Tag: COVID

After touching down, we were funneled through the airport to a roped-off section of folding chairs facing the exit doors. Every second chair had a big red X above the words “maintain social distance” and people were actually complying. A very compact and competent man picked us out of the bunch, liberally sprayed our bags with antiseptic, and deposited us in a private shuttle sent from our “Alternative State Quarantine” hotel. At the hotel, we had a long chat with a kind manager about how things were going to go down: for the next 24 hours, we were not allowed to leave our room. If we wanted food, medicine, anything, they would be happy to run out and grab it. They would even spot us the money because we couldn’t go to an ATM. An hour later, a woman in a full hazmat suit came and administered COVID tests from within our hotel room. After our results came back negative the next day, we checked out (in a separate, “clean” part of the hotel) and were told to report back in 6 days with the results of another test. Five months traveling during a pandemic and I have never seen anyone take COVID as seriously as Thailand.