Moving to Thailand during a global pandemic? Piece of cake.

Well, I've finally made it to Bangkok in one piece, so thought that I would take the opportunity to look back on the past couple of months, and fill you in on the highs and (many, many) lows of my journey out here.

Technically, it all started back in February, when I interviewed for and received my placement offer at BISP. Back in the good old days when I was still relatively naive to the turbulence that Covid was about to thrust upon us... Feeling relatively optimistic about the situation, I merrily booked a flight to Phuket for the 6th August to arrive in plenty of time for my pre-term training, beginning on the 10th August. (Can you feel the 'but' coming..?) But, within days of my flight being booked, the UK, along with the rest of the world, was thrown into chaos and we were acquainted with our new reality - lockdown. After weeks of hoping that it would all just magically blow over, my optimism quickly began to dwindle. I was soon faced with the reality that my chances of making it out to Thailand in time for the start of term, if at all, were quite slim.

Skipping forward to early July (that sounds a bit blasé but we all went though lockdown and know what it was like...), I was notified that it would now be possible to apply for a special Certificate of Entry (COE), which would allow me into Thailand while the travel restrictions were still in place. In order to gain this certificate, I had to be a member of one of eleven different groups, and luckily, one of those groups was teaching staff. I then had to submit a huge amount of paperwork to the Embassy in London in order to be granted a COE. By this point, I had really high hopes that I would be able to make it to Phuket for my start date once the borders had reopened at the end of July. However, it was soon announced that Thailand had extended its travel ban on commercial flights (hopes and dreams shattered yet again), and so regardless of whether I had been granted a COE or not, the only way I would be able to travel would be on a special repatriation flight to Bangkok. But, (expect many more 'buts') there was not yet any news of repatriation flights, only that there would be at least one in August. After a couple of weeks of hanging around waiting for news on repatriation flights, we were told that there would be three flights in August, and that we must register for a flight at 9am on 31st July. The 31st July came around and after the booking link crashing and failing to work all day (with no update from the embassy on what was happening), I miraculously managed to get through at around 7pm that evening (after ten hours of refreshing and checking the link...). I was able to register for the flight leaving Heathrow on the 16th August! Hallelujah!

But (again), I hit yet another barrier when attempting to book the required two-week Alternative State Quarantine (ASQ). There were just under forty hotel options for the ASQ, and after emailing and calling every single one on the list, I soon discovered that not one of them had any availability for my requested dates (?!). This was absolutely baffling as considering it was the State organising all of the incoming flights, as well as all of the ASQ hotels, you'd think there would be a guaranteed space for everyone arriving! About eight breakdowns and two days later, I discovered that a new hotel had been added to the list - the Pullman Bangkok Hotel G - it was considerably over my budget, but at this point I didn't really have any other choice but to go ahead. After a long and uncertain booking process, I finally received confirmation that I had a room sorted! Now that I had both my flight and my ASQ booked, I was finally able to apply for my Visa, finish applying for a COE and organise my pre-departure Covid test and subsequent Fit to Fly certificate...all in under ten days... Luckily, I was able to organise all of those final details and documents in time for my flight on the 16th. I did have a bit of a panic the Monday before my flight, when I thought that I had developed some of the Covid symptoms, but after a speedy trip to the local test centre and a negative test result my nerves were put at ease (although would not recommend having two swab tests in three days...). It actually took all of the pressure off my final Covid test, of which the results would be issued the day before my flight (leaving very little time to cancel and rethink everything if it did happen to come back positive!).

It had been a really strange couple of weeks in the run up to my flight. I had been so intensely focused on organising my journey out there and overcoming the numerous hurdles that it presented, that I had hardly given the fact that I was about to move to the other side of the world for a year a second thought! And since I had to take the pre-departure Covid test, I kept myself really isolated (apart from saying goodbye to my close family) - I just couldn't risk the possibility of catching the virus and missing my flight as that would have been game over for my Thailand plans (would have lost a LOT of money). As a result, I think the fact that I was leaving for such a long time only sunk in on the day of my flight, so I encountered a real rollercoaster of emotions that day. I was incredibly excited for the adventure ahead, but also sad to be leaving everything I know and love for a year, nervous about my new life and job in Phuket, and also fairly anxious that something might go wrong at the airport (that I wouldn't have the right documents (I needed about 25 different ones), my Visa would be incorrect, I would have a temperature at the medical tests, etc., etc...).

I finally arrived at Terminal 2, and after saying my final goodbyes to Mum, I headed into departures for check-in. My experience at Heathrow was actually pretty straightforward - apart from an hour-long queue for check-in at the very beginning, everything was a breeze. There seemed to be very few social distancing measures in place; apart from a few seats being blocked off and the odd temperature scan; which I found really surprising. I made it to my gate with about fifteen minutes to spare, before boarding my Thai Airways flight to Bangkok at around 9pm. The flight itself was also nice and easy (minus my total loss of appetite), partly because it was about forty minutes shorter than it was supposed to be, but also as it was a night flight so I was able to sleep for the majority of it.

We landed in Bangkok at around 2:30pm local time after an eleven-hour flight - always a relief to touch down in one piece and finally get off the plane. Immediately after leaving the plane, we were corralled into what can only be described as a military operation/something out of a disaster movie! We were marched in single-file, 1.5 metres apart into the different zones of the airport (I still have no idea what each one was as they didn't tell us very much!), all marked out with socially-distanced seating and red dots on the floor. We endured further medical checks, various document checks, went through immigration and passport control (always daunting as it seems to take forever!), and you couldn’t help but feel as though you were taking part in some crazy science experiment... All completely confusing and surreal! We were eventually able to go and collect our bags (which thankfully made it unscathed), before being led out of the airport straight to our individual cars to the hotel! It’s safe to say that Suvarnabhumi Airport was an entirely different experience to Heathrow; a complete disoriented blur and ten times more controlled and organised!

I have now (more or less) settled into my ASQ hotel - the very lovely Pullman Bangkok Hotel G - and so that marks the end of my slightly unconventional journey out to Thailand (and all of my savings being drained, yay...). It's been one hell of a ride - roughly 6 months since I was offered my placement - with its fair share of complications, but I'm now convinced that I could organise anything life throws at me... My next task is to complete my 16 day quarantine (I'm currently on day 4/16...) and then catch a flight out to Phuket! I will be writing another blog post on my quarantine experience at the end of the 16 days, as that will have been a whole (really, really weird) adventure in itself.

So yeah, that's my journey to Thailand in a nutshell - not the most exciting post and I'm still in a bit of a daze writing this so may not make a huge amount of sense - but thought it was worth documenting! I also hope that the sarcastic tone accompanying the title of this post is now more obvious... What is the opposite of 'piece of cake'? I actually googled it and these were some of the responses: 'misery', 'torture', 'nightmare', 'hell on earth' and 'baptism of fire'. Sounds about right. No, in all seriousness it's been really rough at times but it'll all be so worth it when I finally arrive in Phuket on the 1st September! Just twelve and a half days of quarantine/posh prison left to go...