Traveling in 2022
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Perhaps some would be interested in a first hand experience of International travel in Jan 2022?
South Australia to Bangkok
Booked and paid for everything on Jan 1. Arrived in Bkk on Jan 17th
Flights from Adelaide to Syd, then Syd to BKK
Jetstar to Syd, Thai Air to BkkFirst flight:
Can't remember showing vax status during booking - pretty sure no, actually but there were pop up info/warning pages, but never any evidence.
All normal booking processThe only stress is the statement about getting a PCR test 72 hours prior to flight. During the testing surge in Oz the squirly bit was timing it all to get the result back in time. That caused me some angst. Got 2 tests on consecutive days to be sure.
Freaking out over flight cancellations I basically allocated a day for each flight and a corresponding hotel stay for each day giving wriggle room for flight hassles.
Jetstar check in and boarding - no evidence of test or vax asked for. Nothing shown except boarding pass. Maybe they could and do ask in some cases but didn't and my documents never had to be presented. Jetstar staff, in fitting with my western travel experiences were duly curt and over officious. Far too important to be bothered by pleasantries, manners or delivering the food you order. Mask up please!
Flight on time and a night at Sydney Airport hotel.
Flight 2
This one took some organising but actually only a couple of hours on the laptop.
As luck would have it, on the 22nd of Dec thai gov scrapped their "Test and Go" scheme which was simply a test on arrival and then out of the airport, or a test within 24 hours - something really easy. Changed to Alternative Quarantine (AQ) which is now an industry over here and is you paying for a 7 or 10 or 14 day quarantine in a hotel.
There's a website with over 120 hotel choices. Hi end (2-5 grand AUD) down to less than 1000 AUD, depending on length of stay. There were even choices called Wellness and spa Quarantine and Golf Quarantine - I fucken love these people!Length of Quarantine? This is a doozy. At time of booking there were 3 categories, Vaccinated 7 days. Unvaccinated 10 days (I know, who and how and which airline?) Bless the Thais and their non discriminatory ways...hang on... 14 days - for people coming from Africa only!!
To be fair they reduced the African quarantine to 10 days a week or so later.
My AQ Hotel cost about $1100 AUD and that gets:
Airport pick up
Tests on Day 1-2 and 5or6
3 meals a day - awesome I am literally watching fat appear on my guts by the hour. Choices, western and local, and better than we eat at home
Resident Nurse
Partnered with a major hospital in case things go south
Instant messaging apps
Thermometer for twice daily recordings - take a photo, send to nurse
Heaps of water and snacks
Big room with balconey
1 hour exercise per day in the hotel grounds after 1st test and gym access after 2nd test
free wifi and all hotel services (laundry room service etc - not free of course)
Ordering in food and they'll get stuff from the 7-11 with a 20% charge.So, back to the Thailand pass:
Thailand require a "Thai Pass" issued by the Gov including the following evidence to be uploaded in jpeg form to their website:
Passport
Air tickets
Vax certificate (MyGov gives you an international certificate)
AQ hotel receipt - Hotel also asked for Passport, Air ticket, Insurance dox)
Travel Insurance up to 50000 USD. cost under 300 bucks for a few months worth
I think that's about it
Simply navigate the Thai Pass website then keep uploading jpeg files. Man, this got approved in about 1 or 2 minutes after pressing submit. A beautiful process. Then you get a certificate with a QR code and it's valid for about 3 days after your actual date of travel
All for free! - the Thai pass that is.So, after about 2 hours on the laptop from start to finish on Jan 1st, I'm good to go. Only last freak out is that ridiculous 72 hr PCR test. I mean come on, you could get and travel with covid immediately after your test by visiting woolies and still you're "officially" covid free for the next 3 days!
The PCR test is a hassle because (in SA at least) you need to ring them upon receiving your result, email your passport number (they want it in writing so no phone call misinterpretation) then they immediately email you a certificate with result, passport number and QR code - Travellers Certificate it's called. The sms message or Health Direct cert won't cut it at check in (bloke next to me had to get a test at Syd airport for a couple of hundred bucks - very stressful). I got great help from SA pathology for this but the timeline is stressful - tested on Friday, waiting for results for monday flight. Many people held up and bricking it at check in. I just handed them my folder full of docs and she did it all.
46 people on the flight, whole row to lie down and that awesome friendly cabin experience the Thais do so well. Syd to Bkk 4 flights a week, (hope they make bank on freight). Airport very quiet and sporadic and few flights to most areas in the world on that monday, but only once each, on that day anyway. But it appears you could get to everywhere, in a truncated itinery.Land in Bangers and on the way to immigration there are rows of chairs and 10 booths where they check your covid pass and docs (again just hand over folder and stand there till PPE girl says you're good to go. through immigration (no queues) and baggage claim and then hotel personnel awaiting. Drive to hotel and you're in another country!
I'm on day 3 now. It's actually 8 nights because the first day isn't counted.
I tested negative, PPE boys came into the room, I sat in my chair, they swabbed and the report was delivered via app next day. I've had zero contact with any human since so hopefully I'm out of the woods.yes MIQ is not great but not the end of the world either - give me 7 days watching Youtube and playing games over losing my life's business anyday. The balconey is the key and Booboo would do it just to watch the construction site that my balconey overlooks everyday ;). the Thais have really tried hard at this and haven't jeopardised the contact/infection potential one bit. I totally ackowledge the economic differences in doing this here but, hey, it can be done.
As for Thailand and what's going on outside my room. Dunno for sure. Masking is full on. Everybody, everywhere, all the time. A real show of obedience. Outside, yes, (construction workers in 34 degrees outside masked up, TV anchor people and newsreaders masked up on the tele in studio) the message is clear even if the science isn't. But Thailand is run by a General who came to power 10 years ago and promised to be there for only a year. The dynamic has always been different from the rights given to the west.
What else?
Dunno, but happy to take questions - I ain't going anywhere:)Hope this helps but, obviously, the major reason for writing all this is to imagine Mariner reading it and muttering "MUTHAFUCKER!!"
Sawasdee Krup
Don't stay safe. Safe is boring and got us into this mess;) -
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@mariner4life might look like it but I don't see how it differs from booking overseas travel pre covid.
Edit: Oh yes, sorry, the MIQ. Yes that's the catch.
However that is only recent and may be repealled soon.Forgot my circumstances aren't normal
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Mrs Womble and i were just talking about the difference between a "holiday" in aus where you might still get messages or emails or stuff and what we like to do which is a ski holiday, we find it so much easier to completely forget work etc when your actually doing something for decent chunks of the day
10 days into the new year and im exhausted already and i put it down to not really switching off over xmas
god i want to get out of aus and onto a mountain in japan or canada where the most thinking i do is planning where to stop for a beer/poutine/bowl'o noodles
my biggest concern is if we did do somethign like that is catching it over there and not being able to come back when you planned, just this week i have a colleague doing another two weeks in fiji (which might be nice but also expensive) and one of the guys in the rugby team get stuck back in the UK
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@kiwiwomble yeah good point. My situation is a bit different. I think the tide is turning though mate
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I'd like to add to this if I get to go to Japan. Apparently it's a bumper season. But even now that the federal government permits approved Australian citizens to leave South Pacific's North Korea, there's still the stumbling block of what way the wind will be blowing for State leaders when I get back.
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We have booked Greece and Italy for June/July. Haven't event looking into the Covid-logistics of it all yet, just doesn't seem to be any point yet when it will all change 7 million times before my flights get cancelled and I earn yet another credit that I will probably never get to use.
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@voodoo said in Traveling in 2022:
We have booked Greece and Italy for June/July. Haven't event looking into the Covid-logistics of it all yet, just doesn't seem to be any point yet when it will all change 7 million times before my flights get cancelled and I earn yet another credit that I will probably never get to use.
lol we have so many credits! we can probably nearly get to Fiji on them
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@mariner4life said in Traveling in 2022:
@voodoo said in Traveling in 2022:
We have booked Greece and Italy for June/July. Haven't event looking into the Covid-logistics of it all yet, just doesn't seem to be any point yet when it will all change 7 million times before my flights get cancelled and I earn yet another credit that I will probably never get to use.
lol we have so many credits! we can probably nearly get to Fiji on them
yeah, it's nuts. We even have Jetstar Japan ones, those look easy to use
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@nepia Yes I think it is. they call it "Sandbox" and it didn't really get disrupted on Dec 22 changes. I didn't look into it but it always popped up on my enquiries.
They've been doing it for a long time, over a year, so I'm sure they've ironed out the kinks. They also offer it for a couple of other island destinations in the Kingdom
Well worth looking in to. They've made it doable.I guess the purpose of my ramble was to explain that there are are other options to MIQ out there and the biggest difference being the 7 days vs 14 day ultimatum
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@voodoo said in Traveling in 2022:
@mariner4life said in Traveling in 2022:
@voodoo said in Traveling in 2022:
We have booked Greece and Italy for June/July. Haven't event looking into the Covid-logistics of it all yet, just doesn't seem to be any point yet when it will all change 7 million times before my flights get cancelled and I earn yet another credit that I will probably never get to use.
lol we have so many credits! we can probably nearly get to Fiji on them
yeah, it's nuts. We even have Jetstar Japan ones, those look easy to use
Jetstar have been good with their vouchers in my experience. Yesterday they even gave me a $10 one for my missed meal. Probably take me longer to type in the voucher number!
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@siam Your experience in MIQ sounds very much like what my brother experienced here in NZ 12 months ago. They even gave him free beer with dinner. Was nothing like what your wife was subjected to in Melbourne. From memory didn't she then have to do it all again in SA?
NZ's MIQ stays haven't been about the conditions but the availability.
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@dogmeat said in Traveling in 2022:
@siam Your experience in MIQ sounds very much like what my brother experienced here in NZ 12 months ago. They even gave him free beer with dinner. Was nothing like what your wife was subjected to in Melbourne. From memory didn't she then have to do it all again in SA?
NZ's MIQ stays haven't been about the conditions but the availability.
Same in Oz - my 14 days was bloody fun - 2 bedroom apartment, balcony, full kitchen, able to order food and booze delivery, NBA Finals on TV. I decided to go dry for the first 3 days before realising what an awesome time I could have in there and gave up!!!
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@dogmeat excellent that's great to hear. Makes sense too. Was 2 weeks home isolation in SA immediately after MIQ. Overkill but that was may 2020
Does make me confused about the u19 cricket withdrawal reasons then. But I can guess the mechanisms at play there
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I've booked for Aussie (from NZ) in September. In the unlikely event self iso is still in place when I return, that's all good as I live alone...
I'm off to Cairns and then visiting friends on the Gold Coast. Would welcome tips for Cairns - I know a guy there but he's quite busy making wardrobe space for his wife's shopping addiction so I don't want to bother him too much.
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@smudge said in Traveling in 2022:
I've booked for Aussie (from NZ) in September. In the unlikely event self iso is still in place when I return, that's all good as I live alone...
I'm off to Cairns and then visiting friends on the Gold Coast. Would welcome tips for Cairns - I know a guy there but he's quite busy making wardrobe space for his wife's shopping addiction so I don't want to bother him too much.
I'm going to let her bash you for that comment
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@mariner4life said in Traveling in 2022:
@smudge said in Traveling in 2022:
I've booked for Aussie (from NZ) in September. In the unlikely event self iso is still in place when I return, that's all good as I live alone...
I'm off to Cairns and then visiting friends on the Gold Coast. Would welcome tips for Cairns - I know a guy there but he's quite busy making wardrobe space for his wife's shopping addiction so I don't want to bother him too much.
I'm going to let her bash you for that comment
And I'll probably enjoy that.