I’m in airport no-man’s land where the food is expensive and the lights fluorescent. Two years and eleven days since I passed through an eerily quiet Suvarnabuhmi airport on my way to Chiang Mai, just as the pandemic slid international travel into deep freeze, I am back again.
An hour and fifteen minutes away, Cambodia awaits.
I’ve not been writing this week; instead, dashing about trying to remember all the things a person is supposed to do to cross an international border. I may be a little rusty, but now there are also lashings of covid hoops to jump through too.
Add to that the excitement of having your carry-on x-rayed at least three times because it’s full of oil filters, heat shields, fuel filters and spark plug caps, and I remember why I used to prefer to ride across borders on motorcycles instead.
Unfortunately that’s still impossible – the land borders around here remain resolutely closed – but that’s no reason not to visit your motorcycle.
These days the only flights to Phnom Penh leave in the early morning which means that my connecting flight from Chiang Mai was last night, and I’ve just spent a delicious twelve hours camping out in the airport. It’s all good – I’ve got coffee – although there’s a group of at least 100 Chinese travelers in full HazMat suits beside me. Do they know something I don’t?
Never mind; my motorcycle awaits.
It is exciting to see you moving once again.
I didn’t know the land crossings were closed, while air crossings are opened.
With your bivouac skills you should have no problem finding a spot to chill out.
Can’t wait to see how things evolve from here.
Take care.
It’s been very slow for Thailand and Laos to settle on any kind of covid protocols, and the infrastructure to support quarantine etc is not really extant at rural land borders. However I think that soon the restrictions will just be dropped. Covid is endemic on all sides of all the borders now.
Way to go Grace. Can’t wait to hear the news that Beastie has roared back into life.
Fingers crossed for a swift resumption of land border opening.
soon, soon, I hope!