Monthly update: South East & East Asia reopening

16 Feb

As key destinations in Asia begin opening up, I’ve decided to note give individual updates on how countries are progressing and instead provide a more broad update on the status of borders in South East and East Asia. Hopefully this will be helpful in you making decisions on your Asia visits. Note I’ve given every country a Red, Amber or Green rating with the relevant explanation at the end. Please, as always, refer to the latest restrictions on Government websites before making final decisions due to the fast changing nature of the world today!
Last updated: 13th February 2022 at 21:07 GMT.

Singapore 🟠

Vaccination status for entry: 🟢 Fully vaccinated (2 dose; 1 dose for Janssen) with a WHO approved vaccine in Singapore, VTL country, EU member state or a country that is connected to the EU Digital Covid Certificate system (e.g. UK, Thailand, Turkey). Note that although you will be able to enter the country, to gain admission to some venues e.g. restaurants you must have your booster within 270 days of the second dose to be deemed Fully Vaccinated.
Pre-departure test: 🟠 PCR or Rapid Antigen Lateral Flow test within the 2 days prior to departure (e.g. if your flight was on a Wednesday at midday GMT, you can take your test at any time on the Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday prior to the flight). Note some airlines are enforcing the incorrect rules of 48 hours prior to the flight. If you are opting for the Rapid test, then leave this as close to departure as possible to ensure you are not caught out.
Pre-departure application: 🟠 Travellers must apply for a Vaccinated Travel Pass up to 13 calendar days prior to their flight.
Booking flights: 🔴 Inbound flights to Singapore must be part of the Vaccinated Travel Lane scheme. Singapore Airlines clearly state which flights are eligible but other airlines, like British Airways, do not make this so clear. Mainly Miles have a great resource on this here - but always double check with the airline on the eligibility before booking.
Post-arrival test & quarantine: 🔴 Travellers must pre-book a PCR test costing SGD 125 to be taken upon arrival at Changi Airport. This can be booked here. Afterwards you must use private transfer, taxi or private hire vehicle (Grab/Go-Jek) before isolating in your hotel room until you receive a negative result - I have read examples of people receiving test results within 4-6 hours of taking the test.
Further testing: 🔴 After day of arrival (Day 1), you must take an unsupervised self-administered Lateral Flow Test between Days 2-7 if you plan to leave your place of residence/accommodation on that day - quite clearly, you will need to do this if you are on holiday. These tests, call ARTs, can be purchased from stores including Watsons and Mannings (which are very similar to Boots and Superdrug in the UK).
Other considerations: 🟢You will be exempt from the PCR testing if you have proof of recovery within 90 days of arrival in Singapore and meet the vaccination status requirement
Callum’s view: Singapore were out of the blocks early in their limited reopening but are beginning to fall behind. Prices for VTL-flights are expensive and generally the main connecting airlines, Emirates and Qatar, do no currently have VTL status meaning the most common value-for-money option being unviable. The post-arrival PCR is quite onerous compared to Europe and the US. One would hope that Singapore moves more towards a ‘person-based risk approach’ effectively basing the risk of a person on their vaccination status and not coming from a VTL-approved flight.

For more information on the Vaccinated Travel Lane scheme and for frequent updates, consider going to Mainly Miles’ dedicated webpage here - it’s extremely useful and unique.

Thailand🟠

Vaccination status for entry: 🟢 Fully vaccinated (2 dose; 1 dose for Janssen) with a WHO approved vaccine.
Pre-departure test: 🟠 RT-PCR within 72 hours prior to departure
Pre-departure application: 🟠 Travellers must apply for a Thailand Pass prior to arrival. You are recommended to apply at least 7 days prior to your departure. Find out more on how to apply for Thailand Pass here.
Booking flights: 🟢 Any flight is allowed from any country, connecting or direct, providing you meet the requirements for entry. Connecting flights to islands or non-Bangkok regions must be on a single ticket from your inbound international flight.
Post-arrival test & quarantine: 🔴 Travellers must pre-book a Test & Go 1-night hotel package for Day 1 (day of arrival) with inclusive private airport transfer and RT-PCR test. You must isolate until you receive your negative test result.
Further testing: 🔴 A second Test & Go 1-night package must be booked for Day 5 inclusive of a second RT-PCR test. You must isolate until you receive your negative test result.
Health insurance requirements: Health insurance with Covid-19 coverage up to USD 50,000.
Other considerations: The Thailand Pass website does state ‘if RT-PCR result is positive or detected then a recovery certificate or proof of covid recovery for at least 14 days before travelling but less than 90 days from the first date of detection’. This is quite unclear although it seems to suggest you will still need to take the tests but if they return positive you will be exempted - although I cannot verify this with the authorities.
Callum’s view: Thailand have been flip-flopping over the past 18 months on their approach to international tourists. This current solution is far from satisfactory thanks to the Day 5 PCR but it does mean you can visit this excellent country. It would be great to see the country drop at least the Day 5 test but also the PCR arrival test for Rapid Lateral Flow instead. You can read more about how I found the Test & Go process here - note this was prior to the Day 5 test introduction.

The Philippines 🟢

Vaccination status for entry: 🟢Fully vaccinated (2 dose; 1 dose for Janssen) with a WHO approved vaccine. Your home country must accept The Philippines VaxCertPH as proof of vaccination for your vaccination status to be verifiable.
Pre-departure test: 🟠 RT-PCR within 48 hours prior to departure
Pre-departure application: 🟢 No pre-departure application required
Booking flights: 🟢 Any flight is allowed from any country, connecting or direct, providing you meet the requirements for entry. The Philippine Government are still placing capacity limits on flights, however, and this will mean that the number of available seats into the country will be limited creating artificially high prices. Other impacts will be some airlines limiting award space e.g. Singapore Airlines, traditionally with great connectivity to the country, have no availability inbound but tonnes on the return to Singapore.
Post-arrival test & quarantine: 🟢No testing or quarantine after arrival.
Further testing: 🟢No additional testing but you are advised to self-monitor for symptoms for the 5 days after arrival - but you should be doing that anyway.
Health insurance requirements: 🟢Travel insurance for Covid-19 treatment costs with a minimum coverage of USD 35,000 for the duration of the stay.
Other considerations: 🟠There are some internal Covid testing requirements for travel between different islands, regions and provinces in the Philippines. For example, the island of Palawan currently requires proof of a negative antigen test within 48 hours prior to arrival whilst Boracay requires a PCR test within 72 hours of departure to the island alongside completing an application form.
Callum’s view: Entering The Philippines now has the most simple border entry regimes in all of Asia - which gives it a big Green status for me. The only downside is that some domestic travel has more onerous requirements than international entry but there are too many variations between regions to list them all here. One hopes that these are either ended in due course or dropped down to simple Rapid Lateral Flow tests.

Vietnam 🔴

Vietnam is still largely closed off despite some low scale attempts to allow tourist back to specific areas. This was mostly unsuccessful thanks to the limitations placed on inbound passenger services which make it highly unrealistic to visit. There have been some rumblings about the country reopening from the end of March 2022 at the earliest which was reported on several news outlets. Unfortunately, this information is currently based on Press Conferences with Government Ministers and current information directly from the government lacking - thus the Red rating still. Hopefully, by the next review I will be able to give you the Green light to get booking.

Cambodia 🟢

Vaccination status for entry: 🟢Fully vaccinated (2 dose; 1 dose for Janssen) with a WHO approved vaccine. You are advised to produce a printed version of the vaccination record by the UK Government.
Pre-departure test: 🟠 PCR test within 72 hours prior to departure
Pre-departure application: 🟢 No covid-specific application required but you do need to make a tourist visa application online.
Booking flights: 🟢 Any flight seems to be possible for entry into Cambodia with no restrictions.
Post-arrival test & quarantine: 🟢 A Rapid Lateral Flow test will be administered on arrival.
Further testing: 🟢No additional testing.
Health insurance requirements: 🟢 No Covid-specific insurance is required but you are strongly advised to take out travel health insurance regardless.
Other considerations: 🟢 Very few other restrictions for people visiting Cambodia. The only slightly concerning matter is that you may be required to be quarantined for up to 5 days if another person on your flight tests positive for Covid-19.
Callum’s view: On the face of it, Cambodia looks almost as open to visitors as The Philippines - which could make it a very attractive, cheap proposition for travellers and backpackers. The only concerning matter is the lack of information online which is scant - although all information here has been taken from the UK Government’s website.

Laos 🔴

I have included Laos on this list but you certainly shouldn’t be going if you are looking to have a happy go lucky time. For now, you will need to have effectively a guided tour into the country with very limited and restrictive movements - which is not particularly fun for anybody. You can read more about it in my previous article but I will note that they do have a pathway to tourism normality which does show some hope for tourists later in 2022.

Indonesia 🔴

Vaccination status for entry: 🟢Fully vaccinated (2 dose; 1 dose for Janssen) with a WHO approved vaccine. You are advised to produce a printed version of the vaccination record by the UK Government.
Pre-departure test: 🟠 PCR test within 48 hours prior to departure - although the Indonesian government describe this confusingly as 2x24 hours
Pre-departure application: 🟠 Download the PeduliLindungi app, registering your PCR test alongside e-Hac (vaccination), eCD (customs declaration) and proof of hotel quarantine booking
Booking flights: 🟠You can only take flights to Bali and Riau Islands. I assume this could be on a international connecting airline such as Qatar Airways or Singapore Airlines.
Post-arrival test & quarantine: 🔴 Post-arrival negative PCR test and 5 full days of quarantine at a hotel on the list of providers that have mandatory quarantine facilities.
Further testing: 🔴 In order to be released from quarantine you must have a final negative PCR test on Day 5.
Health insurance requirements: 🟠 Minimum health insurance coverage of USD 25,000.
Other considerations:🔴 There seems to be way too many hoops to jump through for Indonesia compared to other regional players. The only saving grace appears to be that you can roam freely within the resort bubble during the quarantine period but that doesn’t seem ideal when you are effectively giving 5 days of holiday just for quarantine.

Malaysia

One final honourable mention to Malaysia. Although they still get a red rating , the Government have signalled their intention to open up to foreign tourists as early as the 1st March - we shall see what happens there and how much effort one will need to put into travelling to the country. One would hope somewhere similar to Singapore without VTL at a minimum.

The rest of the region

Unfortunately countries, regions and territories in this category show almost no progress towards reopening - either due to extensive quarantine periods making tourism impossible or barring foreign nationals.