Phuket Sandbox Scheme – arriving in Phuket!

I’ll start at the beginning, with check-in at Singapore Airlines in Adelaide, so if you just want to read about arriving in the “Phuket Sandbox” skip on ahead. To read about getting an exemption to leave Australia or about applying for a Thai Visa or Certificate of Entry, click here for part one of The Phuket Sandbox – and how to get there.

Singapore Airlines opened their check-in counters three hours before departure. They suggested that guests arrive at check-in at least 2 1/2 before their flight. Our flight was at 09:30, and we were at the check-in counter at 06:30. I really didn’t want any nasty surprises. If we had forgotten an essential piece of paperwork, I thought the extra time would be valuable.

We were the first to check-in. The staff have a checklist of information required from us. Fortunately, I had all the paperwork ready. We had to present the following forms to the check-in counter in Adelaide before boarding our flight.

After that, it was pretty straightforward, and we boarded the flight for Singapore. There were only 18 passengers on our Airbus A350-900.

Remember, you have to wear a mask in the airport and while on the plane (unless eating or drinking)…. hence we had a few wines on the journey.

Even though we only had 18 passengers on the plane, we had to remain seated until our turn to depart the aircraft. People whose final destination was Singapore disembarked first, and then the people transiting were ushered off. We were required to wear a wristband that marked us as transit passengers and were ushered to a transit waiting area.

This was our flight fully boarded and ready to take off!

There was a range of seating in the area, including comfortable sofa style chairs, work tables with charging facilities, a TV, and dining tables. A coffee stall and another for drinks and snacks were available in the transit area. However, if we wanted a meal, we needed to use a QR code from which we could order something from anywhere in the airport, and it would be delivered to us. We only had a two-hour transit, so we did not need to use this facility.

When it was time to board, we were taken in a golf cart to the departure lounge. The transit passengers (all seven of us) were kept separated from the other passengers (two of them) while we waited. Eventually, the nine passengers boarded the plane, and we were on our way to Phuket.

The routine in Phuket was reasonably straightforward. As there were only nine passengers to process, it did not take too long (that might change as more people arrive).

Firstly, we were taken to an area where we were seated, and we had to produce all the same paperwork for the staff.

We were then shown an app called MorChana that we needed to download to our phones. The staff was excellent and made the process easy by helping us connect to the airport wifi and patiently guiding us through the app. Before leaving Australia, we had already downloaded the ThailandPlus app that we were required to have. The MorChana is another app in addition to the ThailandPlus app.

Afterwards, at immigration, we once again produced our paperwork. I became worried the immigration would keep the paperwork, and I found I had become quite attached to what ‘seemingly’ had become a lifeline. I needn’t had worried my paperwork was returned with my stamped passport.

Once we had collected our luggage, we proceeded towards the exit. We had to register with our passports for our COVID test and received a QR code that we could scan to find out our results. Then we continued to the testing area, where we received our test. From there, airport staff confirmed we were being taken directly to your accommodation by an approved airport transfer service (we organised ours with the hotel). We were ushered to the waiting van and taken directly to the resort.

Once at the resort, we had to produce all the relevant paperwork again. We were told we must stay in our room until we had a negative result. Room service is available 24 hours, and we had purchased a couple of bottles of tequila, so we were comfy. It was explained that we must use MorChana to check-in at the hotel once a day and at the same time have our temperature checked. However, after our initial negative result, we could freely move around the island.

Dwayne checked our results less than 12 hours later, and as we expected, they were negative. We were then able to enjoy a delicious breakfast in the dining room. We were finally back in Thailand and soon to be reunited with our yacht Thorfinn.

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