BootsnAll Travel Community

Hopefully the information I'm asking about here won't be needed for ages, but I just wanted to see if anyone knows anything about it.

I just went to my grandmother's funeral and got the opportunity to spend a bit of time chatting with my mom. As death was the purpose of the visit, she told my wife and I about her wishes. Essentially, she would like us to take her ashes to Myanmar via Bangkok and scatter them in the Irrawaddy River near Mandalay and has said she's even going to allocate money in her will to pay for the trip. Are there any restriction on traveling with human remains? I mean, are we going to get stopped at customs and have what's left of my mother seized or need some sort of permit to travel with her? My mom is only 60 and in good health, so I'm not planning on doing this for another 20 or 30 years, inshallah, but thought I'd ask while it was on my mind.

My aunt traveled with my mother's ashes from the U.S. to the Philippines. **Definitely confirm with someone as I really have no idea** but I *think* all my aunt needed was a copy of the death certificate from the coroner. This was post-9/11, but who knows, rules keep changing.

In 1999 my bf took our buddy's ashes to Nepal where they were blessed by the monks and then sprinkled in the flower garden at a monastery.

When heading out on the trip he never asked permission from any authorities, and he had the cremains in his carry-on.

Since 2002 when taking a trip I've always had a vial of my beloved dead dog's ashes with me, carried in an opaque film canister which is kept in the front pocket of my day pack. Never once has a screener or customs or immigration type person ever asked me what the gray powder was in the film canister.

Hey Haci...I'm curious. What did you end up doing?

Nothing.

My mom's still alive but what she wanted done after she dies came up at my grandmother's funeral. I just wanted to look into it while it was on my mind. Hopefully it's something I won't have to deal with for a long time as Mom's just turned 63...