What Day Is It Anyways?

Much like the rest of the world, so much and nothing at all has happened over the past two weeks since I last published.

Leading up to April 24, I was sweating hard regarding my visa. It was set to expire, and it wasn’t until April 22 that the Thai government announced that they were extending all visas until July 31. In my head, I was prepared to just simply overstay the visa and pay the penalty, but this ended up putting my mind at ease. It meant that I could honor the rest of my lease here in Bangkok, I could wait out the time until my scheduled flight back to Boston on May 31, and I could continue stuffing my face with all of the tropical fruit I could find.

Also along the lines of the Thai government, the alcohol ban in Bangkok and a number of other touristy areas that was supposed to end on April 20 was extended to April 30, and just this morning was extended to the entire Kingdom until further notice. The initial reason for the ban was to discourage people from gathering for the Thai New Years (Song Kran) holiday, and because a number of the people found breaking the curfew have been found to be drunk. The extension, I’m sure, is not only to help curb the spread of COVID, but also to discourage people from gathering for a few more holidays that are taking place at the beginning of May. However, instead of postponing the holiday, as they did with Song Kran, the Thai government is still observing the holidays, but are saying to take the day off and stay at home. With so many people already staying home, I figure it’s not going to make much of a difference.

Despite the extension of the alcohol ban, they are also easing some restrictions here in Bangkok starting on Monday. Restaurants are reopening with restrictions involving spacing, bathroom cleaning, availability of hand sanitizer, and a prohibition of “self cooking” such as hot pot and Korean barbecue. Some of the markets will be allowed to open with a requirement to sanitize “regularly.” Some public parks will open with screening points. Hair salons and barbershops will be able to reopen for hair cuts only, must sanitize every 10 minutes, and require the worker to wear a face mask and face shield. And finally pet grooming and boarding shops will reopen, but with no walk-in service.

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens here. I have to be honest. I’m a little bit skeptical about the ease of restrictions. I figure I’ll wait at least a week before I venture out much past where I tend to go already. I actually did some mapping and the most I tend to get out is a kilometer walk each way to the On Nut BTS stop where there is a street food alley, a Tesco-Lotus grocery store, and a Big C grocery store. I make this walk at least every other day, whether I think I need something out there or not. As it is right now, I don’t see many destinations for me to walk to anyways. I think that if I were closer to DAG, I probably would go over there to order dinner, but it’s so far away and would require either a ride on the BTS, transferring to the MRT, and then walking a kilometer, or taking two different BTS lines and a boat. It would take me well over an hour each way.

Earlier this week, I decided to head to the Terminal 21 mall, where I was told by a Bangkok Foodies Facebook group that there is good takeaway options in their basement with hearty portions (which really doesn’t matter much to me lately). Terminal 21 is at the Asok BTS station, which is about six stops away from where I live. I took the BTS there and then decided to walk back most of the way. I think I walked around 12 kilometers that day between walking from my BTS stop to On Nut, hopping on the BTS to go between On Nut and Phra Khanong (I hate that stretch of walk), walking to Asok, looking around, and then walking back to Phra Khanong to hop on the BTS and riding to my home stop. I’m not going to lie. By the time I was headed home, I was dripping with sweat, as it was 90f (33c)degrees out. I have taken to bringing a quick drying hand towel with me whenever I go out. Even when I walk to On Nut, I find that the last 10 minutes I’m just pouring with sweat.

When I was at Terminal 21, I was really hoping to find something interesting to eat. As of late, I have really gotten tired of the offerings at the street food streets right next to my building and down at On Nut. I have really fallen into a rut of ordering the same things over and over. I had no such luck at Terminal 21. None of the pre-packaged takeaway food looked like it was very good or that it would really reheat well. I ended up getting some pasta with bolognese sauce from the gourmet grocery store in Terminal 21. It wasn’t particularly amazing, but it definitely hit the variety itch I was trying to scratch.

I have had more of those itches over the past two weeks than I have for the entire time that I have been here in Southeast Asia. I think in the past two weeks, aside from the food from Terminal 21, I have ordered twice from Food Panda. Once was for falafel and hummus, and the other time was for a burger and fries. I have a feeling that before the end of next week, I’ll end up ordering pizza again. The trouble with ordering different foods from Food Panda is #1) I know the restaurants are getting smacked with delivery fees and #2) it increases my daily expenditure by a factor of 2. I end up getting half the amount of food for twice the price. It’s rough. I know. I done did it to myself.

I knew that this last month would be really tight financially. I was really hoping that I would have some form of income from working these stages, whether it be an actual wage or a token cut of tips. Being stuck in the condo has helped quite a bit, but I still look at my statements every couple of days just to make sure I really know how much I have in the accounts. I bet I’ll probably be sweating a lot harder the closer I get to the 31st of May.

So I’m booked on a flight back home on May 31. The funny thing is that I won’t know if that flight is cancelled until we get closer to the date. As it stands now, Thailand has extended the ban of international passenger flights into Thailand to May 31. So, that makes me wonder if they will cancel my flight or not. Will Korean Air just push me to the next flight? Just because there are no incoming passengers, does that mean that they won’t fly the routes to get people out? These are the new questions on my mind now that I no longer have visa worries.

My lease is up on May 31 as well. I have a great landlord who has told me that if I needed to bounce early, I don’t have to worry about the security deposit. If my flight gets cancelled, I think that he would let me continue to stay in the condo until I was able to return to Boston.

Another thing that I was thinking about was my layover in Seoul. Originally, my return flight was scheduled to leave Bangkok on June 1. I scheduled an 18 hour layover in Seoul, just like I did on my way to Southeast Asia. This had me leaving at 09:30 on June 2, and landing the same day in Boston. Over the past couple weeks, Korean Air has been messing with my flight schedule. First, they moved my June 1 morning flight to a May 31 night flight. Recently, they pushed back my June 2 flight from 09:30 to 10:00 and now I’m flying into JFK. I’m waiting to see if they change it again. I’m also wondering if I’m going to get stranded in JFK, and if I’ll have to buy a ticket from JFK to Boston.

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One hour later….

So I have contacted Korean Air. I figured I have nothing else to do. So now I’m back to flying on the evening of June 1 from Bangkok to Seoul, and then flying from Seoul to Detroit in the morning, making my layover just under 4 hours, which isn’t bad. In Detroit, I have an hour and 20 minutes to change planes. Hopefully, that will go as planned. I think it’s a little tight, but with the state of air travel these days, I think I’ll be able to make it. The question is how long customs will take in Detroit. I would be lying if I told you that I didn’t think that it was going to be a little tight. I figure that if I miss the connection, it puts me in the same situation I would be in if I were stranded at JFK. Now I just have to tell my landlord that I’ll stay another night. I should get something nice for him before I leave.

Anyhow I’m wondering what will happen over the next month or so. The numbers here seem like they’re trending down pretty hard. I think if they’re not letting any new cases into the country, it may be okay here with the restrictions. Maybe that’s wishful thinking. I definitely think that we are in a better situation here in Bangkok than in Boston.

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3 days later…

Shortly after I abandoned writing for the night, the Thai government took back the kingdom wide ban on booze and even lifted it completely. So, aside from tomorrow (Wednesday, May 5), you can buy booze. Actually, for the past couple of days, booze has been on sale. I actually went out and bought a few beers to drink at home. It was a “just because I could” kind of situation.

In addition, I have been walking around the neighborhood and have been seeing how some of the businesses have been dealing with the social distancing rules. I had some boat noodles out in the neighborhood for the first time in a month. I was the only guy in the joint until just before I was done. There was a full empty table between us, which put us about 15 feet apart. To be honest, the social distancing here in Bangkok could be better, coming from a guy who has to go out to get food every single day. There are still some crowded areas, and there have been the same crowded areas even through the lockdowns. I think the biggest differences these days is that you can now go sit in a restaurant or cafe and consume your food.

I walked past a few hair salons that were open as well today. They were all pretty busy. Some were by appointment only. Some had people wait outside. Some had the hairdressers working in full ponchos with gloves, face masks, and face shields.

Honestly, who knows if it’s enough. We’re living in bizzaro world and you really just have to figure out where your line is. Yes, staying home is helping the spread of the virus. Yes, no one working is crushing a lot of people’s lives. It’s really a no win situation.

Anyhow I don’t have much more to say…. These past couple of weeks have really dragged, and I haven’t had much inspiration for anything other than changing the layout to my Animal Crossing island. What sucks is that I can’t seem to connect to any of my friends’ islands. So that’s what I have to say for now. Tomorrow, I may try to go out and walk around a park. Maybe if I see an empty barber shop, I may go get my hair cut. Who knows? All I know for now is I’m gonna spend the rest of the evening on my couch eating fruit…. which is what I have been doing for the past couple weeks.