I'm considering a visit Phuket. I have a few questions and would appreciate any insight.
1. I realize the requirement to stay in a SHA + hotels for the first 14 days. Once the 14 days are complete, can you move on to a non SHA+ or must the entire visit be in the SHA+ hotels?
2. Are Thai visitors allowed in the SHA + hotel rooms?
3. Is there anything at all open in the Paradise Complex? Ideally looking for a street bar?
Appreciate any other insight. Thanks.
Why?Originally Posted by JRT
JRT, the answers to your questions are:
1. Yes - After 14 days you can move on and stay anywhere in Phuket or indeed anywhere in Thailand including Bangkok and Pattaya and you can stay in any accommodation. Additionally, Phuket 7+7 is now in operation which means that after 7 days in your Phuket SHA+ hotel, you can travel to Ko Lac, Ko Yao Phi Phi, Railay and also Samui, Pha-ngan and Ko Tao for the remaining 7 days of sandbox.
2. Yes - Visitors are allowed to your SHA+ room. Contrary to common misunderstanding; you are not in any sort on quarantine in the first 14 days in Phuket. The idea of the SHA+ hotel registration is that 70% of the staff must be fully vaccinated to help protect them, their families and the local population.
3. No - Unfortunately all bars, night clubs and massage parlors in Paradise (and everywhere else in Phuket) are still closed at this time. However, there are still many of the staff who worked at these places around in Patong. Zoom-in on Grindr to the Paradise out Soi and you will find a number of guys (Thai and Burmese) who have made Patong their home and would be happy to meet you if you do visit. Hit them up for a chat to find out more about what's going on.
Here's a YouTube from sunset yesterday Saturday 21st Aug showing the beach at the end of the day and the restaurants on Thaweewong Road opening for the evening.
Brad the Impala (August 22nd, 2021), christianpfc (August 23rd, 2021), goji (August 22nd, 2021), JRT (August 22nd, 2021), Khor tose (August 24th, 2021), snotface (August 22nd, 2021)
Lovely sunset.
Pizza Company is open also...Wow!
Thank you for the info.
There is a Facebook group which has great info for those considering the Sandbox
https://www.facebook.com/groups/phuketsandbox/
The sandbox gets a lot of abuse on this forum, but from what I see on the FB group 99% of the people that have travelled are more than happy with their decision to go. Of course that may be confirmation bias on their part. But I am willing to accept their views at face value.
Sen Yais information is the same as I would have posted. My only deviation would be to note that a visitor to your hotel room will need to be registered and fully vaccinated. Also, as this is Phuket remember that most medium or high end hotels are "family friendly" and thus will charge a 500 or 1000 joiner fee per joiner beyond your original first guest
Brad the Impala (August 23rd, 2021), goji (August 22nd, 2021), Jellybean (August 23rd, 2021)
Another useful link is to the company linked below. They do all-in-one packages which includes your hotel and SHABA cert, insurance, 3 X tests, taxi to hotel and handle (the most difficult part) the Certificate of Entry. Again they get great feedback on the FB group. As it seems a lot of people are unable to complete the COE on their own. All you have to handle are the flights and Vaccination certificate
For the normal 14 day day:
https://royalvacationdmc.com/phuket-...-one-packages/
For the 7+7 extension:
https://royalvacationdmc.com/phuket-...nsion-details/
In my opinion the small mark up they charge is well worth it as it removes the hassle of the Certificate of Entry.
My final advice is if you decide to get the COE yourself, then ensure that you use a Thai insurance company to cover your insurance requirements. I have seen quite a number of farang that have been left out of pocket (270,000b!) When they were forced into hospital quarantine due to a failed test. In all cases they had insurance from their own country and must pay the hospital first and claim later.... I foresee these being difficult claims as they did not require hospital due to illness
The Thai insurers on the other hand pay Bangkok-Phuket hospital directly
Brad the Impala (August 23rd, 2021), christianpfc (August 23rd, 2021), goji (August 22nd, 2021), Jellybean (August 23rd, 2021)
I am one that is definitely considering the Sandbox for an October trip
The current deal-breakers for me would be:
-Lack of internal flights, hopefully sorted by end of August
-Lack of alcohol in restaurants or hotel bars, again hopefully sorted by end of August
-Lack of open bars, hopefully sorted by end of September
-BF needs to be fully vaccinated to travel from bkk to Phuket. Hopefully he's getting dose 1 of Sinopharm in the morning (better than nothing at least!)
Everything else I am willing to accept, even the chance of being locked up in hospital for failing a test, although I have a feeling they will start to relax that before October, and even change the 3 mandatory tests to a test on day 1 and 6 by then.
Thank you for the updates.
If you noted the detail, answers to a couple of questions would be much appreciated:
1 Which Thai insurers did this ?
2 Did you see any reference to people being sent to hospital for "inconclusive" PCR tests & the insurance outcome ?
I note there were a couple of reports of people being sent to hospital after "inconclusive" PCR tests last year, on the Facebook ASQ forum. I don't recall reading about the conclusions.
I'll read up on the Sandbox forum nearer the time of my next trip.
Aggh lost another post due to this damn buggy forum on a mobile device
Tune, AXA and Luma are the 3 thai insurers that will do direct pay to the hospitals
goji (August 23rd, 2021)
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