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You Brits should stop complaining – at least you can leave your country

Thousands of expats in Asia are unable to visit their families - getty
Thousands of expats in Asia are unable to visit their families - getty

“Hey Chris, will you be coming home for Christmas?” reads a text from a friend in The Netherlands who I haven’t seen in a while. In any normal year, I’d answer yes. But this is not a normal year, and for the first time since moving to Bangkok, I have no idea when I will be able to visit “home home” again.

You see, in Thailand, my adopted home since 2014, trips abroad are practically out of the question. Borders have been sealed off since early April, not only putting the tourism industry on the brink of collapse but also preventing anyone inside from taking trips overseas.

Meanwhile, I see Instagram updates from friends island-hopping around Greece and road-tripping through France. A fellow travel journalist just kicked off a safari in Rwanda, and my own brother got back from a hiking trip in the Austrian Alps just last week. For most of us in Asia, and many other parts of the world (including Australia), these scenes are still surreal.

To be fair, leaving the country isn’t actually all that difficult. Bangkok’s international airport reopened in July, and there are weekly flights to London, Amsterdam, and Paris. It’s the getting back part that turns the idea of a holiday abroad into a distant daydream.

Despite belonging to the select group of foreigners currently allowed re-entry into the country (thanks to my visa type), returning wouldn’t be an easy feat. It would require an approval letter from a Thai embassy, two separate health certificates, pricey health insurance, and (like all official affairs in Thailand) a fist-sized wad of personal documents and signed photocopies. And there’s more: with no commercial flights allowed to land at Bangkok’s international airport, the only way to arrive in Thailand is on board a repatriation flight, organised by the embassy. To reserve a ticket, I’d first have to secure a booking for a two-week quarantine at a government-approved hotel in Bangkok, which, as some returnees have reported, can take weeks of hassling hotel staff. I’d have to pay for this myself, with rates averaging around £1,500 for the 14-night stay. Upon landing in Bangkok, I’d be strictly monitored for two weeks and tested for Covid-19 twice before I can finally return to my house.

All that for a vacation? I’ll pass. But this isn’t just about a holiday break (Thailand’s beaches and jungles are just a short flight away, after all). These rules don’t differentiate between fun trips and family matters. My parents (who, thankfully, visited me right before the pandemic took off in February), are unlikely to meet their only grandson for Christmas this year. I haven’t hugged my beloved pooch since late 2018, and I have yet to see my niece, who will be celebrating her first birthday soon, in person. Expatriate friends in the same boat have had to make tough decisions about visiting terminally ill grandparents and attending best friends’ weddings. We now have to weigh off the value of a trip back home against weeks of planning flights and hotel stays, embassy visits, and having to pay a small fortune for the whole ordeal.

Thailand isn’t alone in this. In neighbouring Myanmar, the international airport has been closed since April, leaving many expatriates in a similar quagmire. “When the first wave of Covid-19 cases hit back in April, it was apparent that I would not be able to spend August with my family in Europe as planned,” says Nikki Barltrop, a Yangon-based friend who works at a hospitality management company. “I miss my family. We are in the middle of a second wave of Covid-19 cases here, so, realistically, I am not going to see them until at least next summer.” Friends in Singapore, Taiwan and Japan face the same dilemmas. They could leave, in theory – but getting back to Asia would be near impossible.

Right now, I don’t know when I will be able to see my family again. And I don’t even dare to think about a holiday outside the country. Plans for travel bubbles burst as quickly as they appear, and the Thai government has yet to communicate a solid proposal for reopening the country’s borders. Rumour has it that this might not even happen before this hellish year ends. So, reading complaints about the horrors of quarantine at home (boo-hoo), and not being able to fully enjoy a family trip to Portugal because there’s a possibility of having to self-isolate upon return seem slightly trivial to me.

Yes, the UK government's flip-flopping between red and green lists is a logistical nightmare, but at least you can travel abroad. Holidaying around Europe and the Caribbean as you wish, with – whisper it – a loosely enforced quarantine (at your own home, no less!) as a worst case scenario? Sign me up, please.