In the past I had expressed hope for the reopening of the Island of Phuket to international tourism because since that island as well as many other parts of the country are extremely reliant on tourism for the overall economy of the region, it desperately needed to happen even if it was going to be a bit risky. As we have seen, a group from the UAE already had a positive case in their group, and rather than quarantining for 14 days without being able to leave their hotel rooms, the group opted instead to return to the UAE, presumably at their own expense.
This far, no more incidents of this sort have been reported but who knows if that is really true or not. I had suggested that the absence of an actual free press in this country may simply be resulting in the suppression of that information rather than it actually being the case: Your guess is as good as mine.
So thus far the "Sandbox" program of Phuket has largely been lauded as a success story. Succcessful enough in fact, that the "go ahead" for Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao is already in the works. Great news right? Well not if you are one of the people on that island that actually wants to ever be able to leave.
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At the moment, the residents of Phuket who live and work there are prohibited from leaving the island at all. The Sarasin bridge, which is the only way to get on and off Phuket unless you have your own helicopter or boat, is totally shut off to all traffic other than commercial goods and supplies for the most part. You can't just go to Phuket if you want to and this is the real downside of this "sandbox" because once you get there, unless you are flying to an international destination, you are basically in a gigantic (albeit beautiful) Alcatraz.
This is not being reported in the news a great deal because: Media suppression. However, my friends on the island say that they are not permitted to leave unless they are fully-vaccinated with such and such doses of the various vaccines and if you are one of the people out there that doesn't want to get vaccinated for whatever reason, you might not be able to leave the island for the foreseeable future.
The military have been called in to assist in checkpoints as well as patrolling the waters around Phuket to ensure compliance.
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I feel bad for the soldiers here, Phuket is incredibly hot and humid... plus those scarves are silly and pointless!
Does this sound like a dream vacation to you yet? Well it gets better! A vast majority of the bars and restaurants are closed as the "Delta variant" has already been detected on the island. Therefore, outside of "approved bars and restaurants," normally ones attached to pricey hotels for the "Sandbox" guests, no businesses are allowed to be open. Therefore, this program that is designed to boost the economy of the entire island is actually only going to benefit the already wealthy owners of said resorts. Surprise, surprise!
I only know a handful of people that live there and they are all foreign residents. So far, they said they are hating the reopening sandbox program because it isn't benefitting anyone and is instead, resulting in stricter lockdown mandates for them for the sake of protecting the tourists.
In my mind, if this is what needs to be done by the government... if they need to eliminate the rights and privileges of the people who live there in order to be "open" for tourism, then the entire thing should be scrapped. At first glance this looked like it was meant to be for the betterment of the entire island but yet again, this might have been a ploy to benefit only the already wealthy business owners from the very start.
It's a damn shame, but then again, if you have lived in this country for just as long as I have, you probably saw this coming from a long ways away.