I have arrived in Thailand, Phuket with the Sandbox is open: here are my first impressions
In the days before my arrival in Thailand, the news coming out of Bangkok was worrying. The Delta variant is [...]
HKT
Thailand
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In the days before my arrival in Thailand the news coming out of Bangkok was worrying. The Delta variant is affecting the country as never before in previous months. In fact, the Kingdom of Thailand had always been considered a green state and had recorded fewer than 100 deaths until March.
Today the situation has changed, and in the context of new lockdowns, my fear was that the government would decide to suspending the Phuket Sandbox, or the protocol designed to gradually reopen the nation to tourists after 18 months of closed borders.
It started from Phuket for 3 "simple" reasons:
- It is one of the tourism capitals and has an international airport
- It is an island connected to the mainland by a bridge, so controllable
- Here mass vaccination started earlier precisely to open up to tourism
My trip to Thailand it started like this.
The arrival in Phuket
While in Italy there is a debate about who controls, what to control, and how to do it, Everything here is incredibly (and perfectly) organized.
Singapore airport checks before boarding my flight to Phuket.
First, the stage of obtaining the COE., a kind of visa, and booking in only certified facilities. But it is upon arrival at the airport that you understand how, if you want to, you can organize a mass check and try to depart.
Of course, when entering the airport, it almost feels like entering a military hospital: personnel wearing PPE point out the various routes, but be careful not to make a mistake and take the ALQ exit and not the Sandbox exit.
Soon after disembarking, all documents are checked for the fourth time, and here a news item pops up: the tracking app has changed, it is no longer Thailandplus but MorChana.
Having verified the documents and downloaded the app, we go through a recheck, during which the COE (Certificate Of Entry) is recorded and again all the documentation, especially the mandatory medical insurance. Insurance that cost me nothing thanks to my American Express.
We then go through good old customs, for us Italians the visa is 45 gg directly upon arrival. Fingerprint and stamp and off to baggage claim.
On the way out of the airport is the 6th and final checkpoint, here incoming passengers are registered and PCR swabs are taken. Everything perfectly organized, nurses inside the stalls take the swab in 40 seconds and off they go, a sticker on the passenger indicates that the Sandbox route is completed.
Now one last step is missing: finding your own driver to get to the hotel, one car per passenger/group to avoid contamination.
The whole thing from when you disembark to when you leave takes about 45 minutes, not much longer than in the world before.
In hotel
Arrival at the hotel, or at one of the over 1,000 facilities that have been awarded the SHA+ label is the classic check-in, the attendant after the usual paperwork scans the QR on the app and you are escorted to your room.
Here one will have to wait for the result of the swab. Normally it takes 4 hours, in my case the phone call from the front desk came after 7, but not too bad.
Now the vacation can begin
In conclusion
A perfect organization, so perfect that although Phuket province recorded over 100 positives in one week - thus above the 90 expected for the sandbox rules - the government has decided not to stop the project, rather to halt the spread of the virus by stopping internal travel. As of July 30, in fact, travel to Phuket from the rest of Thailand is no longer allowed, instead leaving the corridor open for tourists.
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