Editor’s note: The following is a submission from one of our readers who offered to share his recent experiences of going through the alternative state quarantine process and other requirements to enter Thailand recently and is currently wrapping up his quarantine period. He shares this to hopefully give others an idea of the experience. His thoughts, photos, and opinions are his own. This is PART SIX and the final part. Part one can be found here. Also, part two can be found here. And, here is part three. For your information, here is part four. Finally, here is part five. This continues directly from part five, we suggest you read that first.
Saturday, January 30th, release day!!!!! I booked to leave the Grand Bella hotel at 8:30 A.M. but was awake watching Netflix at 4:00 A.M. and couldn’t sleep. Breakfast arrived at 7:30 A.M. but I couldn’t eat. At 66 I felt and was acting like a teenager.
At 8:28 A.M. I was standing in line waiting for my quarantine certificate, this is evidence I have successfully completed quarantine and have had two negative covid tests. If you are stopped for any reason by officials once out of quarantine it is imperative you have the correct documentation.
In my excitement, there was a miscommunication and the hotel receptionist took all my details then handed me keys to room 1523. NO…I said I’m checking out not in. It reminded me of the words of that famous song Hotel California ” You can check out but you can never leave!”
I nearly ran out of the hotel clutching my quarantine certificate!!!!!!!!!!!!
There are moments in life that you’ll always remember and relish: standing outside Pattaya Memorial Hospital looking back at the Grand Bella was one such moment: Sun beating down, fresh air, money in my pocket, quarantine behind me, and adventures in front of me. What a beautiful feeling and one I’ll treasure for the rest of my days.
Money, back to earth, yes I had money but all GBP, English money, and I had no Thai Baht. So, I walked to one of my favorite areas, Soi Buakhao, to resolve this issue.
I headed for a yellow exchange kiosk and saw the rate was 1 GBP to 40.75 Thai baht. I changed 1,000 GBP and received 40,750 baht. When I first came to Pattaya I received 53 Thai baht to GBP. This is one of the reasons I love Soi Buakhao because I meet many older ex-pats who live permanently in Thailand and talk about the good old days in Thailand when you received 90 Thai baht to 1 GBP. If only that were true today….
With my money exchanged, I headed out on my journey, positive and happy after the quarantine experience. As I earlier said, Grand Bella hotel did a stellar job and I had an overall good quarantine period as I treated it as part of the adventure, did my research carefully, and kept a positive and upbeat attitude and spirit throughout. It helps that I love Netflix and reading.
I wanted to thank everyone for reading this series and living my adventure with me. I hope I can inspire at least some of you, that have the time and money, to take the journey for yourself as I feel it is worth it. (I understand not everyone has the time off work or ability to come for months at a time.)
Thank you so much for reading,
Colin
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