Tag 267 - Back in Switzerland and the story behind it Part 1/3

First of all, we apologize for the blog hiatus... It was to surprise our loved ones. Our goal was to suddenly appear, say a big "Hello!", and see the astonished faces :). It worked for some, but for others, we had to let them in on the secret a few days earlier.

From the beginning:

After much consideration and for personal reasons we won't go into detail here, we decided in the middle of the night to book the soonest flight back home. The only feasible option was to fly from Surat Thani to Bangkok three days later and then from there via Amsterdam to Switzerland.

Since Phuket was sealed off, it was not that easy....

The next day, we went to the "Kathu District Office" to get a "fit to travel" certificate. We learned from various sources that with this certificate, we could leave the "island". At the office, we were served very kindly, but one of the two officers told us that we could only get the form in conjunction with a taxi driver. The license plate of his vehicle had to be registered, and without it, we wouldn't stand a chance. We asked if we could take a taxi to the checkpoint, walk over the bridge, and continue with the next taxi on the other side. Apparently, they were not familiar with this idea - they looked at each other for a long time, discussed, and finally grinned and said it wouldn't work. Desperately, we looked at each other. Where could we quickly get a taxi that would take the route and all the checkpoints? We asked the officers if they knew someone. They looked at each other in confusion again and denied our request. Once again, we stood there desperate. Shortly after, one of the officers called a taxi central and actually arranged something for us! We filled out a form together, and supposedly, the taxi driver would take care of the rest. Since we still had to return the scooter, we agreed to meet in Patong. We scheduled to meet at 12 o'clock at the "Hard Rock Café", but due to the officer's lack of English skills, we weren't really sure if he understood us. We repeated the meeting point several times, hoping that it would actually work. It was strange that no health checks were conducted, and we couldn't take the completed form with us. Well, probably everything is registered online... Back at the accommodation, we informed our host and the person at the scooter rental. After that, we enjoyed our last evening by the pool of the villa and started packing up.