After offline discussion, copying this post from the other ASQ thread into a new thread to have one that is dedicated just to actually ASQ experiences and leave the other for changes in rules, etc. I'll leave the first post untouched and can add on as I learn new things or anyone has questions.



Following up on my situation since last I posted in this thread as I've successfully navigated my way into Bangkok. I'm only on Day 4 of quarantine and haven't gotten COVID tested here yet, but barring anything coming up on that, it should be downhill from here. Overall, a pretty straight forward process so far.

HK Portion
- HK airport a ghost town. I know you can see online videos, etc. but until you are actually there you don't fully grasp it. There had to have been more staff then travelers. I took a few pictures, but doubt they are of interest to anyone. If so, I can add them.
- Arriving and departing in HK are quite different experiences. Arriving involves all the testing, etc. with a much more monitored environment and long process. Departing is more open, but most everything is closed so nothing really to do.
- Side note, it's really refreshing to see the politeness that COVID seems to have brought out of people at the airport. I'm sure that when things reopen, the madness and "airport attitudes" will return, but fingers crossed.
- Even with limited options, flight was <15% full. Upgrades were extremely cheap and even with that cheap option to upgrade, there were more attendants then passengers in business class.

BKK Portion
- Plane sat at the arrival gate for a good 45 minutes before doors opened. I couldn't get a good answer on what they were doing, but they just said it was COVID precautions. They left plane entertainment options on, so no big deal.
- Inside the airport was a little odd. On the surface not efficiently designed, but very organized and fast overall.
- After leaving the plane, there was a basic temperature check.
- Following that, there were a series of checkpoints to pass through. These seemingly could have been streamlined quite a bit, but no big deal (for me at least).
- At the first, you sat down and eventually a staff member came over to look at some of your paperwork and fill out a form with information that was already in the forms you had prepared. Again, pretty fast so not an issue.
- What was odd, was that you did this routine three or four times. Finish one short interviews, get shepherded a little further into the airport and do the same thing, with a new question or two sprinkled in.
- I assume they were doing something behind the scenes with the application, but if not it could have been done in far fewer steps.
- Despite the number of stops, it all went really quickly and I think we were out of the airport in less than an hour, so I was quite happy. A few other passengers apparently didn't agree and got upset. Never will understand this given the overall good attitude and helpful nature of the staff (who didn't design these processes anyways).
- After passport is updated and fingerprints taken, you get your own luggage and head to the transportation area.
- Transportation is all arranged for you. They had dedicated airport staff that took your name and escorted you to your vehicle, so no work or searching necessary.
- Driver gives all of your luggage a thorough spray down with disinfectant (outside of luggage only, they didn't open anything) and you're on your way.
- Hotels are required to keep a lot of documentation, so there was a lot of paperwork and signatures needed upon arrival, but that was about it.

Quarantine is slightly different in HK and TH based on going through both
- In HK, a COVID test is required when you arrive. This makes for a long first day sitting at the airport. In TH, no test on arrival.
- In TH, transit to your hotel is part of ASQ. In HK, it is not and you can take taxi, uber, subway. This is really bizarre since it is the one big gab in the HK process where you are potentially with general population.
- In TH, with a couple exceptions, hotels are either 100% ASQ guests or 100% regular guests - no intermingling. In HK, hotels have both types (floors are designated as quarantine/non-quarantine), not hotels.
- In TH, all meals are required to be included in the ASQ package. In HK, this is not the case.
- In TH, there are no monitoring tools you have to use. In HK, you have to wear a bracelet at all times and use an app that has your room dimensions so that they immediately know if you leave your room.
- In both locations you have to take your own temperature 2x a day and provide to hotel.
- In HK, hotel staff was not allowed in your room for any reason. In TH, if your room needs something fixed, you go (by yourself) to a waiting room while a hotel staff in hazmat suit goes in and does whatever they need to do.
- Similarly, in TH you do get your room cleaned a few times (after first negative test result). In HK, nobody is getting in your room.
- In TH, you have to take a full nasal and mouth swab COVID test twice. In HK, you don't.
- In TH, after 1st negative test you are able to leave the room and go to the recreation area for 45 minutes a day. You can't use the equipment, but can get fresh air and move around. In HK, you can't leave your room.

Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by how well everything went. I had prepared for a long stay in the BKK airport or something to happen that would make for a long night, but it was all really well managed. Maybe when traffic picks up it will get a little worse, but given what were going through here I don't know how anyone can complain.

My only two bits of advice are...
1. Keep the positive attitude. Nothing good comes from the frustration and having the workers on your side helps. This should go without saying, but we've all traveled and know how that goes.
2. Print out at least two copies of everything in color. Probably three just in case. In reality, the only thing they actually kept at the airport was the actual COE, but having everything ready seemed to put the staff at ease (in both HK and TH) that I was ready and wouldn't be the difficult passenger. Plus, if they do happen to keep something you need later, you'll be the one scrambling. The hotel pretty much needs a copy of everything. At either the airport or the hotel, they did check everything at least once. Every item used in the COE process (flights, etc.) was checked at least once at the airport or hotel. I won't list them out since they are pretty well documented (ping if you want), but two of note that ARE checked are post-ASQ place of residence and flight out of TH.

Adding on a few facts and tips I've learned today since earlier post:

As of Apr 1, at least two changes in policy that were included with the change from 14 days to 10 days
1. Outside deliveries are now allowed, so services like Grab can be used
2. Guests are allowed to use fitness equipment during their scheduled outside time (limited to 1 hour a day). Prior to Apr you could have the outside time, but could not use any equipment.
Each hotel is given discretion on these two items. For example, the hotel that I'm staying in is allowing outside deliveries but doesn't want to open their gym for risk of spread. Disappointed, but I can also understand.

Also, just a couple quick tips on hotels. I posted a number in the other thread but a few that jump out now that I'm here.
1. Work hard on figuring out how noise is before booking - it's probably the most important thing given you're locked up. 1/2 of the hotel that I'm in is really quite, but the other side is on a highway with a gravel pit there too. The noise is unbearable The guests on the wrong side will have a hard time making through the whole quarantine. I found hotels to be reasonably honest about this when I asked before booking and you can also scrape through reviews looking purely for sound comments.
2. I realize now that "hotel shopping" can get out of hand with all the different options each offer (170+ hotels in the program all with very different marketing techiniques). Figure out early on what those core few things that are most important things are to you and just find the best hotel that have those. It's easy to get caught up thinking how this perk would be cool or that perk would be cool and then not really use them ... and ultimately ending up in a lesser hotel then you could have gotten. In HK, I didn't really have this problem because there was a lot of similarity in the hotel offerings - that is not the case in TH.
3. Be on the lookout for hidden add-on charges - there are some things that some hotels give you free, while others advertise it as having fine print about the high costs. A couple examples - there were a few that offered free in-room exercise bike or jogging machine. Others advertised that, but somewhat hid that they added 5,000 THB if you wanted it. Similar with washing machine - some just had it for free, others had it on request ... with a huge fee.

I'm going to withhold any thoughts I have my specific hotel until it's over so as to give them a fair shot. We had a tough start, with broken internet, no hot water, missed meals and ultimately a room change as a result. I'll give them a chance to recover before giving judgment.

Any thing else I think of I can add on. If anything specific you're curious about let me know. I've still got seven days left, so I'm sure I'll learn more. Tomorrow my big learning will be just how invasive the nasal swab is in Thailand.

A few notes on Day 5 ...

Day 5 is the first COVID test. They do nasal swab and throat swab, not saliva test. This is the third country I've gotten this test done in and ... Thailand doesn't screw around with this. They go for speed and for as much depth as they can possibly get. They didn't quite make it but it sure felt like they were going for the back of the skull when they shot that thing up my nose. I've got a phobia around this and am terrified of things penetrating my body (ironic for this website, I know), whether that be needles, swabs, whatever. HK was completely different experience and even though the same nasal swab, was fair less invasive. Be prepared for an uncomfortable experience if you've not done this before.

I had no issues with past tests, but my body didn't take this too well. I got a big headache, was dizzy and on the verge of vomiting. I was about to call into the doctor to let them know something was up, but just then the hospital called me (a couple hours after the test). I didn't know this call was coming, so got a bit concerned that meant a positive test. Apparently this is just part of the process. Normal doctor/patient conversation around travel history, health history, allergies, COVID vaccination yes/no, flu vaccination yes/no, etc. I asked if the nasal swab could have this impact on patients or whether we should be concerned that I was showing any leading indicators and she let me know that it do this to some patients given how unpleasant of a test it is.

Test results take 24 hours, so I'll know tomorrow ... at which point (assuming negative), I'll be able to move to the next phase of ASQ. The allows for housecleaning and a hour long visit to the gym / relaxation area to get out of the room.

If anyone's making the trip soon, shoot me a note on hotel. Similar to above post, I'm going to withhold full judgment until I'm done and even then likely wouldn't name the hotel in a forum, but the amount of penny pinching that can go on can get out of hand. Today, the batteries in their own remote control died ... and they told me I'd need to order my own replacements. I know revenue had been down due to lack of travelers, but .........

Finally, a stupid personal comment ... I'm starting to realize that the anticipation of amazing Thai food is almost as hard to deal with as the anticipation of any other activities ... even sub-standard (by local standards) hotel food is dripping with flavor that you just don't find in Thai restaurants elsewhere. Not sure what my first post-ASQ activity should be at this point

Are u under quarantine now? Which ASQ?

@hunter, Yes in quarantine now. I can send you ASQ in PM if you or someone you know is on the verge. I don't want to post anything about specific spot ... until I am at least gone and maybe never. I've had an ongoing string of issues. Not a horrible place, but definitely overpriced in comparison to others in the same price range.

No major update on the ASQ process since my last post...
1. COVID test results come back to you via a phone call from the actual doctor at local hospital, giving you a chance to ask any questions, give them any updates, etc. Quite different from the other countries I had tests in. My test came back negative, so one down and one more to go.
2. The staff haven't said anything directly to me on this (verbally at least), but they seem pretty spooked and rattled at the moment, presumably from the recent growing COVID breakout. Yesterday was my first day of being able to go to their relaxation area and when I was walking to that floor, I encountered a staff member. They literally ran away even though they had full protective body suit on, including mask, googles, face covering and head to toe body suit.
3. Another new consideration for ASQ location that may be important to you. Some of the hotels have really nice lounge areas with shade, greenery, etc (even putting green at some). I didn't give this much consideration since you only can use it from Day 6 - Day 10 for one hour a day and that normally isn't my thing for a non-quarantine stay, but in retrospect would have ranked that a bit higher. Getting out of the room is nice, but dampened a bit when all you are able to do is go to a rooftop pool without shade. Walking around a concrete rooftop in the hot weather isn't the most relaxing of times ;). The fresh air and movement is still nice, but ...

What meals have you been choosing/eating at the ASQ hotel?

How are you keeping yourself entertained in the room?

What are you doing for exercise in the room?

That's what I would be doing

[ Last edited by  austin821 at 13-4-2021 05:59 ]

I'm sure others feel differently, but really the quarantine hasn't bad. The size of the rooms alone make it much better than the HK quarantine I had to do last year. When you add on the ability to go outside occasionally (which is not allowed in HK), it's tolerable. I certainly wouldn't choose to do it, but I also wouldn't avoid coming just because of it - but I have the benefit of some free time right now that may make it undo-able for others.

What meals have you been choosing/eating at the ASQ hotel?
- The hotel food hasn't been great, but actually pretty good. Better than I expected (except for breakfast, which is really weak). The portions are a bit small, but since I'm not getting much exercise I have just stayed with their portions and not ordered out. They tend to have 3 options per meal ... Thai option, western option and one other option for each meal ... recommend the Thai - the flavors have been good. I only order non-Thai a couple times and they were quite bland.
- Grab deliveries are now an option, so you can get pretty much anything you want if you want to go that route. Note that alcohol is strictly prohibited in ASQ and each delivery is checked at the front desk.

How are you keeping yourself entertained in the room?
- I'm sure others are different, but the time flies for me. Quarantine is a forced/good time to catch up on things (at least for me). I have a bootleg tv box with hundreds of channels and VOD that I thought I would be watching non-stop, but haven't really touched it other than to catch up on sports in the morning.
- It's also entertaining to check out the various 141 type options. TF, SA, offdek, finfin.vip, smooci, etc. are all good time killers. Especially TF, as you can chat and feel your way around with some interesting people at times. Skout has a lot of promising profiles set up, but I didn't seem much action on chatting. Not close to the extent used in HK. Skout also seems to have a disproportionate number of ladyboy profiles - not sure if that is their platform of choice, but there are a lot (usually clearly called out in English, but not always). I also tried "WeChat nearby" on three different occasions ... and there were exactly 0 local females each time.

What are you doing for exercise in the room?
- If that is important to you, pay attention to the hotel options. Some market specifically for this, providing video yoga, renting out in-room elliptical or exercise bikes (some even include them rent). This was high on my list, but I opted for a few other things and didn't want to pay the 5000 THB rental fee my location charges.
- The rooms here are big enough to walk around while reading the news, chatting with your new TF friends, etc. Much different experience than HK.
- Additionally, after first negative covid test, you can go outside to their pool/rec area for an hour per day. By law, as of Apr 1 hotels are now allowed to let you use the exercise equipment during your 1 hour break, but it seems many locations are still staying cautious and not letting guests use them.

[ Last edited by  jk45_89 at 13-4-2021 16:28 ]

do you guys know if it's possible for tourists to get a vaccine in thailand?

See the following link, in principle, foreign visitors can get Covid vaccination.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thai ... veryone-in-thailand

But, in reality, foreign visitors are not in the priority groups.

@obe, the second COVID test was much less difficult and much less invasive than the first. Maybe because I was a repeat customer . I shouldn't be, but I'm absolutely terrified of these types of things. My approach is to mock myself when I arrive and then they usually take it easy on me. I did the same for both COVID tests and while it didn't help the first time, the second time the nurse was super careful.

In reality, these tests aren't bad and should not be a concern - it's just my personal irrational phobia/anxiety that gets me.

Well, it is really possible to enter Thailand and make it through ASQ (unless this current spike in cases changes anything...). Here's a partial update/partial personal diary entry now that I've been out for about 48 hours now.

End to End Process
- Overall, the process was quite straightforward and pretty easy throughout. Just keep your patience for the couple of times things don't go as fast as you'd like or a hiccup occurs and everything is fine.
- The big picture quarantine (from getting approval to enter to COVID testing and all the way through to leaving ASQ hotel) is far more structured than HK, but TH has the process well organized so that structure was absolutely fine.
- The most difficult aspect was figuring out the COE requirements. Those requirements aren't difficult once you find the right information, but finding the right information isn't always straight forward (especially if you happen to be doing this when the rules are changing).
- I've included a bunch of info in previous posts so won't repeat, but feel free to reach out if any questions. Odds are I had to figure out the same thing.

Checkout and Subsequent Move In
- When you check out of ASQ, you get a full receipt for your stay, including the embedded charge from the local hospital for your two COVID tests. These are a significant % of the costs, so the hotels are getting less than you might be thinking.
- Just the COVID costs were 9,500THB (~2,400HKD) for 2 tests. This is one area where HK is actually much cheaper than TH. The test in HK at the community center was 240 HKD. The ones in TH were ~1200 HKD each.
------ Side note, if coming from HK I highly recommend the community center approach. It's much cheaper than alternatives, fast, well organized and not very invasive.
- Checkout was a snap. You get a bunch of paperwork, including negative COVID tests, proof of ASQ completion and similar forms. I took a picture and have them on my phone should I get asked for them anywhere.
- Tip: ASQ hotels are allowed to store your luggage after you leave. I can't say all hotels will do this, but they are allowed to. I was able to leave my luggage at the hotel for a night while I grabbed a hotel and looked at a few different condo options in person - this was super helpful.
- For condos, vacancy rates are really high - pretty easy to get a bidding war started to get lower rental costs. They will further discount if you are comfortable enough booking directly with them and avoiding websites (airbnb, vrbo, etc.)
- Hotels are also discounting LT stays, but not as much.
- Unless you already know where you want to stay, I'd recommend the approach I used. All the hotels and condos will show you the rooms and there are plenty of really nice hotels you can book cheaply for a night. This way you don't need to book anything sight unseen ... and you can negotiate lower prices. Use quarantine time to narrow down a handful you want to look at and use the first day out to visit. A good time investment.

First Impressions
- The weather is quite warm
- From my interactions, morale is pretty low right now - the combination of this recent spike in cases and Songkran largely being cancelled has people concerned/down
- I walked around a bit, including to Chinatown - while still busy, clearly not the mass of activity I remember from my short visit years ago. Partially driven by holiday down-time, but more than that
- The food is stunningly gorgeous
- I've only here once before for a very short stay, but I am still amazed that even in this down period how quickly this place can get its hooks into you and makes you want to stay
- The weather is not cold

[ Last edited by  jk45_89 at 17-4-2021 13:09 ]

The spike in recent cases sucks ... a couple headlines from the past few days
"In just 3 weeks Thailand has recorded nearly twice the number of new infections than the whole of 2020."
"Thai hotels consider temporary shutdown amid low tourist demand"


On a pretty positive note for any of you planning to come any time soon, they just launched a website entrythailand.go.th which is amazingly helpful. I can't tell you how much I wish this had been created when I went through this. It spells out all the steps needed with checklists, etc. It's actually a pretty well designed website. I didn't read everything on it, but looked around a bit and it seems comprehensive and clear to follow. Just getting clarity on all the requirements was the hardest part for me and this looks to eliminate a lot of that.

It's a bit humorous to see the order of some of the steps a bit different and that I did certain things out of order - I worked with the Thai Embassy to make my checklist and followed their guidance. This website seems to have served a secondary function of getting the actual rules documented not only for us, but for the authorities.

Additionally, there is a full list of ASQ hotels with basic marketing information for each location in a consistent format for quick review. There aren't good filters on the site (i.e. has balcony, has washing machine, etc.) but this will fast track your search a great deal. There are similar websites out there put together by various travel websites, but those were pretty hit and miss - they didn't include all hotels, search functions didn't always work, etc. The consistent format of this site and the ability to see all the locations in one spot is huge.

I still recommend using this website to shortlist where you would potentially stay and then contact the hotel separately, as many were open to negotiate rates down with occupancy rates low at many. There were a handful of higher priced hotels that wouldn't budge and a few other that seemed to offer really competitive prices relative to their competition that didn't need to discount, but the rest did.

I spent countless hours working around there not being tools like these two, so these should fast track any planning you might do. The "one stop shop" aspect of this is great. Enjoy.

Thailand has imposed tougher measures against the third wave of COVID19. Foreign tourists received COE on or after May 1 will face 14 days quarantine. Bangkok is now classified as deep red zone. See the link for more details of the new health measures:

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thai ... sher-covid-controls

Here is the latest link regarding the priority of local expats in Thailand getting a COVID jab, l guess the chance for foreign visitors is even rare.

https://www.pattayamail.com/news ... vaccine-jabs-354061

Hey jk45_89, how's life in Bangkok for you so far?

It’s been a really low-key visit. The spike in cases started just before I was to get out of ASQ and then Bangkok moved into a strict red state lock-down, followed by even stricter dark red state. Restaurants (for dine-in), parks, massages, bars, gyms, pools, etc. all are not allowed to open. Malls, grocery stores, 7-11’s, etc. required to have shorter hours than normal. Even some of the malls are completely closing down until at least the end of this month because there just isn’t enough customer traffic. The handful of malls I’ve gone into have far fewer customers than workers.

To date, I decided to just stay out of the way so I didn’t unintentionally contribute to the situation. I’ve roamed the city quite a bit to see whatever Bangkok sites I could (mostly from behind closed gates), but I haven’t partaken in any activities of any sort. Even without that, Thailand’s a great place to be, so just happy to be here.

The impact of this extended lock-down is so clearly taking a heavy toll on the people's morale/finances/etc., so for their sake hopefully they can move past this very soon and start the recovery phase.