Martin About
We're chatting to expats who live and work in Thailand about the pandemic situation here. Martin is a French software contractor and has been in Thailand for about four years.
Could you introduce yourself (where are you from? how long have you lived in Thailand? and what do you do for a living?)
I'm French, and I arrived in Thailand in 2017. I am an independant software contractor.
In general, how do you think Thailand has handled the pandemic up to now?
Very well at the beginning I guess? Not so well in the past few months. Enforcing a two-week mandatory quarantine is what kept Covid away in 2020, I would guess. Mask-wearing has been well accepted and probably useful. Temperature checks everywhere is a fat joke though. They never caught anyone infected from these temperature checks. If you're too high and a human does the temp check, they usually just tell you to wait a minute for the temp to go down.
Communication from the government has been ever changing: Zero transparency or accounting on the reasoning behind certain restrictions. Vaccine management has been a big failure.
If you were put in charge of things right now, what would be the first rules or things you would change?
Allow all hospitals to order vaccines, open things that make sense (parks, outside areas, etc) Stop this dual pricing bullshit everywhere (Phuket entry Covid test is the latest example).
Let’s talk about you personally. What is the most regrettable thing that the pandemic has robbed you of or changed about your life?
I got stuck in Europe during 7 months last year (exited the country early March, as I used to do every year) and lost my visa, work permit and condo in Bangkok. Got back in October 2020 after a very difficult entry process. The good side of this is that I spent some time with family and I ended up staying in Phuket (which I would probably never have during normal times), not having a place in Bangkok anymore
From a work point of view, how has your situation changed (if indeed it has) and has there been any significant financial impact?
Zero change. I've been working remotely from Thailand for the past four years.
Has the pandemic had any positive impacts on your life?
I drink even less, I guess? Not that drinking was ever a problem for me.
When do you predict the world will return to some sort of normality and we will be able to travel abroad and maybe get to remove these damn face-masks, etc?
The world is a big place. Some places will return to normal well before others. By the end of the year for Europe, hopefully. Not before mid-2022 for Thailand realistically, because the vaccination of the population is slow and will take a long while. And a lot of Thais are against getting vaccinated (curious to see numbers, I know a few).
Things started to go pear-shaped in March 2020. Over the past year or so, has your enthusiasm for living in Thailand increased or decreased?
Neither I'd say. But it's worst at home so...
When we get to the light at the end of this long tunnel, have you promised yourself to make lifestyle changes or do some things differently?
Haven't thought about it yet to be honest.
For someone who doesn’t know how to get through the days and is perhaps suffering mentally, what would be your advice?
Exercise an hour every day, make calls or meet friends regularly (while being careful) to stay social, read a book to get off the screens, meditate, talk to a shrink, learn something new, start projects (personal or otherwise) to keep busy.
