Thread: How are you coping in these Covid times

Originally Posted by cyrille

I'm curious as to why that would mean 'carnage'.

Anyway, I've been back for almost a month now in Thailand, after being apart from my wife in Saudi since February 2020.

It was two weeks doing quarantine in Pattaya which was a very uncertain time as it was unclear how I would get from Chonburi, a 'red zone', to CM and then unclear what happened after that regarding quarantine. I looked into driving in a hired car, which seemed less than optimum because who knows what would happen with checkpoints etc. Then there was the train, but that would have meant time hanging around in Bangkok. Finally I got the Nok Air flight from U-Tapao to CM a few hours after slick posted the info - thanks for that slick.

So, after that it was isolation here as of course my main worry as someone double-vaccinated was my unvaccinated wife and what I'd give her. Luckily our home consists of two ground floor buildings about 15 yards apart so I was on the couch in one for a week.

At this stage I'm just glad the whole shitty procedure is over. If I had opted to renew my contract I'd have had to return already, so realistically I wouldn't have been able to leave Saudi at all. I'd have been looking at almost two and a half years straight, apart from my wife in Saudi from Feb 2020 until June 2022 - that would have been a really poor prospect. And who knows if I'd even have been practically able to get away and return within three months in 2022.

We're together at home COVID free and I'm just thankful for that at the moment. I'll be looking into some online teaching and examining but probably not this year.

Actually, definitely not this year.

So you spent 2 weeks in a room for the quarantine ? Did you have wifi ? How did you pass that time

Originally Posted by cyrille

We're together at home COVID free and I'm just thankful for that at the moment.

Great to hear. You and your good lady enjoy. Quite an adventure getting home.

Originally Posted by Norton

Quite an adventure getting home.

Yeah I followed along on Cyrille's journey home. I will begin the quest in 2.5 weeks. Currently we are doing the circus animal tricks with hoops. Once we have completed that trick then comes what feels like to 2 ft swab to the backside of your eyeballs to get a PCR test 3 days prior to flying. I do not want to go too much further beyond that being the plane may go down somewhere over the Pacific.

Possible bubble bursting time.

Some additional info may be illustrative:

Our house is not a "western house".

The garden is utilised to produce saleable or edible foods. No pond, although when I arrived there was a 5m square hole x 3m deep hole. Dug to breed fish. Unfortunately, the summer rains filled it and the fish swam away. Filled in now.

My pickup is a tool, to reach jungle farms, muddy tracks, river crossings, hauling produce to markets, temple furniture to funeral parties, hence 4x4 plus winch. As well as jaunts to nighttime bug catching harvests, beach trips with the back, filled with neighbours and kids, trips to local supermarkets, Bangkok and hospital taxi/social.

Which although my wife described it as "beautiful" when purchased, has now a collection of bumps, scratches, dents ....

Home is what you and whoever visits, a night, a weekend, a month or two, or a growing number of years, make of it.

Originally Posted by JPPR2

Once we have completed that trick then comes what feels like to 2 ft swab to the backside of your eyeballs to get a PCR test 3 days prior to flying. I do not want to go too much further beyond that being the plane may go down somewhere over the Pacific.

I recommend you get the PCR test as close to the time of flight as possible rather than the other way around. I used a (rather expensive) same-day result place in Florida last time I was there and did it 24 hours prior to departure. This way you have a buffer incase your flight gets delayed.

I think the cost was $350 for same day lab results but worth it in case of delays.

lots of garb.

Godspeed to all those doing the hard yards out in Thailand - sounds very tough.

Crazy times. So my daughter is getting married in a week and now the church requires a Covid test prior. It was discussed that they may require it due to the 100K new cases a day but nothing was firm, now its firm. Frustrating as hell. Now I am scrambling to make an appt to have my test done. Getting the vaccine here is walk in and done. Getting tested takes an appt etc. Most testing is free just have to set up but we have to show the Church the test results one day before the wedding.

Living the new life with Covid.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

On top of this my Father passed away horribly last November and now I have to deal with a house (another Mortgage) that needs a lot of work, 2 younger brothers, a queue of ex step-mums and all without a will, lawyers, notary publics, endless paperwork, having somehow survived all the hospital and funeral bills.

Sorry to hear that, Dirk. Best of luck.

Originally Posted by Edmond

Sorry to hear that, Dirk. Best of luck.

Yeah Dirk, My condolences.

Cheers lads. Upwards and onwards.

Money ain't really my problem, boredom is. So I decided to volunteer at an art gallery for a couple of afternoons a week. But in these topsy turvy times, it's a bit of a guessing game when the gallery will be open, and when it will be locked down at short notice. I'm there this afternoon (masks mandatory), as it reopens today with a new exhibition. Unless of course I receive another phone call!

Really happy I bought a campervan too, pre-Covid. It certainly makes being confined to this penal colony a lot more bearable when you can just slope off for a couple of days, there are plenty of things to see and do here in SA. Now is as good a time as any to check out my own back yard- which I never bothered about before. I suppose I have become a bit of a locavore.

Originally Posted by sabang

Money ain't really my problem, boredom is. So I decided to volunteer at an art gallery for a couple of afternoons a week. But in these topsy turvy times, it's a bit of a guessing game when the gallery will be open, and when it will be locked down at short notice. I'm there this afternoon (masks mandatory), as it reopens today with a new exhibition. Unless of course I receive another phone call!

Really happy I bought a campervan too, pre-Covid. It certainly makes being confined to this penal colony a lot more bearable when you can just slope off for a couple of days, there are plenty of things to see and do here in SA. Now is as good a time as any to check out my own back yard- which I never bothered about before. I suppose I have become a bit of a locavore.

Boredom is difficult. Are you retired ? Not sure if manning an art gallery is the best cure

Are you in a city or out in the burbs ?

Originally Posted by sabang

Really happy I bought a campervan too, pre-Covid. It certainly makes being confined to this penal colony a lot more bearable when you can just slope off for a couple of days, there are plenty of things to see and do here in SA. Now is as good a time as any to check out my own back yard- which I never bothered about before. I suppose I have become a bit of a locavore.

Yep camping and travelling has boomed massively in Aus, hence the company I work for has gone banana's !!

^^ Near enough retired- but I reserve the right to change my mind. I'm in the burbs, about 12km from CBD. It's like Pleasantville.

^ It sure has- and the price of campers & caravans has shot up with it! September brings finer weather around here, and I'll be off somewhere no doubt.

SA has always seemed like a good place to be to me.

We could defo handle trundling around there for a couple of years.

Originally Posted by sabang

you can just slope off for a couple of days,

Here in Thailand, there some restrictions for inter province travel. Within a province, very little.

Is OZ similar?

Interstate travel can be problematic Ooh- although it's mainly us shutting off the border to other more infected states, but I'm not bothering with it. SA isn't exactly small- it's bigger than most countries- so plenty to see and do here. Still plenty I haven't seen and done either.

^^ It's certainly worth checking out Syb- from the feedback I've seen, most vanners who've done the big loop (around Australia) are pleasantly surprised by Sth Oz. Far less touristy (and expensive) than the east coast too. If you get bored here, I reckon you've been hanging out in Adelaide city centre after dark for too long. Bangkok it isn't.

Originally Posted by sabang

SA isn't exactly small- it's bigger than most countries

Yes, that was my thoughts, as cyrille suggests.

Originally Posted by cyrille

trundling around there for a couple of years.

Are there normally police posts at the state/territorial borders ?

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

On top of this my Father passed away horribly last November and now I have to deal with a house (another Mortgage) that needs a lot of work, 2 younger brothers, a queue of ex step-mums and all without a will, lawyers, notary publics, endless paperwork, having somehow survived all the hospital and funeral bills.

I know this all to well. I have dealt with it twice. I will not go into detail here because of trolls, but I do empathize with you. It sucks.

Sorry to hear it for both of you.

In the grand scheme of things, I haven't a thing to complain about. My family hasn't been impacted directly and all of us are at least partially vaccinated. But if I'm going to whinge, the travel restrictions are becoming insufferable.