Thai Visa Offline

[Mai Krap]

Earlier this evening I could not get Thai Visa online. It could have been for any number of reasons but I find that since September everytime I try to logon and cannot I tend to go completely paranoid that something big and scary has happened in Bangkok. I instantly start surfing the big news agencies for Thai news and calling people in the city without raising their suspecions because Im possibley a little off the deep end. While I realize that this is all so unhealthy I guess it may be a hangover or even post tramatic stress disorder from the absolute intolerable and ignorant news of the Tsunami.

While I was on the otherside of Thailand on Ko Chang I remember being informed within minutes as our favorite breakfest and lunch place is located next to a large diveshop which has instructors going back and forth to Phuket. One of them had called from Phuket to basicly set up a database to find out who was and was not working in Phuket and this started the chain reaction of fear that spread through our comminty about the loss of friends and even family on that day. This was compounded by knowing that I had just had dinner with friends from Sweden and their children who left on the morning flight to transfer down to Phuket and knowing the first stop for the kids would be the beach.

After a couple hours we were finally contacted from Sweden with the news they were fine. In the wait I had logged onto Thai Visa and was watching the news more or less as it happened as pictures were uploaded by members of the forum. I as many watched Thai Visa for the real news as it was typed up by members on the ground there along with the many personal phone calls I would recieve on the matter from around Thailand. It was the only subject for me and the guys I know for months while Ko Chang saw numbers of visitors it may never see again by those who were arriving by the hour looking for rooms, It was a boom season for Ko Chang. My point being that as we all knew how desperate the situation was from the Tsunami we also know how deprived of real information the average Thai citizen was when it came to the reality that was the Boxing Day Tsunami.

I had just moved and was waiting for a new connection when the Coup went off in 2006. I just happened by a cafe to check my e-mail for the first time in days and as I checked the forum again the news broke right before my eyes and I as many sat waiting for the internet to go blank like the News Channels but it never happend. Anyone who reads the forum knows it is about the best source of information on the net concerning Thailand and breaking news. No other place can boast of having so many people on the ground with both Internet connections and digital cameras to pass on news, Its basicly a tabloid version of of the Agencie France Press or Agencie Farang Press if you like.

While I have seen some members get the story all wrong there is always some person around to correct it or offer a completely oppisite veiw on the matter. With the chaos thats going on here (Thailand) currently and rumors on top of rumors concerning bombs and coups I find myself checking the news more often here than ever. Call it a sickness or addiction or even just desperation to understand my situation on a hour by hour basis but here I am for better or worse. Whatever the future holds for the country, Its citizens, and its Farang It will end up being posted about here first in real time. Thats why I feel like Fred G. Sanford every time I try to log on and get the cannot connect message, "This is this the big one, Im coming home!"

There are trying times ahead and I was just wondering how many of the forum members feel a since of gloom or even paranoia when they try to log on and get the message of no connection or is it me alone with those feelings because I finally stepped one to many footsteps off into the jungle and can no longer see the view from the road.

[bkkmadness]

I don't get paranoid when TV is down, because it's pretty much only ever server hassles on because of updates. I do agree it's an invaluable Thai news resource for on the spot reports though.

[lannarebirth]

I really like this website, but I don't share your feelings of paranoia when it's offline. Nor do I think anything particularly bad is going to happen with respect tp our "situations" in Thailand. When it's offline, I usually am annoyed, as I often am, when I forget to not take for granted all the great things in life I enjoy.

[britmaveric]

Could be a number of things..... server maintenance, isp, dns ect. I'm sure TV is low on the priority list of being blocked by the govt officials. (prob have a good laff at us at any rate)

[george]

http://thaivisa-news.blogspot.com/

[kayo]

that's good that, goerge.

i've redirected several time over the past six months, to that blogspot page.

Just now I BOOKMARKED IT, so that next time the servers are out, I'll check there before calling in the national guard.

[Mai Krap]

http://thaivisa-news.blogspot.com/

Thanks George, I guessed it was to do with ongoing problems but it could have just aas easily been a local issue.

You just never know what will happen next over here but I know somebody from the forum will be there and most likely have digital images up within and hour. There is no need for white jacketed escorts or anything close but the link to the Blogspot is most welcomed, Thanks for putting up with my sarcasim over the years.

[The Dan Sai Kid]

that's good that, goerge.

i've redirected several time over the past six months, to that blogspot page.

Just now I BOOKMARKED IT, so that next time the servers are out, I'll check there before calling in the national guard.

It's you - Kayo - you are the one holding up TV with all the crap you post!!

[kayo]

Holy moly DSK! If I didn't have to go round refuting all the pot/black/kettle you spew, I'd have time

for a life!

Kayo!