With restrictions being put in place ahead of the Songkran holiday (Thai New Year’s) I really didn’t know what to expect for what is normally a HUGE multi-day event in the country. My gut just told me to steer clear of the nightlife areas. So I decided to double back to Phuket Town where I felt comfortable that, for the most part, it’s probably one of the calmer towns on the island, but still has plenty to do. Being familiar with it I knew I could easily spend a week just kicking around and catching up on a few things, and also because it has the most options for transportation around the island for wherever I decided to go next. To make things even better I found a great deal on a room at the Baan Suwantawe (where I stayed last time). The people, coffee shop, location, and the fact there’s a WiFi router in each room are my shortlist of why I like this place so much; it was really nice to stay there again 🙂
I think going back to Phuket Town was a good choice in the end; there were some parties in others parts that they say are part of the new spike in cases. Unfortunately, this has also gotten Phuket red zone status. For me personally, the red zone restrictions are rather minor, the part that I don’t like so much is that other provinces are requiring people coming in from Phuket (red zones) to either have a negative test result no more than 72 hours prior to entering or quarantine. From what I’ve found a test costs a bit over US$100 and are only done in a few places, and I’m not too keen on quarantines if I can avoid them… not too big a deal though. There had been talk of a lockdown coming after the holiday and I had decided I’d stay on the island for a while whatever happened; there were some second thoughts, but I’m good now. This is just how things are for the time being, and rolling with it isn’t such a bad thing, though I am, of course, hoping things get better soon.
This was a 7-night stay…
- Accommodation: see the breakdown below – $142.87
- Getting around locally – $0
- Living expenses; food and groceries – $111.10
- Activities – $0
- Mobile phone/data – $28.03
- Medical insurance = $28.90**
Total $310.90 / 7 nights = $44.41 per
Transportation to and from varies too much, so I’ve left it out along with most incidental/one-time personal costs; in this case I took… I don’t even know what to call it; a tuk-tuk, scooter sidecar… one of those, for about US$4.45. All other standard day to day expenses are included to give an idea of how much things cost in the area. So groceries will sometimes include basic personal care items (i.e. toothpaste, deodorant, contact solution/drops, etc.).
**A change to this breakdown is the medical insurance. I paid one price to cover my entire time in Thailand, so I included it as a whole in the quarantine post, but breaking it out per day here.
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