My experience flying into Suvarnabhumi yesterday

[BritManToo]

7 hours ago, Genmai said:

Staff with cheap 20 baht surgical masks on, gaps on all sides. Some pulled the masks down under their noses so they could potentially breathe in the virus better.

The face masks cant stop the virus, doesn't matter if it was 20bht or 10,000bht.

 

[BritManToo]

6 hours ago, NanLaew said:

WITHOUT PACKING AND USING HIS OWN BLOODY HAND SANITIZING GEL.

Liquid not allowed on flight.

[samuttodd]

Genmai,

 

 

Don't worry,    all those people are on vacation,  so notihing wrong could ever happen.   Nothing wrong ever happens on vacation.

[Dan747]

Thanks for "SHARING" your info.      ????

[ICELANDMAN]

1 hour ago, KhunKenAP said:

Reported in Bangkok Post, "the PM will go to inspect the airport today". All will be in order until he and his entourage leaves. 

PM go take a fly for go India and make monk herself also ?

[sucit]

I would say Thailand is doing quite well by you. If I was the IO you would be in an overnight holding cell, without any hand sanitizer. 

[samuttodd]

This OP's report needs to be sent to the news in Thailand.   It may be that the only way for action to be taken is to shame them into it.  In a week to 10 days the virus will be in full swing in BKK.   There is still time for people to protect themselves. 

Edited January 29, 2020 by samuttodd

[Andrew Dwyer]

Okay, so maybe the OP was a tad dramatic in his post but instead of slagging him off big time I prefer to learn from this.

 

Travel to Thailand should be avoided at this present time if possible, but if absolutely necessary take your own steps to protect yourself.

 

Wherever in the world you are coming from masks are available: take the time to purchase the best available and sufficient for yourself and family with regular changes.

 

Hand sanitizers are also available in pretty much every place, if you can find the sachets better still, if possible transfer to smaller bottles. Hand wipes are also a good option.

 

Attempt to have as little contact with crowds as possible, carry your own pen, avoid touching the toilet door etc ( the usual stuff just be more attentive ) clean the fingerprint scanner. Etc

 

Never assume others are going to care about your wellbeing, airport workers primary objective is to move legal travellers on as soon as possible they probably think the hand sanitiser has been given to them as they handle many passports and probably still do not use it !!

[Sticky Wicket]

7 hours ago, shy coconut said:

Deary me, if you are so superior and paranoid, perhaps you should learn the Thai word

for disenfectant instead of making yourself look a numpty repeating a word to a guy

whose job is to check that you are allowed to enter the country.

 

Did you have some kind of drone or CCTV to be able to see into all of the booths

from behind the lines?

But but but, the ultimate apologist is out in force

[unamazedloso]

The OP has a point. If all you idiots that dont give a hoot get the virus i hope you survive. The guy is clearly observing stupidity at its finest which is a Thai trait. No need to harass the guy because more should be done as a precaution. Wasnt any hand sanitizer or anyone cleaning the machines when i went through but theyre should be.

 

And on another note all the haters sticking up for stupid, does stupid ever stick up for you? 

[crazygreg44]

3 hours ago, NanLaew said:

I defer to the aficionados of the nanny state everywhere. You know who you are.

 

In the meantime, I will carry on doing what has served me well these last 3 score and 3 years on the planet and pay attention and look after myself.

 

FWIW, if anyone else is into DIY health scare prevention, you can buy yourself some disposable P2/N95 grade masks. recommended by several Australian state health authorities for protection in the current circumstances.

 

 

PS: These are NOT available at 7-eleven.

 

 

thank you for pointing us to N95 standard masks. Yet it means overshooting the target. A high standard mask such as this one actually is not needed to fend of a contagious transmission of the Coronavirus.  A green, three-layered surgical face mask is enough protection.  This info gets communicated all over the medical channels at the moment.

 

As to what the OP states about the environment: the virus has a very low shelf life outside of a human body. If you are not directly sneezed or coughed at by an infected person, there is no contamination to fear in regard as to touch handrails or fingerprint-scanners, if you don't touch your own face, mouth or eyes right thereafter. 

 

Here is where the recommended face masks start:  The green surgical 3-layered mask offer the required protection:

 

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by crazygreg44

[buick]

i always carry hand gel and face masks when i travel.  a whole lot of other stuff to !

[NanLaew]

3 hours ago, ICELANDMAN said:

3 hours ago, NanLaew said:

I defer to the aficionados of the nanny state everywhere. You know who you are.

 

In the meantime, I will carry on doing what has served me well these last 3 score and 3 years on the planet and pay attention and look after myself.

 

FWIW, if anyone else is into DIY health scare prevention, you can buy yourself some disposable P2/N95 grade masks. recommended by several Australian state health authorities for protection in the current circumstances.

 

 

PS: These are NOT available at 7-eleven.

 

 

Thank you but you not found this anywhere, is too later stock out

You snooze, you lose. Nothing new here.

 

BTW, have you got your flu shot yet?

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Liquid not allowed on flight.

Wrong.

 

Next...

[URMySunshine]

Sounds like you are going to have fun in Amazing Thailand. 

[samuttodd]

Colloidal silver snorted into the sinuses after a good nose blowing.    Works for me. 

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Jesus Christ what a knob.  Just stay home then ok?     I just came through Suvarnabumi airport, no drama. IO directed me to the hand sanitizer after the finger print scan. 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by WinnieTheKhwai
grammar

[sanuk711]

10 hours ago, Genmai said:

The following is my account of going through Swampy arrivals and my observations

I bet your really glad you decided to share this with ThaiVisa.........

[emptypockets]

6 hours ago, gunderhill said:

The  guy  points  out, quite  rightly, the TOTAL  failure to protect its  nation from a  virus and all you do is slag him off.

Its  not rose  coloured but 100% blinkers you  have on.

He highlights what Thailand stands for, lip service nothing  more, maybe we should  all  get bio hazard  suits and refuse to take them off for facial recognition cameras at airports also.

Well done that traveller for helping many people now understand that Thailand's doing virtually nothing at its  main airport.

He could have made his point without going Greta. I wonder when he started talking slowly to the IO if he also raised his voice. That seems to be the MO for the uneducated foreigner.

[MaxiMaxi]

7 hours ago, Salerno said:

Plenty of them:

https://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/65070/enya-hand-sanitizer-aloe-vera-100ml

https://www.amcal.com.au/kenkay-no-rinse-hand-sanitiser---100ml-p-9319598434953

https://resparkle.com.au/product/natural-hand-surface-sanitiser-100ml/

https://trinature.com/Hand-Sanitiser

 

etc.

Knowing about the disinfecting needs, why didn't you bring your own disinfecting gel or alcohol or disinfecting tissue and do it step by step yourself when needed....

Europe or other countries worldwide are even worse than Thailand where people wear masks and gloves since more than 20 years, even before SARS outbreak cause they put it even when they are sick not to affect others around, instead caucasian foreigners never do and arrive sick with flu, sneezing and coughing from abroad for their vacations here and without care of locals when in crowded places....!!

Instead all Thailand's international airports I've seen are always clean and well mantained, much more than in other so called developed countries that instead reduse personnel to save money.....

[daiwill60]

I came from DMK yesterday to HCMC, and as the OP describes, it was the same for me at both airports.

In fact a Korean teenager was behind me in the queue at immigration in HCMC sniffing and coughing from time to time and nobody batted an eyelid.  

I actually hadn't given much thought myself to the perils of using the scanner, which clearly wasnt being cleaned during my time stood in the queue at DMK.

I would say that considering the panic surrounding this virus outbreak, there didn't seem to be much going on at either airport to prevent it spreading, apart from the larger percentage of people wearing masks, (many of which were the really thin paper like ones), which of course overall are only a minimal barrier against a virus. 

[daiwill60]

3 hours ago, NanLaew said:

You snooze, you lose. Nothing new here.

 

BTW, have you got your flu shot yet?

The masks commonly used are about as much use as a cigarrette lighter on a motorbike,  even the P2?N95 masks, are really only suitable to prevent outgoing germs from a person and really not designed to prevent inhalation from the surrounding air to the level of particles as small as a virus.  They do not provide an efficient seal arround the face, they do not protect ingress of viral materials through the eyes.  

The best way to prevent inhalation of airborne materials is by  using a positive pressure face mask...https://www.amazon.com/3M-Facepiece-Respirator-6800-Chemicals/dp/B007JZ1LG6/ref=pd_sbs_121_3/133-0974828-8852411?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B007JZ1LG6&pd_rd_r=2ea311a6-ce10-4f2a-919a-3f429ef28c3d&pd_rd_w=xfcZ1&pd_rd_wg=GwXkh&pf_rd_p=bdd201df-734f-454e-883c-73b0d8ccd4c3&pf_rd_r=DAP3YHQYFZQNPKTEDE9B&psc=1&refRID=DAP3YHQYFZQNPKTEDE9B

[Matzzon]

12 hours ago, Genmai said:

In short, there's not a chance in hell they are going to contain this thing. I advise everyone to plan accordingly.

My response to that would be that you are probably very lucky that they did not contain you with your terrible attitude. Sometimes in life there are things that are worse than a virus, and you are walking a very thin line on the way to proving that.

[tifino]

 so... how well do the fingerprint scanner cope with a thick barrier of gel on your fingers?

can visualise the face scanning must cause some problems for some...  being forced to prise their masks off. 

But then having an incoming ID shot, wth mask; shouldn't be that much of a probem

 - as the outgoing ID photo would be a Match!  

[alex8912]

Does anyone know where to easily buy the green surgical masks in Bangkok? Thanks. 

[AlQaholic]

11 hours ago, Gweiloman said:

You mean.....you mean.... the airport is a hospital?

I think there is a hospital in the airport?

[wtfracing]

7 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

The only actual way to "protect the nation" is to ban all inbound flights and inward cross border travel.

"PUBLIC SAFETY" or "TOURIST  MONEY" alas Tourist Money for the WIN!

[KhunBENQ]

What can go wrong. Top execs well prepared

(PM and foreign minister)

 

[ThaiBunny]

The OP sounds as if he's bought the whole pandemic hysteria story root-and-branch. This coronavirus has a death rate so far of less than 3% or one-third of the SARS virus - which most people who caught it survived. It is no more fatal than catching the 'flu, and the same people are most at risk - the very young, the very old and those whose immune system is compromised because they are diabetic or HIV+ etc.  As for the airport - how many unclean hands have handled his suitcase between him checking it in and him retrieving it? How many door handles - the taxi, his hotel room to name but two - will he be touching in the hour after he arrives? Get a grip

Edited January 29, 2020 by ThaiBunny

[new2here]

10 hours ago, pdtokyo said:

I'm not taking sides here ... can see some merit in in the original post and in some of those who have reacted so ... enthusiastically.

 

... but a tiny point ... it's really difficult to carry bottles of ANYTHING on flights ... i can't recall seeing hand sanitizer packaged in small enough bottles to get past the scanners.

 

My plan is to re-pack some sanitizer into a 100ml bottle for my flight into Don Muaeng this weekend and hope nobody asks me to explain what's in it ... my Thai is limited to sawaddi-khrup and kop-kun-khrup ... and i haven't got the time or spare brain cells to memorise the Thai for "Good morning officer, It's hand sanitizer that i took out of a big bottle and put into this little bottle''*

 

* อรุณสวัสดิ์เจ้าหน้าที่มันเป็นเจลทำความสะอาดมือที่ฉันหยิบขวดใหญ่ออกมาแล้วใส่ลงไปในขวดเล็ก ๆ นี้ according to Google

I agree too.   I think given where Thailand is geographically to China any the volume of inbound Chinese passengers (as well as non-PRC citizens but transit-via-PRC volume) i think it’s fair to expect the front-line staff to pay a higher level of attention to enhanced cleanliness and hygienic protocols at places like airport immigration processing booths/queues.

 

That said, I also think there is some measure of personal responsibility too.  Not everyone it everywhere will have the disinfectant— and for the moment, I agree that at the IOs desks, I’d expect that - but IF they don’t, then I’d hope that as a prepared individual, you’d have a standby supply as well.