What should I ship/What should I purchase out there?

I am not sure if it works from the UK to Qatar but we have on two occasions sent goods back to the UK as unaccompanied baggage and it was much cheaper than paying excess baggage. The second time it arrived in the UK on the same flight as we did.

It may be worth making enquiries for costs with baggage originating in the UK.

Regarding using the freight allowance for excess (or unaccompanied) baggage, I don't imaging there would be an objection. Check with the employer.

I agree with Helloqatar. It really depends what makes you feel at home. I had to make the same decision last year, and I really regretted leaving behind some of my stuff. It all depends if you will spend ALOT of time at home or not. Whether you will cook or not, etc etc. I for one recommend you bring your good quality bedding, as here it is expensive, and your laptop. Stuff is more expensive here (clothing, and in general good quality stuff).

I used to not care alot about thread count etc..... and now I have at least 40 sets...scattered around the world :) that I can't do much with. But I had to recently buy a duvet set....OH MY LORD! I spent a fortune. So bring the stuff you really care about being good quality with you.

And hey, if you want to chat on skype, drop me an e-mail through my contact page and I'll send you my skype name. Maybe I can be of help, or at least get you in contact with a friend I have (also from the UK) who might be able to give you some details.

Ciao

Expensive to buy in Qatar?

HelloQatar mentioned that sheets and toiletries are expensive. How expensive? And what kind of toiletries?

Are there any particular items unavailable in Qatar or prohibitively expensive -- bearing in mind I'm female, but not particularly high-maintenance -- that I should consider bringing with me? Any suggestions?

Would anyone here know or be able to advise on bringing my xbox 360 over to Qatar? its a uk one but should work okay I think. Apart from my clothes, some tunes, a selection of DVDs I am struggling to think of other stuff I should take over.

You can get most everything here. Bring the things that make it feel like home.

There are some things that can be way more expensive, such as sheets, toilet items, etc.

Don't bring electronics except your laptop, remember everything you bring will have to be shipped again or sold when you leave.

You can but the phones and headsets here - they are recommended makes by skype.

As for heaters. I had to buy 2 just to get through the winter. Despite being a hardy scots lass my house was like the artic.

Good luck with the move.

I didn't see many bugs, so I stored some dried food in plastic bags with the tops rolled over. I was in the UK for a couple of months in the summer and when came back I found weevils in the flour, rice etc. I threw it away and invested in some plastic containers with good seals. Haven't noticed any bugs in the kitchen since. To be honest, I've had more problems with ants in the UK than I've had with bugs here. Here, we have a bug man who comes and sprays around the house onece a month. There's an earlier thread on this subject somewhere in the archives, I think.

I think I'm right in saying that a/c units here generally don't also work as heaters. Certainly in our house they just cool.

Also, is it possible to use the 'shipping allowance' on excess baggage charges on a flight out there, instead of being reimbursed for shipping it through a shipping company?

Thank you for your suggestions so far, they're really useful.

@ The truth: I was planning on bringing as little as possible anyway, but I wouldn't have thought about a Skype phone (thanks the truth).

@ charmed: Luckily, charmed, I don't have a dog; I did have a cat but I had to re-home her about two years ago when I went to France for a few months. And the length of time it takes to clear stuff is the other problem. Even if I did want to ship some practical household items, I would surely have bought some replacements by the time my own were shipped and cleared customs!

@ Squarepeg: Blankets -- that's an interesting point, squarepeg, I mostly have duvets and throws at home, but I might get some blankets. Do the a/c units work as heaters too? I recall that when I lived overseas before, the a/c units also worked as heaters, do they have similar units in Doha? I don't think I'll ship an electric fire but I'll probably bring my hot water bottle, thanks. And bugs? How big are these bugs? *shudders*

Blankets. During the UK summer I find even the lightest duvet is too warm and I prefer to use a cotton waffle blanket. Friends who had lived in the middle east advised me that with the air-conditioning I would need a duvet here. They were wrong. We keep our air-co at 25 degrees and I miss my blanket. I can't find cotton waffle blankets here, only nasty fleece ones. The choice of duvet covers isn't too good either - too expensive or too tacky - especially since bhs went up in smoke.

It got pretty cold in the winter. Bring an electric fire.

Plastic food containers are generally of poor quality and you need to keep dry food sealed up or the bugs will get in.

our shipping allowance went on our dog!!!! The whole of it went in one go! Serious we went through such a nightmare shipping items - we packed about twenty boxes full of dvds, clothes,and books! Then it took about SIX month to come though customs! We brought our tv over but that got broken!

serious i would take as little as you can with you, books yes the decent ones are so hard to find out here, dvds if you watch them yes,clothes for sure! other bits id say no! theres amazing furniture, kitchen bits, bathroom bits out here you can get anything you need! Sentimental things - i would say no purely becuase they might get lost on there way over - photos and such for sure, letters for sure but the big things no!

i really wish we had brought with us half of what we did,we brought too much stuff, we have accumulated even more and when we move on i hate to think how many boxes we will have to pack.

try and pack as little as you can you can get anything out here excpet good books! hope this helped!

pack a skype phone for making long distance calls back home using skype!!!

Far cheaper than Qtel.

We came we saw we were Qatarized

That's the thing Margaret, I've been offered a reasonable shipping allowance. It seems such a waste though (financially and moreover environmentally), to ship the basic practical stuff. I'm not particularly attached to 'things' in any event.

My most favourite things are my friends and my memories. I can't ship my friends over in a tea-chest, although some may come to visit, and my memories are mostly in my head, although some are also recorded in photo form, and I wouldn't want to entrust my most dearly loved photos to a shipping company.

I've never been particularly materialistic and so my favourite 'stuff' amounts to a few trinkets and things bought on my travels, shoes (but I'm going to limit myself as to how many pairs I bring over, because I want to -- and can -- travel light). I particularly like a lamp, a few pictures and paintings, my Le Creuset pans (although they are so stupidly heavy I wouldn't dream of shipping them half way across the world). I can live without those though (and I'm renting out my flat back home, so I can safely leave them here).

I want to bring some books over, because I understand there's a shortage of good English language reading material (although I guess even that's less of an issue with the new Virgin store).

I guess I'm wondering, what do people generally ship over?

What do other people use their shipping allowance for?

If you have a use it or lose it kind of deal with your relocation allowance bring as much as you can. You won't have to spend as much on setup when you get here. Bringing your favourite stuff will make it seem more like home here. Bringing a car is probably not a good idea.