In the early morning, Lilach and I went out to tour the grounds, and heard many more birds than we saw. Particularly noisy were flocks of pretty large birds, with what looked like a necklace on their chests, that turned out to be very aptly named greater necklaced laughingthrushes. We tried to photograph them, but the light was still too low and they were hiding too well in the canopies.
Breakfast on the veranda was very rewarding, with many bird species coming to the nearby feeding station, so it turned into a never-ending affair that lasted well into the early afternoon hours. While we were eating, reading and watching the birds, it rained from time to time. We appreciated the opportunity to see the birds – which seemed undisturbed – from a dry location. In the afternoon, we decided to go visit a nearby wildlife sanctuary – Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand – established in 2001 by dutch-born animal rehabilitation activist Edwin Wiek who had made Thailand his home in 1989. Unfortunately, it turned out that tours of the center only start in the morning. We watched a group of volunteers being shown to one of the elephant enclosures and feeding the elephant, and after that talked to the staff member who showed them around, heard a bit more about the place, and left. Before heading back to our camp, we decided to check whether the national park was indeed closed. It was. A couple of bored rangers greeted us and showed us a handwritten sign in English, saying it would reopen on November 1.
Our hostess had told me that her boyfriend, whose beautiful bird photos decorated the veranda, has a bird hide nearby, and if I wish he could show it to me and I could spend some time in it. From the description, I thought it was within walking distance – perhaps near the little pond a few hundred meters away. So when we returned I asked her if that was a good time to go see the hide. She said it was already getting late, and suggested we head out there at 7am the next morning. So in the morning I doused myself with significant amounts of mosquito repellent, left Lilach and the kids in the room, promising to come fetch them over to the hide if it turns out to be interesting, and went to the restaurant to look for our host. He was away buying some stuff, so in the meantime I photographed a tree shrew that showed up nearby, and a couple of early birds. The other guests staying there besides us were a Scot, his Thai wife and their daughter. Hearing that I was going to the bird hide with our host, the wife persuaded her husband to join too, and by the time our host came back, we were both ready and anxious to get going. While the Scottish guy was armed only with binoculars, our host took with him a small backpack, a canon camera with a large sigma telephoto lens, mounted on a Manfrotto tripod with what looked like a Chinese knock-off of the Wimberley Head gimbal. I brought my trustworthy 100-400L II, and a wide zoom lens to take pictures of the surroundings. It quickly transpired that the hide was not that close, as we all entered our host’s pickup truck and started driving into the nearby jungle. After what felt like 10-15 minutes, we stopped at the end of a dirt track, in the middle of dense rainforest, and followed our guide for a few minutes on a narrow trail. At the trail’s end was a very large hide – big enough to accommodate 8 people sitting side by side – and in it plastic chairs located in front of holes in the black canvas. We each took a chair, and our guide took a bunch of bananas and a can of beetle larvae out of his bag and placed them in selected locations within the clearing in front of the hide. In the hour and a half that followed we witnessed a parade of forest birds, including Scaly breasted partridge, Large scimitar babbler, Greater yellownape and Laced woodpecker, a juvenile hooded pitta that gave a long show, White-rumped shama, Tickell’s blue flycatcher, and many Greater necklaced laughingthrushes that our host tried to shoo away before they finish all the bait he brought. Others competing for the bait included a treeshrew and a couple of squirrels. When we decided it was time to head back, I went out to take some pictures of the hide and the clearing, and noticed a trap and in it a live treeshrew. I asked our host and he explained that he places the traps to remove the treeshrews, as they eat the larvae brought as bait. He mentioned – with a clear expression of disgust – that local people use to eat the treeshrews, but made it clear that he didn’t. Instead, he took it with us in the truck and releases it a few kilometers away. On the way back from the hide to the truck I spotted a bunch of particularly colorful “roly polies” on the forest floor, and took two to show the kids.
By the time we returned, Lilach and the kids already finished their breakfast, but they returned with me to the restaurant where I had mine, to play “Love Letter” – our favorite game in this trip – and watch the birds. That turned out to be a very smart decision, as we were soon graced by the presence of two beautiful Pied hornbills that came to the feeding station to eat some bananas, then flew to a nearby tree where a large ceramic vase was placed at a junction of the branches to serve as a nesting box. They showed some interest in the potential nesting site, but spent most of their time sitting around or grooming each other gently. The roly polies were placed on the breakfast table, where they soon uncurled and started walking, exposing their full beauty. After watching them a bit we released them nearby.
On our way to Amphawa we stopped in the temple cave of Khao Luang at Phetchaburi. In addition to the beautiful Buddha sculptures and rock formations inside the cave, the place was memorable for the abundance of monkeys in the parking lot, which made getting out of and into the car a bit of a challenge. The parking attendant provided help, chasing the more inquisitive monkeys off using a rubber sling.
We had lunch in Phetchaburiat, at a recommended restaurant which presented us with quite a few language difficulties. The lady who welcomed us and found us a table later turned out to be a seller of lottery tickets who sold her merchandise right by the entrance to the restaurant. The waiters were a very busy crowd, and had no time for hesitant tourists like us. They kept leaving our table in the middle of the order, which was therefore split between three different waiters. No wonder we got a dish we didn’t order, and didn’t get one we did. But food was generally good, regardless. After lunch we had a long drive to Amphawa, which we reached in the late afternoon. The B&B we booked turned out to be an absolutely beautiful place, with a cute Cafe. The young proprietor greeted us in perfect English, and while our room was being made introduced us to her mother in the library – a high-ceilinged room with a large table in the middle, books in many languages and lots of board games. She told us she learned design in the US and later returned and learned culture studies. In this place, which she designed herself, she seemed to combine the two very nicely. A water monitor and a couple of water birds by the beautiful Lotus pond outside added to our satisfaction with the place.
Shortly before sunset, we went to see Amphawa’s famous floating market. There were indeed some barges in the canals on which food was prepared and sold, but it looked like most of the action took place on the piers, where restaurants and food stalls competed for our attention. We strolled among the stalls, bought a corn roll and some chicken skewers, and were intrigued by the strangest plush toys we’ve ever seen, in the shape of pickled mackerel – showing remarkable resemblance to the real thing sold everywhere around. We had dinner in a local soup restaurant, and on our way out noticed that the background noise subsided and people were starting to light candles and stand with them along the canals and in the doorways. The young waiter explained to us that it was Mother’s day, celebrated on the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, and everyone celebrates the Queen’s birthday. After dinner, around 9pm, we hurried to a longboat that was one of the last still going out on a firefly tour, so see the many fireflies on the banks of the river. I guess the masses of the fireflies are active earlier after sunset, but we were still able to see quite a few, flickering in the bushes along the banks.
Family Trips 