Sunday, March 14 - Returning to So Cal

 We got up at seven and went down to our last huge buffet. We joined Dion who is heading back to Chiang Mai today for a solo vacation search for a Hume’s pheasant before he returns to Sydney for two weeks at home with his wife and two kids before he leaves yet again on his next tour.

We packed and took the five-minute ride to the EVA Air’s check-in area, wandered around shops, admired the great architecture, and finally boarded the plane for Taipei.

 As Bob signed up for “Seafood dinner” eons ago, he was presented with a fish lunch, whereas I got chicken. We landed in Taipei and although we only had one and a half hours before our flight to LAX there was no problem as everything was very efficiently organized. We boarded at 6 PM, (3 AM LA time) settled into our Elite Economy seats (wide, knee room) and immediately started watching some of the tens of movies and TV programs we had available. We had dinner (fish for RRZ) and slept off and on until about noon LA time when we were awakened and served breakfast. RR refused his fish until it came back for a second try whereupon I took it: cold shrimp and bay scallop salad, accompanied by hot shrimp and scallop casserole!

We landed smoothly in LA, but had to spend 90 minutes struggling through immigration and customs. Finally out, we grabbed our rental car and groggily drove home, refreshed by Big Macs and Fries. Home by 7 PM.

Will pick up Maddie from the Cat House Hotel and our mail tomorrow. My sister, Jenny, and her husband, Hilary, arrive at 3:30 PM from the east to jolly us up! End of another great trip!!

Saturday, March 13- Back to Bangkok

 We got up at at a leisurely 5:45 in order to pack and meet near our cabins for our last meal from our great cooks. After fruit, yogurt, omelets and coffee we set off for Bangkok at 8 AM.

 We passed lovely rice paddies and cattle, before joining the main north-south highway north towards Bangkok. We stopped at several checkpoints manned by polite and smiling police and soldiers but got through easily. The “red-shirt’ supports of the previous prime minister, Thaksin, are supposed to rally and march tomorrow and the authorities are bracing for it. The last time this happened, the airport was shut down and they are going to try and prevent that this time.

We got onto the ring road around the south of the city, passing a great multi-headed elephant statue and arrived at the Novotel Hotel at 10:30AM. As a lot of people are trying to get out of Bangkok right now, the hotel was full and we had to wait a while for rooms to become available. As we read the newspapers, our crew of cooks and drivers came into the lobby and David and Dion thanked them for their wonderful service and gave them gratuity envelopes, we all applauded and had a group photo taken.

We then went into the restaurant for Novotel’s amazing buffet: RR had roast beef and I had sushi and spicy Tom Kha soup, followed by chocolate cake with candles to celebrate Jean’s 4000th life bird!

We napped, shopped, blogged until seven when we got together for our farewell dinner. This time the buffet was featuring a fish buffet with oysters, crab, whole salmon, sushi, etc, etc.

David wasn’t there as he had managed to get an earlier flight so he could spend two nights at home instead of only one, before he leaves to help guide a wonderful cruise up the west coast of Africa that starts Tuesday! What a life! We said goodbye to all our friends - a great group - and returned to our room to pack for our 12:30PM flight to Taipei and LAX tomorrow.

Friday, March 12 - More Kaeng Krachan NP

Up and off at 5:30 and up to the Park entrance where we transferred into the same trucks as yesterday.
Dion’s group lead off this time to give them an equal chance to see interesting birds and mammals. We drove to the campground and had breakfast before driving off in different directions to bird. We drove with David up towards the top of the park, stopping several times and hearing wonderful hooting choruses of White-handed Gibbons nearby and answering choruses from far across the valley. The morning was pretty quiet birdwise and the sun was intense.

We joined the others at noon for a lunch of veggie-stuffed omelets, soup with meat/noodle balls and a shrimp dish and admired the butterflies who had gathered at the same place by the stream as yesterday.
We all took off together for a walk down the road. A few clouds had built up and it wasn’t quite as hot and the bird activity really picked up. Suddenly we heard crashing in the treetops and a troop of Gibbons appeared. A large male leapt across the road on overhanging branches followed by a mother who swung from tree to tree with equal abandon while a tiny baby clutched to her fur!

Further along we all crouched down by a culvert where Dion knew some bats lived and with the aid of a flashlight we could see some charming Malayan Slit-faced Bats trying to get some rest before nightfall.

We started back to the hotel arriving at six and were told to be ready for a ride to dinner by 7:15. A leisurely shower and we bused down to the restaurant for beer and Thai dinner. Dion announced that instead of going back to the park for the morning, that we would be leaving for Bangkok at 8 AM to ensure that we can get to the Novotel Hotel at the airport and hopefully avoid the marches on the city that are supposed to start tomorrow! Bob is quite disappointed as he was hoping to add to his life list by seeing a few missed species. He has about 285 new life birds, but was hoping for a little over 300.

Thursday March 11 - Exploring Kaeng Krachen National Park

 

We met at the vans at 5:30 and took off in the dark for Kaeng Krachan National Park. This is the largest park in Thailand, 1814 square miles and its elevation is from ~1200 - 3000’. The park stretches to the Burma border and beyond providing a large area of pristine primary forest. There is only one road into the park which further limits human impact on the animals and plants.  In northern Thailand we didn't see any mammals as they have been mostly hunted out, so we're hoping to see some here.



We arrived at the Park entrance and transferred into pick-up trucks with benches installed along the sides. We drove up the Park road, gripping tightly onto the railing and arrived at a campground about seven. Our faithful cooks were there already with eggs sizzling, bacon, coffee, etc.

 As we ate, we could see several exciting species of birds and when we went to investigate, saw a group of about ten Dusky Langurs (Dusky Leaf Monkeys) leaping about the lawn, wrestling and playing like a bunch of kids! They are really cute monkeys with large white eye rings  muzzlesand long gray tails. They are called leaf monkeys because they subsist solely on leaves and berries and have several stomachs to process the vegetable matter. Because hunting has been banned in the Park for so long, the animals have little fear of humans and we were able to watch them for quite a while. When they were tired of playing they all climbed up into a tree and began eating leaves.

We divided into two groups and Bob and I went with David and walked down the road seeing great views of Scaly-breasted Partridge, Black Giant Squirrel, (head to tail, about three feet long), butterflies and lots of great birds. The sky was overcast and cool, which according to David always increases bird and mammal activity.

We met with the rest of the group for a terrific lunch of noodles, shrimp curry and soup, and watched clouds of butterflies swirling around a patch of mud on a stream bank. We got back on the trucks for a very steep ride up to the high point of the park. We drove up into rain forest and reached the top where we had a great view of primary forest as far a we see. We saw some more Dusky Langurs, this time mothers with their bright orange babies, and David showed me a Banded Langur with no face markings and fur rising into a point on top of his head. And we saw a pair of very cute Dusky Broadbills.

The other group heard elephant noise but all we’ve seen is large piles of fresh elephant dung on the roadside…so we know they are there, but hard to see.

At five we started back, but with stops and sightings we didn’t get back to the hotel until seven and didn’t bother to change but set off right away on the drive to the hotel restaurant….List, dinner, bag of clean laundry, and bed!

Wednesday, March 10 - Luxury at the Hyatt and onto Kaeng Krachan

 I awoke for a minute at 5:30 AM as Bob was leaving to go birding with Dion and David and three others of the group. I got up at seven and found my way to the breakfast buffet and joined Frances and Jean for coffee, pastries and a delicious bread and butter pudding. We walked around the pool area which is really pretty amazing! It is a river pool which I had never heard of before. The pool winds around in a narrow, ~12’ wide channel lined with blue tiles, topped with boulders and tropical plants. You can swim from the hotel to the beach and/or the pool bar.

It looked so inviting that I had to try it out. I had misplaced my bathing suit way back at the Marriott and so used Bob’s trunks and a t-shirt. Thais tend to be pretty modest and I noticed a few others clad similarly so I figured I wouldn’t look too weird. I found a bin of large yellow towels and found a chaise and stepped in. The water was in the 80s and I swam along, under bridges, past flowering trees and finally came out to the ocean. I figure I should at least take a dip in the Gulf of Siam and splashed around it the shallow turquoise water for a while before returning to the pool shower to clean off. I ran into Mary who said she had tried the Dragon Slide, so I thought I ought to also! Wow! I climbed 40 steps up onto a shrubbery-enclosed platform and sat down in the rushing water. It looked really steep and long but suddenly I was shooting straight down and crashed into the water through a large dragon’s mouth, thoroughly soaking my hair and sinuses! Frances fortunately caught my descent on film!

Bob returned from his expedition to a great preserve of marsh grasslands with a mile-long boardwalk. He saw lots of birds, plus a Dusky Leaf Monkey! We were to meet the group for lunch but couldn’t find the restaurant and had to ask at the front desk. A very nice young man lead us the ¼ mile or so past more pools, spas and shops and finally reached the McFarland House and went upstairs to a large open room with a great overhanging roof lined with enormous gutters to catch the often torrential rains. The menu had meals based on “water”, “air”, etc but whatever, it was very good: crab rolls, shrimp, salads. fruit smoothies. We didn’t have far to go today, so we relaxed and had a great meal and watched the overcast sky and light showers building up.



We finally packed and loaded up and set off inland and up into the mountains to our last national park, Kaeng Krachan. It took a couple of hours to reach Kaeng Krachan Resort, the only hotel in the area, and we had the afternoon off until supper. This is our most basic hotel for the tour (no internet!) and fairly strange! There are about 72 cottages, each holding two parties. The AC barely functions and it is pretty sparsely furnished, but it does have desk and table and chairs outside.  The bathrooms however, are quite snazzy with a strip garden and fancy floor tiles.  Several of the others have room frogs and/or geckos.

 I just relaxed and read. There seems to be no one else here which is par for the course according to David. At 6:30 two open carts appeared to take us to dinner, which seemed funny until it turned out that the hotel restaurant is a couple of miles away! This place is enormous, with groomed grounds, a pool and exercise area?? We had a large Thai dinner, List and bed.



,

Tuesday, March 9 - Down the coast of the Gulf of Siam

Another full day! We met at the restaurant at 5 AM, ate a small breakfast, and loaded up at 5;30 and were off.

The freeway system in Bangkok is really modern and excellent. We got onto the ring road, swung south around the city, crossing the mouth of the Chao Phraya River before heading south along the Gulf of Thailand.

After a couple of hours we pulled off the highway towards the water and came to a huge area of paddies where salt harvesting was going on. This area was originally a large mangrove swamp, and must have been an amazing place full of wildlife; elephants, rhinos, monkeys, etc.

We picked up Mr. Tee, a young, well-known birder who keeps track of the birds in the area by buzzing around on his red motor scooter, holding his telescope and tripod over his shoulder with one hand! We walked out on the berms separating one salt area from another and studied the thousands of egrets, sandpipers, plovers, hawks that inhabit the area, identifying about 30 species of waders. We particularly wanted to see the very rare Spoon-billed Sandpiper, and Mr. Tee somehow managed to pick the one that was in the area out from all the others. We took turns looking through the telescopes and saw this amazing little sandpiper with a long black bill that has a wide spoon-billed tip!

We were pretty hot and sweaty by this time, but only had to look across the salt flats at the salt workers and their miserable lot to realize how lucky we are. The paddies are rolled smooth by crude riding lawnmower gadgets with metal rollers on the bottom. The salt is collected in rows of small white pyramids which the workers shovel into wheelbarrows or into baskets swinging at the end of a pole, held over their shoulders and is hauled to large bamboo-covered holding areas next to the road. The work is seasonal, ending in a month or so when the monsoon season starts. Supposedly most of the workers are Burmese legal and illegal immigrants. Interesting but grim!

We continued south, passing more salt operations and small salt water creeks lined with very colorful fishing boats. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant built over some remaining mangrove and walked past large tubs of fish and shrimp with amazing long claws, and settled into a private air conditioned room over the water and were served yet another amazing meal of multiple dishes, including wonderful, obviously very fresh, fish in a lime/cilantro/chili broth

Followed by more sticky rice, mango and coconut.



We rolled out of there and drove to one of the little creeks and boarded three little fishing boats for a ride out into the Gulf! Dion and David are full of contant great surprises!

We rode down the creek past some protected mangrove and watched mudskipper fish that climb out onto the mud banks and large monitor lizards! We continued out into open water and landed on a small sand spit and with a little difficulty leapt from the boats onto the sand and checked out the birds. Back onto the boats and we pulled up onto the mainland beach for a walk and bird. I waded and measured the water temperature at 85 degrees!

It was getting late so we clambered up onto the boats and returned to the ramshackle pier and were greeted with tea, rice and mango by the wife of the boats’ owner. This is a famous birding place and she showed us books with comments and bird lists from people like David Sibley!



It was past six when we left and drove on for another 60 minutes to the small city of Hua Hin a famous, and quite snazzy beach resort area. We pulled into the Hyatt Regency Hua Hin…12 pretty bedraggled birders! This is an amazingly plush hotel with fountains, gardens and a river pool that seems to wind around forever! We changed, reassembled for the List, dinner and bed. Several of us are going to play hooky tomorrow as we have to leave at noon and it seems a shame not to enjoy this place a little!

Monday, March 8 - The Golden Triangle and beyond!

 We got everything packed for flying and set off at 5:30, stopping at a large lake where we had a picnic breakfast and then walked out on a rather shaky pier to look at ducks and herons. Our leaders had contacted a local birder who joined us to show us a tree where a rare Black-faced Spoonbill was perched. Fortunately he untucked his bill from under his wing so we could see his diagnostic feature.

We continued north, stopping to see the ancient and very beautiful Wat Pa Sak which has wonderful images of elephants and robust goddesses .

David promised us a stop at the infamous Golden Triangle where Burma, Loas and Thailand meet so we could buy t-shirts. The place, at least on the Thailand side, is a really zoo of huge tourist busses and shops selling trinkets. We all got our mementos and fled the scene, getting back on the vans in 12 minutes, rather than the 15 we had been allotted!

Dion said we were stropping for lunch nearby and we pulled into the grounds of a sumptuous hotel, the Anantara Golden Triangle, which would have seemed wonderful in any event, but after the chaos of the market was quite unreal. I had green papaya salad with soft shell crab and Bob had deep fried pot stickers which we shared, followed by sticky rice with papaya and coconut milk, a very traditional and yummy dessert, and coconut cake and ice cream.

David and Dion had difficulty dragging us away, but we had a plane to catch and so set off driving a couple of hours to the city of Chaing Rai where we boarded a Royal Thai jet for the hour flight back to Bangkok and the Novotel hotel.



We were on our own this evening to give everyone a break from group activity, so after cleaning up, Bob and I wandered down to the restaurant, choosing a la carte instead of the enormous buffet and had hamburgers and fries, and went to bed,