Blogs from Western Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 3

Last night in kanchanaburi, there was a cooking class, by mimi. Kow yum. So gonna make that at home :) Anyway prachuap Khiri khan. Stayed here for two nights. To get here, I got up early (6:30), got on a train heading east. Got out at Ban Pong, walked 800m to the other train station and went on an special express train headed south. I planned everything out and had the tickets. Everything went according to plan and I arrived at around 12:40. Just when I came into the hostel, a small group was leaving. I saw Yurena (Spain) again, from the kanchanaburi hostel. There was also jussi, if I spell it correctly, from Finland, and Simone and Evelyn from Austria. I spur-of-the-momented it and did an ultra fast check-in, water refill and was off, to ... read more

During the second world war, the Japanese forces in Rangoon needed constant supplies. At first, the were supplied by ships, going around the Thailand/myanmar/singapore/Birma landmass, But that system just didn't hold, when the allies got their ships, aircraft carriers and troops in. The alternative, that the brits had worked out earlier, was to build a railroad, connecting Thailand to Birma. Due to huge costs, number of people involved, the difficulty getting material to the places they need to be and some infrastructural problems, the Brits rightly tossed the plans. Then, the Japanese captured Singapore and got 85.000 British prisoners of war, and some thousands ofother nationalities (about 5000 dutch). High command didn't like to be responsible for so many pow's. It would be good if there were less. Apart from that, they needed the railway. So, ... read more

Erewan falls is a massive area, where you can walk, climb, swim, scramble, slip, slide and glide around for hours. It has 7 levels and it takes about 40 minutes to an hour to get to the final level. Check out these photos of a real tropical swimming paradise :D (I am so spoiled now :) ) I had loads of fun walking and climbing down a few, swimming near others, use one as a slide and hide behind the waterfall somewhere else. The whole water system is also teeming with fish, that will eat your dead skin cells as an extra service. Very ticklish. Some are rather big. At one point, I had about a hundred, nibbling at my feet. All of them more than 10cm long and some more than double. The real big ... read more

I started early again at the same time because for my last day in Kaeng Krachan I had a second day with the same guide and vehicle. This time, rather than head straight to the highest altitude place, we started the morning birding at the lower altitude and we birded along the road stopping all along the way and looking at the various birds that could be seen from near the road. A particular highlight from this part was a Black Giant Squirrel. We then continued past the first campsite starting up the road to the second campsite, but we stopped still within the lower altitude area (mostly between the first and third stream and a bit beyond the third stream for anyone who knows the National Park) to find various birds walking along trails through ... read more

After arriving in the dark last night, I was keen to get up to see the grounds of Kaeng Krachan, so I was up just before sunrise to look around. The grounds of Baan Maka are very nice with a pond covered in lotus flowers and of course lots of birds as well as two species of squirrels. I think most of the species I saw around the grounds are pretty common, but they were all exciting for me (again, see the big year list which is yet to be posted). I birded around the grounds of Baan Maka for about an hour and a half until I could get my family up to have breakfast to go to the national park because today I would be going around the national park in our hire car ... read more