UK, and very marginally so than duty-free shops.  The more luxury the brand, the bigger the saving by waiting until you’ve cleared Thai immigration before buying – e.g. Johnny Walker Black Label and so on.

The reality is, once you get here, you’re likely to want to try the local hooches anyway.  So here’s the insider info.  There are two types of local spirits – the industrial alcohol plus colourants and flavouring, and the real stuff.  Thais seem to like th echeaper the better and the cheaper it is, the further into the industrial origins it comes from.  Rums, like in all tropical countries, are good quality and good value, but avoid the “whiskies” if you value your brain cells and stomach.

There are three main local rums – Sangsom, Similan, and Sangthip. They’re all 40% by volume in strength, and all made by Sangsom.

Sangsom is the one you will see most commonly on the bar-shelf and in liquor stores.  In the latter, it is most commonly displayed in “half” bottles, which are actually 40% of the content-size of a full bottle, and usually over half the price of the bigger bottle.

A full size bottle from a shop will cost you around 200 to 250 Baht (a bottle of coke will cost about 10 Baht and a can around 13 Baht), but in a bar, depending where you are, you can expect to pay 450 to 800 Baht for a “full set” of one large bottle and four cokes, plus a bucket of ice.  Work it out while sober – most bars are happy for you to take your own spirits in, as long as you buy mixers and ice from them – this is commonplace with Thai customers.  Some may charge corkage – more prevalent around Bangkok, and on the Islands, or if you’ve not been in the bar before (this latter condition applies anywhere within Thailand).

Similan is a better grade of rum – it’s classed as an export product – and costs around 5% to 10% more than Sangsom.  Pay the extra if you can get it – your head and stomach will thank you for it the next morning.  In the shops it comes in a pretty brown and gold box, which makes it a great take-home souvenir.

Sangthip is about on a par with Similan but has an “aura” about it.  If you can locate a bottle, it’s getting harder daily, walk into any bar of expats with it and you will instantly be friends with them all.  Sangthip has attained legendary status amongst the old-timers, and the young-bloods are desperate to find out what it’s all about.  I’m a dedicated light-colour-rum drinker when it comes to spirits (whiskey should never have left Scotland in my opinion), and I find Sangthip to be the closest alternative to Appleton’s Gold, which I fell in love with in the Caribbean almost 3 decades ago.  Sangthip is definitely for those who want to make friends.

You’ll hear a lot of talk about “Lao Khao“, the local rice whiskey version of Mississippi Moonshine.  It comes in various grades from water-clear to milky white, smelling variously somewhere between mouldy-gin and a cat’s territory-marking juice.  It generally has the ability to remove the heat-shield tiles from the space shuttle’s underbelly.  If you’ve got a planet-sized adrenal gland, and a death wish, go for it. Otherwise leave it to the locals, you’ll probably live longer for doing so.

Later in the series – Something in the beer.

Tomorrow – Thinking of Tickets.

Garry