You can go back to my previous Phuket blog entry to see if you can figure out why the Thai government banned this entry.
Here are some of my experiences during the last two weeks of my 2-month travel around Thailand, primarily to beaches and islands. I also will comment on some of my experiences in traveling during the COVID-19 era including how devastating it has been on so many people and businesses that rely on tourism.
After returning to Bangkok from Phuket by Lion Air, decided to return to Ko Samet which has many sugar sand coves to explore and a great place to stay-- the Blue Bay Bungalow that had replaced the primitive Ao Pudsa Bungalows I had enjoyed staying at for the last 15 years.
Rather than waiting until I got to Ban Phe to take my COVID-19 antigen test when I arrived, I went to the Bumrungrad Hospital for the test. It ended up costing me 2,800 Baht—$ 87 USD rather than the 200 Baht in Ban Phe. With that, I got a quick health check-up included with the test.
This time, the minibus left at 8 am so I grabbed a street vendor omelet and rice for just 25 Baht for the 3-hour ride to Ban Phe.
It turned out this was a different bus company that dropped me off at a different ferry terminal and they wanted 150 Baht for the one-way trip to Ko Samet.
I should have waited to take the test at the Ban Phe minibus drop-off point where they had a big tent where passengers to Ko Samet could take the test for just 200 Baht after purchasing a kit for 60 Baht.
I walked a few blocks north to the one I had first taken at the beginning of my Thailand travels and it was just 60 Baht for the ferry boat ride to Ko Samet.
After arriving at the Ko Samet pier, and paying the 200 Baht Park entrance fee, I rode a songthaew along with Thai vacationers near the Blue Bay Bungalows for 50 Baht.
The staff there remembered me and gave me a great bungalow with some views of the Ao Pudsa Cove. This new place was tearing down the old bungalows and building new ones along with building a restaurant using some huge bark-stripped logs with a tin roof decorated with palm fronds. Currently, they serve up meals by walking over to the Samed Villa Resort which is the company that I found out is renting the property from the owners of the old Ao Pudsa bungalows.
I enjoyed my days there dodging the occasional downpours, especially in the early mornings and late evenings, reading in the lounge chairs, and taking occasional dips in the sea in 85-degree water temperatures. Notice how few people are here.
Once a day I would head into town for some exercise, lunch, massage, and occasional book exchange. Resorts and hotels that are still open, have fewer than 25% occupancy and many businesses have shuttered. The few resorts that relied on day trips from large tour groups from China had rows and rows of empty tables. On weekends business picked up a bit because Thais from Rayong and Bangkok came to party.
One day I learned how they reduced the mosquitos by fogging the area with pesticides. I made sure to close up my bungalow and not go out until the insecticide fog had dissipated.
While there, I stubbed my toe so hard I thought it was broken. I couldn’t feel any cracks so I just began to tape two of my toes together and the bruise blossomed purple.
After one of the big storms, a big pile of flotsam and jetsam came ashore near the vertical rock garden and many of us worked to pull it up to shore so it would not return to the sea. Since there was an unusually high tide we got it pretty far up the shore. In the following days, the staff spent a few hours hauling the pile away, as well as some other locals who extracted lengths of rope and fishing lures from the pile.
I then returned to Bangkok for the night before returning to Pattaya for a few days since it was cheaper and had a newly cleaned-up beach where I lounged about reading my books.
This time I took a high-speed catamaran back to Ban Phe at 9 am at a cost of 150 Baht instead of the slower old ferry boats at a cost of 60 Baht because I was hoping to catch an earlier minibus back to Bangkok or Pattaya. No luck. There were no minibusses going to Pattaya and all minibusses heading to Bangkok only left after 1:30 pm.
Before COVID, there were four big buses per day that returned to Bangkok and three minibusses per day that went to Pattaya. There were not enough tourists to cover the cost of the more frequent buses.
Before COVID most of the tourists to Ko Samet were foreigners and now most tourists were Thais.
Once I got back to Pattaya on the big bus which ran from Bangkok about 8 times per day, I went down to the beach and continued my walk down to Walking Street.
The once-crowded Walking Street was like a ghost town both with a number of shuttered bars, go-go and disco venues, and restaurants. The few go-go bars that were open did not have any of the workers there dancing but rather just sitting and mingling with the few tourists looking for a short or long time arrangement.
One of the most popular go-go bars was the Windmill a-Go-Go and they required all customers to take a free COVID-19 antigen test before being admitted.
Other go-go bars also required an antibody test within the last 72 hours and some were charging 50 Baht for the tests.
Notice that the touts advertising the Windmill a-Go-Go are dressed up as nurses as were the women once you got in the bar--an homage to the COVID era.
I stayed at the Sawasdee Siam Hotel in the LK Metro area and it was the last of three that was still open. and it's a nice pool that until recently you were not allowed to swim in because of COVID-19 restrictions.
On my way back to Bangkok, our bus ran into a big rainstorm, and the water leaked in through several windows which created a small lake along the bus walkway.
My final stay was in Bangkok where I had the last visit to the Chatuchak Weekend Market where I bought some trinkets, another Hawaiian shirt, and a Chiang Mai man bag. I enjoyed eating at one of the food courts where the food was delicious and cheap.
While at the hotel, I opened up the Bionex proctored COVID-19 test which turned out negative. It was so much easier and cheaper than going to a nearby clinic or hospital.
It was then off to the Suvarnabhumi Airport on March 5th to catch my Asiana Air night flight to Incheon, S. Korea with a connecting flight to Seattle. The first leg was from the Sky Train to the airport train.
After clearing security, I encountered this big sculpture featuring a golden naga and competing warriors. The duty-free shops with their booze, perfumes, and high-end accessories were fully staffed, but most of the restaurants were closed and those that were open had limited food and beverage choices.
These rows of chairs are for arriving passengers who must wait for medical clearance and individual escorting to the required transportation of private taxis to hotels for the one-night Test and Go quarantine or the seven-night hotel quarantine program which I had done and earlier reported at the beginning of my 2022 Thailand adventures.
Here is the ghostbuster outfit the Asiana flight crew is wearing during our flights, partially filled with passengers.
As we taxied to our gate at the Incheon airport we saw rows and rows of idle airplanes from numerous airlines.
Most of the Incheon Airport restaurants were closed and food choices were limited. The restaurant I found did not even have the popular Korean dish--bulgogi--so I settled for some soupy beef dish with the typical condiments including Kim Chee.
Fortunately, the Incheon Airport had these comfortable lounge chairs which was a good thing because of the 11-hour layover there.
Both flights had few passengers so many of us including me were able to stretch out across four seats and get some sleep on the way to Seattle.
As we approached the Seattle airport, we had some clear views of Mt. Baker and the snow-covered Cascade mountain range.
Our Asiana plane was taxiing to our gate at the Seattle Airport under typical grey winter skies.
It seemed like a bunch of international flights landed at the same time and crowded the immigration hall, and fortunately, there was no waiting at the Global Pass kiosks. They had even eliminated all of the questions on the Global Pass.
With my printed-out document, I quickly passed through Immigration and made my way to the Light Rail station that got me back to Seattle. O so cold, damp, and dreary compared to Thailand.
While on the Light Rail, I was reminded of a book I had read called "Subways Are for Sleeping" when I sat by this guy sleeping with all his possessions. There were a few more guys like him riding the rails with all of their possessions in their grocery carts in the warmth of the heated light rail seats just like in the book I had read several years ago.
While in Thailand I saw a few what appeared to be homeless people sleeping or passed out near the closed business, but there were never clusters of tents along the city streets and parks like found throughout many US cities like here in Seattle.
In talking with the workers at the businesses I visited, many had just returned from their family farms where they had gone when all of Thailand shut down back near the end of March 2020 when COVID-19 began ravaging the world. For those who did not return to their country farms and villages, there were many food banks set up for those who had lost their jobs and income.
Worldwide there have been 6,011,482 COVID-19 deaths with 953,133 from the US and just 23,438 from Thailand. The US has 4% of the world's population and 16% of the world's COVID-19 deaths. Thailand has 0.8% of the world's population and just 0.4% of the world's deaths.
Thailand has been much more effective with its approach to controlling the spread of COVID-19 with its restrictive immigration rules, business shutdowns and restrictions, mandatory mask-wearing everywhere, an aggressive vaccination program, and more recent night curfews ranging from 9 pm to 11 pm--usually, 2am pre-COVID.
To revive the tourism sector, Thailand has created a certification program for the private sector including hotels restaurants, health spas, fitness centers, etc. It is a cooperative effort among the Thailand Tourism Authority, Public Health, and the private sector. It is called the SHA and SHA + certification program and the SHA acronym stands for Safety and Health Administration. The SHA program establishes sanitation measures including temperature checks for entry, a log for patrons to fill out their names and phone numbers, sanitation of all surfaces, and spacing out of tables and chairs in the service areas.
To qualify for the SHA +, the establishments must have at least 70% of their staff fully vaccinated. Some places go further and require customers to have taken an ATK COVID test--antigen-- to enter. Some businesses like those found in Pattaya, Phuket, Bangkok, and other tourist locations offer free testing at the entrances to their places.
The ATK COVID test kits are widely available at 7-11s and pharmacies throughout Thailand at a cost ranging from 50 to 100 Baht--$1.50 to $3. For them, it is a public health practice and not politics that has resulted in a very low death rate compared to the US.
I have recently uploaded all of my travel videos to YouTube now that they allow longer uploads and you may want to see my Peru Adventures there as well as my other travel videos. That link is https://www.youtube.com/c/huntforgold
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