Unfortunately, with all the risks right now, I cannot in good faith recommend traveling to Thailand. As amazing as the country is, there are just too many risks with the country’s Covid protocol. Testing positive for Covid in Thailand means a mandatory ten-day quarantine, combined with high out or inpatient hospital costs for often unnecessary treatments. Even if on your flight into Thailand, you end up sitting next to someone who tests positive upon arrival you risk mandatory quarantine. I was lucky, testing positive at the end of my stay in the small island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand, where I had a bit more control over the situation than some of the cases I’ve heard about. But, for many tourists coming into Phuket and Bangkok and testing positive right out of the gate, it just seems too risky. So, if you’re a person with a limited time off or tight budget—Thailand is not the place for you at the moment.
Test and Go and Sandbox Entry Programs
Thailand has devised two different tourist entry schemes. Test and Go is a program that allows visitors to enter the country, test on day one and again on day five. Under this scheme, travelers only have to quarantine in their rooms the day they take tests (day one and day five) and are free to travel elsewhere in the country in between these two testing periods. The Sandbox programs, which are in regions throughout the country, require now a five-day soft quarantine in a designated area, where travelers are required to stay at a single SHA+ hotel accommodations. They too also have to test day one and five. This was recently updated from the seven-day requirement that I had to do in early February when I entered Thailand.
I entered through the Krabi Sandbox program, flying into Phuket from Singapore and then booking a SHA+ private transfer to Ao Nang in Krabi to do my soft quarantine. Both programs require a Thailand insurance policy from a Thai company, guaranteeing $50,000 minimum in health insurance that includes Covid-19 cases. I actually delayed my trip a few weeks to get a “better” policy that was supposed to pay for my treatment and quarantine upfront—at least that’s what they promised—but more on that later. In the beginning, it all went super smoothly, with two negative tests. I was even able to do island hopping tours during my soft quarantine, getting to see the iconic Maya Bay, which had recently opened only two weeks before! All in all, it was a great start. I thought I had beat the odds…
Testing Positive in Thailand
Yet, I knew that I had one more Covid test I would need to take before flying back to the United States, so I was not exactly out of the woods yet. However, I did not even need to wait that long before I would be forced to deal with not just test taking, but more severe Covid protocol measures. While on the last island on my island-hopping tour, Koh Tao, I started to get a fever. I initially took an at-home rapid test that came out negative, but I still wanted to make sure what my status was before getting on a ferry and risk exposing others around me. The only place to take a PCR test that I saw near Sairee Beach was the Koh Tao Government hospital.
It was a Sunday early afternoon when I arrived. I was not allowed in the building, instead they thought it was better that I wait in the parking lot in ninety-degree heat with a 101-degree fever. About ten minutes after arrival. I took a rapid test that came back positive within mere minutes. Then, several hours of waiting and bargaining ensued in that parking lot. They refused to show me the results of my rapid test, so I demanded a PCR. I wanted to make sure it was not a false positive, as well as secure a more reliable test document for making a claim with my insurance. Then, staff wanted to take x-rays and start me on treatment programs without even taking any of my vitals or allowing me to see a doctor. I had to wait two hours in the tropical heat to see a physician, who I still had to beg to take my vitals. I was then given the contact of a hospital liaison, a woman who promptly told me to lie to my insurance company to say that I was extremely unwell and needed inpatient treatment. That was a no for me.
They were not interested in the state of my health, they were interested in enrolling me into their treatment program and securing payment. But, turns out, I couldn’t even get a hold of my insurance company! In fact, it took me days to get ahold of any critical contacts. I finally got in touch with the U.S. Embassy in two days, who were so helpful in calling the hospital to check on the price and help set up my visa extension. It took days of calling to get in touch with Singapore Airlines, but I was finally able to move my flight, and only for around $13!
Back to the hospital parking lot debacle. The staff refused to give me an estimate in writing and instead demanded that I give them my passport since they could not get ahold of my insurance company. I was told by a nurse who actually was quite compassionate during this whole disaster that costs would be around 10,000 to 12,000 baht (THB) or $300 to $360 USD, plus 2,000 THB ($60) for the PCR test I had requested, the results of which I would not get until day five of my forced quarantine. I later researched people with similar experiences, and apparently this is actually on the cheaper side! People testing positive in Bangkok and Phuket have seen much higher prices, some in the hundreds of thousands of baht. It seems that the hospitals make up their own cost schemes like it’s the Wild West or something. After everything, the final bill for the treatment was 14,000 THB or $420.86.
So, what was that $420 for exactly? Well, completely unnecessary x-ray, that terrible and hasty consultation with a physician, medication (antrographis, GG glyceryl gualacolate, and paracetamol), and ten days of outpatient care. During the quarantine, I was required to take my blood pressure, oxygen levels, and temperature three times a day. Devices were provided to me and I had to upload these pictures on a Line chat that had all the other Covid patients on the island in it. When I joined the chat, there were only about eighteen people in it, when I left there was over forty. Not a good sign.
When my ten days were finally up, I went back to the hospital expecting another Covid test and checkup. Nope! They again showed that they were not interested in actual health outcomes but instead sent me promptly to billing. There, administrative staff refused to give me my medical records, stating that they did not have recorded updates of my vitals readings I had been submitting for ten days. Yet, I was sitting right next to the nursing team recording health data from the Line chat! I even sent a “hello” text in the chat and saw it pop up on their screen. Knowing this would have resulted in a rejected insurance claim, I refused to pay my bill until I received my full medical record and Covid recovery certificate. It took two hours of sitting in billing, calling the hospital liaison to ask for my medical records, calmly but firmly. The US Embassy chipped in too, calling her until finally she acquiesced, and my medical records appeared out of thin air.
Hospitel Quarantine
In top of the hospital bills, I had to stay at a “hospitel,” which is essentially a hotel facility repurposed into a quarantine location. Now, I had specifically been booking SHA+ hotels my entire trip around Thailand in case I did contract Covid. These hotels have a majority of their staff vaccinated and are licenses to deal with the Test and Go and Sandbox programs. They are supposed to have a Covid protocol in place. Well, that’s what I thought. On Koh Tao, I was staying at Sairee Cottage. The hospital notified them of my positive status and I assumed that they would have a connection with a quarantine location for their guests who tested positive during the Test and Go quarantine measures. However, they did not. Instead, they kicked me out on the curb—literally. They said they had no room, which was a complete lie, given that my friend had just booked another room a day before. I sat in their parking lot for about an hour in the same tropical heat when they refused to let me wait in the shade of their parking lot for my quarantine host to pick me up.
Now, we finally get some good news in this ridiculous story! The quarantine location I found on my own after desperately calling all the hotels on the island was AMAZING! It was run by another Sairee Beach hotel, Sairee Hut. They had set up an apartment building about ten minutes away for quarantine guests. I was the only one, it turned out, but they really made an effort for me to feel safe. They even put in a new wireless router for me so that I had internet to work! The space was actually quite large with sufficient power outlets. The host and the staff were so sweet, bringing me food and water and an occasional treat from the hotel’s restaurant. They brought me three meals a day from a special menu of the hotel restaurant and the food was actually pretty good. The host even picked up my passport from the hospital, went to the immigration office, and got my visa extended! But add in an extra 1,900 THB ($56.93) to the experience. Seriously, without their help and kindness, I would have lost my mind. Ten days of room and board cost me 18,000 THB ($541 USD), which is expensive but again much cheaper than some of the horror stories I heard about hundreds of thousands of baht in Phuket and Bangkok!
The days actually went by pretty fast. As I had a ton of work to do and phone calls to make, I just hunkered down. I want to remind you guys about how clutch bringing laundry soap is with you on long travels! I never ran out of clothes thanks to my Zote laundry soap bar and a handy clothesline I purchased just before the trip. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable it would have been with nothing but sandy, dirty laundry.
Absent Insurance Company
That “better” insurance I waited for two extra weeks for? Yea, it was trash, despite being $130. DO NOT purchase a policy from a company called Tune Protect. I could not get a hold of them for weeks. The hospital could not even contact them. A friend got in touch one time to hear that they were overwhelmed, but when we went to the Bangkok office, it was calm and quite slow. It was not until my sixth day of quarantine that the broker I brought the policy actually got a hold of them. By the way check out Mr. Prakan when looking for health insurance policies in Thailand because he was actually super helpful in trying to get someone to contact me back. I was then told via email that Koh Tao hospital was not in their “network,” a stipulation that was not described anywhere in my policy. So, I was forced to pay for everything upfront and told to physically mail all original documents to their Bangkok office. Again, a hard no.
Instead, on my way out of the country, I made sure I had a weekday in Bangkok to hand deliver my documents. I even took geotagged and dated pictures of me handing these said documents to an insurance agent at their office. Clearly, I have no faith that they can conduct business, and honestly I doubt I will see any of that money ever again!
Changing Thailand Pass Regulations and New Risks
Given the larger opening of its Southeast Asian neighbors, Thailand has begun the process of relaxing some of its stricter admission requirements. As of April 1, 2022, there are some significant changes to the Test and Go and Sandbox programs. According the latest news from the Thai Embassy, vaccinated travelers will NOT have to take a test prior to arrival into the country. This reduces one of the previous three required—and expensive—Covid tests that were a staple of the programs previously. That means travelers will only have to test upon arrival and on the fifth day, even for the Sandbox programs that have reduced the number of required days for soft quarantine from 7 to 5. While this may sound good to people who don’t want to fork over more money for extra tests, the reality is that this is really risking a lot. Given my experience and the experience of countless other travelers who have been forced into quarantine programs in Thailand, I cannot imagine not checking to see if I was already infected before even leaving. It just opens up room for greater risk for people to test positive on arrival and be stuck in a quarantine hospital for ten days.
So, that was my Thai Covid nightmare! Total cost was about $975, so just under a grand. Add in the visa extension charge and it was about $1,030. Again, I consider myself lucky, as I have read horror stories online of people getting much higher bills in Phuket and Bangkok. Fingers crossed I see some of that money back. Hopefully my experience helps you guys so you don’t get caught up in the same mess that I did, or one that is even worse!
Although I don’t recommend traveling to Thailand right now, I will still be publishing my planned Thailand series here on this blog and on my YouTube. I just really want to stress my recommendations for those Thailand adventures—bookmark that shit, put it on your bucket list, and shove it in your back pocket for now. Thailand is an amazing country with so much opportunity for wanderlust and adventure. I’d just wait it out a bit longer. I definitely need to revisit Koh Tao once things have calmed down! I missed out on the great diving and snorkeling the island is known for, so I will definitely be back—just later rather than sooner.
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