I managed to get away to Thailand this winter. Who would've thunk it? The hoops I had to jump through... I'll describe them below. But it all worked out... well, mostly.

How to visit Thailand during the 2021 COVID 'crisis'

This is what you need:

Certificate of negative PCR test before boarding the plane
Thai health insurance purchased for duration of stay (to pay for your expenses in case you get Covid while in Thailand)
24 hours of isolation at special hotel when arriving to Thailand while second PCR test is done (hotel transport must pick you up at airport. You are not allowed to leave airport on your own). This needs to be arranged BEFORE you travel.
Proof of being fully vaccinated
Apply for Thai Pass at thai government site. Input all above data. Wait for pass to be granted.

You must your Thai Pass approved before getting on the plane. You have the risk of passing the first PCR test and getting a positive second PCR test and if that happens you need to spend x number of days in a Thai hospital until you test negative.

I had the good fortune of getting through all of this without difficulty.

Covid precautions at Bangkok airport

Interesting things (as in bad) happened when I attempted to fly home to Sweden tre weeks later: I had booked a ticket from Bangkok -> Doha -> Copenhagen. However when trying to check into my flight to Doha the airline, Qatar Airways, refused to allow me to travel to Denmark. They said I needed to show a negative PCR test. I had checked the regulations in advance and knew that I didn't need to do a PCR test in order to enter Denmark. I showed them the Danish web page that explained the rules but they refused to listen to me. They ended up changing my flight so that I flew to Stockholm instead... but this was 10 hours later. And then I had to get from Stockholm to Malmö at my own expense. Also my car was stuck at Copenhagen airport and I had to pick that up a few days later. Of course, when I did go to Denmark to pick up my car there was no one checking that I had a PCR test.

Summary

Total days riding 18

Sunny days / Rainy days: 18 / 0

Total distance: 1465 km in total, 81 km/day

Total time: 82.5 hours, 4.5 hours/day

Total climbing: 15983 m, 888 m/day

Total crashes: 0

Strava KOMs: 7

Chiang Mai

After getting through my Covid screening in Bangkok I got on a plane towards Chiang Mai the same evening (I had landed in Bangkok in the morning and done the Covid test around lunch time). I stayed the first night at my pal Johnny's place. He was kind enough to pick me up at the airport as well.

Johnny and I. Photo at the top of the mountain in the small village café

I had a bit of trouble with my first Airbnb apartment but the second one worked out fine. I got a place in the middle of Nimmanhaemin area of Chiang Mai which is sort of fashionable and has lots of small shops and restaurants. This turned out to be great because excellent meals were never more than a few minutes walk away. The 'rent' was about €20/$20 a day for a 30 sqm apartment with kitchen and bathroom.

Chiang Mai is located in northern Thailand, close to Myanmar

Training

I decided to structure my training so that every third day I'd do a high intensity day by going up the mountain at full speed, mostly up my Benchmark climb, which took about an hour. After that I'd have two "recovery" days where one was a loooong distance slow ride, while the other was more of a semi recovery day where I would do one or two of the local XC tracks at race speed.

I got 18 days of cycling in all together with the first and last day being a little bit shorter due to arrival and departure logistics.

Benchmark Climb

This is Benchmark climb: https://www.strava.com/segments/11422742?filter=overall

This is the climb that I do every year I visit Chiang Mai. This year I posted some good watts up the hill but didn't manage to beat my personal best from 2 years ago. The watts were higher this year though but that's because I've previously measured using a Stages (left leg) power meter and now I have a Quarq (dual sided)

Cowboy XC track

https://www.strava.com/segments/30731653?filter=overall

This track was new for this year and I had a lot of fun riding it. Here's a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-WncTqVTic

It's really twisty, turny and technical so totally didn't suit my strengths but I had a lot of fun mastering it and in the end posted some good times around it.

The good thing about it's technical nature was also that I could not get a really high intensity on it so it was useful even in my recovery days.

There was also a jump/drop at the track that I practiced: