Samui & Phangan Still Without Power For 2Nd Day .story Continues With Updated Info & Suggestions.

[steelerian]

Im in Chaweng in a hotel near the roundabout, power just back. Not sure if its just our turn or not?

[depi]

At BigBuddha now back too (after 4 hours again)

[robsamui]

Power in Lamai came back on at around 3:50am

Ha! Power on in Soi 1 Mae Nam at what appears to be 4:00 am - does this mean an island-wide power-up?

R

[robsamui]

4.45 and Lamai, Mae Nam, Chaweng and Big Buddha all on at the same time!

Looks like Sombat has finally managed to find a thick enough piece of sticky tape!

R

[pvldmr]

Bophut online at 4 am too... yay?

[Rooo]

Full power back in Bophut. Looking across at different areas & KPG everything seems to be lit up & back to normal.

[ClaudeFeller]

Nathon on grid sind 2 AM

Went for a chat to the PEA yesterday evebing, two nice, young ladies (surely not decision makers) told me that PEA would try to connect whole Samui this night... keep the fingers crossed.

[wellred]

High voltage cables are a strange thing and failures do create massive effects .

Nonsense.

Why are you making excuses for the incompetence and the arrogance with which public servants treat the population here.

If the equipment was used within its limits and underwent the correct maintenance by properly trained engineers then it wouldnt fail.

It doesnt fail in Paris, It doesnt fail in Tokyo and it doesnt fail in Hong Kong. So why has it failed in Koh samui, and why, after 3 days have they not been repaired. I read that the one engineer who could solve the problem had to be flown down from Chiang Rai, (was he busy repairing underwater cables there too?)

Is Samui so impoverished it cant afford to maintain its infrastructure, cant afford to pay for competent engineers to look after its systems?

Did anybody notice that when the Skytrain was built in BKK it was not engineered by Thais? It was a German company subcontracted to do the construction. The level of traing and education here in Thailand was always adequate within the everyday TV and newspaper realm of a small, proud nation, but now that Thailand finds itself interfacing more and more with first word competence, awareness and expectations, the government and its media are becoming constantly embarrased and losing international face more and more.

Fifteen or 20 years ago the. govt could get away with saying or doing whatever it pleased. But, SCARY MONSTER, the internet and WWW have. utterly kicked their legas away.

"Responsible spokesmen" are still desperately continuing to make up "statistics" and facts and figures (ie normally 20,000 tourists here - now there are 1,000) seemingly unaware that then entire rest of the world is watching via online sources, and able to access databases and TAT stats, andlaughing at their transparently idioticic nonsense.

One poster here mentioned HK, Singapore and somewhere else with a similar problem that would be a simple routine fix, never make the news and be done overnight. Absolutely true. But these are countries that don't hang their HT mains cables from trees and poles, all tangled together with the cable TV and phone lines, and joined with wire and sticky tape. These countries also don't produce university graduates who put a Band Aid on their faces when they have a toothache or consider "fresh" juice to be a can that they only bought yesterday.

Every month, little by little and more and more, poor little Thailand, a country. for generations so proud of being independent and separate from the rest of the world, is now begining to discover that this is no good thing.

There is only so far you can go in the international community making total cock-ups and then blathering pathetically to try to save face. And every time it happens this lovely, happy, carefree nation is shooting itself in the foot again and again. But it's cheap and sunny here, so what the heck!

R

Rob, you are getting more cynical every day. You have to look at this in a completely different way; do you like watching clowns at the circus, or tv comedies like Family Guy? Well you are now living in that! How cool is that? I am having a laugh a minute, and it got better and better every year, since the 9 years I am now here. Truly Amazing Thailand.

I thought the fusbal stadium fiasco was bad enough. This is hilarious.

[Rooo]

Nathon on grid sind 2 AM

Went for a chat to the PEA yesterday evebing, two nice, young ladies (surely not decision makers) told me that PEA would try to connect whole Samui this night... keep the fingers crossed.

I just mentioned in the post above Claude, seems that all is back to normal.

[brighty2006]

According to Thai media. Power are now back to normal (Whole island)

Source : Thairath

[samuijimmy]

Same my area of Maenam, on about 4 am, seems to be several electric grids in Maenam area.....so power on or off at different times on different Sois".

Even have internet again.... DTAC phone showing full signal first time, in days! .... (AIS 1to call, apparently been only service that has not been down)

Will it last more than the usual 2 hours this time,? ..... That is the question!

[Chua]

As of 05:30 Dec 07, power has stayed on past the 2 hour ration period.

[kaysamui]

Ban Tai, power from 02.00-04.15 (thanks for the 15 minutes more:))

Bang Por since 04.15, expected to be off again at 06,00. News in TV says (source channel 3), power off till next midnight. Don't know what and who to believe anymore. All is like a joke, but really bad for some businesses...

Better be leaving the island for a couple of days until all returns to normal.

[muctobi]

Power back at koh phangan, is everything back to normal?

[Rooo]

I think Power is Back.

100 Baht to tell you for how long.

[muctobi]

I think 7 minutes? Or are all areas on right now?

[wayned]

Nathon on grid sind 2 AM

Went for a chat to the PEA yesterday evebing, two nice, young ladies (surely not decision makers) told me that PEA would try to connect whole Samui this night... keep the fingers crossed.

Seems that the two nice ladies at PEA knew what was going on. Just nobody ever asked them until Claude did? Too low on the totem pole!

[Rooo]

I think 7 minutes? Or are all areas on right now?

As I previously posted , from where I am, Bophut, Chaweng ,KPG were all on & still on.

We weren't supposed to get power back till 6am but has been back from around 4am.

2 minutes to go & see if it's only temp.

[Notstupid30]

The blackout is expected to cause at least 12 billion baht in damage to tourism Plus The repair work is 85% completed and officials were expected to be able to start supplying electricity by noon today,

[kaysamui]

just at the news, (channel 3 again) said, power should be restored by 05.00 am this morning. here in bang por still have power since 04.15 am

lets wait a couple of minutes more, if it stays on, then all will be returning to normal.

........

it seems to be okay... happy days...no need to leave the iskland anymore... :)

[robsamui]

Power on now in (backwoods spur of) Mae Nam for 2 hours and 45 mins - counting . . .

Edited December 6, 2012 by robsamui

[ClaudeFeller]

Nathon on grid sind 2 AM

Went for a chat to the PEA yesterday evebing, two nice, young ladies (surely not decision makers) told me that PEA would try to connect whole Samui this night... keep the fingers crossed.

Seems that the two nice ladies at PEA knew what was going on. Just nobody ever asked them until Claude did? Too low on the totem pole!

CH3: So far nothing has been repaired, they expect (!) to get the job done until 11th. Let us see what the mobile gensets can supply...

[retell]

2 hours electric for cooking ? laundry ? get water from the well

they sure forgot how to use charcoal like they still do in most of thailand or does most cooking not happen on gas for those resorts?

laundry can do with your hands and a bucket also ,surely dont need a dryer

and attach a rope to the bucket and haul up some water from the well like that

[robsamui]

An open letter to Electricity.

Dear Electricity,

I realise that you get a rough deal, but I want to show you a bit of appreciation.

You're stuffed up in the air on wires, all tangled up with cable TV and phone lines, all wrapped up in tape and string, unlike your civilised counterparts in proper places where they put you in your own little neat snug private underground tunnels, with proper people to look after you. Birdies crap on you and one moment you're baking and the next you're soaked, but you keep on coming to my house anyway - thank you.

You do a terrific job with my fridge and the ice in it and somehow manage to get the water into my shower, while also getting my computer and internet to go whizzz as well as making it so I can see when it's dark and watch TV at night with fans that blow air at me. And, quietly and with no fuss at all, you manage to make my money come out of the wall outside 7-11, where inside you are busy stopping all the sausages from growing green fluff and somehow managing to keep my milk cool at the same time.

I now realise what a great job you do all the time, 24-7 and with no days off or holidays (unless you come to Samui, where you get a much better deal all round). Just about everybody ignores you and takes you utterly for granted, which is a shame, seeing how hard you work all the time.

So I just wanted to say ta . . . keep it up . . . and anytme you fancy popping round for a cup of tea you're welcome to sit inside my kettle for 5 mins or so.

Thanks again,

R

Edited December 7, 2012 by robsamui

[everydaysthesame]

Maenam (soi mantra) has been on since around 2am. Are we back to normal or what?

[robsamui]

2 hours electric for cooking ? laundry ? get water from the well

they sure forgot how to use charcoal like they still do in most of thailand or does most cooking not happen on gas for those resorts?

laundry can do with your hands and a bucket also ,surely dont need a dryer

and attach a rope to the bucket and haul up some water from the well like that

Yeah, right.

"Dear Valued Guest.

We would like to welcome you to this delightful tropical paradise resort and thank you for the 30,000 baht you've paid into our account.

You'll find that your room has been equipped with a box of matches and a big bag of charcoal for when you want that candle-light dinner.

There is also a top-quality length of fine hemp rope if you need to wash - just attach it to the bucket handle (the well has it's own bucket and it's just over there).

A laundry service is constantly available - just use the tin-on-a-string to call reception and we'll supply you with your own personal flat rock to whack your clothes against,

prior to slinging them on the roof of your hut to dry.

We wish you a pleasant and truly rustic Natural stay,

The Management."

Edited December 7, 2012 by robsamui

[retell]

2 hours electric for cooking ? laundry ? get water from the well

they sure forgot how to use charcoal like they still do in most of thailand or does most cooking not happen on gas for those resorts?

laundry can do with your hands and a bucket also ,surely dont need a dryer

and attach a rope to the bucket and haul up some water from the well like that

Yeah, right.

"Dear Valued Guest.

We would like to welcome you to this delightful tropical paradise resort and thank you for the 30,000 baht you've paid into our account.

You'll find that your room has been equipped with a box of matches and a big bag of charcoal for when you want that candle-light dinner.

There is also a top-quality length of fine hemp rope if you need to wash - the well has it's own bucket and it's just over there.

A laundry service is constantly available - just use the tin-on-a-string to call reception and we'll supply you with your own personal flat rock

to whack your clothes against prior to slinging them on the roof of your hut to dry.

We wish you a pleasant and truly Natural stay,

The Management."

who says thailand has no adventure anymore

[Rooo]

who says thailand has no adventure anymore

Plenty of adventure, but I need your help. My well is 180 meters deep, do you have a rope?

[samuijimmy]

2 hours electric for cooking ? laundry ? get water from the well

they sure forgot how to use charcoal like they still do in most of thailand or does most cooking not happen on gas for those resorts?

laundry can do with your hands and a bucket also ,surely dont need a dryer

and attach a rope to the bucket and haul up some water from the well like that

Yeah, right.

"Dear Valued Guest.

We would like to welcome you to this delightful tropical paradise resort and thank you for the 30,000 baht you've paid into our account.

You'll find that your room has been equipped with a box of matches and a big bag of charcoal for when you want that candle-light dinner.

There is also a top-quality length of fine hemp rope if you need to wash - just attach it to the bucket handle (the well has it's own bucket and it's just over there).

A laundry service is constantly available - just use the tin-on-a-string to call reception and we'll supply you with your own personal flat rock to whack your clothes against,

prior to slinging them on the roof of your hut to dry.

We wish you a pleasant and truly rustic Natural stay,

The Management."

It's called Eco tourism.....

[canman]

I hope you guys get your power on soon. I just wanted to share some facts about this type of fault. The power cable to Koh Samui carries 123KVAC it was buried to a depth of 1.5m to protect it from small craft anchors and scour. It is unusual for this type of cable to develop a fault unless it has been damaged during the lay / burial or by external forces after the lay. If the fault is due to seawater ingression then you will have a very big bang. 123KV and seawater = big damage. The damage can be repaired. The cable is unburied, grappled, raised to the surface and a new section spliced in. There are at least 2 Thai companies with vessels and the equipment to effect the repair in the GOT. It could take 1-4 weeks to mobilise and carry out the repair. If the cable has been flooded with seawater and is unrepairable (there are usually water blocks along the cable length to stop this) then you are looking at several months to mobilise a replacement cable and cable lay ships to the site.