Hua Hin Forum

dtaai-maai wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2020 1:10 am I thought this might be of interest.

An old friend of mine has been a regular visitor to Thailand since I first arrived there in 2003. These days, he usually goes to see a ladyfriend in China first. He arrived there in January en route to Thailand but is having some difficulty completing his journey...

(The lack of capitals irritates the hell out of me, but I think that's why he does it... )

i considered it politic to escape the coronavirus confines of china. while i might.

leaving liuzhou was so easy, as most people sit at home. chen ye showed me a tweet nonsense showing a banner at the bottom of a block of flats reading ''if you leave home, i'll chop your legs off '' - she laughs - this, apparently is chinese humour. legs still joined to body, i find bags of space on the 150mph bullet train to nanning, and easy to book the 30mph international to the southern mountains border with vietnam, on to hanoi. i have a delightful 4 berth sleeper to myself, fresh linen, padded coathangers, slippers, carpetted corridor, reading light. and noodles for supper. ok, the john is a squatter, but heyho, the norm in china .as i saunter southwards, sunwards, into the night, feeling ever so healthy, and a little relieved. we are only 20 on the train of 8 carriages, 7 of which are empty. there were clearly more staff on the train than passengers.

oops - premature. as train arrives at china departure checkpoint, we are ushered off. lots of extra health questions, a long pep talk (of which i understood zilch). it becomes evident that some dork has admitted to coming from wuhan (the corona epicentre). mayhem ensues, various uniforms arrive and harangue us. even in chinese, the gist is simple '' you must go back to nanning, or spend 14 days quarantine in this border outpost '' . . i stand my end '' i want to go to hanoi '' . so me and a vietnamese wench are shooed back on to the train, which is by this stage resembling the marie celeste.. there is much headscratching and a certain feeling that, although they have no immediate plan, they would be most content if the vietnamese wench and i were to fall down a convenient deep drain. the other 15 pax have 'disappeared' , and as for the ''i am from wuhan'' jerk, perhaps he is (deservedly) being cavity searched and deloused.

30mins, 50, 70 -eventually we lurch 20mins onwards to the vietnamese border checkpoint.. splendidly green uniformed vietnamese with magnificently outsized flat caps. 6 video cameramen, form filling, photo shoots, interviews, no suggestion of any actual health checks. 20mins later flatcap ceremoniously returns my passport and says ''no'' . i must go back to nanning. with the vietnamese wench i am put into an '' isolation room '' , which is actually a storeroom. after 30mins, the hanoi train arrives and 100 pax are laboriously checked thru en route to nanning. i am ushered on as last passenger, the last injury to my now fragile pride being that they required me to buy another $25 ticket. i was vociferously unamused - they were straightfaced firm. and what became of the vietnamese wench, who lived only 10kms away, i shall never know. i'd like to believe that they slipped her out the back door, once the train and the photographers disappeared.

quite how this charade contributed to the eradication of the coronavirus .............. .

end of escape attempt 1.

escape attempt 2 was a trifle more prosaic. couple of days later, we booked a flight into chaing mai, thailand. the day before travel, they simply cancelled the flight, no ifs, no buts, no explanations, zilch.

escape attempt 3.
it's monday. i have flight booked for wednesday from nanning to kuala lumpur, malaysia. time will tell. optimism does not run high. but still in ripping good health and being well looked after. '' another glass of wine please ''.

watch this space.

HHTel wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 5:57 pm Old news, 3 weeks ago

Useful contacts:

Department of Disease Control Call Centre 1422
TAT Contact Centre 1672
Tourist Police 1155