Preparation

Saturday, December 11th, 2021

    As of writing, it is five and a half days (132 hours) before my departure. My final destination is Bangkok, Thailand to visit a special lady whom I haven't seen for... too long. This will be my second trip to Thailand. Three flights between four cities will get me there: Minneapolis, Dallas (Texas), Tokyo (Japan), Bangkok (Thailand). Total flight time is expected to be 24 hours 2 minutes long; this does not include seven hours of airport time between flights, nor getting to the MPS airport 2 hours early. This might sound like a slog but I'm really excited for flying! I love flying, love looking at the geography from above, love being in airports, and love meet and chatting with different people, hearing their destinations and travel plans.

    What I'm nervous about is the series of four Covid tests required for this trip; test 1) 72 hours before departure (required to enter Thailand); test 2) upon arrival to Bangkok (at 1am in a hotel that I was required to book as part of Thailand's current entry process); test 3) on day six in Thailand (probably I'll have to take a picture of the test results and send it to some government organization); test 4) the day before I depart Bangkok in order to enter the USA.

    Currently, per my understanding, Japan has a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all travelers. Fortunately, as I will only transit through Japan, will not leave the airport nor go through customs, I am exempt from their Covid requirements.

    Though I'm not concerned about my physical health in regard to Covid, a positive test while in Thailand likely means hotel or hospital quarantine for several days while I wait to not be contagious. That would really suck. 

    As part of Thai entry requirements, I've purchased travel insurance with $100,000 of coverage ($50,000 of coverage is required; the minimum coverage from the insurance company is $100,000). I was surprised this was $30, and includes non-covid related emergencies.

    Pishcha knows that I enjoy talking striking up conversations with random people around me; she has kindly reminded me that, maybe on this trip, I should unnecessary chit-chat to decrease my Covid risk. I think that's a fair suggestion.

So far the main logistics are prepared:

  • Anti-malarial drugs (standard for certain areas of Thailand which we'll go) to pick up later this week, after my first negative Covid result ($85 for a 25-day course).
  • Covid vaccination card.
  • Passport with >6 months' validity.
  • International Drivers Permit from AAA (Americans can drive in Thailand for a few months without any special tests, exams, etc).
  • Hard-copies of important travel documents.
  • Extra Thai currency ("Bhat") from my last trip.
  • Notified credit card company of my trip so they don't cut me off.
  • Other standard packing items for a tropical trip in December (I haven't quite started packing yet).
    With the above items, and an American passport, I can stay for up to 60 days.

    As of right now I'm keeping busy going through mental (and actual) checklists related to the trip, watching the news for changes in travel restrictions across Asia and the USA, working, and continuing my studies.

    Looking forward to getting on the road, and in the air.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More of Koh Chang (and Buri Ram)

Image
Beautiful evening to watch the sunset after snorkeling. Final evening on the island. I did not expect to see a scorpion in the middle of the road in the jungle. Pishcha was not surprised and said they're common in Thailand. This thing a big, probably 5" in length.  Patiently waiting for the crab and fried rice.  Some perspective on a mangrove forest boardwalk on Koh Chang.  Kayaking through a mangrove forest in Koh Chang,, sort of a saltwater tree that creates a unique biome and interesting scenery in costal areas.   I never did see anyone at the reception... (the beach is way nicer, with or without a bar). I've really missed the wide variety of tropical fruits  We brought these to Koh Chang expecting island prices to be very high. Here we have guava, rose apple, mandarins, and a really giant apple. I'm ready for malaria but was not expecting ticks. This sucker hurt! Sorting some green rice while drinking some fresh coconut milk, picked from a tree around ...
Read more

Hiking Up the Mountain

Image
Over the most recent holiday weekend ( October 23rd is Chulalongkorn Day ) it was great to get out of the city and visit the province of Ratchaburi, just west of Bangkok and bordering Myanmar. There are quite a few hiking trails in the area and we chose Khao Laem Suan Phueng, apparently a well-known trail and frequented by trail-runners, day-hikers (like us), and I guess anyone else who's interested in getting outside! Since I enjoy data I tracked the hike on my Garmin watch, which provided location data (in addition to heart-rate, timing, steps, etc). I was able to pull that out (with help from Garmin , this YouTuber , and this data science guy ). I also wrote a little script to extract and transform the data in C# using Visual Studio, posting it to GitHub. It seems that not so many people have extracted their data, but it's fun solving problems that no one has considered!  Anyway, below are the results from importing the location data to GoogleMaps and using their 3D/Earth v...
Read more