Can anyone recommend a shipping company, from UK to Asia?

[flimflammum]

We're moving to Singapore in May, and organising it independently. We're not taking all our furniture, but need to ship a certain amount of stuff.

TIA

[slim22]

Hi!
We used sterling when we moved to singapore 2 years ago. They were more competitive than Allied pickford.

If you have any questions about singapore don't hesitate to ask (schools etc...)
I work as a relocation agent here so if you need tips re finding a house/condo let me know. No charge

First thing you should worry about is the school. there is a waiting list for the most popular british school.

Good luck!

[ninedragons]

We used Crown to move us from Shanghai to Sydney and they were excellent. Only one very minor breakage in half a shipping container.

[Astrophe]

We used Britania from UK to Sydney - I suspect they would do Singapore. They were very good - upfront honest quote (we had a few shonky quotes which seemed very low but were not disclosing the full price - beware), and the service was very good. They even held our shipment up for us as we were taking 4 months to get back to Sydney, but they didn't charge storage fees.

[Astrophe]

Also, I think all the Britania offices are franchises (Ours was Britania Bardies - Midlands). We made sure we spoke to the owner of the franchise, and he came to do our quote as well. I think this helped us to get quite personal and good service.

[barbie1]

we moved in jan this year from uk to dubai and used the company john mason they were fab! came to our house and packed everything for us and even put the rest into storage, not one thing broke on the journey here and the company even arranged to be here to do all the importation stuff and help us unpack

Good luck with the move x

[flimflammum]

Thanks everyone, I'll check those out.

Slim22: Hi! Thanks so much for your offer of help. I do know a bit about Singapore as we were over for a five-week visit last Nov/Dec, but there's still lots to find out about. We haven't sorted a school for DS yet (he'll be 4 in July - also have a DD of 16 months). We've done some research (and looked at past MN threads!), and spoke to Tanglin, who said there was a huge waiting list, but that it might well go down because of the economic situation. We went to look round Chatsworth (East) and felt a bit - run down looking, and we didn't get to talk to any teachers, but it's a possibility. We think we're going to live out at East Coast, but not 100% sure, so ideally would like a school in that area. So now we're thinking of UWC, have checked out the website, but not contacted them yet. Any reports of it?

As for finding a condo, our plan is to get a serviced apartment for a few weeks while we look for a rental. We stayed at a friend's condo near Joo Chiat Rd last time, which we did like, but I don't want to rule out any other areas until we've had a proper look around. What's the situation with prices? Are they already falling? And would you recommend a particular agent? (You don't do real estate too, do you? )

Actually, can you recommend a reasonably-priced serviced apartment place? We're not too fussy about location, but ideally somewhere fairly quiet, and with a pool with a shallow end for the kids. DH will be working in the city centre, and we won't have a car.

Thanks again!

[slim22]

Hello again

So basically DS going into reception.

Here is a comprehensive list of options:

www.singaporeexpats.com/guides-for-expats/international-schools.htm

MY point of view:
DS goes to Tanglin and I'm very happy. Very high standard of tuition and pastoral care.
Long term residents end up finding it "too british" compared to UWCSEA which has a much wider spectrum of nationalities.
The reason is that up until this year TTS was exclusively following the british curriculum. They have now introduced a full IB programe because they finally realised that most children will follow the expat trail for many years and thus will have a better chance of enrolling in non UK top universities with the IB diploma.
Plus they have started Mandarin tuition from reception which is a big plus.
UWCSEA, being a full IB school was always a bit more prestigious. I still think that for expat children it is a notch above TTS in the sense that there is more diversity, more exposure to networking but that is more true for seniors. Not your concern just yet.

I had the same impression as you when I went to Chatsworth (central). However, all my collegue's kids ( Brit/Scots) go there and they are very happy.

The other option is Dover Court which is a very proper little british school. I think it is a bit too uptight.

Bottom line is Chatsworth is the only one with a campus on the east coast so if you want to live there your only other option would be the Canadian International school. I have no experience of it but have only heard very good things about the primary years programe. You need to call them to find out compatibility with british curriculum.

Dover and UWCSEA are very close to TTS.

Let enquire about rates in serviced flats and get back to you.
And for housing, you need to know which school because although singapore is not a big place the bus pick up might be around 7am for an 8am start in reception.....
Prices are coming down to reasonnable levels....depending on where you look. All expats wnat to be in the same areas. But no worries, we'll find you something, sad but a lot of people are leaving at the end of the summer term.
Can you email me on [email protected] so I can get back to you privately?