My life as a pack mule

So I'm heading to Bangkok at the end of the week for a quick visit with my parents. Every conversation since I told them I was coming has now involved a quick "oh and can you also bring us some xxx". This is the life of a pack mule, when you're in an expatriate family.

When I was growing up as an expat kid, we would literally move meat and all sorts of other strange items from one part of the world to another. The meat transportation occurred in India where you couldn't buy beef back in the '90s - so my parents would hit the nicest supermarket in Bangkok the day before they returned home and buy a cooler full of frozen beef and pork - then take it on the plane back to Delhi. Since my father worked for the airline, this was not frowned upon and since he was constantly traveling, a shipment of frozen meat arrived at the house every month or so. The only downside was that the frequent power outages in Delhi meant that one of our two portable generators was completely devoted to keeping our large freezer functioning.

Anyway, over the years, I've transported a lot of different things from the U.S. to Thailand (and vice versa) on behalf of others. Here's a sample list:

• Down pillows
• Mushroom-flavored soy sauce
• Special Chinese herbs only available (at the time) from the Ten-Ren Tea Room on Grant Ave in SF (do you know how hard it is to park and go into the heart of Chinatown for a quick errand?!)
• OPI nail polish
• Countless items of make-up from Estee, Clinique etc plus the ubiquitous Mabelline mascara
• Blueberry jam from Trader Joe's
• PG Tips English tea bags (yes, the bags come to the U.S. from the U.K. and I buy them and transport them to Thailand)
  
• Hand soap from Bath & Body Works (requests are often very specific!)
• Digital photo frame
• Vitamins of all sorts, in Costco sizes
• Vaseline cold cream and Keri lotion (alas, I don't have to pick these up anymore - they were for my grandmother who has since passed away :(
  

And here's what's on my list for this upcoming trip:

• Colgate Mint Stripe toothpaste (lest you think Thailand is a backwater where you can't even buy Colgate - let me assure you that this is a strange quirk of my dad's - he truly believes that American Colgate tastes much better. And luckily for him, he's managed to only use American-made Colgate for most of the past 25 years!)
• Mini Snickers (also available for purchase in Bangkok - however, my mother alleges that "they're not fresh")
• Vanity Fair granny underwear (don't ask - but this purchase is really going to screw up my future recommendations from Amazon)
• Shoes (my mother wants "cute shoes" - god help me)
• 2 wrapped presents that I'm assured are Legos (I'll have to bend the truth in answer to the airline questions re checked luggage)
• Marrons Glaces - a European holiday treat that I can buy from Teuscher chocolates (actually this is just a gift for my parents, so doesn't really belong on the pack mule list)
  

I still have one more planned conversation with my parents before I leave. Who knows what else will be added to the list?! The silver lining is that it gives me lots of room for shopping while I'm there!