ASQ Update -- Day Seven (Pullman Bangkok)

[FalangTingTong]

Hello again from Quarantine!

 

Just a quick update for any folks thinking about running the Quarantine Gauntlet in order to enter the Kingdom.

 

FEEDING

 

The food is very good here, which I expected based on prior reviews.  And, also per expectations, there is consistently a lot of it.

 

Pre-ordering everything before check-in was not ideal, and if I could do it over I would ask how far in advance I have to order -- I'm sure they would accommodate you at check-in. The fun "I don't remember what I ordered" factor wore off really fast, and it would definitely be "funner" to order tomorrow's vittles today.  That said, I don't think I can be bothered to mess with the system now, so I'm sticking with the Law of Surprise.

 

My consumption has tapered off, which is good: you'd have to be very disciplined about your in-room exercise to not get fat on this diet, and "Discipline" is not my middle name, my middle name is "Procrastination."

 

By now I'm eating about half of each meal, 2/3 if I'm hungry, and I'm tempted to reduce further in order to actually diet a bit, but as I said the food is really good.  Your caloric needs may vary!  I have also been "caching" some of the food in the fridge, so if I get hungry off schedule I can usually grab a yoghurt or some candied fruit.

 

I was given a bowl, a plate, and silverware, as well as cups and glasses.  These are washed in the sink, with the provided sponge and detergent.  It's a fine system and by now, I'm mostly using the plate for dinner and sometimes for lunch.

 

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm a tea snob and brought my own tea kit, but there are teabags.  The kettle is great, perfectly clean, easy to handle.  Coffee is served twice a day -- at breakfast and at "tea" -- and it's perfectly acceptable coffee for a hotel.  If you want better coffee you will have to leave the hotel, and if you leave the hotel you will go to jail, and the coffee in jail is probably much worse!

 

There were a few soft drinks in the mini-fridge, I'm not sure if these are included in the price but they're not so much my thing anyway. I did drink a Coke last night to celebrate my impending Relaxation (see below) so I should be able to report on that when I check out.

 

I am staying properly hydrated and thus ran out of bottled water around Day Five; it was replaced in about five minutes when I asked.  The front desk staff has been very friendly and helpful, if you had any special requests I'm sure they would do their best to accommodate you.

 

The folks who bring your meals are also very friendly.  You don't really interact with them but a "Sawatdee Khrap" from down the hall actually means a lot when you aren't seeing humans for several days in a row.

 

TESTING

 

The first PCR test was on Day Five (remember, arrival is Day Zero).  It was super efficient!  I had sort of hoped I'd have to mill around a bit in the parking garage, since it was my first fresh air since checking in, but no such luck: the whole thing, from room to parking structure to sample taken and back to room took five minutes.

 

The next day around lunchtime the nurse called to tell me the result was negative.  Of course I expected it to be negative, after all I'd had the same test done twice in Germany before leaving.  But it would have been possible to pick the virus up in transit, and asymptomatic infection is a thing, and on my previous post someone linked to a scary tale of a grumpy person sent to the hospital after getting what he thought was a false positive – so I was mentally prepared for anything, and was quite happy to get the "negative."

 

Armed with my povisional non-leper status, I asked the front desk when I could go outside.  The answer was: tomorrow.  And you have to book three days at a time.

 

Having cleared this hurdle, I am now focused on the next one, which I think is on Day 12 or so. It doesn't give you any new privileges, but it is a very important marker towards your freedom: if despite all probability you were to somehow turn up positive on that second test, you'd be packed off to the partner hospital for however long.  In the worst case that I can think of, i.e. if you actually had symptoms, you could easily have your entire Visa Exempt trip to Thailand consist of quarantine and hospital.  That's a bit far-fetched but not impossible, and I would expect if that actually happened to anyone they would probably never return to the Kingdom, which can't really be in anyone's interest.

 

Of course that's diminishingly unlikely: I tested negative, I'm not interacting with any humans, I will presumably test negative next time as well.  But I'm not going to put my money down for March accommodation before I have the result in hand.

 

RELAXATION

 

From my room I can see a lower, cheaper, less awesome hotel nearby.  I can see the people outside for their "relaxation."  And I hate to say it, but they have it better than I do in the exercise department.

 

Over there, at Hotel Lower, the inmates guests can power-walk laps around the pool.  As I write this, a woman is doing just that, in long pants and long sleeves and a hat (I guess she must be Asian) – for pretty much her full hour.  And there is another part where I have seen people actually running, though right at the moment it has some tables set up to maybe block the track.  I have seen people power-walking there too.  So they can easily give two (or more!) people pretty good exercise in the fresh air.

 

In my Pool Area for Relaxation, you can't do a lap around the pool because it abuts the edge of the building.  There are two zones: shady with chairs, and sunny with loungers.  You can do some walking in very tight laps around the loungers on the sunny side, and when I was brought down there was a tall shirtless older Farang in Birkenstocks doing just that.

 

Thus I was sent to the other side.  On the one hand, that's fine: I'm more of a chair person anyway, never did like loungers, and my Viking skin prefers the shade.  But it was also a bit of a disappointment that I had nowhere to walk around, since Mr Birkenstock had occupied it.  He must be staying on a lower floor.

 

For the whole hour there were only the two of us and one staff member.  We formed a triangle with about six meters on each side, but still we all wore masks, at least mostly.  If you're reading this, Birkenstock, I saw you take that off to breathe while you were tanning!

 

The hour went very quickly, and was massively refreshing after a week of lockup.  For what they have to work with, I think the Pullman G is doing a fine job, obviously prioritizing safety over exercise but short of opening the gym there's not much more they can do.  I was surprised by how small the pool area is, but there were only the two guests.

 

In summary, there are tradeoffs for any hotel, and I'm pretty happy with the deal I got, but if you are strongly attached to your outdoor exercise you should consider that factor in your hotel choice.  I admit I'm pretty jealeous as I watch Ms Powerwalk 2021 down there, but I'll get over it, and for the other 23 hours I have an amazing view.

 

Oh, and the instructions were to wear hotel slippers, so I was a bit miffed when I saw Mr Birkenstock had gotten away with his Birkenstocks.  Then I looked down at my fluffy white footwear and remembered that Birkenstocks have never, in the entire history of the world, ever gotten anyone laid.

INFOTAINMENT

 

I have not used the TV.  I thought the DVD player (!) might have an HDMI cable I could use to hook up my computer, but to my surprise and delight it has RCA connectors.

 

I really don't care, I've got plenty to do and watch on my laptop and my iPad.  But if you like to watch things on the big screen, and you have your own device from which to source content, be sure to ask for an HDMI cable up front.

 

Once you're in the room I don't think they can easily mess around with the TV, because you are a plague risk; and I don't see any obvious cable hookups on the outside, I think they're on the back.

 

Internet speed has been fine.  The first few days there was no login interstitial at all, it was just a standard open network.  Then they must have kicked the switch or something, and the world-standard hotel-style login and upsell thing showed up.  I have chosen "free" every time, and have no complaints.  Reconnecting after waking up the laptop can be a little quirky but if you have hotel wifi experience in general you should do just fine.

MENTAL & PHYSICAL HEALTH

 

Quarantine is a bit different than I expected.  My previous quarantine experience was in Germany, where enforcement is nonexistent so it's not a big deal to sneak out for a walk and so on; also, I was in apartments before, not in a luxury hotel.

 

I thought I would be wigging out and getting depressed and need things to keep me busy.  So I arrived with a nice big list of things to work on, and some vague exercise goals, and a big idea to start doing an online language course.

 

Seven days in, I haven't been particularly bored and I also haven't been productive at all.  Nor have I been depressed, nor antsy: I find that most of the time, my only real desire is to keep myself occupied until the day ends and I can tick it off my mental calendar, counting down towards Freedom Day.

 

(And, oh the irony! It turns out that Freedom Day for me falls on a Buddhist Holiday with a Booze Ban, namely Friday the 26th.  So much for celebrating with a bottle of SangSom Cristal!)

 

I've made a little art but not much; done a little writing but not much; taken some photographs but not edited them; read a book but not that much of it; and spent one whole day designing then undesigning a web site.  I've spent a whole lot of time on Google Maps.  If you have a job and will be doing it from the hotel, well bully for you, none of this applies, and I can say the desk is spacious, the aircon consistent, you will be the star of your Zoom meetings.

 

I still have some hope of pulling myself together and getting some things done in my remaining time.  I also won't be shocked if I do nothing more than reading, writing and YouTube until the 26th.

 

The food schedule is an interesting thing.  Breakfast is served around 7am, which you might find early; dinner is around 7pm, which you might find early too; lunch is at noon and "tea" (snack) at 4. The day is thus broken out into fairly predictable sections, which can help you organize your day, or at least give you near-term goals for killing time.

 

I have not been great about doing my phone and video calls with friends out in the World.  Partly that's down to time zones, and partly just the laziness of introverted time-wasting. This is something worth taking seriously: if you're not interacting with real live humans, it's a very good idea to interact with probably genuine humans over video, lest you wake up on Freedom Day asking yourself: what is the Matrix?

 

The physical aspects have not been any real challenge for me, and I do have the ability to exercise a little in the room if I want.  The mental side has turned out to be less a challenge than a transitional state of mind.  But I have, on occasion, marveled at the absurdity of it all.  It's a bit like voluntarily committing yourself to Bedlam: you'll probably get out, but it's not guaranteed, and until then you've lost your freedom.  In many places, cheating on quarantine would mean you might face a fine if you get caught, and you might just not get caught.  Here, as nice as everyone is, I have no doubt they'd lock me up in the State Home for Wayward Farangs and sell me a one-way ticket back to Falangia if I tried to sneak out to Sewen.  And this, of course, is what I signed up for.

 

For what it's worth: if you are they type who can stay inside for a few days at a time and busy yourself with whatever random stuff without going nuts; if you are the type who might spend a whole day in the hotel anyway when you go on vacation; and above all if you are any type of Nerd, then you should do fine with pretty much any version of quarantine.  Shop around, compare your options.  I'm quite happy with stupendous view and excellent food this time around.  Next time I might try something different, like a balcony or if I can afford it by then even Golf!  (Can you learn to play golf in golf quarantine?  Do they have mini-golf quarantine?  What exactly is a caddy?)

 

Unfortunately I do think there will be a next time, by which I mean I doubt the Powers that Be will have improved much on this system before I come back around in September.  I have a distant hope for Beach Quarantine but I'm an optimist.

 

So that's my rambling report, here at the Pullman G on Si Lom, halfway through Day Seven.

[camble]

Hang in there, you’re doing well

[sqwakvfr]

Great report.  I am at a 42,000 ASQ hotel near Soi 5.  It sucks.  The food sucks, the internet sucks(I am using my True Mobile hotspot on my phone).  This is is survival game and I am grateful for Tops Online and Food Panda for quickly delivering some of the grocery items I need to get through.  If there is another ASQ experience in my life(I hope not) then I would definitely pay more.  "You Get What You Pay For".  

[FalangTingTong]

24 minutes ago, sqwakvfr said:

 I am at a 42,000 ASQ hotel near Soi 5.  It sucks. 

Sorry to hear that.  Do you at least have a balcony?

 

Yesterday, I think it was on the FB group, I read about two different ones in that range, one in Pattaya and one in Bangkok maybe near the airport, that at had balconies.

 

[sqwakvfr]

No Balcony.  The view from my window is of series of water tanks in the next building.  Also, two weird things about this hotel are:

1) Yogurt and Milk are prohibited???? Don't know why and TIT.  2) Also, got served toast that had ketchup and cheese in it.  

[elgenon]

Do you have to up and available at 7:00 am to get breakfast or do they leave it at the door for later pickup?

[millymoopoo]

Wonderful report. Thank you.

Hope it's helpful to others who need to do quarantine.

You'll be free soon...!

[FalangTingTong]

7 hours ago, elgenon said:

Do you have to up and available at 7:00 am to get breakfast or do they leave it at the door for later pickup?

 

They drop it on the table outside your door, then knock and sometimes ring the doorbell, then go on their merry way.

 

So -- no idea what happens if you just ignore it.  To me it would feel rude, if I really didn't want to deal I'd at least get up, fetch the breakfast, separate the hot part from the cold part, and go back to bed.  The cold part would be plenty when I wake up.

 

You return the containers in strawberry-red biohazard bags anyway, nobody's going to see that you didn't eat your oatmeal.

 

As it happens I have found my weird sleep schedule kind of useful for the task of killing time: I'm tired in the morning but I can take a nice long nap in the afternoon, and then I'm that much closer to tomorrow!

[Letseng]

7 hours ago, FalangTingTong said:

 

They drop it on the table outside your door, then knock and sometimes ring the doorbell, then go on their merry way.

 

So -- no idea what happens if you just ignore it.  To me it would feel rude, if I really didn't want to deal I'd at least get up, fetch the breakfast, separate the hot part from the cold part, and go back to bed.  The cold part would be plenty when I wake up.

 

You return the containers in strawberry-red biohazard bags anyway, nobody's going to see that you didn't eat your oatmeal.

 

As it happens I have found my weird sleep schedule kind of useful for the task of killing time: I'm tired in the morning but I can take a nice long nap in the afternoon, and then I'm that much closer to tomorrow!

Tks for mentioning oatmeal. My fav for breakfast. As I'm getting ready to start the bureaucracy for a return, I will consider Pullman G based on food quality recommendation.

[elgenon]

15 hours ago, FalangTingTong said:

 

They drop it on the table outside your door, then knock and sometimes ring the doorbell, then go on their merry way.

 

So -- no idea what happens if you just ignore it.  To me it would feel rude, if I really didn't want to deal I'd at least get up, fetch the breakfast, separate the hot part from the cold part, and go back to bed.  The cold part would be plenty when I wake up.

 

You return the containers in strawberry-red biohazard bags anyway, nobody's going to see that you didn't eat your oatmeal.

 

As it happens I have found my weird sleep schedule kind of useful for the task of killing time: I'm tired in the morning but I can take a nice long nap in the afternoon, and then I'm that much closer to tomorrow!

Thanks for the detailed reply. I wish I could go back to sleep and wish I could still take naps.              Once my mind starts working that's it.

[FalangTingTong]

9 hours ago, Letseng said:

oatmeal. My fav for breakfast

 

It's not available every day, but it's very tasty when it is!  Served with fresh berries.

 

I've gone for a variety of breakfasts including, twice, Asian style which were too much for me (fried rice with tons of shrimp once; won-ton soup the other time).  Eggy stuff is usually hot and quite good.

 

Standard breakfast is: a flat container with a small croissant and a small pastry; "toast" (um, approximately) with kangaroo butter; 3-4 pieces of cut fruit, usually pineapple, melon and watermelon; small plain yoghurt with jam -- plus a "bowl" type container with the day's main dish.  Lunch and dinner follow similar packaging conventions though depending on the main there may be two or even three "bowls."

 

Yesterday had "Thai style" spicy lunch.  Super yummy.  Still suffering. ????

 

[FalangTingTong]

1 hour ago, elgenon said:

I wish I could go back to sleep and wish I could still take naps.

 

I haven't actually tried this but I'm pretty sure if you told them ahead of time that "dietary blablabla no breakfast please" they would be cool with it, and you would still get more than enough calories from lunch, snack and dinner.

 

You could even stash some of that in the fridge for the next morning so you don't have to wait until noon.  You still get two servings of fruit, plus three small desserts, without breakfast; plus two rolls and there's usually enough stuff to make sandwiches of them.  And two pieces of cheese and six crackers, a little discipline and you've got breakfast right there.

[sqwakvfr]

Oatmeal with fruit and croissants. Wow.  I had two hard fried eggs(I mean they were almost burned) and two slices of white bread for breakfast(no butter or jam were offered).  This was better than the cheese and ketchup toast I was given on Day 1. .  The other option was chicken fried rice.  This is what a 42,000 Baht ASQ is like.  It got so bad the other day I ordered Subway Sandwich through FoodPanda. I was considering the Avani Atrium for almostt 70,000 but I had already spent that much for the one year OA Visa and Covid 19 Insurance.  Really enjoy these reports on what the other ASQ's are offering.  Who knows what dinner will be like.  I am almost at the halfway point.  

[elgenon]

22 hours ago, FalangTingTong said:

 

I haven't actually tried this but I'm pretty sure if you told them ahead of time that "dietary blablabla no breakfast please" they would be cool with it, and you would still get more than enough calories from lunch, snack and dinner.

 

You could even stash some of that in the fridge for the next morning so you don't have to wait until noon.  You still get two servings of fruit, plus three small desserts, without breakfast; plus two rolls and there's usually enough stuff to make sandwiches of them.  And two pieces of cheese and six crackers, a little discipline and you've got breakfast right there.

I agree.

 

[elgenon]

I still want to know if I can can have a couple nurses stay with me and take care of me!!! I've seen some hot ones.

 

They would be purely medicinal of course.  : )

[Saltire]

I enjoyed reading your review, it was well written and glad you still have a sense of humour that comes accross in your report.

 

I reckon if I had decent food and fast enough wifi I could survive 2 weeks in a nice hotel room, but yes, i'd avoid the cheaper offerings based on the comparisons on here. And a balcony would be a huge asset for sure.

 

I am happy to be here and have no plans to leave and try to re-enter any time soon.

 

Good luck, you're on the final lap.

 

[BritTim]

1 hour ago, elgenon said:

I still want to know if I can can have a couple nurses stay with me and take care of me!!! I've seen some hot ones.

 

They would be purely medicinal of course.  : )

A nice dream! For enough money, something could possibly be arranged together with an AHQ package (Alternative Hospital Quarantine) where the hospital could have plausible deniability that there was anything improper, but I would be very surprised if it would be possible in ASQ.

[elgenon]

22 hours ago, BritTim said:

A nice dream! For enough money, something could possibly be arranged together with an AHQ package (Alternative Hospital Quarantine) where the hospital could have plausible deniability that there was anything improper, but I would be very surprised if it would be possible in ASQ.

Dang! They can't refuse nurses can they? 555 Just trying to be a little creative but stay within the rules.

[BritTim]

16 minutes ago, elgenon said:

Dang! They can't refuse nurses can they? 555 Just trying to be a little creative but stay within the rules.

Some ASQ hotels do allow girlfriends  (as long as they arrive in Thailand with you) to stay with you in your room. That would allow one "nurse", I guess. If you want multiple "girlfriends"  to stay with you,  who knows how the hotel would react. Personally, I would be a bit concerned about being committed to spending two weeks in a room with two women I did not know well in advance. I could imagine the atmosphere becoming a little tense. On the other hand, it could provide an interesting scenario for a reality TV show. If you are capable of operating the necessary equipment, you might even find a way to finance your stay in ASQ, especially if fewer people ultimately emerge from the ASQ than went into it.

[elgenon]

On 2/21/2021 at 7:28 PM, BritTim said:

Some ASQ hotels do allow girlfriends  (as long as they arrive in Thailand with you) to stay with you in your room. That would allow one "nurse", I guess. If you want multiple "girlfriends"  to stay with you,  who knows how the hotel would react. Personally, I would be a bit concerned about being committed to spending two weeks in a room with two women I did not know well in advance. I could imagine the atmosphere becoming a little tense. On the other hand, it could provide an interesting scenario for a reality TV show. If you are capable of operating the necessary equipment, you might even find a way to finance your stay in ASQ, especially if fewer people ultimately emerge from the ASQ than went into it.

Hmm, you inspire another idea, the nurses could slip into other rooms and help others too. Ka-ching!

The problem with your scenario though is they wouldn't be landing at the airport with me.

 

But I have a condition that requires at least one live-in nurse. Not sure what it is called though. 555 

If I have a doctor's note from my country how could they refuse? : )

[moontang]

Bunless hotdogs for lunch, or just breakfast?