April 2024 Update

Hello everyone! It's good to be back in the community.

As stated in my March blog, I would not write any articles during my visit to Thailand. I declared in March that my goal for April would be to create five videos. I made no videos!

My wife met me at Bangkok airport. As we had spent the previous five months apart, we decided to take a few days out before going north to home. Like other countries in Southeast Asia, Thailand experienced unusually high temperatures, which is still ongoing as I write.

Ruined city of Ayutthaya, Thailand

We visited the ancient city of Ayutthaya and spent a couple of days inspecting the ruins of this once-fabulous city.

A few days later, after returning to the family home, I woke up and tried to get out of bed, only to fall over. I had lost my sense of balance. That was not good!

Someone called an ambulance, which quickly transported me to hospital. The hospital staff were attentive and gave me a full suite of tests, including a CT scan. The results showed I had not had a stroke.

Wattana hospital, Udon Thani province, Thailand

The prognosis was that I was suffering heat exhaustion and that my inner ears had been affected by the high temperature. I was prescribed some medication for vertigo and dizziness. The doctors kept me in the hospital for 24 hours, and then I returned home for some much-needed rest. My laptop remained closed for the rest of the holiday.

I am pleased to report that I am fully recovered and eager to continue with my website and my training here at WA.

Mobile (Cell Phone) coverage in Thailand is excellent. For the most part, I got 5G and impressive speeds. However, when I ventured into the northern jungles to visit forest Temples, this dropped to 4G sometimes. I used a local AIS 30-day e-sim card which gave me unlimited data usage, and as I mentioned, for the most part I has getting 5G

My brother-in-law lives in the nearby provincial city and benefits from 1Gbps broadband in his home. I'm tempted towards the city life when I move to Thailand unless optic fibre reaches our town.

I note that Google has lost its way somewhat and appears to be serving the likes of Reddit and Quora. During April, I noticed a reverse trend in my stats, having reached a near 50/50 split between organic and direct traffic, but now organic traffic is falling off rapidly in relation to my direct traffic. Kyle touched on Google's dramatic change of direction in a recent blog. It is also widely talked about outside of WA.

My site stats have remained stable, with nothing exciting to report.

My goals for May are to create the five videos I didn't make in April, continue blogging on my website, and publish at least ten articles.