Heading to Thailand!
We are headed to Thailand on December 2nd!
I was supposed to leave the country on March 20th, 2020; 613 days and a global pandemic later - I’m leaving and Parker is joining!
We will arrive in Bangkok through Thailand’s “Test and Go” scheme which means we have to be fully vaccinated, get a negative PCR test before we leave, apply for Thailand Pass (Thailand’s system to check all your documents prior to arrival), stay at an SHA++ hotel when we arrive, get a private taxi from airport to hotel, get another PCR test an arrival, and be locked in our hotel room until our tests come back negative (24-36 hours later)! I also got a Multiple Entry Tourist Visa (METV) from the Thai consulate in LA which means I can stay in the country as a tourist for two 90-day time periods. If anyone is thinking of planning a Thailand trip - let me know. It’s a complicated time with COVID and I have spent months learning everything there is to know about how to get into the country.
The current plan is to spend a few days in Bangkok, rent a villa on Koh Tao for a month (pictures below), then Parker will come back to the US for a month to ski while I go to Koh Phangan for Yoga Teacher Training. After that Parker will meet me back in Thailand and we’re not sure what we’ll do! Maybe move back to Tao for a bit? Maybe do a motorbike tour in the north of Thailand? Maybe stay on Koh Phangan and teach yoga? Due to visa restrictions, I will need to exit the country by March 4th but depending on which other countries in the region are open I may just “border bounce” into and out of another country to activate my 2nd 90-day visa. I also have a scuba liveaboard trip booked for the Maldives in mid-March! April and May will hopefully be spent in Indonesia (if it opens up to tourists or if we can buy our way into the country).
Summer in the US and Central America. Fall in Europe. Late fall in Nepal. That’s the rough plan for now…but traveling always pushes me into places I never expected to be.
Between now and then we have Parker’s family’s Thanksgiving in Austin, my family’s Thanksgiving in Indiana, a quick trip to Denver to sort stuff in my storage unit and visit Kyle and Becca, then we leave from Seattle! Due to COVID, there are significantly less Star Alliance flights going west around the globe, so we are going east…SEA > SFO > LHR > BKK. 2 hour flight + 11 hour flight + 12 hour flight.
Here we go!