My Thailand Blogs review February 2011 covers such diverse topics as the continued drought, Thai fauna, teaching English to adult learners, exploring Ao Noi cave temples and of course blogging.
Drought in Central Thailand.
At least there is some good news as far as the drought here in Thailand’s south/central region continues to bite, since it has actually rained twice this month. Unfortunately however despite two really heavy showers, both towards the end of the month, we are back on water rationing from the local water company.
Apparently the planned water pipeline from the Pranburi/Kuiburi area is still not complete and is likely to remain so for at least two more months. So for me anyway it means back to Thai style showers from our water storage tanks as the electric version becomes redundant again 
Of course this is really only a minor inconvenience because the real casualty of the drought is plain to see outside the home, where the farm land and particularly the coconut groves are dying back and affecting coconut production here in the heart of the countries coconut farming area.
Despite the general lack of rain there has been a shift in wind direction towards the SE and an increase in humidity as we finally bid farewell to the cool season. Hopefully the SW monsoon will kick in soon, just in time for Songkran(Thai New Year). Although I doubt lack of water will stop the festivities.
Teaching English in Thailand.
The last two months have found me helping out the adult learners with their English at the Sunday school(not the religious type) and last Sunday saw me complete my last class before the learners re-take their High School exams next month.
In typical Thai style I got a phone call on Wednesday last week asking me to attend school urgently. It transpired someone from the Thai Ministry of Education was visiting and wished to thank me personally for helping out.
Fortunately I had the foresight to change from my normal somewhat relaxed garb into something more formal before I went to see them. Just as well since their entourage came complete with video camera and sound bites and I was expected to do a mini teach for the cameras!
So much for flying below the radar doing my voluntary stuff
Prachuap Khiri Khan Tourist Information.
As part of an ongoing personal project to improve tourist information resources for Prachaup Khiri Khan city and the surrounding areas I have developed an interactive Google map to display such information on the Internet. Although still not complete you can now view what is currently on offer by clicking the map tab on this blog.
Early in the month as part of this project I visited Ao Noi cave temples. After a very stiff climb up a steep hill I was rewarded with excellent views inside a large limestone cavern that housed two reclining Buddha’s as well as several other artefacts.
Thailand Fauna
The local fauna always interests me and I was happy to try to help a scientist in his search for Giant Water Bugs by finding space for a guest post on the subject this month. To date no one has been able to help.
Nearer to home I had another close encounter with a snake, this time a slightly venomous(back fanged) Oriental Whip Snake or a Long Nosed Whip Snake that had taken up residence on the trucks bonnet(hood). Actually it had become stuck between the bonnet and the wing because it had recently consumed a meal and was too fat to get out of its predicament. Fortunately my neighbour and I managed to free the snake, he in classic reptile handling style, grabbing it behind the head while wearing a rubber kitchen glove(not sure why), me releasing the bonnet catch from inside the truck.
The snake was quite passive and we released it into the coconut grove none the worse for wear. I even managed to get the camera, before we removed it, but in my excitement couldn’t get a focus lock so the attached photograph is a bit out!
However this has not stopped Duen examining the photograph to see if she can get a Thai lottery number prediction from the reptiles shape, I suggested 666, but she didn’t really understand.
Thailand Blogs
Once again I have had a busy month with Thailand Blogs and my other associated web sites. This culminated with the release the latest major update WordPress 3.1. Hopefully everything is now working OK despite a few minor hiccups with plug-in compatibility. Visitor numbers continue to climb on my main portal and it is also pleasing to see that My Thai Photo Blog is also receiving a lot more search traffic since it moved to WP.
By the way Google has been playing around with the search results algorithm in an attempt to get rid of content farms so you may find a general increase/decrease in your Google organic search results depending how the machine views your site. Interestingly Thailand Blogs remains unranked, 0/10, despite lots of good ranking back links, but appears to do well in keyword searches.
I have also spent some time this month developing my knowledge of StumbleUpon and added a dedicated media button to all my posts for this highly rated social media resource in a vague attempt to get someone to stumble one of my posts Research into which social media outlet provides the best leads has also been on my agenda too, but more of that when I have sufficient data.
Once again, thank you to Martyn of Beyond the Mango Juice who is the top commenter on Thailand Blogs for the month. I would also like to welcome first time commenter’s, Greg, Kris, Paco and Isaanlife as well as thanking all my regulars for some excellent and at times very stimulating comments.
So there you have it my Thailand blogs review February 2011. A short month but a rather long review, hope you stayed the course.
Related posts:
