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!