Travel blogger left stranded in Thai holiday paradise for three months says ‘there’s worse places to be stuck’
Dan Worthy has been counting down the days in Phuket, Thailand after being unable to leave as tourist travel routes were closed down
A travel blogger has told of being holed up in a holiday paradise thousands of miles from home for more than three months because of the coronavirus.
Dan Worthy has been counting down the days in Phuket, Thailand after being unable to leave as tourist travel routes were closed down.
He arrived for a pal’s dream wedding on February 28- and has since seen the country’s whole economy shut down.
Dan is now going through local AIrBnBs after his hotel closed and is awaiting the reopening of the local airport.
The 29-year-old Manchester man regularly travels north of the border into Scotland on his journeys and claims Scottish routes through his mum.
But despite being stranded he is making the most of his time in South East Asia- swimming and soaking up the local culture while he waits.
The businessman, who also runs a travel blog, said: “I came here for my friends wedding, incredible wedding on the beach – then everything started to close down.
“The beaches, restaurants, the bridge to the mainland, the airport. I ended up having an entire hotel to myself, until that closed too!
“I’ve had to get a private Airbnb and quarantine for the month of April. There were police roadblocks between towns, you could only drive a couple of miles, it was really restricted.
“Now everything’s started to open up – the cases and deaths are incredibly low, and Thailand are doing a great job to control the virus. I’ve been here three months… still waiting on the airport to open.
“The hotel was a Marriott Hotel in a place called Mai Khao, Phuket and right now I’m staying in an Airbnb because all hotels are still closed.”
But he is trying to remain positive despite being separated from family.
He added: “You know on the surface it seems like not a bad place to be stuck, there’s worse places, the weather is great here, I’ve been able to swim…
“But when I think back, it has been pretty worrying, with lots of uncertainty – especially when they closed the hotel, because that happened quickly.
“The hotel management would push a letter under the door each day, ‘today the beaches are closing’ ‘today the restaurant is closing’ then the next one was the government has issued an order for all hotels to close.”
Dan is now waiting for the airport to reopen after being told the closest alternative was Bangkok- nearly 430 miles away.
Across the world many Brits are stranded with Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Thailand affected.
Political pressure has been growing with SNP MP Alyn Smith demanding more emergency flights to take standed Scots home.
He said he had heard ‘horror stories’ of locals blaming Brits for bringing the virus into their communities
