Sunday, Feb 28 We were allowed to sleep in a bit today and didn’t meet for breakfast until six AM. We birded the hotel grounds which I haven’t even seen yet (!) and we watched small flocks of Red-breasted Parakeets which Bob really wanted to see. They actually have lovely pink breasts, grey heads and green backs!
We set off for one last birding of the park; this time we rode with Dion and returned to the fruiting tree of yesterday, while David took his group to the far side of the park. Not a great day for birds, but the mammals were great. As we approached the tree, we saw a blond White-handed Gibbon (sometimes they’re brown with white hands) hanging from a branch by one hand and foot. He quickly left but was followed by Black Giant Squirrel and more Northern Pig-tailed Macaques, so named because their tails are only ~8” long. They’re quite tame, but can be dangerous as tourists tend to feed them. We drove on to the Visitors’ Center and had a rare sighting of a Smooth-coated Otter who proceeded to catch and rip apart a foot-long fish!
We had to leave at 10:30 and started on the 2.5 hour drive back to Bangkok. We arrived back at the Novotel Hotel at the airport and had a sumptuous buffet lunch. I had a bowl of Chinese noodles with fish balls and pork which is prepared as you stand there at the Noodle Station. Bob, very happily, had roast beef, potatoes and veg. At three we were herded into the Royal Thai Airlines terminal and onto a 747. The flight is only 45 minutes long, but we were fed a cute lunch box of curried potato empanada and tiny jellied rice flour sweets.
We arrive in Chaing Mai at six, already dark, and drove to our hotel, the Amari Rincome, a gracious old-world hotel with carved wood everywhere and a nice room with a fruit plate on our table and a refrigerator stocked with everything from Toblerone chocolate to condoms! We quickly changed and reassembled in the restaurant which is Italian, a pleasant change. I had risotto with mushrooms. Bed at eleven…..have to meet at 5:15 tomorrow…yikes..
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