Wednesday, March 3 - A day off!!

Wednesday, Mar 3 - We were up at 5 to set off at 5:45, and suddenly I knew I had to have a day off. Most of the rest of the trip we’re 1.5 days at a location, but here we’re 2.5, so I told RR I was going to explore and paint and recover from the endless rushing and looking. Got up at seven and wandered over the bridge to the outdoor restaurant. Not much English spoken here but I was able to order coffee and egg and got a full English breakfast: egg, toast, ham, bacon and hotdogs! Managed to eat some of it and set off exploring the grounds of this lovely, tropical hotel. I was the only one about as everyone else seems to be a birder and therefore out birding!

I cleaned up our computer and at 10 AM my sister, Hilary, was on line so we had fun IM-ing for while! I painted a watercolor of the restaurant from our porch and then took off for “town”.

I wandered down the street and off on tiny lanes winding through rice paddies. Everyone seemed rather severe until I smiled and tried the Thai greeting of bowing with hands in the prayer position whereupon I was greeted with smiles and giggles!

I passed a school and got a chorus of “Hello, hello!!” from the kids inside, probably thoroughly interrupting their lesson. I walked about a mile and was getting hungry. I was tempted to try one of the roadside huts displaying delicious-smelling chickens on a spit, but thought Bob wouldn’t approve, so went onto the open porch of a small hotel and by pointing at pictures managed to order a Coke and a large bowl of pork noodle soup which came with green and black leafy veg., pork meatballs and an inch-thick cylinder of egg (soy?) custard sliced into large pieces. Delicious! The staff of four watched me eat as I was the only customer!



I walked back and all the food huts were doing a good business - lunch doesn’t seem to start until 1 PM - and wandered around the hotel grounds and into the woods to look for wildlife- I knew I’d be drilled on what birds I had seen on my slothful day! It was pretty quiet but I saw a few and figured them out.

Back to the hotel, ordered a large Chang beer and did another watercolor from the restaurant terrace which overhangs a pond. I felt really refreshed and relaxed! At five the vans returned and the bedraggled birders trooped in to take showers in preparation for the List and dinner.

Tuesday, March 2- Exploring Doi Inthanon National Park

 Up at 4:30 and met at the buses at 5:15 AM. Pitch black with a setting full moon. The hotel is at about 1000’; about half a mile from it we passed through the entry gate for Doi Inthanon National Park and started climbing up a steep road. After an hour it was starting to get light and we reached the summit of the mountain we had been climbing: the high point of Thailand! 8400’ and very cold! We had been warned to bring some warm clothing and were very happy with our scarves, windbreakers and down vests! There was a chill wind which made the 50 degrees feel colder. (I know this sounds ridiculous to you east coasters, but it was chilly up there!).



Our cooks had coffee and tea ready along with donuts and when it got light enough to see a bit, we set off on a wonderful boardwalk trail though a Sphagnum boggy area. Pine trees and red and white rhododendrons festooned the walk and soon birds were flying in to get the nectar and pollen of the flowers. One spectacular bird was the Green-tailed Sunbird that several of us tried to photograph.



We spent a couple of hours on the walkway before returning to the parking lot where our cooks had yogurt, fruit and eggs ready. We drove down the mountain to 5000’ elevation, took a walk through evergreen forest and saw more species near a lovely waterfall. At one our cooks produced a delicious chicken soup, fish curry, rice and fried fish, followed by pineapple and papaya. We descended to 2000’ and stopped for ice-cream at Mr. Chen’s resort, a famous place for birds, and finished the day at a campground where Dion was able to play a tape recorder and lure out two very rare Black-tailed Crakes who hide in marshy areas.





It was four o’clock by then and a few of us wanted to get back to our hotel and clean up before dinner…we had been birding (and eating)for ten hours by then, so Bob and I and a few other slackers returned and rested before meeting with the others at six for the nightly list and dinner - more delicious curries, shrimp, and veggie dishes.

Monday, March 1 - to Doi Inthanon

Monday, March 1 - The plan was to take our buses to a wildlife area east of Chaing Mai and look for the rare Green Peafowl (peacock) before leaving the city at noon. We awoke at 4:30 and I thought I would take the morning off and explore this old historic city, but at the last minute I decided to go along with the group and we all left in the dark for Huai Kong Krai Agricultural Station and drove for an hour east.



We arrived just as the sun was coming up and on the other side of a reservoir we could easily see emerald Green Peafowl walking about and flying across the water. A really lovely sight. They soon disappeared into the woods and we walked around until eleven birding. We returned to the hotel, packed and left, so I’ve probably missed seeing the old walled city center - probably a poor choice on my part! We drove out of the city, a pleasant, flower-filled bustling city. We headed south and west and arrived in Doi Inthanon at four. Our hotel is a classic tropical small resort. The dining/bar area is completely open air, surrounded by gardens and lily pad-filled ponds and small houses with 3-4 bedrooms in each. Everyone set out to bird, but I needed a little quiet time and had a shower and settled down in the bar with a Large Chang beer and a couple of hours of computer time. At six we all got together for the List (every night on a birding trip the leader reads out all the species seen that day and everyone checks his/her list) and dinner and much needed sleep!

Sunday, Feb 28 to Chaing Mai

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..

Saturday, Feb 27 - More birding in Khao Yai

 We got up again at 4:45 and stumbled down to breakfast, pretty tired! We divided up into the two vans and again set off with David up into the Park.

We drove to a youth camping area that was filled with teenagers, all sitting cross-legged and listening attentively to an instructor teaching them about the wildlife in the park. Pretty amazing to see them all so interested and quiet. We stood on the edge of the lawn area and looked up into a fruiting tree. It was filled with birds all sizes from dramatic Great, Oriental Pied and Wreathed Hornbills to Thick-billed Green Pigeon and Moustached Barbet. A Giant Squirrel (~3 feet long!) ran through the tree until a troop of Pig-tailed Macaque monkeys scared off a lot of the birds. We showed some of the students what we were looking at as it was great to see kids so interested.



We’ve noticed several groups of Taiwanese tourists leaden down with amazing cameras with huge lenses and were told that bird watching is more popular than golf in Taiwan! There is a famous birding organization in Bangkok also and many people drive out from there for the weekend. So great to see so many nature buffs!



After catching up with our cooks’ van, we stopped for coffee, fruit and cookies on the side of the road and then David took us to a spot where he had heard a Japanese birder was staking out a Red-headed Trogon’s nest. We found the steps down into dense woods where the birder was, apparently having sat there for hours with his camera setup pointing at a hole in a dead tree trunk. It took a while to figure out that the female was wedged in the hole with her brown head just emerging out. We sat perfectly still for 20 minutes and suddenly the male, a beautiful 15” brown-ish bird with a lovely rosy breast and black and white tail fluttered in and fed the female a large walking-stick insect. Trogons are very secretive birds and would have been impossible to see if we hadn’t learned about the stake-out! A really lovely, but poorly named species as is often the case!



I was thrilled and settled back into the van for the ride back for lunch when Heidi who was sitting in front called out that she had seen something emerging from the underbrush and out came a Silver Pheasant, a really magnificent silvery white pheasant with a black belly and an intense red bill and face. He crossed the road and began displaying by fluffing up white feathers streaked with black hieroglyphics as a female and another male approached. I was in the back of the van and tried to get some shots through the windshield, not great as you can see, but it gives you the idea! So great to have one magnificent bird appearing right after another!!

We met up with the other van and had another great picnic lunch: soup with bok choi and a wok dish. As we were eating, Dion found a fluffy white aphid walking along the road.

We returned to the hotel to rest a bit and organize our gear: tonight our three vans are going to set off north with all our luggage and we will follow on a Royal Thai jet tomorrow afternoon with only hand bags.



We birded some more, but there was little activity; at 5:30 we drove to the base of a huge limestone cliff and waited until after six when it was getting dark. Suddenly millions of Wrinkled-lipped Bats started emerging from a cave in the cliff. They were high above us and resembled a dark horizontal tornado writhing across the sky!

We could just hear their wings beating and in moments it was over!

We returned for a delicious dinner Thai dishes and curries and off to bed.

Friday, Feb 26 - Birding in Khao Yai National Park

Up at 4:45 and met for a quick breakfast before loading up into the vans at six in the dark. We entered the park and drove through dry deciduous forest of scrub and bamboo and into cool evergreen dense jungle. We immediately began seeing wonderful birds flocking in seeding bamboo like the Vernal Hanging Parrot, a tiny stubby-tailed green parrot with a bright red bill! We worked our way further uphill and saw an Oriental Pied Hornbill, a large bird with an ornate large bill. We also saw baby Pig-tailed Macaque monkeys, a very pretty red Barking Deer, and an enormous 3-foot turtle!

Our leaders, Dion Hobcroft, an Aussie, and David Bishop, a Brit, both of whom live near Sydney, are really amazing in their ability to spot birds high in the tree canopy and get their telescopes right on them, and to pleasantly discipline us so we all share the views of the birds, best seats on the buses and are quiet!

At one PM we pulled over to the side of a narrow road where a row of stools were set up and our amazing chefs (husband and wife team who were chefs in Japan) had a great spread set out of spicy coconut shrimp soup, rice and chicken curry, with papaya for dessert! We returned to the hotel for a two hour siesta (your loyal blogger took advantage of the time to download photos and post an entry…rest??).

At four we all met and got onto the vans to return to the park for more birds, and met at six for another delicious dinner and waited until dark when we climbed onto open jeeps for a night drive.

David had a powerful spot light that he shone on trees, road and grassland. Nocturnal birds and mammals eyes glow when hit by a light, so suddenly there would be two glowing rubies and then we could see the shape of a Sambar Deer, or golden eyes of a large owl. We screeched to a halt to see a Reticulated Python stretched across the entire width of the road! His brown and emerald patterned back almost glowed as he slowly left the warmth of the pavement! It started to get quite cold which was a novelty. We returned to the hotel at ten and unfortunately missed seeing giant porcupines or elephants but we were tired and happy nevertheless.

Immediately collapsed into bed!

Thursday, Feb 25 - Bangkok to Khao Yai National Park

Up at 5 AM, suitcases out at 5:45 and down to another fantastic breakfast buffet. I was feeling queasy and only had museli with longran fruits and coffee,, but I felt much better! We met in the lobby at 6:40 and set off in two comfortable vans, with another van for the cooks! Pretty plush!




Bangkok is about the size and population of LA , so it took us an hour of freeway driving to get out of the city and into the flat agricultural land consisting mostly of rice paddies. We stopped a couple of times to walk through grassland and saw several beautiful birds.

We stopped at Wat (temple) Pai Lom, a famous Buddhist monastery. The temple areas protect their wildlife so they are a good place to bird, and I could get some culture!

Our galley van pulled up and set up a table with coffee, tea, & cookies. We walked behind the wat and saw several hundred Lyles’s Fruit Bats hanging in trees. Their heads are covered in reddish fur and they look like foxes, thus they are often called Flying Foxes. They were flapping their wings to cool themselves in the 90 degree heat and then wrapping themselves up just like Dracula. Pretty neat!

We then drove to Ayutthaya, the original capitol of Siam in the 13 and 1400s before it was weakened by invasions from Burma and the king moved the capitol to Bangkok. It is a beautifully preserved area of temples and shrines showing the basic brick structure without all the gold and colorful decorations.

It was the middle of the afternoon and we were getting pretty tired, but revived upon seeing limestone peaks and cliffs appear as we gained a bit of elevation and left the paddies and entered orchards of papaya, mango and bananas. We drove into a park surrounded by limestone spires to a Buddhist monastery that has a wide staircase bordered by two enormous dragons that climbs up a sheer limestone cliff up about 500’. Quite spectacular! We were there to look for the very rare Limestone Wren-babbler which unfortunately eluded us, but the staircase more than made up for it to me!

After another hour’s drive we finally arrived at Khao Yai National Park and our hotel, a rather modest, but very pleasant, place to stay. After several beers and a good dinner of various vegetable, chicken and beef dishes we collapsed into bed….we meet for breakfast at 5:30 tomorrow