Asia - general info required (1 Viewer)

All being well, I am planning to do some birding in Asia next winter. My seasonal job lasts until September (hopefully a bit longer) and I'm thinking of heading off towards the end of December (if not before) for a few weeks/couple of months.

I have Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the island of Borneo in mind, so what fieldguide(s) would you recommend? Is there anywhere else I could consider as well?

I am going to be on a tight budget and will be using public transport, so I'll need info on the best birding sites available by public transport. As it's not an area I have birded in the past, I want to see as many species as possible (needless to say).

It'll be a nice thing to think of while packing tomatoes this summer - not to mention the thought of it will keep me sane while in the pack house!

Cheers
VB

For Malaysia and Thailand get the "A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia" by Craig Robson, available as soft- and hard-back.

For Borneo, it is the "A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali" by John MacKinnon and Karen Phillipps.

Both Thailand and Malaysia have pretty good infrastructure and getting to sites should not be a problem; don't know about Borneo (I was on a tour) and Indonesia (never been).

If you have a couple of month, you are already on a pretty tight schedule, but should you find yourself with time on your hands, you may consider Cambodia (Giant and White-shouldered Ibises, Mekong Wagtail, Bengal Florican) and Vietnam (10 endemics).

Hanno

VB,

As Hanno for the field guides.

Peninsular Malaysia - Easy to travel around on public transport, excellent system in place. Relatively cheap to. I assume you would be doing the usual Taman Negara/Fraser Hill route. Taman Negara has lots of accommodation options from £5 a night to £35 a night. Fraser Hill is a little more expensive, staying at the Puncak Inn is about £8 off the top of my head.
Kuala Lumpur is a joy to get around, never been to a city with such good inner-city transport, monorail and KTM gets you everywhere. Stay in Chinatown for the cheapest option, next to Puduraya Bus station.

Sabah, Borneo - Much more expensive. Easy enough getting round on public transport for Mount Kinabalu. Cheapest option is the dorms, though these have been spruced up and our now £13 a night. See http://www.suterasanctuarylodges.com/ Nearby Poring Hot Springs also has dorms.
Kinabatangan River - This can be an expensive place depending what you are after.The lodges in the Sukau/Bilit area are relatively expensive, though worth it for the birding! Alternatively Uncle Tan's is still running, check out trip reports online for this spot as I haven't been there.
Danum Valley - Cheapest option is the Danum Valley Field Centre, contact details are online though they don't always except birders, especially if there are many researchers staying. Cheapest option is the dorms at £11 a night + food on top, takes you to over £20 a day. This area is superb though.
Worth looking into visiting other areas such as Tabin, sounds a good spot and might have some cheaper accommodation.
Kota Kinabalu has backpacker hostels at about £6 a night.

Alternatives - Obviously Thailand, this is well covered on the web. I would highly recommend Vietnam, very cheap and the public transport is excellent, they have tourist buses running along the highways which are great and the birding ranges from the tropical south to the northern mountains. Cambodia is fantastic but getting to those ibis is expensive, contact Sam Veasna Centre and they could put you in a group with other birders to spread the costs.
Indonesia would be wet at that time of year, though would still be good!

For cheap flights see www.airasia.com
Make sure you have the Lonely Planet guides for where you go - excellent value and help no end.

Hanno said:

For Malaysia and Thailand get the "A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia" by Craig Robson, available as soft- and hard-back.
Hanno

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I agree wholeheartedly with Hanno's recommendation to visit Cambodia. The added bonus is that the people of Cambodia are really lovely folks and they certainly need tourism dollars.

I'd like to add that Phil Round's "A Guide to the Birds of Thailand" is a bit more accurate on bird colors and shapes. Some of the birds in Robson's book don't look like they do 'in person'... for example, the warblers and too fat. They are almost babbler-shaped. There are some cases where Robson's book is more accurate, so having both books is a good idea in my humble opinion. :t:

Great, thanks for the advice so far, much appreciated!
Paddleasia - I'll get both, like you suggest, it's a good idea. :t:

Is October-January/February a good time to visit, by the way? Are some birds easier/harder to see than at other times of year, and what is the general climate like at this time?

Hanno, I may come and see you in Vietnam and try some local beer! B

Cheers
VB

Winter is a very good time for Cambodia and Vietnam (and indeed Malaysia and Thailand). Also the best time for the Ibises in Cambodia.

I will make sure to have some beers on ice.......

Vectis Birder said:

Is October-January/February a good time to visit, by the way? Are some birds easier/harder to see than at other times of year, and what is the general climate like at this time?

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October - January is rainy season in Malaysia! Though this is generally just restricted to the late afternoons so not much of a problem. Bird song in the Sundaic region (Malay Peninsula, Borneo, West Indonesia) is more limited than in March - August but still plenty of species vocalising.

December - March is prime time for visiting Cambodia and Vietnam. Thailand is good then but optimal time is February-April.

Borneo is excellent November/December.

Throughout the tropical zone it will be hot. Suptropical - Northern Indochina will depend on the weather but expect to put on your woolly jumper and gloves.

Okay, during the course of a boring day in my temp. job I have thought of a few more questions - I hope you all don't mind!

I have pretty much decided on Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia (obviously I may not be able to to all of these as it's such a large area) so...

Over two to three months - roughly - how much money will I need for getting around, food and accommodation?
How easy is it to get from one country to another without flying? I have nothing against flying, but you get to see more of the region on the ground.
What are the areas for a lone (woman) traveller to avoid?
Also, if I do go to the more Muslim areas, would I need to wear a headscarf?
Where are the best birding sites in any of the countries mentioned above and the cheapest accommodation nearest them?
How easy is it to travel between bird sites?
Who are the best people to contact?

many thanks everyone
VB

Over two to three months - roughly - how much money will I need for getting around, food and accommodation?
Travelling on your own budget for £15 a day, sharing costs reduces it to under £10.

How easy is it to get from one country to another without flying?
There are buses to take you everywhere and cheap, from country to country. Keep an eye on www.airasia.com though
What are the areas for a lone (woman) traveller to avoid?
Same as in UK
Also, if I do go to the more Muslim areas, would I need to wear a headscarf?
No
Where are the best birding sites in any of the countries mentioned above and the cheapest accommodation nearest them?
To many to go through, do plenty of reading up before asking too many questions - read some trip reports off the internet, see www.eurobirding.com
How easy is it to travel between bird sites? Easy if you are doing a usual birding route
Who are the best people to contact? What for?

James Eaton said:

Over two to three months - roughly - how much money will I need for getting around, food and accommodation?
Travelling on your own budget for £15 a day, sharing costs reduces it to under £10.


Who are the best people to contact? What for?

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Um - birding. Local birders, etc.
Anyway, thanks. It's always good to get quick answers to help with the planning. It's a long way off yet but never too soon to begin.

If you decide to include Sulawesi or any other of the more central Indonesia regions, i recomend the book 'Birds of Wallacea' by B. Coates and D. Bishop. I dont know what i would have done without this field guide while i was in the area. It is the only comprehensive field guide for all the species recorded in this area that i could find. Must warn you though that it is rather exspencive.

Last summer i visited the island of Butung in south east sulawesi. The area is fantastic of a great range of species, including many sulawesi endemics. I spent a week birding on the island and came away with over 20 endemics to sulawesi sub-region alone.

If you do visit the area, the best bit of advise i can give you is you can wonder round the forests for hours or even days and not see a thing, but if you stick to birding from the road there is usually so much stuff around you dont know where to look. Due to the density of cover in much of the forest areas, it is extreamly hard to locate anything, as a result roads and other larger clearings are vital whern trying to locate species

Vectis Birder said:

Um - birding. Local birders, etc.
Anyway, thanks. It's always good to get quick answers to help with the planning. It's a long way off yet but never too soon to begin.

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I doubt there is much of a need to contact any local birders for such a trip, when I travelled around some of these countries for months on end I mainly just used trip reports and gen from friends. There are hundreds of local birders situated throughout these countries so it would be very difficult to list without being more precise.

For Vietnam and Cambodia get hold of Frank Rheindt's trip report (also look at his Borneo and Malaysia reports), available on www.worldbirders.com for Thailand use Nick Uptons excellent website www.thaibirding.com. There are very few trip reports from the last 5 years that go beyond birdlists and what they had for dinner on the plane.
Malaysia is so easy to do with no planning required for logistics that very little pre-information is required.

Great stuff, thanks James. :t:

Lee J said:

If you decide to include Sulawesi or any other of the more central Indonesia regions, i recomend the book 'Birds of Wallacea' by B. Coates and D. Bishop. I dont know what i would have done without this field guide while i was in the area. It is the only comprehensive field guide for all the species recorded in this area that i could find. Must warn you though that it is rather exspencive.

Last summer i visited the island of Butung in south east sulawesi. The area is fantastic of a great range of species, including many sulawesi endemics. I spent a week birding on the island and came away with over 20 endemics to sulawesi sub-region alone.

If you do visit the area, the best bit of advise i can give you is you can wonder round the forests for hours or even days and not see a thing, but if you stick to birding from the road there is usually so much stuff around you dont know where to look. Due to the density of cover in much of the forest areas, it is extreamly hard to locate anything, as a result roads and other larger clearings are vital whern trying to locate species

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Hi Lee, thanks for the info. I agree about roads and clearings. I found that out when in Ecuador last year, that all the best birding was done along the roads.

How's this for a plan:

Fly to Bangkok, overland to Cambodia and Vietnam, extensively birding these countries, then back to Thailand and then travelling down the country, birding around Malaysia, then Singapore; getting a ferry across the Strait of Malacca to Sumatra and travelling through Indonesia.

Too ambitious? Time won't be a problem because I don't *have* to just be there for a couple of months, it can be longer.

What do you think?

Cheers
VB

Vectis Birder said:

What do you think?

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Sounds nice enough

However, given how rich the birding is, and how many of the sites could easily absorb more than the odd day, you might want to think of exploring fewer countries in greater depth. I could easily imagine birding in each of those countries for a month or more, not doing all of them in just two or three months. Whichever way, you are going to see stacks but by concentrating on a smaller geographic area, it not only cuts costs, but also puts you in the field birding more, on buses and grotty transport hubs less. Only an idea

PS just buggered up my bank balance yet again - bought a ticket to central Asia a few minutes ago!

Cheers Jos. So, which of those countries/combination of those countries would you recommend? What a dilemma! But what a nice dilemma to have!

My own bank account has to build up before being buggered up, I am about to spend the entire spring, summer and part of the autumn building it up. It's always good to spend money on a nice air ticket to somewhere far flung, isn't it?

Vectis Birder said:

Cheers Jos. So, which of those countries/combination of those countries would you recommend?

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I'm no expert on those countries, just an envious onlooker, so I'd pay more attention to James, Hanno, etc.

Vectis Birder said:

My own bank account has to build up before being buggered up

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Mine isn't very well built up, but fortunately the ticket is only £250 and the whole trip shouldn't be much more than that - peanuts don't cost much, hitch-hiking is near free I hope and given half of central Asia is open steppe or massive great mountain, there aren't going to be many shops to waylay me

Vectis Birder said:

Cheers Jos. So, which of those countries/combination of those countries would you recommend? What a dilemma! But what a nice dilemma to have!

My own bank account has to build up before being buggered up, I am about to spend the entire spring, summer and part of the autumn building it up. It's always good to spend money on a nice air ticket to somewhere far flung, isn't it?

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Depends on your definition of extensively birding the countries mentioned - my first visit to Vietnam was for a full 2-months and despite returning several times since there are still areas I have yet to visit. A friend of mine recently spent 3 weeks just at Cat Tien National Park. I would recommend making yourself a rough itinerary from readng trip reports and going through the field guides - decide what species really interest you.

As an example, a nice route through Vietnam would see you go Cat Tien-Dalat-Bach Ma-Hue-Phong Nha-Cuc Phoung-Hanoi-Tam Dao-Sapa-Hanoi then perhaps fly to Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur with Air Asia.

Cambodia - note that though the birding is wonderful, some of my favourite in Asia but a large part of the birding circuit is expensive, no way round it, and also Bokor NP is closed.

The more reading up you do beforehand the better - I've met too many birders who do these things ill-prepared, a real shame as they end up wasting too much time deciding what to do during their trip instead of enjoying the birding.

Thanks James. I'm already scouring the web for information and ideas as well, and I think I will definitely have to revise downwards the amount of countries I can pack in - I will have 4-5 months between leaving my job at the end of this season and having to return next season. I don't really want to merely scratch the surface, birding-wise, and I can always return to Asia in the future as well.
I have already bought Craig Robson's A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia and am reading through it and deciding which species I really want to see - pittas are already at the top of my list.