Exhausted & Adapting to Our Post-Covid Thai World

Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that the transition out of Covid19 here in Thailand would be MORE exhausting, demanding and debilitating than the previous 8 months of lockdown, hand-sanitizing, mask wearing and fear mongering.

13 days just went by where I have simply been too numb and mentally tired to blog on Hive.

Thailand has no Covid at all - and the mask wearing has become something done for show in government buildings. Locally no one wears masks or worries about Covid at all. Why? Cos the borders are CLOSED. October 2019 saw around 4 million tourists enter Thailand - affectionately called the Land of Smiles. October 2020? 1,495 people, most of whom were returning business owners or spouses of Thai nationals. We have had only 320 tourists in total, to only Phuket. With 14 days strict quarantine. Are they really tourists? Heck no! They're investors and buyers, looking for bargains: hotels, guest houses, cafes and business.

It's been unbelievably difficult to be a solo-mom entrepreneur of a physical business here. We have no social or financial support, pensions or unemployment payments (and yes, I am a serious tax payer here!). We've had almost no income for 9 months and are 8 months behind in rent over 2 buildings - our home and our business premises.

NO ONE expects western tourists anytime soon - not before mid 2021 at earliest. Thailand has made it clear that they're not enamored with the Me-Me-Me western mindset and is planning tourist bubbles for 2021 with only a handful of countries: some regions of China, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and Finland. I have just learned that the Korean doctor I work with along the Thai-Burmese border is not planning to return to Thailand till 2022. Urgh. I still don't have access to my herbal growing areas along the Thai border due to rampant Covid infections in Burma.

So what to do??

My business, Pure Thai Natural Co Ltd took the only possible decision other than jumping off a cliff: we decided we HAD to adapt to the new markets - Asian markets. And so I joined a Thai language business networking club, since Asian people actually find many westerners offensive in their manner and prefer to do business amongst themselves. To put it rather bluntly, I am buying into and investing into a new business Family of Choice, Asian style.

My days and every spare baht have been committed to new product packaging design, new social media strategies and networking with Thai/Asian people and the few remaining foreign business owners with cash to spend.

Why the packaging redesign? My simple classic looking eco-friendly packaging simply doesn't appeal to Japanese, Chinese Korean or Singapore people. Too plain.

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Not to mention the language issues. Having everything in English only on the pack simply is no longer an option, and so we have opted for a bilingual pack (Thai one side, English the other) with a QR code for Chinese speakers to access product information, in Chinese, on our website. My days are a blur of editing packaging drafts and working in multiple languages. It's really tough to go with someone else's design that everyone loves and raves about, except you. I think they call this Founders Syndrome.

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I have been swimming every day between new cultural ideas, translations and the pragmatics of working in a relatively non-digital culture - it's easier to DRIVE 45 mins to my designer and explain things face to face than email corrections to her. Describing colour expectations to someone with different cultural ideas of what is beautiful? It's wearing.

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In between times, I am attending networking meetings, playing in business club sporting events, trawling second hand stores for acceptable Asian business clothing that fits this 6 foot 2 inch woman.... and juggling the people banging on the door for money. Urgh.

Two evenings ago I presented my Gift Box project to the local Skal hotel and tourism professionals networking group here in Chiang Mai - those who haven't jumped ship and who are still relatively solvent. They gave me 5 mins to present my fair trade end-of-year-sustainable giving story to basically some very cashed up guests.

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And I took a guest. Khun Irin, the smaller woman to my left.

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Irin walked into Thailand from war-town Karen state in Burma as a child, and grew up in the Mae La Noi refugee camp. After 40 years and a life of hardship that makes most of us look like absolute sissies, she is now the proud owner of a kitchen business - manufacturing and producing imported kitchens into Asia. Irin's mother still lives in a small bamboo hut not far from where my herbs are growing in the foothills above the Mae Sariang valley. I received this photo of our herbs from the border regions (where I am still unable to travel) just this morning:

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The 5 million Karen people living along the borders and within Karen state have been hit harder by Covid than we have. The lowly paid housemaid and construction jobs which the tourism industry feeds off are no longer to be found. The high mountains have no water in the dry season, so growing food is a huge challenge for them. They have many months ahead before the new season rains come in May 2021.

It is THIS that gets me out of bed and making tough decisions right now. If I can adapt and sell more product into Asia by making changes to my business, these people have a chance.

It was funny the other night with Irin. What she wanted more than anything was to have HER photo taken next to the sports car in the lobby of the hotel where the dinner function was held. But she was super shy, and so I offered to go first.

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In a world pretty low on optimism, it was a fun & playful moment.

What I'm learning as I sit exhausted late at nights, is that much of what I'm experiencing and processing is so complex - culturally, emotionally, politically - that it's far beyond what one can write in a simple blog post. I'm also learning that technology is critical to Hive's success. My laptop battery died during the last 2 months, and so with very limited funds, I'm really only Hiving on my laptop, at home. And I'm simply not here enough. So TODAY I'm setting up @dapplr in my phone with all my keys and permissions, so I can be more active onchain during this intense transition time.

I was incredibly grateful to the ONLY Hive person who noticed I was silent & MIA from my usual Hive game and has reached out these last days to see if I was OK: @minismallholding.

Actually, I haven't been OK. In between all of the above and being a solo mom juggling to keep electricity connected and food on the table, my 84 year old mother who lives in a retirement community in Australia has twice in 10 days been rushed to hospital by ambulance with dangerously high blood pressure following a "heart failure episode". It's all a bit vague what's exactly wrong with her heart because despite the 2 emergencies and hospitalizations SHE IS YET TO SEE A CARDIOLOGIST, HAVE A SIMPLE BLOOD PROTEIN TEST OR HAVE A ECG. Grrrrr... The new 3rd world. wtf Australia??!! After being offered the money to travel to see her by a dear friend, I have had to take the painful decision to say no. It's simply not feasible to travel CNX-Bangkok-Doha-MEL (3 days travel each way! 3 months waiting list for flights!) and then pay exorbitant amounts for 2 weeks quarantine, and then do it all in reverse. 6-7 weeks away with no one to care for my child or run my business as it gets back up off its knees? I have been struggling with the decision to simply call my mother every day and accept that I'm unlikely to ever see my mother again, in the flesh, in this lifetime. She told me not to worry about coming to her funeral.

And so sometimes the days of overwhelmed aloneness and not being able to post pile up, and we learn who the real community people are on Hive. Thank you, Mini. x I'm calling this post-Covid period the Post Covid Olympics. 9.7 degree of difficulty and an astounding amount of pressure to perform. I look forward to setting up & starting to use Dapplr and chunking down this complex world into postable bite-sized pieces. More tomorrow.

Treasure The Moments, Reassess Your Priorities, Hug Your Mom.


All images used in my posts are created and owned by myself, unless specifically sourced. If you wish to use my images or my content, please contact me.


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I am very sorry to hear all that @artemislives and there are unfortunately so many more people in situation like you if not worst this covid is certainly putting us all to the test but it's nice to hear that you are still maintaining a positive attitude towards your situation i do hope it all works out for you and you do get to hug your mom once again. Take care and stay safe 😊

Im literally sitting here enabling @Dapplr on my cell phone and you are literally my very first comment and upvote. 😊

Yes... so much separation and so many families just waiting. I think it teaches us to treasure every moment with the ones we love.

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Lol...how amazing well that just might be a sign of good luck and a brighter future i feel honored to be the first 😊

You are so right one good thing and the only good thing that covid has taught us is definitely to treasure and embrace every moment as you say. Stay strong @artemislives 💖

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Hello @ArtemisLives … It's certainly a pleasure to see this post after your recent break. I 'was' wondering why you went silent; a lot of people have recently and I sense, for similar (emotional) reasons.

Your mother sounds like a very gracious, intuitive woman, having told you "not to worry"... It is similar in scope that 'I' would tell my child under similar circumstances and mean every word of it. She obviously wants you to have as happy a life as possible.

One of my sisters is seriously ill (the youngest). I've made small posts about it, also explaining my reduced posting activity. Of course there are other reasons - not feeling the need to write about.

The emotionally draining effect of life's challenges often leads to a draining of physical energy and my wish for you and loved ones is, wellness, peace and happiness.

What a lovely response - thank you. I haven't been reading much online either but I'm off to go read about your sister. My own sister died quite suddenly about 18 months ago and it's a very sobering process.

It's partly that Hive requires us to post "great content" - it DOES require a clear mind, will, energy, time and emotional space. And yes, I have felt drained and also unable to engage with so many negative posts about Covid, elections etc. I really do find some of the content toxic to the point of preferring to sidestep it. It has taken my all to keep us fed and get thorugh most days.

I'm really appreciating the WISH for wellness, peace and happiness - it IS a choice, to some degree, and I do believe the intention we hold - with love - for others changes the energy around them and in the world.

thank you. xxx

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Oh, I'm sending you so much love ❤️ Thank you for sharing all of this, I witness your struggle, pain, and exhaustion. You are such a powerful, strong woman and I admire you so much. I really hope you'll see the light in the tunnel soon even though I understand it might take a while. And thank you for updating us about the tourist situation in Thailand, I understand I will not be possible to go there anytime soon.

And the news about your mom, it's heartbreaking to read, I wish I could do something for you ❤️

Thank you my dear. Coming from Scandinavia it MIGHT be possible for you to travel to Thailand in the next months, since most of the Scandinavian countries count as 'low covid community transmission" which is the Thai government's criteria. But the problem is almost no flights and they're 500%+ up in price. Plus you need to buy covid inclusive health insurance to the value of USD $100,000 minimum. Plus Covid pre-testing. Plus quarantine 15 days at a Thai government approved hotel at your own expense.

They MIGHT drop the Q requirement from some countries, but I think the health insurance requirement is here to stay.

Yes, it's hard to know what to say about my mom. The healthcare in Australia is beyond deplorable, as is the (very expensive!) private aged care. She has said to me often these last months that she thinks it was a good choice for me to make my life here.

Have you made exit / travel plans yet? If you can get to Chiang Mai, you're very, very welcome. Although I suspect not really doable before June 2021 at the earliest.

Hugs. And a big blush for your sweet comments.

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Wow, that feels impossible really, to travel to Thailand.

No, no plans yet. I'm so tired all the time, way too busy, so it's hard to move forward with these plans so to say. But I'll put my flat on the market after New Years' so I'll be here until next spring or so. I hope it might be easier to go somewhere by then, even if that's not Asia.

And thank you very much for the invite. I really hope it can happen in the future.

🤗💚

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I could feel that things have been quite tough for several people as I noticed several bloggers just became very quiet and unseen. I guess this energy affect everyone in different levels; I lost two cats during this time.

Don’t really know what to say about the future trend. I guess we have to try to survive the best we could while hoping for better situation in the near future. You have all the strength and stamina to follow your objectives; just take it easy from time to time.

Good luck

Oh no!! Not the cutey little ginger cats??!! I'm so sorry to hear you lost your companions. 😭

Yes, there is a definite energy drain all round the world as people struggle to re-orient themselves and adapt to losses and changes of so many kinds.

Sending hugs and hoping you are staying safe during the Bangkok turmoil. x

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Yup! The change in energy was quite strongly felt for the whole week.
One of my orange cats had disappeared! I couldn’t find the cat with my ‘third eye’ this time. It was probably attacked by stray dogs. I had some premonition about her loss in advance, but I couldn’t do anything about it,
Well! Life has to go on.

I do hope suitable solutions will present themselves to you soon.

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Thanks for the tip,

I've not used dapplr before. Let us know how you go.

So far I've downloaded it and now fiddling with Brave on my cell phone, to add the hivesigner etc. Pain in the butt - I have to remove some apps and about 57,649 old photos and videos to free up enough space first. LOL. Clearly this is now a weekend project and not a 5 min 'thing'.

So clearly people with cellphones with small data capacity are really limited in terms of Hive - I have a Samsung Galaxy and it has HUGE capacity - so much so that I rarely have to bother cleaning old junk out. Until today. 🤣

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I can see why you must be exhausted. So sorry that this global situation has resulted in what so many of us dread - not being there for aging parents in different countries. Jamie was in absolute tears yesterday due to family issues he could not have a hope in hell of solving from afar, and is terrified something might happen to his Mum and him not able to be there. So we utterly empathise with your situation and feel your pain. I had thought you must be very busy with the business - a lot of people are taking breaks to manage life - was glad to hear off Mini that you were okay. I see what you mean about the packaging, but can also see that rebranding and redesigning is the way to go and I am in admiration of your strength, persistance and business nouse (sp? strange word that sounds good in my head) to find a new direction. I realise it's transform or sink - but with your heart in the right place, the business side of things will blossom again, I am certain. Sending you warmth and love at this difficult time, and do take care. As for posting on HIVE, as you know, it'll be here when you get back and no one holds in against you when you are absent, just welcomes you when you have time, headspace and love to drop in. Things are a little quiet here, and I imagine they will be across December as well, as is usual the case! xx Words do fail me a little as my heart breaks for the impending loss of your Mum, and knowing nothing I can do or say will ease things at all for you, but still, reaching out across the miles with good intention and heartfelt regards.