Four months later

Hey there, what’s up? 
It’s been a long long time since my last update, and a lot happened in the last 4 months. 

At the end of July I decided to fly back to Europe to get vaccinated in my home country. It’s been great and also emotional to see some family members and friends after more than 2 years.
After getting my two shots, I even managed to travel to Denmark to spend a week in Copenhagen with a few friends. At that time (beginning of October) traveling around Europe was a breeze compared to travels in Asia. I only needed to show my Green Pass ( a certificate of vaccination) in order to board the plane and enter Denmark.

I enjoyed being a care free tourist again, trying new food, going to art exhibitions and discovering a new country. I even appreciated the cold and windy weather (for a short while!). 

In October I spent a week exploring Copenhagen. This is Nyhavn, one of the most photographed places in the city.

In Italy I spent most of the time eating and drinking at restaurants or family reunions, and caught up with my best friends.
However, it wasn’t all rosey. First, my mother broke a foot and had to wear a cast for almost two months, and then my beloved Birman cat Lila Grace, my soul mate for the past 17 years, died of sickness and age while I was at home.
She died peacefully in my arms, surrounded by the whole family, and I should be grateful for her long life and that she is now pain free, but the truth is it’s been devastating, and I’ll keep looking for her in any cat I meet, hoping to see her again, somewhere, somehow.
Thank you for being the most intelligent, affectionate friend ever, and for waiting for my return before living this world, Lila.
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Bad things never come alone, and a very disappointing news reached me in Italy less than two weeks after I had left Thailand: my landlord decided to kick me out of the little house I had been renting in Klong Muang.
My two cats (and their pet sitter) were still living there at the time, waiting for my return, but the landlord didn’t want them to stay one day longer, and they had to move out to a temporary place.
The sudden reason for the eviction? The landlord got scared of Covid and emptied all his rental properties. There wasn’t much to discuss, I had to ask friends to host my cats and take care of them until my return.
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My 3 and a half months in Europe went fast, and at the beginning of November I flew back to Thailand, looking forward to leave winter behind and to be reunited with my feline family. 
Because I had already started the procedures for the Sandbox scheme, I had to book a hotel in Phuket for 7 nights, even if from November 1st the new Stop & Go scheme began, allowing foreign travellers from 62 countries to only sleep in Phuket one night before being free to travel elsewhere.
However, after all the stress I experienced in the past 3 months, I wasn’t upset of having to rest and relax in a hotel for a week; on the contrary, my mother and I 100% enjoyed our “forced” stay at Le Meridien Beach Resort in Karon Noi (best known as Relax Beach).

Paying for all the expenses related to the Sandbox wasn’t cheap: in order to enter Thailand through this scheme one needs:
to be fully vaccinated, 
to book a 7 night stay in a SHA+ hotel
to pay for the transfer (airport to hotel)
to pay for two PCR tests (on arrival and on day 6th)
to have proof of an insurance specifically covering for Covid related expenses up to 100,000 US dollars.

Spending a week at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort as part of the Phuket Sandbox scheme has been anything but amazing

Some of these requirements have been waved by now, but they were all in places when I entered Thailand, making it an expensive come back. However, it was time to be back, and I had a great week at Le Meridien.

As soon as I arrived in Krabi, I started looking for a new house.
Due to the lack of international tourists and long term tenants, there are many properties available at the moment, and prices are lower than what they used to be one year ago, so it wasn’t too difficult to find a bigger house at a convenient rate.
I had to give up a wonderful location right on the beach, and a single house where nobody disturbed me, however I’m happy with the new apartment in a condo with gym, pool and walking distance to the beach.
​Now I have a guest room and a spare bathroom, and a kitchen that looks like a real European kitchen (not so common in Thailand!). 

Two happy cats in a real kitchen

Now that I’m settled, I only miss one thing to get my life back on track: work.
We’re all struggling here in Krabi, several people I know had left for good, others went back to their home countries (or villages upcountry) not having a clue about when and how they will be back.
It’s depressing to see so many companies which were doing well before the pandemic shutting down and so many abandoned buildings falling in pieces.
A few tourists are back in Krabi and a few shops re-opened, but the recent outburst of a new Covid variant puts everything at stake, again. 
It’s going to be another quiet high season, how quiet is still too early to say.