Howie-n-Karen: Asia

[It is wonderful reading your comments, good friends. Thank you.]
On our way to the largest park in Thailand, we stopped in Ban Pak Thale to find the spoon-billed sandpiper. Once again we were trudging on mud dikes between salt pond shallows. Many shorebirds were feeding in the area so it was a matter of looking at everything that might be THE sandpiper. Dow, Sam’s driver, was a big help in getting us to the right area and he was spared the hot sun and went off in search of lunch. After spotting the bird we walked around some more and saw a couple more of the sbsps and I tried taking photos of them, to no avail, alas. By the time we to to KKNP, it was late afternoon.

Headquarters Campground 1/28

The deal is to buy your entrance fee and camping permits a day ahead. We weren’t sure where we wanted to be, so we paid for 2 nights at Ban Krang and one at the top, Panoen Thung. They also offer you a 1400 Baht/day pick-up to take you up to the campgrounds, which we declined. Sam had sussed it out and said we could probably share a ride up there with other campers, so we decided to try that.

Our first experience camping in Thailand was an eye-opener. Especially for me, as I forgot my earplugs. We’re used to camping in designated spots and all the usual regulations that campgrounds have, so when we got there and saw tents around the lake (there is a dam/reservoir near the headquarters), we picked a spot along the lake, not too close to the next guy. Then we went off in search of some food; we took a walk back toward the resorts, about half a mile towards the dam. When we returned the space we put between us and the other tents were taken up by more tents. It turned out that tents kept springing up all night and by morning, it looked like a different campground. The worst of it was being woken up at 4:30 by the sound of tents being taken down!

[read on]