ChristianKiev

The flight ban doesn't matter, we anyway didn't plan to Ukraine in April. For us it would be perfect to return back home between 13.05. and 01.06. We just have to check immigration/quarantine policy in. Ukraine. At the previous moment, when arriving by flight we would have to stay at a dedicated hotel for 14 days, when arriving by car we could do a self-quarantine at home. So we have to decide from where to fly (our actual return tickets are from Singapore, but I doubt we can transit at SIN before end of June) and to where (in case there's still controlled quarantine when flying into Ukraine, we'll better fly to Minsk or Kishinev, cross the boarder to Ukraine by car).

We would order food directly to our home, there're many restaurants offering delivery as well as delivery services offering food from various restaurants. But at the moment, after eating in hotels and restaurants for many weeks, we're more than happy to be able to prepare our food.

Redmax

I believe you are right. Stay there till June if possible. I wonder if SIN can close its airport that long. As you have said, try secondary airports with less traffic and therefore less hassle with quarantines etc.
I believe Germany will still be on locked down till early May and they are planning to quarantine everyone arriving. I would not recommend transiting in Germany.
Regarding the local foodies, it is a shame to see less fotos of them! Stay safe and healthy, all 4 of you!

ChristianKiev

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Here’s the update from Thailand…

The city of Ao Nang is now completely closed, luckily, we’re approx. 300 m outside the city boarders,


so we’re still able to drive to supermarkets, take-away restaurants, banks, beach etc.

The only downside: we can’t visit ‘Hotdog&Coolcat’ anymore, but fortunately they now offer home-delivery.

Yes, we could drive around for sightseeing, go to the sea – but somehow we don’t want to be ‘the stupid foreigners’ who don’t accept the actual situation. So we drive just for shopping and take-away dinner, the remaining time we better stay within the walls of our Villa.

Monday:

The Villa showed its downsides, for example the curtains are white and thin – so from 7 am there’s no chance for me for sleeping (while it’s no problem for the others). So I established my own routine, getting up, cleaning the pool, the terrace, the inside of the house – and afterwards enjoying a cup of strong milk-coffee. When I’m done with my routine the house is getting awake, slowly. Surprisingly they’re all so happy I can’t sleep too long and the pool & house are spotless clean when they awake.

Breakfast for Valentyna and me was my signature fruit salad: papaya, oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, banana, pomelo and Asian peach, sweetened with Equal, rounded up with some big spoons Greece Yoghurt,


topped by Swiss crunchy Müesli.

Later I took Valentyna to ‘Tesco Lotus’ supermarket near Krabi airport,


which has a much better selection than BigC or most European supermarkets.








We even got Sour Crème from New Zealand, salted Butter from France, Salami from Italy, wine from South Africa and Chile, Müesli from Switzerland, Maple Syrup from Canada, Honey from the Black Forest in Germany. For some other goods we afterwards passed MACRO, then drove back home again.

Also I was finally able to order adjustable dumbbells with 30 kg weights, which should be delivered Friday.

The evening brought a highlight: I’m not a potato-lover, but I like ‘draniki’ or ‘Kartoffelpuffer’.




While the girls ate them Ukrainian-style, with Sour Crème, we ate them German-style, with the apple-compote we bought at ‘Hotdog&Coolcat’.

Tuesday:
was totally relaxed, the girls watching some TV,


swimming in our pool. In the evening we drove towards the beach to enjoy the sunset,




ordered the most disgusting Thai food (The Beach House Restaurant & Bar) I had in quite a while. It was honestly so bad, that we decided to ‘recycle’ it.

Wednesday:
In the morning we got the news, that the automatic Visa prolongation was finally signed by the Thai government – but it would only become active after the PM signed it.

Bad news are how some tourists behave in Thailand, not accepting the curfew but instead doing drug parties. These people are shown on Thai news, with nationality and names – which is very bad for all foreigners still in Thailand. We just saw today a foreigner on a bicycle approaching a checkpoint, not wearing a mask (US$ 650 fine). We saw the police taking him to their table, doing paperwork. Yes, we do have checkpoints on our way to the supermarkets, going around the closed city of Ao Nang – but the police is still very friendly, temperature is measured, that’s all.

Also we got the news that some Thai districts are issuing an alcohol-sell-ban from April 10th. So we straight drove to Tesco Lotus to stock up wine, so our girls do have something to drink.


Near the copy-shop where we made photocopies for the immigration office, there was a vendor for take-away Thai food.


I got a portion of Pad See Ew Gai, a omelette with minced shrimps over rice, which I then ate at home. Quite good for a US$ 3.30 meal, much better than the Thai food the night before.


In the evening the news were spread, that the PM had signed the Visa exemption – but still nobody knew when it would be implemented and what it’ll say. So we again had to wait for the official announcement.

Dinner was simple but tasty: spaghetti, perfectly al dente with a spicy, freshly prepared tomato-sauce and some grated imported Parmesan cheese.

Redmax

First, I am so jealous!, those great pics of nice foodies! I miss Thai street foods, the cut fruits and fresh seafoods as well as daily cooked Thai foods etc in Tesco or Big C Supermarkets, why could not German Supermarkets at least try to implement some simple Asian cooked foods?? You only get Sushi, Makis etc. and the only cooked foods are snack items like Schnitzel, Frikadellen, Brat-or Rindswurst, Leberkäse ins Brötchen at Rewe! Missing Thai foodies like Laab Gai, Som Tam Gung Sod Khai Meng Da etc..
Even though you are stuck in a poolvilla in Krabi, with a short distance to Ao Nang beach, I still want to be there than here in Germany. Went shopping for groceries today, nobody is taking the social distancing seriously, almost nobody is wearing a mask, still talking very near to each other. Most think wearing gloves is safer!? With this kind of attitude, the infection will still grow and unfortunately the death toll will rise! Believe me, I think you are less in danger in catching the virus than most of us here in Germany! Most of the people are blaming the Chinese, anti Chinese slurs are heard from time to time, eventhough most of the Germans are infected through Northern Italy and Tirol(Ischgl)..and still stranded Germans returning from all over the world without any medical checks at Frankfurt airport!..so which countries do really have preventive meassures in keeping the healthy ones clear from infections? Not in Europe!

ChristianKiev

As small update regarding the Visa: now ALL kind of Visa are automatically extended to April 30th, 2020. So we don't have to go to immigration on Friday.

But the problem isn't solved completely, because there're no flights to Ukraine until April 30th. So we have to wait if the Thai government will extend to middle or end of May later on.

Redmax

Christian, I forgot, try Praknam Krabi Seafood restaurant. It is in Krabi Town, near Krabi Front Bay Resort. We had a great foody experience there. Not sure if this part of Krabi Town is also under lock down??

ChristianKiev

Change of flights in Covid-19 times

As written before, we already changed our flight tickets from March, 29th, to May, 1st, Valentyna now on SWISS via Zurich instead of Singapore Airlines via Munich.

But these flights were cancelled also, so we had to call to set for a new date.

That would have been easy – but transiting through Singapore before June was getting more and more unrealistic. Therefore, I decided to find out the possibilities to fly from Bangkok directly.

Four different kind of flights were shown for May, 5th:
- Lufthansa (Airbus 340) via FRA to KBP
- Austrian (Thunderbird) via VIE to KBP
- SWISS (Thunderbird) via ZRH to KBP and
- Lufthansa operated by Sunexpress via FRA to KBP

The last two where the lowest appealing variants because both are day-flights, arriving ZRH and FRA in the evening, without a flight to KBP the same day. Yes, maybe I would be allowed into Germany and Switzerland, could sleep in a hotel bed, but for Valentyna this would mean sleeping in the transit zone of the terminal. No, thanks !

So either LH via FRA or OS via VIE, both not offering First Class. But better Business Class than sleeping all night in the airport. And in case Business Class, better OS then the ‘Füssel’-beds of LH. In addition, OS clearly offering the better food.

So I called the Lufthansa Senator callcentre, and, without a minute of wait, talked to a friendly lady. After giving her the booking codes, I explained her the situation, that we would rather prefer to fly from BKK than SIN, since transiting wouldn’t be possible.

She put me on hold for 20 minutes to talk to her supervisor, she informed me that I could change the country of departure, downgrade from First Class to Business Class, but would have to pay the fare difference, just EUR 1’278 !!!

She told me that I booked ‘discounted First Class fare’ (A class) and for the Bangkok – Kiev return they could only offer the most expensive Business Class fare (J). I informed her that this way Lufthansa would lose customers for the future, customers they would desperately need. She put me on hold again, 15 minutes, but then I got the information that on this exceptional case they would put me on D-class-fare, so I would only need to pay EUR 150 minus EUR 50 discount.

Honestly, in these times I don’t care about First- or Business Class – and I would have paid more than EUR 100 for the flight from Bangkok to Singapore. All okay.

The ticket for Valentyna was easier to change: I just returned the Award Ticket (miles at the moment only credited after 4 weeks) and booked a new one, on the same flight. Interestingly the fantasy-taxes for the Bangkok ticket are EUR 50 higher than for the SIN ticket.

But all done – so now I’m waiting for the next round of cancelations next week. But at least we’re already on BKK – KBP instead of SIN – KBP.

Redmax

Sorry to hear your recent rebooking and downgrade!. I understand it is better to travel with Valentina than flying alone. Nowadays you cannot be sure which country or airport will close for how long and for what reason. I believe you will be leaving Thailand in the middle of May. Just enjoy Krabi, stay safe and healthy!

cockpitvisit

FRA has a (quite expensive) transit hotel, it's located where the Lufthansa Tower lounge used to be.

There is of course no way to know if it would be open in May.

roadwarrier

I know the feeling - the day after coming back to Johannesburg, the Government brought in a ban on all alcohol sales, so trying to build up stocks was difficult since shops were not restocking shelves, so some things were sold out.

Thanks for the updates!! Hope that it all works out in the end and even with a lockdown, you still have a great holiday and manage to get home without any more flight changes.

ffI

Typical Delhi arrival
Here's to your health and hoping you get back safely by June.

Yemona

This thread is mirroring the rollercoaster life can be, with only the positive mindset for stability.

pajas

Hey Christian - as we have not heard from you for a few days: I hope you are doing all well! Looking forward to an update from you!

ChristianKiev

Friday, April 17, 2020

‘A week in paradise’ – can get quite boring. That’s why I never ever wanted to travel to places like the Maldives.

The week passed in a kind of routine, me – while the others still sleeping – cleaning terrace, pool and living room, drinking a cup of coffee before dressing up and having breakfast with the others, mostly fruit salad with yoghurt and Müsli or cheese omelette.

The highlight of the day is still driving around to get all the products we desire. Meanwhile we know where to get what, so the tour is BigC, then Tesco and last Macro.

It’s always funny to observe to see how different Thais are in the south, on the one side the ‘fashionable’ Buddhist Thais,


on the other hand the Muslim Thais.


On the way back home,


we have to pass two checkpoints, where you have to get out of the car for temperature screening.

These checkpoints changed a lot during the last week: first they were friendly but serious – meanwhile it’s more a local party. 30 people, mostly without masks, are sitting below a tent, having a karaoke system, singing, dancing and – it’s Thailand – eating. They already have a kitchen setup next to the tent where some people are preparing food.

Somehow this is understandable, since the (official) Covid-19 numbers are very low (2’700 people infected, 28 more than the day before; 1’689 discharges, plus 96 and 47 dead, plus 1). But due to the Covid-19 measures in average 40 persons die less in traffic – each day. So when you read the official numbers, Covid-19, in Thailand, saves more life’s than it costs.

But to me it’s still surprising how much religion effects the thinking of the people: while in supermarkets they do wear masks and keep distance, when driving back home, we see in front of mosques a very different picture, lots of people lining up to go inside, no social distancing at all. Do they really think the virus keeps away from ‘houses of god’ ?

After shopping it’s lunch time, mostly some of the nice Pain de Tradition with some imported cold cuts and cheese, sometimes a nice Thai curry which the lady who takes care of the house delivers on curtesy.

Tuesday our adjustable dumbbells were delivered, so we changed the 3rd bedroom to be our gym. This delivery brought some versatility to our life’s.


In the evening we started to extend our cooking skills, Green Curry, Tom Ka Gai and other classics, either European or Thai.






Internet is mostly good – but we’re entering the rainy season, which, by luck, brought temperatures quite a bit, to a really acceptable level. Sadly ‘rain’ kills the internet. In case of heavy rain and thunderstorms, the internet traffic is basically not existing, so it’s playing cards and reading instead of watching Youtube and Netflix.

Other than that, of course we got the info that Austrian Airlines cancelled our flights, until minimum May 20th. Also Lufthansa, while still flying Bangkok – Frankfurt, cancelled all flights to Ukraine until May 18th. Between May 1st and 18th there’re only two possibilities: by LOT from FRA via WAW to KBP or by UIA from FRA to KBP. But we don’t trust either LOT nor UIA, maybe they just cancel later. So we decided to wait until May 1st, check who really flies – and then change our tickets to May 11th or 14th.

We’re not in a hurry to return, especially since Covid-19 numbers in Ukraine are now raising (14/04: 300 newly infected; 15/04: 400; 16/04: 500).

That’s it for the moment, now we’ll enjoy some Thai fruits.

ExpatSomchai

Ohhhh Mangkout my favourite