JideeS

When we went through Abu Dabi, Etihad had no problem with the COVID report As for the hotel it was to be 52000 baht minimum for a hotel but there were none under 85000 baht. Her math was off but still a ridiculous amount….. and that is each the COVID report says…. test type: NAA this means “nucleic acid analysis” it’s a DNA test to determine if you are positive for COVID

So we have been rebooking this trip at great expense for 3 years and finally decide to go. My mom lives in Bangkok, is 80, has had a stroke, and is in a wheelchair. As of now I don’t know when or if I will ever see her again. We jumped all the hoops, insurance, pre-booked hotel, pre paid COVID tests on arrival, and took a hospital administered PCR-COVID test in advance. We were cleared for Thailand Pass and the Phuket sandbox. I have dual citizenship and was attempting to enter on my Thai passport. We left Monday from Washington DC to Phuket via Abu Dabi. We traveled 30 hours get to Phuket and they are checking off paperwork and say that the COVID test lab results from the hospital doesn’t say PCR. They absolutely will not let us enter due to not being able to comprehend that this was a lab report that can’t be altered to say PCR. We asked if we can get someone in the US to verify this, can we enter, and we were told yes. Mind you it’s 1 in the morning in Virginia USA but via email we had the doctor write and acknowledge that this was indeed a PCR test. Even after this hard fought run around they still wouldn’t except it, as it was hand written. We were told our only options were to spend $8000 for each of us to quarantine a week in a government hotel or go back home. We weren’t about to spend $16000 for what equates to a week in prison. So we wait in what I guess was formerly a smoking room turned into human meat storage locker…… for about 14 hours until our return flight. While we were forced into cold storage they made us pay to be guarded and we were not offered or allowed to get anything to eat or drink other than bathroom water. I can’t even explain the mental and physical trauma we have been through. This was my girlfriends first time air traveling. Three days of being trapped without being able to wash yourself or change clothes is absolutely disgusting. Thank goodness for the bum guns in Abu Dabi airport. Three days of sitting or laying in uncomfortable positions has left me feeling physically broken. I am so completely heartbroken and blind angry that I was in Thailand and so close to mom….only to be turned away.