Southern Thailand

Back in Bangkok. Through sheer coincidence we scored a nice, older Toyota rental car for $20/day. Miraculously, Craig managed to navigate us out of the city without one wrong turn. In fact, during this trip, so many minor miracles have happened to us we are beginning to wonder what we’ve done to deserve them. The good news is we are starting to see some lovely birds in breeding colors and more abundant wildlife. For nature travel, southern Thailand is the place to go. Now we figure this out, with only 3 weeks left!

First of many Asian openbill storks.

First stop south was supposed to be Hua Hin…touted in Lonely Planet as a quaint fishing village. Obviously they haven’t been there in quite awhile. After extricating ourselves from the maze of resorts and tourists, we chose a small road off the highway (minor miracle alert) which led to a lovely beach used mostly by locals.

Sai Noi beach.

Using hand signals, we found a bungalow for 2 nights. The only down side was a karaoke birthday party one night.

During the day we hiked in Khao Sam Roi Yot park which we might have spent more time in, but their bungalows were booked. The boardwalk trails in the marsh were great for wildlife viewing.

Khao Sam Roi Yot park, marsh area.

Large mud skippers are quite colorful.

Colorful purple swamphens pull up marsh reeds to eat.

Rocks in the interior of the park. Dusky Langurs are sighted here, but not while we were there.

Common kingfisher, female.

White-vented mynas at Sai Noi.

A giant, spotlit Buddha on the hill above Sai Noi guided us back to our house after dark.

The bad news is it’s March now, and temperatures are in the 90’s with high humidity. Don’t think you are going to cool off by getting in the Gulf of Thailand. The water is nearly body temperature. However, every place we stayed had either air conditioning or a good fan, so sleeping isn’t a problem. Our car is also air conditioned so driving during the heat of the afternoon is a relief.

Spent most of the next day homing in on Nom Tok Huai Yang NP which was misplaced on our map. We covered the same stretch of road several times before the locals straightened us out. It is a very popular park, known for it’s waterfalls. However, at the end of the dry season, there is very little water, so very few tourists. Our favorite kind of park. We arrived late and the park staff had no idea what to do with us. It was like they had never had anyone want to stay there before. We managed to talk them into renting a bungalow for 2 nights.

Indian Roller.

Big, loud Tokay gekkos, courting owlets, the low whooping of Greater Coucals, and cicadas of every imaginable pitch make the night noises interesting. However, imagine our surprise at 3am to find the neighboring Buddhist compound doing a gong program complete with what seemed like hundreds of howling dogs, followed by chanting.

First waterfall of several.

Hiked to the waterfall. There’s still a nice swimming hole beneath what’s left of the river, complete with scads of fish to nibble one’s legs.

Common orange butterflies line the pond edges.

Just behind this park is Myanmar/Burma. This is the narrowest part of Thailand. Pineapples, palm oil palms, rubber trees and coconuts are the major crops. Not much rice grown down here.

Rubber tree with sap bowl and peeled bark.

Also, mosques start appearing. The Muslim population increases the closer you get to Malaysia. Someone told us that terrorism is starting to spill across the border. The Thais have periodic highway check points. We’re not sure why because we always got waved through by the soldiers with automatic weapons.

Dawdled along to Chumphon. The main north-south road is 4 lane all the way, but so busy it’s nice to putt along side roads. Found the Suda Guesthouse mentioned in Lonely Planet: they got this one right. She is lovely, speaks English well and booked our jaunt to Ko Tau for the next day. There is really no other reason to go to Chumphon (a hot, dirty, medium-sized city) other than to catch the ferries to the nearby islands. Don’t leave Thailand without seeing at least one offshore island.

Dock area at Ko Tau.

The 3 hour ferry over was rougher than I expected. The resort Suda booked us into was nice, right on the water. We arranged a snorkeling tour for the next day. I recovered from the ferry ride by paddling around the bay near the hotel. The coral was broken, fish few. Very disappointing. Our expectations were low, so imagine our surprise when we jumped out of the tour boat at the first of five stops to gorgeous corals and zillions of colorful reef fish. The coral starts right at water’s edge. We suspect after the first wave of development the local government decided to put some coral areas off limits for fishing and boating which is why some is so wrecked and other areas so lovely. The snorkeling public is too valuable to disappoint. Sorry, I don’t have a housing for the camera to show the underwater wonders.

Reef egrets aren’t very big.

Partiers on the way home.

Because the water is so warm, you can snorkel all day without getting cold. Schools of parrotfish audibly crunch the corals. A couple of young fish took small divots out of my legs which are still so white they probably mistook them for coral.

Ko Tau is a tourist haven, especially for the scuba diving set. Diving certification classes are a good value here. The young and beautiful party hard on the island. Here a couple rest on the ferry ride back, which, fortunately for me, was smooth sailing.

When we returned we got unceremoniously dumped at the train station so had to find transport back to the hotel. Motorbike drivers take people on the back for very reasonable prices. One offered to take both of us and all our bags. He had a Honda 90. Can’t imagine how he managed. Wish we had a picture of that one. Often we marveled at how many people or items the Thais can fit on one motorbike; four is not unusual. Now we know.

When you fly into Thailand, you are automatically issued a free 30 day visa. If you cross a land border, the free visa is only for 15 days. Since we had 25 days left, it meant we had to leave and re-enter at some border crossing. In Ranong many cross to Myanmar for this purpose. We stumbled upon the Andaman Club by mistakenly taking the early turn-off and asking a local for directions. Minor miracle here. The club owns a resort on the Myanmar side which they encourage people to stay at overnight or longer. They ferry people across a wide river in fast, air conditioned boats, and arrange all the paperwork (and bribes). Just pay your entry fee to Myanmar ($10), the fee to the Andaman Club, about $18, get the passport stamped, jump back on the returning ferry, and it’s done. It took us all of an hour and a half. If you do the process on your own from the city dock, we hear it is dicier and takes longer, but is a bit cheaper.

Sun Moon Resort cabin

Since that went so quickly we pressed on to the south instead of staying in Ranong. There are famous hot springs there, but who would want hot springs when the temperature is near 100? At about 5:30, with the sun sinking fast we were beginning to think we may finally have to spend a night in the car. Fortunately, a small road sign said Sun-Moon Resort and pointed down a small side road. It was brand new. Nice bungalows all beautifully decorated for the princely sum of $27/night. The hosts were a couple who had been living in Germany for 35 years. She is Thai, he German.

House in the mangroves. NOT our resort bungalow.

Apparently some large ships enter this area of the Andaman Sea. This is a loading ramp.

The Andaman Sea is nearby with lots of mangrove islands to explore. But they hadn’t gotten far enough in their planning to have kayak rentals, so with nothing for us to do, we moved on….to the limestone mountains of the south and the amazing Khao Sok park.