I flew out of Thailand to get a new visa – one person’s experience with the “new normal” - Report

[CLW]

Expensive return to Thailand. Glad you made it.

[cricket105]

16 minutes ago, gamini said:

so he succeeded in getting back to Thailand. he is luckier than a lot of Australians who can't even get home to their own country. and those who are  there being locked up in homes. It also seems that the Thai embassy iwas very helpful,but it seems there is always the demented Thai bashers on this forum seem to think these sort of things only happen here, they have probably never been anywhere else. 

Holland's been pretty relaxed from the beginning of the pandemic. Countries like Spain chose to go in full lock-down with army and police posts to check if people stayed inside. That will never happen in Holland. They had what they called an intelligent lock-down calling on people to do the sensible thing without being policed. It worked. They avoided overcrowded ICU's contrary to other countries or regions in the EU that took far more extreme measures. Very much unlike the Thai they have already learned to live with some cases in circulation. Europeans in general really are having it pretty good now. Borders are open. Travel is easy. People go on holidays. Sure the crisis hit there also but at least it's in relative freedom. For the first time in 11 years I'm contemplating to go back. I'm just hoping that the Thai will relax a bit too before it's too late for me. I certainly won't go through this ordeal just to be able to return here.

[barney42bb]

I could think of far better ways to spend that kind of money...Rather than gift it, while jumping through hoops, for Thai Authorities.

Edited August 17, 2020 by barney42bb

[jerolamo]

10 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Interesting thread, but proves my belief that one should never "assume" anything in relation to government in general and Thai government in specific, especially immigration.

Always pays to over prepare, and assume that they will come up with something they hadn't mentioned, including spare documents and more than one colour pen ( also several photos in different sizes/ background colours ).

 

While I don't doubt they were required, I don't see why they were necessary. Would they have refused a visa had the OP not had children? Far as I know the visa is granted for marriage and not for parenthood.

 

I'm actually surprised they didn't require a hand drawn map to the wife's house, multiple photos of the couple in every room of the house as well as standing outside pointing to the house number, and a letter from the head man supporting the application.

 

IMO, for what it's worth, they don't want us farangs anymore, but can't come out and just ban us outright.

I was sitting in the front row and immediately a woman (I think it was a woman, difficult to tell with the full white suit and PPE gear) came to me and asked me for all my printed documents. The next step was to go to the next hall were we had to sit in lines of 5 people to get the next check. Then we had to go to Immigration and 2 officers were doing passport checks. I then ended up at the arrival hall to collect my suitcase and 8 minutes later I was in a hospital van again with drivers, also fully covered in white suits and PPE, that took me to my hotel.

 

When we arrived at the hotel, it was the same story. Everything was like I was in a movie… nurses checking my temperature, the reception taking my credit card, the doorman cleaning my suitcase. I had to put on a plastic cover over my shoes and they took me to my room.

 

I first took a LONG shower to wash away all the stress from the trip and arrival, and then lay on my bed overlooking the Chao Phraya River realising the impact of the “new normal” and the total cost of my endeavour to return to Thailand with a new visa – over 300.000 baht. Besides that, I had now been away for a total of almost 8 weeks, instead of the planned 4 weeks. I miss my kids and my wife.

 

On the third day I received a Covid test in the hotel and that was negative. From that moment they gave me 1.5 hour per day to go to the relaxation area of the hotel. I walk for an hour to get the blood flowing and drank lots of soda water. I hadn’t been drinking any alcohol for many years already, but according to the Thai law, its forbidden to drink alcohol in an ASQ hotel.

 

I received 3 meals a day and can order additional room service if I want to. My room was cleaned every 3 days by a cleaning lady, again in a full white hazmat suit which looks like she is cleaning an ICU room.

 

I read books, watched a bit of Netflix and called with my wife and family to keep me busy. It was challenging, but I noticed that once I accepted the fact that there was no other way, it became easier being in a 35 square metre room 22,5 hours per day.

 

I also had a lot of time to think about the future… on one side I am very proud of Thailand keeping Covid outside the country. On the other side I had been planning to open my rehab centre in July, then it became September, now it will definitely not be before January next year, or maybe even later. I am completely depending on foreign patients that travel to Thailand to stay in my facility.

 

What is the future going to look like even when they open the borders again? I noticed that as a frequent flyer, flying wasn’t fun anymore. We can’t ask tourist to go through the same process as I did to enter Thailand. I don’t think they will come if we ask them to go through all the paperwork, hassles and the “<deleted> suit welcome”. I certainly couldn’t ask my patients to do so, they would already have the personal fears of confronting their detox and rehabilitation as well.

 

Then I think to myself… I am still lucky to have my wife, my kids, some money in the bank to survive, a new visa, a new business that opens in the future, being healthy and I am certain that at the end everything will always be OK.

 

“Everything will be alright in the end so if it is not alright it is not the end” – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

[jerolamo]

2 hours ago, nemo38 said:

Wow, that is expensive. Travel will be beyond the means of most people in the new Covid world. Think of what air fares will cost when very few people travel. 

I find one for 45 euros by month, cover to 200 000 euros.

But i have 45 years old (price grows up after 60 years)

For me, what is expensive and impossible to paid is this hotel five star story time... and fact it can be possible to loose the money for nothing.

totally crazy and unacceptable, i'm not rich.

Edited August 17, 2020 by jerolamo

[chainarong]

Never a truer word said, "Flying ain't fun anymore."

[jerolamo]

3 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

I believe that the mid to long term aim is to rid the country of as many Westerners as they can, but they'll do it the Thai way and make it our fault and not theirs that we leave by making the conditions to stay so difficult that we give up and go. The first stage in this has been the demand for health insurance for one visa group, which would be unobtainable for many of the elderly who have made Thailand their home.

it doesn't make sense, why would they want that?

You think, because of some racists sentences of some diplomatic people who should not speak so badly because of diplomatic position, every body are stupid ? no... i can tell you that every where around the world, we here more the one who speak so hard and so bad continually, we see more the one who move to much and break many things. Some stupid other people shocked amalgamate the color of his T-shirt, the color of his skin, his look and his behavior and are thinking that everybody look like this one should be the same dumb.

But in fact... it is an idiot story time ping-pong game by very specific morons. It is not specific to Thailand, but in Thailand, the majority doesn't exist as long as there is no democracy. They have to pray for the leader to be good and intelligent (no other choice).

[cardinalblue]

I think it is an overkill on so many fronts...they make you go through all this effort to show you are negative yet you still have to have $100,000 insurance coverage...can gov produce evidence if medical costs? I don’t think so b/c it has none...

 

there are plenty of hotels hurting yet they have a very limited list with only expensive rooms remaining? Who is doing the checks and balances? No one....

 

they seem to be making this exercise a business with maximizing profits...

 

Yes I believe in safety but it shouldn’t cost $10,000 to enter in as a foreigner safely...something is wrong and unethical about this practice...

 

this is not sustainable for tourists/ex-pats to enter the country...

 

 

[DrTuner]

21 minutes ago, chainarong said:

Never a truer word said, "Flying ain't fun anymore."

It never really was. Stuck in a flying toothpaste tube isn't fun. I'd much prefer train travel, but I suppose it'd be the same overblown precautions if coming to Thailand.

[jerolamo]

5 hours ago, rumak said:

On a more serious note ????      good report about "the process" .   

 

For us older folks the thought of having to go through even half of that ordeal is daunting.  I feel for

the married guys or retirement visa holders that were caught out of the country.  Certainly a very big

and stressful situation.   All one can say is "hang in there" .

 

The "new normal"  erupted out of nowhere,  and arguments in favor of lockdowns or letting things run there course will continue till...?

 

Some semblance of normality has at least been introduced back into every day living here in Thailand,

so ( out of selfishness,maybe)  I hope that by all means we avoid any little outbreak,  as the reaction,

or over-reactions,  will bring us right back to draconian measures again.

 

 

sure. We have just buy a land and start to build home (they i build myself because they don't really know to build a strong home, they have close to zero building knowledge where i stay, and the proof is visible by all the house with wall cracks appeared after one year).

Home build is stopped now at the middle.

We have only friends around and stayed in little village. We were so happy to be able to find a way to stay quite for our next time when we will be old, happy to have garden and make flowers, vegetables.... Quite place, nice people... but the dream is bugged now.

 

We are waiting i can go back to finish the job to build this house, then we will have to do a choice and maybe sale every thing to leave the country.

We now scare this will happen again for anything else and become impossible to survive again some panic and excessive reaction like that. We do understand that can be the situation in front of a new pandemic, but now, it doesn't change after many month... it is not Ebola pandemic also... if it were, we would understand. Also, when we read news about some Red Bull specific killer who is not in prison, we start to think that in this world, and also now in Thailand, money is more important than who we are really. And we don't want to be slave of that kind of way to imagine a life to be.

 

We will not let us die because of panic and excessive reaction that deny life of people. We were shocked to here that everybody foreigner seems to be "tourist" there.

In a place where there is so little quality of infra structured construction (electric cut many time, and i know why, no water many time also), but ok... for us, this is not the problem) and without any standard or real knowledge.

Even if you are married, even if you are teacher, even if you serve a lot the country, what ever you know and can share...

It is a terrible psychic shock to see the difference between people we are leaving with us around who are so good, and this government who impose his power and don't care the life of people around.

 

In fact, i see now that also Thai people are terrify, more than us falang there.

 

It is 8 years of our life to be broken soon because of there decision to panic in front of a virus who kill around 1% of the infected people (the old one and the very low powered one), and because they are thinking they are the best with close to no death or infected people (without test anyone... sure... in Congo they have better win, but they don't test anyone, that is why).

 

We will probably have to start everything again... an other one place in the world. This time we will have to choose a more stable place and consider the politic stability of the country and there relation with foreigners (not the people only, because we never had problem, only good friends there, but the administration). We would prefer to stay, but this has now to become more reasonable than what it is to be possible to have a normal life.

[visacrack]

'It's the obesity, stupid' (= fat)

 

Now we don't know if the moderator here knows what (s)he is talking about, 'global' or less, when the alleged covid death of a 7-yo must serve to prove the point of forced (supposedly) anti-covid measures. What we should know is how many kids in this day and age are allowed by their legal guardians to gorge themselves at McDo & co, such that they end up with a pot-belly. 

 

Let's stick to the facts: We also know that our immune system is affected by excess fat. Or expressed the other way: If you keep your body fat within healthy limits, your immune system will work just fine. Look for a body fat calculator on the web, you will find all the numbers there. Then go back to my original comment on page 3 and follow anti-fat instructions - provided you want to stay healthy. 

 

This works - no matter if you're 7 or 70. And no matter if you say 'haha' or 'confused'  .)
 

Edited August 17, 2020 by visacrack
corrected typo

[renz]

with 300k spend should have use the money plus another 100k to convert to non o extension and you still the money in the bank waste of useful resources

[Peterphuket]

Thank you Theo, (Dank je wel Theo),

For your description and experience back to Thailand.

I understand you still stay in the hotel until the end of this week.

As being an old resident of Phuket (for 11 years) I wish you all the best with your new company in the future.

What you say yourself, what will that future bring us.

Altough I also want to return to the Netherlands for my medicines, because of the circumstances I will not start with that.

Good Luck!

[johng]

38 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Stuck in a flying toothpaste tube isn't fun. I'd much prefer train travel

I was stuck on the Trans Siberian Express  from Moscow to Vladivostok  for 2 weeks  it wasn't much fun either ????

[ChouDoufu]

1 hour ago, cardinalblue said:

I think it is an overkill on so many fronts...they make you go through all this effort to show you are negative yet you still have to have $100,000 insurance coverage...can gov produce evidence if medical costs? I don’t think so b/c it has none...

 

the test is to show you don't have the virus....now.

 

the insurance is in case you get the virus....tomorrow....and won't resort to a gofundme.

[G950]

7 minutes ago, johng said:

I was stuck on the Trans Siberian Express  from Moscow to Vladivostok  for 2 weeks  it wasn't much fun either ????

Lucky it wasn't a Trans Thai Express ????

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, visacrack said:

'It's the obesity, stupid' (= fat)

 

Let's stick to the facts: We also know that our immune system is affected by excess fat. Or expressed the other way: If you keep your body fat within healthy limits, your immune system will work just fine. Look for a body fat calculator on the web, you will find all the numbers there. Then go back to my original comment on page 3 and follow anti-fat instructions - provided you want to stay healthy. 

 

 

If you want to stick to the "facts," then you shouldn't have posted at all.

 

It's been well established by the medical community experts that there are many risk factors for COVID illness that have nothing to do with obesity, with older age being the first of them, along with various others like cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems, diabetes and even perhaps ethnicity, with blacks and hispanics representing an outsized share of those getting seriously ill.

 

And sometimes, the people who get seriously sick and die don't have any known risk factor at all -- which is what makes the coronavirus so unpredictable and dangerous.

 

The risks with CV are hardly as simple or narrow-minded as you claim.

 

 

Quote

 

People of any age with certain underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19:

People of any age with the following conditions are at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19:

• Cancer
• Chronic kidney disease
• COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
• Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant
• Obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 30 or higher)
• Serious heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies
• Sickle cell disease
• Type 2 diabetes mellitus

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Zikomat]

Meanwhile, yesterday all over Belorussia

[DrTuner]

45 minutes ago, johng said:

I was stuck on the Trans Siberian Express  from Moscow to Vladivostok  for 2 weeks  it wasn't much fun either ????

But I bet at least there was Vodka.

[ajarnmarc]

Thank you OP for the detailed description you've provided for us all here. 

I truly appreciate your effort in doing so, and hope you will be reunited with your family soon. 

Best regards for your health and your future with your family. 

[Is this real]

Nice novel.  Of course, you really didn't have to do any of it.

But, you were bored and this also gave you a chance to write a mini-novel.

 

Anyone who chooses to travel when it isn't required and there are so many restrictions is just plain silly.  Then to write such a diatribe....

 

You brought all of these problems on yourself.

 

Hey, for your next story - sneak into North Korea and try to hit Kim.

[visacrack]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

If you want to stick to the "facts," then you shouldn't have posted at all.

 

It's hard to reason with indoctrinated people, most of all because they're not aware of their indoctrination. 

 

Let me reveal you: I'm past 70. I was kind of obese until about a year ago, and I did not only see it - really felt it, on top of the critical blood test results. 

 

It was clear I needed to lose weight, so I started with a low-carb diet, and it worked. And I'm still sticking to it, until I get a chance to talk to a nutritionist in my language about alternatives, because they exist. Not that I'd suffer, still I keep reading about them, and that it can mean a bit less of the present discipline. 

 

So let's work our way through your arguments: 

 

- old age: not so, I feel young as always, apart from muscles being a bit tougher than they used to be

 

- cardiovascular disease: lifestyle disease, as a consequence of obesity and/or lack of exercise 

 

- respiratory problems: ditto

 

- diabetes: ditto 

 

- ethnicity: we're all whites here so even if it were true (which I doubt) doesn't concern us - you probably needed another item to make your enumeration look more impressive  .)

 

Since covid started, I was under microbe attack a number of times, even leading to elevated body temperature, yet my immune system beat it every time, without any pills let alone doctor consultations, and each time within less than 24 hours. 

 

Stop looking for excuses and explanations, you're a victim for those who want to spread a narrative that serves their freedom-reducing agenda. All you need to know is your fat, and how you must learn to handle it. Just read my initial post on page 3, after you've decided to open up your mind.

 

I have a clear impression that we're being fed b*ll<deleted>, and you - like so many others - are swallowing it hook, line and sinker...

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

5 minutes ago, visacrack said:

 

It's hard to reason with indoctrinated people, most of all because they're not aware of their indoctrination. 

 

 

Obesity can be part of various of the other risk factors I listed above. Or, it can be totally absent from the other risk factors... They don't necessarily go hand in hand...

 

Meanwhile, I'm quoting recognized medical authorities like the CDC based on the studies that have been done of hospitalized CV patients...   You, you're quoting yourself. Enough said.

 

Lets stick to the facts, and not your obesity rants.  Obesity is part of the risk picture, but not the only or sole part.

 

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Oliver Holzerfilled]

"I visited South Africa for 10 weeks to get my energy back."

 

Do tell.

[visacrack]

24 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Obesity can be part of various of the other risk factors I listed above. Or, it can be totally absent from the other risk factors... They don't necessarily go hand in hand...

 

 

It's getting clear that you believe in authority, which supersedes any necessity for you to develop thoughts of your own and assume responsibility for yourself. But you shouldn't be surprised if you become a victim then. 

 

What reason is there to think that authority is trustworthy? If an agenda is behind the whole thing (which seems quite likely, because there are powers in the world that are interested in a freedom-limitating development as we see it), how do you know that 'your' authority, of all the others, is not affected?

 

Maybe also check this relevant article in a danish-language blog that I found today, and whose title could be translated 'Our techno-totalitarian future' https://snaphanen.dk/2020/08/17/vores-teknototalitaere-fremtid/ I'd say it's worth the 10 or 15 minutes it may take you. You can probably get a Ggl translation and still understand most of it  .)

 

[Mark Nothing]

Another freedom effectively eliminated.  Only the most dedicated will travel under this three ring circus of unecessary hoops and cost.  Time for those fearful of their own shadow to enter plastic bubble wrapped room and suck on their disinfected thumbs.

[richard_smith237]

23 minutes ago, visacrack said:

It's getting clear that you believe in authority, which supersedes any necessity for you to develop thoughts of your own and assume responsibility for yourself. But you shouldn't be surprised if you become a victim then. 

 

What reason is there to think that authority is trustworthy? If an agenda is behind the whole thing (which seems quite likely, because there are powers in the world that are interested in a freedom-limitating development as we see it), how do you know that 'your' authority, of all the others, is not affected?

 

Maybe also check this relevant article in a danish-language blog that I found today, and whose title could be translated 'Our techno-totalitarian future' https://snaphanen.dk/2020/08/17/vores-teknototalitaere-fremtid/ I'd say it's worth the 10 or 15 minutes it may take you. You can probably get a Ggl translation and still understand most of it  .)

 

 

Where do you get your information from on Covid-19 if its not ‘authority’ by one source or another ????

 

Your ‘anti-fat’ concern is admirable and I believe people should be heathy, watch their weight etc. 

 

However, you seem to have a myopic viewpoint that ‘being fat’ is Covid-19 death sentence and that if someone is overweight they will die of Covid-19.

 

As such the neurotic delivery of your comments lends to elevated scepticism - no one believes a nutter !!!

 

In recognising the issue is multifaceted you may side step some of the misinformation and bias. 

[bwpage3]

10 hours ago, pookondee said:

He mentioned he was on a tourist visa beforehand, so wouldnt that have allowed  him to get converted to an Elite visa in-country?

 

Considering the various costs, risk of it all falling through at any stage, the time & stress and rigmarole,

 

If this whole sorry ordeal was costing 300k, id think extra 200k for the Elite visa would have been preferable option?

 

Pretty sure he never realized the cost up front.

[visacrack]

10 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Where do you get your information from on Covid-19 if its not ‘authority’ by one source or another ????

 

 

I tried to get the information from as near the unbiased expert source as possible: When reading earlier articles about it, I paid attention when they quoted researchers - thus not ministries or the like. There I got the impression that fat is the culprit. And it coincides with my personal experience. 

 

In alleging 'myopia' on my end, all you do is reveal that you still haven't comprehended the reach of excessive fat: It is in fact the source of most lifestyle diseases, like diabetes or high blood pressure. 

 

You seem to be highly emotional (even caling me names), just like the other poster. I assume you both are obese and would have to do something, but dare not admit it - it would just be too inconvenient for you. It's your kind of people that politicians use to justify their restrictive measures with. 
 

[aussiexpat]

1 hour ago, Oliver Holzerfilled said:

"I visited South Africa for 10 weeks to get my energy back."

 

Do tell.

No wonder it cost 300,000 baht. Multiple Flights (Thailand-South Africa-Holland-Thailand) and 10 weeks holidaying around South Africa

Edited August 17, 2020 by aussiexpat