Eight questions about Thai islands and coastal areas as 2020 fades away

David Luekens

 

 

“Keep a place you love in mind — a mental image to cut through the gloom,” I wrote for the Travelfish newsletter when I first started Thai Island Times back in April. “The quarantines will end. The last of the country-by-country travel restrictions will be lifted. Yes, this will happen!”

 

We’re not there yet, as a new wave of the coronavirus here in Thailand — a parting gift from 2020 — is making clear. But we are getting closer.

 

“It’s like a bottle of soda that’s been shaking, shaking, shaking...” This was how a friend described the pent-up demand for world travel when we chatted on Christmas. “Towards the end of 2021 when more people are vaccinated, it will be like the ‘roaring twenties,’” he said. I too sense an explosion of travel on the horizon.

 

Thai islands and coastal areas that have been hit hard economically will eventually return to their former glory, hopefully with some changes for the better. But of course, things will never be exactly the way they were before the pandemic.

 

Many travel-related businesses, from airlines to tour companies to guesthouses and beach bars, will have disappeared or been sold by 2022. Many more are already gone. Proof of Covid-19 vaccination will probably be required to cross international borders for the rest of our lives. And the pandemic’s ripple effects will hit in unexpected ways, like a longtail boat’s wake splashing a sunbather out of a nap.

 

Read more: https://thaiislandtimes.substack.com/p/eight-questions-about-thai-islands

 

 

Don’t feed Koh Tao , Death Island 

On Ko Lanta now. I think I am the only foreign tourist in the island now. Saw a few expats, but most seem to have left. About 80% of businesses are closed.

 

But, staying in a five star hotel for 1/4 of what it usually costs. And the island is clean and gorgeous. Few things beat the Andaman. Gorgeous water and amazing sunsets. And Ko Lanta is exquisite. Just enough open for a quiet, romantic vacation.