Far East travel prospects

[HotJambalaya]

very interesting, thanks for the report. Shame, I just think it makes it impossible for someone to casually go over and have a trip there.

Sitting in a hotel for 2 weeks in hanoi would be absolute torture for me, the street food there is unbelievable. Love it there.

[vaud]

I suspect a hotel Porter/concierge can be paid to source some?

[phumy]

The hotel staff are telling me that Vietnam probably wont open to tourism until after Tet, which is around 12th Feb next year, however that will only happen as long as this second wave doesnt hit out here too or unless a vaccine becomes available earlier.

Yes im sure there will be someone on reception who could get me some street food (for a small bung) but im quite happy with what theyre offering in the hotel so far.

[anonymous-user]

Sounds identical to what my colleagues tell me happens at Kuala Lumpur, I'm told the menu at even the 5 star hotels is restricted.

[phumy]

Theres no restrictions on menu here at all, full menus available but as i can only book room service and the restaurant kitchens are in a different building it gets walked across to my building and by the time it gets to me its either cold/luke warm or soft and nothing crispy due to the steam locked in the recepticle. Think i might change to salads and ice cream.

[anonymous-user]

I have a tentative job offer in Vietnam, for the new year, so interested in your experience, my problem is if I leave my home, which is Indonesia or Malaysia, then I can't get back into either country.
In Malaysia menu is very restricted, I'm told almost no western food, even in 4/5 star quarantine.

[Mark V GTD]

phumy said:

The hotel staff are telling me that Vietnam probably wont open to tourism until after Tet, which is around 12th Feb next year

Is the hotel full?

[phumy]

Mark V GTD said:

Is the hotel full?

As the hotel is set out in satellite areas, there is one main hotel building then set off in 5 areas there are blocks/pods of about 20 rooms in each block/pod. It seems all the quarantine persons are in 2 of those blocks of rooms, my room overlooks the lake and the main hotel block and there is no/very little activities around the main part. there are also two swimming pools in my line of sight and they are empty all day, so i take it theres no one here, or very few anyway.

We are completely confined to our rooms for the duration, one of the notes that you first see whan you come into the room is that there will be no room cleaning service, there are 10 towels in the bathroom, loads of toilet roll, boxes and boxes of shower gel, shampoos etc etc. All meals are room service and are brought to the rooms after theyve been ordered from a kitchen far far away, as some meals come over a bit cool when should be hot. All beer and refreshments have been removed from the mini bar, that may be because my company has had to pre-pay for the rooms, food etc they do not want me to incur any additional charges before leaving. Food is good generally, there is a huge choice of Vietnamese, Japanese, Italian and normal western, steaks, burgers, etc, really cant complain at the choices available. i get 4 peices of laundry washed for free each day, its all in the package and is enough as im just sat in shorts and T shirt all day.

At 10:00 and at 16:00 every day a lovely young lady comes to take my temperature, by way of IR scan. On 5 occasions whilst i am here i will have a full on swab test taken and the last two tests must be negative for me to get a certificate to allow me to check out on day 15, i just hope they inform me if i am positive, im sure they would but hey i will probably know myself if i start to feel rough.

I arrived Saturday midnight and I`m still suffering jetlag, with waking up once or twice in the dead of night and struggle to get back to sleep or getting very tired and yawning my head off around 11am to 1 pm but not giving in to taking a nap. I have some work to do and i kind of do that in chunks through the day, a couple of hours here and there, i do around 5 or 6 hours a day, might pick up a bit more if and when the jetlag wears off. The Tv in the room is pretty carp with BBC,CNN, RTE, and a few Asian news channels, one movie channel HBO, however the bonus is that they have Fox Sports which shows all F1 Practices, qualifying and races plus lots of cage fighting so its not all that bad.

Any other boring ste you need to know let me know.

[phumy]

Berw said:

I have a tentative job offer in Vietnam, for the new year, so interested in your experience, my problem is if I leave my home, which is Indonesia or Malaysia, then I can't get back into either country.
In Malaysia menu is very restricted, I'm told almost no western food, even in 4/5 star quarantine.

Hi Berw, Im sure if you are successful and you do manage to get into 14 days quarantine the food will be ok, is your tentative job in the south or north of the country? If you come to Hanoi i think youll be booked into the Intercontinental (West Lake), this has to be done by whoever is bringing you into the country (your sponsor). If you go to Saigon i do know that one of the hotel used is the Holiday Inn 5 mins from the airport and ive heard good reports of it.

Contact me if you need any info about getting into the country, its certainly not easy, lots of hoops to jump through and the goal posts do get shifted at times but once at the airport it all runs like clockwork, i was really impressed with how they dealt with getting foreigners through the airport arrival process.

[anonymous-user]

Phumy, actually may be same project as you, looking at your profile, depends a bit on current project, if they renew for 2020 I'll stay put.

[phumy]

Berw said:

Phumy, actually may be same project as you, looking at your profile, depends a bit on current project, if they renew for 2020 I'll stay put.

Do you work in the power industry, I will be on a new construction site about 200kms south of Hanoi, on the coast.

[Mark V GTD]

phumy said:

Any other boring ste you need to know let me know.

I was going to say thank you for taking the time to answer in such detail. But clearly you have all the time in world on your hands at the moment....

Seriously though - its such an extraordinary situation to be in. I love spending time in hotels - but two weeks without leaving the room is pushing it even for me! Enjoy the F1 at the weekend - I imagine you may be having a a late night or two due to the time difference :-)

Edited by Mark V GTD on Wednesday 21st October 11:46

[phumy]

Mark V GTD said:

I was going to say thank you for taking the time to answer in such detail. But clearly you have all the time in world on your hands at the moment....

Seriously though - its such an extraordinary situation to be in. I love spending time in hotels - but two weeks without leaving the room is pushing it even for me! Enjoy the F1 at the weekend - I imagine you may be having a a late night or tow due to the time difference :-)

Yes i have loads of time at the moment. I dont mind as Ive spent possibly 11 to 12 years working in Vietnam so im familiar with the surroundings and all the tourist haunts, so i know im not missing anything plus my company is paying for this luxury, i might have been a bit peeved if i had to pay for it myself.

The jetlag has got to me the last three nights but i feel its wearing off now, im going to go to bed very late tonight in the hope that i will sleep right through. My breakfast order has been sent it to room service, i dont think i have much more to do today except wait for the lady Dr to turn up to take another swab test tomorrow, definitely not looking forward to that one bit.

Oh yes F1 this weekend, although it could be the early hours of the morning for me whilst im here.

[Mark V GTD]

Finally some good news....

https://fanclubthailand.co.uk/coronavirus-covid-19...

Thailand opening up Phuket to non quarantine travel on 1st July (provided you have evidence of two jabs).

[Saweep]

Mark V GTD said:

Finally some good news....

https://fanclubthailand.co.uk/coronavirus-covid-19...

Thailand opening up Phuket to non quarantine travel on 1st July (provided you have evidence of two jabs).

I believe there are caveats about countries where there are "variants"

I.e all the rich countries that actually have the capacity to find them.

I'm here in Phuket right now. Nobody seems massively optimistic of much before October.

[Mark V GTD]

I didn't find anything about certain countries being excluded from this scheme - the press releases seemed pretty clear to me - but being there you may have heard different?

[Saweep]

Mark V GTD said:

I didn't find anything about certain countries being excluded from this scheme - the press releases seemed pretty clear to me - but being there you may have heard different?

This is Thailand; anything can be the case!

They are obsessed with variants...govt can then blame the Burmese/Farang/aliens for any covid in the country

[Saweep]

Thai media confirming my thoughts; China in the summer, europeans end of the year.

[XJSJohn]

Indonesian Visa's are available now through agents. 211-E Visa's. single entry, 2 months (extendable for 4 consecutive 1 month renewals if you feel the need), available both for business and social.

You still need to do 5 nights quarantine, but they have some good hotels at OK prices, am in the Wyndham Casablanca and thats 18jt for a 1 bedroom "suite" with all the PCR tests, full western menu and driver from airport.

its the dicking around with teh PCR test on the UK side that i am now trying to figure out.